Sunday 23 May 2010

Melbourne Gastronome is three years old

Piano cake with Rock Lobster sheet music

Today is the three year anniversary of the start of Melbourne Gastronome, and I wanted to mark the occasion by thanking all of you for reading. I'd especially like to thank those of you who leave thoughtful comments and/or send emails giving recommendations and feedback - it means a lot to me when I hear that people are getting something out of this little hobby of mine.

I had a surreal pseudo-virtual-celebrity moment on Thursday when a guy came up to me as I was sitting having lunch with a friend, and asked if I was "Claire from the Melbourne gastronomy blog". It turned out that he recognised me because I was wearing my signature earrings from my profile photo (!). Though I should point out that he recognised me in EARL Canteen, a place I've been frequenting incessantly over the last fortnight. :)

I celebrated the blog's birthday with an exceptional dinner during the week at Attica (to be written up soon). Oh, and there was another milestone this week: I've been keeping track of blog stats since November 2007 using Statcounter, and on Monday the site surpassed 500,000 hits. Again, thanks everybody for reading!

Bar

And here's a list of my favourite terms or phrases that people have entered over the last few months into Google, with a search result that brings them to Melbourne Gastronome:

-'where to eat if having an affair, melbourne' (if I were to write a post on this topic, I'd definitely title it 'Clandesdining', har har)
-'Places to eat in Melbourne city, not greasy crap'
-'ok to wear jeans at cookie melbourne'
-'restaurants in hardcore lane melbourne' (Hardware Lane is pretty hardcore, I guess)
-'cute bouncer in russell st bottle shop melbourne'
-'what is the name of the street where visitors can delight in sweet treats melbourne kilda'
-'buy gentleman's relish in melbourne'
-'where to find non drunk girls having a good time melbourne'
-'good questions to ask a gastronome'
-'melbourne gastronomique blog'
-'clair gastronom' (missing an e or two)
-'two fathers two sons go into a restaurant and all order the main meal riddle'
-'how does mugaritz get there peas to stick together'
-'zumbo macarons vs lindt macarons' (Zumbo, easily)
-'coffee syphon coma'
-'pizza heroin'
-'green and sleezy cocktail'
-'cheapast brothel in melbourne'
-'flinders peninsula prostitutes mums' (You stay classy, internet!)

BANG

33 comments:

Jo - SecondHelping said...

Happy Blog Birthday and thank you for sharing your insightful musings with the rest of us who share an obsession with food!

Unknown said...

Congrats :)

Hayley said...

Happy blogaversary! We all really appreciate what you do :)

'flinders peninsula prostitutes mums' Stay classy INDEED, internet!

Celeste @ Berrytravels said...

happy blog birthday! 3 years is a long way to come and may you have many many happy years ahead of you!

Johanna GGG said...

happy birthday - love that piano cake - I want one too!

Love the search terms and love hearing about where you eat even if I can't get there usually and sadly when I finally was down in the spencer st end of the city and decided to look for earl canteen after your review last week I couldn't remember the address but hope to get there sometime!

Anonymous said...

Big happy birthday Claire! My fix of Melbourne is as always in your hands

Adrian said...

Congratulation on making it to 3 years Claire!

I was the "guy" that recognized you at Earl Cafe, and I have to say it was quite a surreal moment for me too. Thinking about it later I realized all I really said to you was "I'm a big fan" about 20 times.

What I would have liked to have said had I not been so excited was that you've made a big impact on my life and my passion for food and for that I will be forever thankful.

On behalf of all your fans congratulations and thank you!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Claire! I'm an Adelaide girl and have used your blog as my bible on my last couple of trips to Melbourne - love it. Search terms gave me a huge belly laugh :) Congrats and to many more years ...

Tresna said...

Congratulations Claire! Yours was the first Melbourne blog that I followed and it continues to be my go-to when I need inspiration or guidance for a good meal out!

penny aka jeroxie said...

Happy blog day! And hope there will be many more to come. :)

maurizio said...

Congratulations Claire
and Melbourne Gastronome on your
3rd Birthday, we recently celebrated our 3rd Birthday on Tuesday the 18th as well. Thanks for the support.

Maurizio Santucci
Sosta Cucina

Unknown said...

Congratulations Claire - I love looking at the weird search terms as well!

Mathew said...

Three years and 500,000 views is a big achievement, congratulations on reaching this milestone!

I always look forward to reading your posts. May there be many more to come.

Esz said...

Happy Blogversary Claire! :-D I can always count on this little corner of the internet for good recommendations. Even went to EARL Canteen last Monday and tried that pork belly sandwich which was of course, sensational. :-D Even my brother was impressed!

claire said...

Thanks, everybody! You're all very sweet. :)

Steve, that's a somewhat awesome responsibility you place in my hands. Will try to live up to it!

Hi Adrian! Wow, so glad to hear the blog has made an impact. :)

Ciao Maurizio, congratulations on Sosta Cucina's 3rd birthday! I'm a real fan, and your chef was incredibly nice to share his recipe for caramelised radicchio. A presto!

Ian said...

Congratulations Claire! And please keep it up - that way I can build up an (even bigger) list of places I need to visit once I'm back from overseas...

Frances said...

Claire - happy belated blogday for Sunday! Your blog brings much wistful happiness to my many relatives in more - er - provincial parts of Australia. And clearly to many others, as shown by our delightful encounter with Adrian.
I look forward to the write-ups to come - including of that famous Italian dish "pizza heroin". As a resident of the inner eastern suburbs, I might even qualify for home delivery.

Temasek said...

Better late than never!!Happy Birthday Melbourne Gastronome (is that gastronom-ie? or just gnome .. still not quite sure after all this time) ... I have to say that these hallowed pages of yours consitute the best food and restaurant guide ever. I have eaten well ... thanks to your blog!!! Many more years to come ... we hope.

Fenn said...

Happy Birthday, Melbourne Gastronome - Keep up the deliciousness!

As an aside, the "two fathers" riddle the person was looking for is on this page: http://www.mathwarehouse.com/riddles/math-riddles.php (there's several variants).

msihua said...

Congrats and Yayy for Attica!

p said...

Congratulations Claire. I hope there are many more years to come. I'm looking forward to that Attica review too. I have a booking but it isn't until October.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Love your blog as it reminds me of home...

Emma @CakeMistress said...

Happy Blog Birthday! Thanks for writing about your food adventures. And is that a Women's Weekly Piano Cake I spot? Fantastic :)

Kirsty said...

Congratulations and Happy Blog-birthday! I only discovered your site this year and it is AWE-SOME! Thank you!
Have put a link on my blog, which I could only dream will make it to 3 years. http://vegematarian.wordpress.com

All the best for future eating adventures :-)

klerre said...

Congratulations and happy blog birthday! Always a joy to read. xo
PS. That's a pretty sweet looking cake ;)

Two fit and fun gals said...

happy belated blog birthday! xx

Gastronomy Gal said...

These are HILarious. Happy 3rd birthday- what a fantastic feat. Thanks for all the effort you put in.

Jetsetting Joyce (MEL: HOT OR NOT) said...

Congrats on your blog bday! Three years is a long time in the blogosphere, hope you keep it up. Btw love the search term list :)

Jetsetting Joyce

Hey Bambini said...

Congrat's on 3 years! l saw on your wish list Libertine in North Melbourne. l went there last night with hubby and it was AMAZING! You must go. x

claire said...

Frances cherie, thanks for joining me at EARL last Thursday, glad you liked it. I can't promise delivery on heroin pizza anytime soon though... xox

Fenn, I love that you were able to provide a link for the riddle.

Emma, that is indeed a Women's Weekly birthday cake book cake! I wrote about it here. It was made by the lovely klerre (who has also commented). :)

Hi Hey Bambini, fear not, Libertine is up near the top of the list of places to visit! I'm very tempted to visit on Cassoulet Night... we shall see.

And a big thanks to everyone else who has left a comment! You're all lovely.

Anonymous said...

Happy anniversary :) Just wanted to say thanks for writing, I have been to so many great restaurants since discovering your blog!

Megan said...

Happy blog birthday! Thanks for the many posts and photos of great food that makes us salivate with hunger. May you continue to give us more food reviews so we would know where to eat.
PS...That's an adorable cake you have there!

the hungry sister said...

Congrats Claire. Thanks for highlighting why Melbourne is such a special city - i love it and I love NYC. You even inspired me to blog and share what I experience at http://thehungrysister.blogspot.com/