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Melbourne: The Perfect Spot for the Urban Action-Seeking Heterosexual Epicure
Yes, there is a poker tournament going on today. Day 1c of the Aussie Millions $10k Main Even is proceeding about 200 feet from me. But let’s be frank: Day 1 of any tournament is pretty bland. Some accumulate chips, about half go bust. You know the drill. The really interesting stuff will start tomorrow and the following day, as the field thins and the pressure builds. There’s also a big cash game going tonight, and I’ll blog about that later.
Rather than update you on the minutiae of the initial levels, I thought I’d give my impressions of our host city, Melbourne. But I’m not writing a Frommer’s guide here, so I’m going to focus one two specific aspects of the city for which I have deep interest: food and women.
Food
Melbourne is an ethnically diverse place, and form what I’ve seen, the population has developed a pretty discerning pallet. So far on this trip, I’ve had excellent steaks, great Cambodian, and vibrant Middle Eastern fare. The real highlight was Flower Drum Restaurant, a Chinese spot that’s known as one of the city’s best eateries. The hot and sour soup was uncommonly delicate, and the seafood was perfectly fresh. I hope to get there again before we leave.
The casual sandwich shops and pasta places have all been of a pretty high quality. My general impression is that Melbourne is one of the rare cities were where the baseline is pretty high, so crappy places don’t survive.
Women
Australian women are beautiful. In fact, the entirety of the country seems fit and healthy. Everyone is slender and toned. And the women wear skirts. Any further description I’d give here would probably make this post inappropriate for a poker blog. So I’ll just say that I’ve never encountered a place where I was happier to sit on a bench and watch the pedestrian traffic go by.
What makes this place even more remarkable right now is that the Australian Open is being played a couple of miles form our hotel. I’ve shared an elevator with Lindsay Davenport, Jimmy Conners, and Andy Roddick. Throughout the hotel you regularly encounter women who are amazingly statuesque—tall, broad-shouldered, with perfect proportions and posture.
This morning, I went to the gym, where I rode a stationary bike and tried not to oogle as Maria Sharapova did some footwork drills on the deck in front of me.
I love this place.
