A friend living in New York recently dined at an Australian themed restaurant  called the 8 Mile Creek restaurant and sent me the above picture.  According to their website, they’ve been in business for over 10 years sourcing out the best of Australian wine and food for NY.  Lamb and barramundi sound great but had to laugh at the “Lygon Street” spaghetti.

Outback Steakhouse, a multinational chain of Australian themed restaurants that has locations in Australia (Australians looking for Australian themed food?), takes the cake with their Kookaburra wings and Chocolate Thunder from Down Under. Maybe they should make their Melbourne steak a huge steak with influences of Asian and Greek spices.

Even Mr Monopoly Man has problems figuring out where Melbourne is

Here’s one for Sydneysiders to cheer about. For once, Melbourne was beaten by our ‘auld enemy’ to the final 22 cities set to appear in Monopoly’s latest take on their famous board game. The harbour city appears on the game’s Red strip (The Strand, Trafalgar Square and Fleet Street) in good company, alongside international powerhouses New York and London. Sydney occupies the position occupied by The Strand. Not bad at all.

Yet it’s not surprising to find out that more Australians voted for Melbourne. The cultural, arts, fashion and coffee capital of Australia is a favourite with Australians who visit Melbourne for the vibrant city life, sports scene and wadya know, perhaps a trip on Melbourne’s infamous public transport system *cough* Lynne Kosky out! *cough*

I can only speculate, but I daresay Melbourne was beaten by our lesser cousin due to Sydney’s more international profile. In fact, when asked what the capital of Australia is many people around the world mention ‘Sydney’. Sydney is also the first city most non-Australians think of, and Sydney is also the only city most non-Australians know of. Of course, Aussies know that our capital Canberra is halfway between Sydney and Melbourne so the conflict and dispute would stop. Which also explains why the Australian Capital Territory (where Canberra resides) exists so it would not belong to either New South Wales or Victoria. Ha! That’s a bit of history there. (more…)

I don’t get the whole New York theme that Myer’s boldly marketing to Melburnians these few weeks. Why yellow? When I first saw it, I couldn’t help but think JB Hi-Fi’s somehow associated with the whole branding thingo.