Because in Melbourne, so is everybody else.

You can barely swing the proverbial cat without someone telling you where the best coffee shop is, who does the greatest dumplings or which place they prefer for sushi. We’re incredibly spoilt for choice, any night of the week and we’re not afraid to let everyone else know about it.

So when the latest food fad hits, Melbourne is ready to pounce.

One month it’s Korean/Japanese fusion, the month before it was Southern Fried Chicken, 6 months before that we were in food truck heaven. At the moment, with stores like Bluebonnet BBQ, Le Bon Ton and chains like Big Boy BBQ opening up we’re clearly in a BBQ, pulled, brisket and sausage meat fiesta!

Now I love smoked, juicy flamed grilled meats, hot sauce and tongs as much as the next carnivore so I could hardly miss out on the Melbourne BBQ Festival rolling into town. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned “everyone’s a foodie” point, so did the entire population of Melbourne.

Seriously, the lines were about 100 people long for every single truck, vendor and stall. By the time we had done an hour long circle of the festival I was too grumpy and hungry to face any queues (rookie move going there hungry and too late). As lucky and patient patrons exited the front of the queues with plates of brisket and ribs I was seriously considering dropping a hip and shoulder and going for a grab and dash.

We literally bought some hot sauce and ran away. Mind you I did make a booking for Bluebonnet the following week. A girls gotta get her smoky pork ribs somehow!

I’ve heard from reliable sources that it was even worse at the Night Noodle Markets late last year and I thank my lucky stars we went on the day that it rained down. Otherwise, apparently, the lines were an hour long. One hour to get some Asian street food at an inflated price. What fun!

Now I’m fairly sure I’m coming off as a bit brash and possibly a bit spoiled so here’s the lighter note.

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival starts this week, my mecca. What I love about the MFWF is the plethora of events to choose from, that you can conveniently book online. No queues, no fuss and all paid before the event so you don’t even have to stress about the bill. You can choose from a range of Michelin Star restaurants all the way down to local cafes, the options are pretty rad.

Whilst I love the hustle and bustle (generally) of a big food event I have to say that this is a much more stress free way of being a foodie in Melbourne and you get to try out things you might otherwise pass on. This isn’t a paid ad for MFWF, just a suggestion from one Melbourne foodie to everyone else.

I’m really looking forward to 11 courses of Offal and Beer at Northern Git next week, 4 courses of Game the week after and can’t wait to tell you about them!