I’m in Townsville. I drove up with our daughter, who is now living here. It took two and a half days to drive from where we live in NSW. I have to say that Townsville is lovely. It is hot, and rather humid, and all the residents are desperate for rain, which reminds me very much of how it was when we lived in the Pilbara in WA.

About this time of year, if it hadn’t rained, people would begin to go….troppo…. From the current conversations I’ve had with the locals, many of them appear to be in pre-troppo phase – that bit where you really want it to rain, although you still have it all together. It’s like you’re craving rain, even, so that no matter what you begin by speaking about, eventually it comes back to the lack of rain.

Anyway, time to get back to the real question. Who Really Has the Best Steak?

And why am I asking this? Because pretty well every single restaurant in Townsville that serves steak is claiming that they have the best steak. It’s proclaimed everywhere I’ve been. My hotel says it does. The restaurant next door to my hotel says it does, as does the one on the other side of the street.

If I walk a few doors down, that restaurant reckons it has the best steak too, and while I was wandering The Strand this morning, I saw at least two restaurants claiming that they have the best steak.

Clearly, the only way to be certain, is to do a ‘steak crawl’ through Townsville.

Of course, the other question to ask, is why steak? Townsville’s a coastal town, so why not claim to have the best prawns? Or barramundi? Speaking of which, I haven’t had lunch and it’s almost twenty to five, so perhaps I should be considering if I’ll have steak or seafood for dinner.

I’ll get back to you!