The National Stroke Foundation - Food For Thought Charity Dinner

Stroke is Australia's second single biggest killer after coronary heart disease and is a leading cause of disability.

It's quite scary to read that fact. We tend to forget about stroke as it's not something that happens over a longer term, and hence you can't witness the decline of someone, like cancer with it's very obvious effects. Instead, stroke strikes suddenly, with equally dire outcomes, but the symptoms are varied and not as identifiable.

The National Stroke Foundation is the leading body for dealing with stroke in Australia. They deliver programs to increase public awareness on the prevention and treatment of stroke. Research into numerous fields help to find ways to reduce the occurrence of stroke and it's impact. The foundation is a privately run not-for-profit organisation that relies on public support to fund it's research and programs. The Food for Thought charity dinner was a way to raise some money and awareness. Seven of Melbourne's top chefs contributed their time and resources to serve a 6 course degustation to over 250 guests. On the night, there was also numerous auctions to raise more money.

The dinner was a fantastic event, with the location at the Sheds in Docklands being beautifully decorated. The night ran smoothly, with "Con The Fruiterer" Mark Mitchell delighting the crowd with his comedic talents as well as his serious side when discussing stroke. The chefs were all interviewed on stage while cooking their dish, giving up insights on the food and their thoughts on stroke. The silent and public auctions were a lot of fun and drew lots of interest. There was enjoyable musical interludes by a violinist and John Fleming from the Scared Weird Little Guys.

For myself personally, I had a few highlights. Obviously, the first one was the amazing food. It was quite an eclectic mix of food, with many different chefs involved and their various styles. Being a massive fan of Scott Pickett, I was familiar with his Old School Eggs and loved it. I was also pleasantly surprised by Nathan Johnson's Quinoa Salad. I had never tasted Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa, not quin-no-a I learnt) before but found it really delicious. Contrastingly, I also found the super tender Waygu Wellington a delight to the palate. Finally, I can't go past dessert and absolutely fell in love with the Tonka Mousse. That liquid pear centre just oozed out and it was a very sophisticated dessert that I adored.

The next highlight for me was hearing Jill Singer talk to Mark Mitchell about her husband's experience with stroke. Whilst this is already a touching story, when I found out that Jill's husband was Peter Davidson, architect of Federation Square, I felt immense sadness. It really helped to highlight how large an impact stroke can have. From being one of the nation's most esteemed architects, Peter was unable to draw or write after he had a stroke. He is slowly learning to integrate back into normal life but obviously stroke has affected him greatly.

My final highlight was talking to Diana Kerr from the Stroke Foundation. Hearing her tell stories about stroke victims, who's faces were on large banners all across the room, was really enlightening. It turned out all the victims who's photos were displayed were also at the event, and I got to meet a couple of them. Hearing stories of how they need to cook with one hand, and how the foundation has developed recipes for that made me smile and show that life does go on.

Below: Some of Melbourne's top chefs lending a supporting hand for the event.
Left, Right: The beautifully decorated room and Mark Mitchell interviewing Jill Singer.



Chef Scott Pickett explaining to John Fleming how stroke affected his grandfather.


Old School Eggs - Scott Pickett from The Point


Superfood Salad with Quinoa, Mt Vikos Feta, Avocado and Broccoli - Nathan Johnson from The Millswyn


King Salmon, Verbena, Cucumber, Cauliflower, Radish, Pearls - Michael Fox from Cecconi's Cantina


Roasted Chestnut Gnocchi, Black Leek, Mussels, Prawns and Shellfish Oil - Ricardo Momesso from Sarti


Wagyu Wellington, Sher Wagyu Fillet Wrapped in Puff Pastry, Sauteed Wild Mushrooms, Truffle Jus - Matthew Macartney from Chateau Yering


Chocolate 60% Tonka Mousse, Fluid Pear Centre, Burch & Purchese Nutella - Ian and Darren from Burch & Purchese


A group photo with myself, Diana from the Stroke Foundation and fellow blogger Penny.


Overall, it was a fantastic event, with the Food for Thought concept also running later in the year in Sydney and Hobart. I had an extremely enjoyable time and also became far more aware of the impact of stroke and the preventions that can be undertaken. I hope that you will take some time to learn more about stroke so that you can help yourself and people you know, as 1 in 6 Australians will be affected by stroke in some form.

Thanks to Deasil Public Relations and the National Stroke Foundation for inviting me to such a great event.

Jazz Apples Competition Winner Is...

After some careful deliberation and a lucky dip, I've picked a winner for the Jazz Apple Competition.


The competition came down to two entries for me, which I couldn't split. So I went to a best of three draw of names from a hat.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who entered. There were lots of great answers.

A few honourable mentions to Justin who appealed to my musical senses (for those of you who know me, I really love to sing), John who made me laugh with his Android based dig (think Apple iPhone), and Pat(inoz) who's evil sense of humour also made me laugh.

But the contest came down to Jordanite, who said he would throw the apples at his boss (isn't that every worker's evil dream), and Agnes, who wrote an amazing story about how to use apples to end up with suckling pig (read all the entries in the link above). These two entries were both really good and I couldn't split it, so I had to draw names out of a hat.

After drawing names out of a hat, the winner is.....Jordanite.

Congratulations Jordanite, I will be contacting you shortly.

Food Service Australia Expo 19 - 21 June - Launch Party

Food Service Australia's expo is actually the oldest running food expo in Australia. I hadn't heard of FSA before until I got an invite to the launch party for the expo and their Chef and Apprentice of the Year Competition. The expo is owned by the Foodservice Suppliers Association of Australia, and will features stalls by industry professionals. The expo looks like lots of fun and will features plenty of food stalls, the three day cooking competition (Masterchef style) to find the Apprentice and Chef of the year and lots of cooking demonstrations.

What: Food Service Australia Expo
When 19 - 21 June, 10am - 5pm
Where: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre

At the launch party, I bumped into fellow food bloggers Adrian and Celeste. Look at Adrian about to eat something. That was going to be a common sight as he was an eating machine and powered through so many canapes.


The canapes were good, with some exceptional. I really liked the Seared Scallop served in the half shell with fish roe and a mash. The salmon cubes were good too, with layers of salmon and cream cheese making it quite a rich dish. I may have eaten too many of those at the beginning. The cauliflower mash was smooth and creamy.



One of my favourite canapes of the night was the Shredded Chicken Salad. It was tangy and bursting with flavour. The Prawn Tempura with Egg Custard contained a crunchy tempura prawn, but the egg custard was way too salty. The Pork Terrine looked really good but only tasted ok. It was again quite salty and could have used something sweet to break it up.



The best canape of the night without doubt was the CFQ, the Crispy Fried Quail. The quail was beboned to only have a convenient leg bone to hold onto. It was fried to a perfect crunch and the piquant plum type sauce served with it made the whole dish super tasty. The quail flew off the serving board the fastest of all the canapes and didn't make it to the other side of the room.


Desserts consisted of really good Opera Cakes. A dark and white chocolate versions were served. The dark chocolate tasted more like the traditional opera cake and was beautiful. But surprisingly, I loved the white chocolate cake even more. There were hints of honey, vanilla, white chocolate and nuts, sublime.


I had a wonderful time at the launch event, learning a lot about Food Service Australia and the expo. The food was excellent and it was great to hang out with my fellow food bloggers and food industry representatives.

Thanks to Clifford Fairbrass from ETF on behalf of Food Service Australia for the invitation.

Universal Restaurant - Bloggers Food Trail

139-141 Lygon Street
Carlton, VIC 3053
Ph: 9347 4393

I'm extremely hesitant about dining out at restaurants on Lygon Street. It tends to be geared towards tourists who think they can get authentic Italian food there. But for Melbournians, we know that it's just mainly bad food and lots of street vendors trying to lure you into their restaurant with all sorts of promises. In fact, one of my worst dining experiences that angered me greatly was at a restaurant in Lygon Street, Alpino. There are some good places in Lygon and one that I would definitely recommend is D.O.C Pizza and Mozzarella Bar. Well, now I can add Universal Restaurant to that list of recommended places.

I was invited by Ashley from Food Pampering to visit Universal Restaurant. From the downstairs area, you would think that Universal is your typical Italian restaurant, with flags and posters decorating the restaurant. However, as owner Alfie informed us, they were slowly revamping the restaurant to have a classier feel. He showed us the upstairs area and it really was a beautiful space. It looked very clean and modern, with a wonderful balcony area. For now, the upstairs area is used for functions, but will eventually be used for regular dining. The downstairs will also get a makeover soon.


To show the bloggers invited what the food was like, Alfie had organised a selection of the restaurants more popular dishes. Michele and I's only request was that there needed to be delicious ribs, but luckily that was already going to be served to us. Below you can see the Buffalo Wings which I really enjoyed. I never understood why they're called buffalo wings? Anyone know. The Garlic Pizza and Roma Bruschetta were also good simple appetisers. I hadn't really thought of putting strips of beef on a pizza but the I Am Angus pizza really worked for me.



Chicken and Avocado are always a great combination so why not on a pizza. The pizza bases are really nice and with lots of topping, made for a delicious pizza. Oysters served natural and Kilpatrick were very good. The oysters tasted really fresh and this was one of the better Kilpatrick I have tasted.



The Seared Salmon was simply cooked, served with some watercress and vegetable ratatouille. Although the ratatouille was good, I don't think it was needed as it was really powering and didn't work with the fish well. Instead the fish tasted beautiful with just a squeeze of lemon. My favourite dish of the day was definitely the Seafood Risotto. The risotto was cooked perfectly and the seafood had great flavour, with the slightly spicy kick really appealing to me. The Tuscan Risotto was again cooked perfectly and the chicken and mushroom flavours really shone through. The most disappointing savoury dish was the Steak. The steak was actually quite chewy and lacked flavour. But the superb chips saved the day. They were crispy while still fluffy inside, chips to rival any served in hatted restaurants.



My second favourite dish for the day was the soft Lamb Ribs. The sauce was sticky and good, but I could have used more of it even. The ribs could have also been a tad softer and they would have been perfect. What I didn't photograph was the corn, grilled and covered in butter. Oh my goodness, it was so amazingly delicious that I ate most of it and everyone else only got a small tasting.


After all that food, we thought there might be one dessert or two, but Alfie brought out 5 of them. The Blueberry Cheesecake looks fantastic with the chocolate ball. Flavour wise, it was quite nice although very sweet.


The Pannacotta with Persian Fairy Floss was my favourite dessert. The pannacotta was smooth and creamy, with the fairy floss adding a unique flavour to it. The sorbets did not agree with me at all. I didn't find any of the flavours appealing. The Chocolate Mud Pudding was ok but tasted slightly burnt in flavour and not as soft as I wanted. I did like the macadamia ice cream though. Lastly, I was also disappointed with the Tiramisu. I was exciting spectacular, but got passable. The chocolate layer on the top really ruined it. Else, the layers underneath were quite good.



Overall, I was very impressed with the food. The savoury dishes were all quite nice, with highlights being the Seafood Risotto and the Lamb Ribs for me. Some of the desserts were ok but other can be improved by tweaking them a little. As we were there as guests, it's hard to judge the service, but the wait staff seemed efficient. The ambiance would be nice in that space with more people (we were there on Saturday lunch, not the busiest time on Lygon Street). I would recommend this restaurant as a option when looking for somewhere to eat on Lygon. The pricing of the food is very reasonable and the quality and execution good.

For other reviews, check out
Michele
Heidi

Other bloggers who attended were
Agnes
Allan
Michelle
Erwin

Thanks to Ashley for the invite and I dined courtesy of Universal Restaurant.

Steer Bar and Grill - Churrasco Dinner

641 Chapel Street
South Yarra, VIC 3141
Ph: 9040 1188
Website: Steer Bar and Grill

When my friend Nandos visited Melbourne, he wanted to see where I did my Steer Boot Camp. So I said I'd take him to the restaurant to show him around. Since we were also deciding where to eat, I suggested that we eat at Steer as well.


We decided to eat the Churrasco as I had seen many patrons eat that during my stint at Steer and I really wanted to try it out. The churrasco is no longer available at Steer as they have gone from a Brazilian restaurant to a New York Steak house. Check out their website to see the exciting new dishes. Back to the churrasco, we had our three type of pastries for entrees (pork, cod, corn) and then a massive platter of meat, beef rump and sausages. It was extremely delicious and we tried our hardest to finish it.


What is on the new menu is the absolutely sensational Chocolate Bourbon Fondant. It was cooked perfectly, with a soft exterior housing an oozing centre. Many restaurants do this very poorly so points for getting that right. The addition of the bourbon helped give this fondant the most wonderful flavour and means that I will declare it the best chocolate fondant in Melbourne (of the ones I've tried at least).



Although the previous churrasco menu is not available, the same chefs are still cooking the new menu and I'm pretty sure it will still be just as good. Go and try out the food at Steer for yourself and say hi to my new friends there.

Whoring Myself For The Travelscene Beijing Trip Sucks Big Time

Sometimes, things sound like a good idea, but when it really happens, you find the reality is slightly shady and not at all fun. When I first heard from Lynda about her free trip to Kuala Lumpur from Travelscene, I was super excited. Lynda had been picked as one of four lucky winners for Fan Trip 2. When Travelscene decided to offer another holiday to Beijing as part of Fan Trip 3, I knew I had to enter. I had actually been thinking of going to Beijing this year, so what a nice coincidence.

The first part of the competition was to explain why you wanted to go to Beijing. That was super easy. I already had an itinerary of things I wanted to do for my own trip so it just involved putting those ideas down onto paper, well digital text anyway. You can follow the link and read about dream Beijing itinerary.

Luckily I was picked as one of 10 semi finalists. I was super excited about this and ready literally jumped around in the office when it was announced. However, the next phase of the selection is what I have come to despise, mainly in regards to my own behaviour. I knew that people would vote for the winners, but I had assumed that Travelscene would open up the voting to existing fans of their Facebook Page and let them vote based on who's entry was the best. I'm not being arrogant when I say that I think my entry is very good and would definitely feature in the Top 3 responses (3 winners would be picked). Instead the voting has become a popularity contest of whoring out yourself. It doesn't look like many of the existing Travelscene fans have voted. Instead, it is up to each contestant to get their friends and families to become a fan of the Travelscene Facebook page, and then vote via the poll. The competition isn't about what your entry is, it's just about soliciting as many people as possible by whatever means to vote for you.

On day 1 of the voting (Friday), I was definitely blinded by the free holiday and acted in a way that I felt dirty about at the end of that day. I was running around asking all my friends, work mates and fellow bloggers to vote for me. I was pestering them and constantly checking if people had done it. By the end of the day, I realised how tired I was and what a dick I was being, saying anything to get people to vote. I know that I've argued that freebies are not the root of all evil previously, but it can be the root of some evils. As I wrote in that post, I am well aware that Travelscene want bang for their buck. They are a business and trying to build more exposure through social media. They're not offering the trip out of the kindness of their hearts. That's fair enough. But to make us jump through these hoops and whore ourselves out to the lowest common denominator, well, this prostitute has had enough. I don't think they will achieve the feeling of good will that they wanted from anyone except the three winners. I know that some friends have already told me they will "unlike" the Travelscene page after this competition.

For the record, I would still love to go to Beijing. But should I not win, I shall go back to plan A of exploring the cost of paying for a trip myself. I'll give the details of how you can vote for me one more time, but I will not be entering into this game of spamming the Travelscene page and getting upset that the voting doesn't seem to work by some of the other contestants. I shall not be harassing my friends anymore or spamming everyone with tweets and emails to vote for me. I can say that if any future competitions require this level of whoring, I won't be entering. I have learnt something about myself through this competition that I will treasure far more than the Beijing trip. I've learnt that it's worth far more to do something you believe in and act in a manner you are proud of rather than do something for easy gain and act in a way that you feel ashamed about.

You can vote for me following the instructions in the link. Voting closes Monday 16th.
How to vote for Thanh in the Travelscene Beijing Trip

Bistro Thierry - Express Lunch

511 Malvern Rd
Prahran, VIC 3142
Ph: 9824 0888
Website: Bistro Thierry

As part of this year's Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, I went to an express lunch at Bistro Thierry with my Esther and Ivy. I hadn't heard about Bistro Thierry before but now I know that they do very traditional French food and if I ever want French fare, I'll know where to go.

The restaurant is decorated in classical French fare with very nice prints and painting adorning the walls. Tables and chairs are of a sturdy good quality and the waiters all have their sexy French accents. For the express lunch, we all went for two courses as the desserts didn't look too exciting. We had decided to go to Luxbite already for our desserts.


The three entrees that we shared (I love my friends as they all want to eat as much as me and are always willing to share the food, without needing to be asked) were the Pear and Endive Salad, Lambs Brains wrapped in Ham and Salad Nicoise. Suprisingly, the Pear Salad was a highlight. The flavour combinations with the pear, endive, walnut and mustard honey dressing was superb. The fried lamb's brains was also very good, wrapped in the salty ham. The sauteed mushrooms was also very good, but the sauce was a bit too rich and thick. I scraped off most of it and that made the dish much better. The Salad Nicoise was simple, but again done very well.



The options for mains for the express lunch weren't too large, but they turned out to be good. The Steak and Chips was super simple, but done well. The meat was tender and flavoursome, although again the same sauce in the lamb's brain dish appeared and was far too overpowering. I scraped it away again and the dish was much improved. The Seared John Dory was cooked perfect with a simple dusting of pepper. Finally, a real highlight was the Cheese Omelette. The omelette was still slightly runny and the cheese was so fragrant and I kept wanting more of the omelette.



The ambiance during the day time is very nice, with lots of light streaming in through the windows. The room is quite small and cosy and the noise levels get quite high but you can still hear your friends. The wait staff are quite efficient, with some slight confusion between them at times. Overall it was a good meal and I would go back to try out the normal menu.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Good classical French fare.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.