Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery - A Sweet Wonderland

The Yarra Valley is such a beautiful place. I love visiting the region for the great wines that it's famous for. There's also many great eateries to visit in the area. While it's a great place for adults, the kids might feel a bit left out. Now there's a new place that is sure to get every kids, and most adults, seal of approval. Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery is a mouthful to pronounce, and you probably won't be able to pronounce it when you've got a massive mouthful of chocolate and ice cream.

As the name suggests, it is a wonderland of chocolate and ice cream. There are so many types of chocolates to try, from chocolate truffles, to chocolates with animals. There are a lot of cool chocolate packaged gifts that will make great presents. I mean who doesn't need a metre long piece of chocolate. You could eat it, but also use it to poke your annoying family member on the other side of the couch. Win, win I say.

The place is definitely geared towards kids with the bright colours and really beautiful eye catching packaging. While I do like the flavoured chocolates and milk chocolates I tried, I tend to prefer dark chocolates, possibly with nuts. I can see how these chocolates will appeal to far more people who are used to eating milk chocolates and like sweeter chocolates. The quality of these milk chocolates are very good.

The ice creamery part of the shop offers a wide selection of tasty ice creams to eat. I loved the peanut brittle ice cream. So addictive.

The cafe serves typical simple cafe types meals like this steak sandwiches. They're good, but you know what I think, skip them and just indulge in desserts muahaha. Ok maybe eat a bit of savoury and then eat 3 desserts.

There are many great desserts, all involving chocolate. The chocolate fondue was huge and already pushed me near the edge. But I soldiered on like a trooper. The chocolate pizza was definitely super duper indulgent and I'd recommend that you have an extremely high tolerance to sweet foods to order this. I couldn't handle more than a very small slice.

The chocolate brownies were good, with a strong chocolate flavour. I'm biased and think my own chocolate brownies are better and recommend you make them. But if you can't be bothered to make them, these brownies from the shop are a good alternative.

I like to end on a nice cold, sweet note. The ice cream sundae was awesome, with so many elements. You may need to drag a few more people along if you want to try everything without succumbing to the serious sickness of "sugar overload". I was definitely affected by sugar overload.

Overall, the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery is a great place to stop family and friends. There are a variety of events always happening such as the hot chocolate festival currently on in August. It's a very relaxing place with lots of surrounding gardens for kids to play in while the adults eat inside. The hardest part is stopping kids, and maybe yourself, from indulging in too much chocolate and sugar and being jumping off the walls.

I attended as a guest of Yarra Valley Chocolaterie.

Ube Macapuno Recipe - Amazing Filipino Purple Yam and Coconut Cake

Asian cuisine generally doesn't do good cakes or desserts. The usual sweet soups and seasonal fruit doesn't do it for me. I love desserts and cakes, and if I eat a cake, I want it to be sweet. Luckily there are some good Asian cakes, with my favourite being a Pandan chiffon with coconut pandan fudge. I can now add another Asian cake that I love to that list, an Ube Macapuno (purple yam with coconut frosting) cake. I first tried this cake at Dahon Tea Lounge in South Melbourne and I was completely hooked. The cake was fluffy and had this fragrant flavour. Then there was this sweet frosting and filling with slivers of coconut flesh. It was such a good cake that I knew I had to try and make it as I couldn't get to the shop to buy it all the time.

A quick search of the Internet and I found heaps of recipes. I decided to try out Heart of Mary's blog for her recipe. It seemed like lots of people had made her recipe with good results. Armed with the recipe, it was off to a Filipino shop to pick up the ingredients. I found all the ingredients I needed at Pilipino Sari Sari store in Springvale.

The cake, as I mentioned, is super delicious. It has a great texture and the most fragrant and intoxicating smell. The taste blends so well together and it's very moreish. You just can't stop eating it. It also looks very striking and would make a great celebration cake. I didn't add the extra purple food dye to give it an even brighter colour, or add the cake crumbs to the outside to give it a different look, but I think it still looks great.

The cake is extremely easy to make. Finding the ingredients is the hard part. Once that's done, it's a standard chiffon style cake with a cream cheese and whipped cream frosting. I've given some tips below to help ensure a great cake.

* If you can find fresh ube, you can grate that. Else I just used defrosted frozen ube and it tasted great still.

* I used cake flour as per the recipe but I have made chiffons before with plain flour and it's still very good so don't worry if you can't find cake flour. Cake flour is available in supermarkets with the name Pastry Flour or something like that.

* I used 800g/12 eggs sized eggs. I find large eggs are required for chiffons.

* The ube flavouring tastes like a mix between pandan and vanilla essence. If you can't find ube essence, vanilla would do but obviously the cake won't be as strong in ube flavour.

* When you make the meringue, keep beating. Even when you think the meringue is done, beat it some more until it's super stiff.

* Do not overbeat the wet cake batter as it can make the cake tougher.

* When mixing in the meringue to the wet cake batter, add 1/3 of the meringue and mix it in vigorously to lighten the batter. Then fold in the rest of the meringue and make sure the merginue is well incorporated. Don't be too scared about knocking out all the air because if you don't mix in the meringue well, the cake will be light on top and dense at the bottom.

* Line the base of the cake tin with baking paper (parchment paper) but don't line or grease the sides as the chiffon sticks to the tin and rises.

* I only made half the frosting as I didn't want to frost the sides of the cake. I find half the frosting enough for me but if you enjoy frosting, make the full amount. If you want to add crumbs to the outside of your frosted cake, just make a 3 layer cake and crumble up the 4th layer. If not, make a 4 layer cake.

Ube Macapuno Recipe
From Heart of Mary blog.
Recipe makes one 9 inch 4 layer cake or a 3 layer cake with crumbs on the outside.
Feeds 12.

INGREDIENTS

For the chiffon cake:

Dry Ingredients
2 1/4 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
7 egg yolks (from large eggs)
1/2 cup vegetable/canola oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup (about 100g) grated ube (purple yam)
1 teaspoon ube flavouring
1/2 teaspoon violet food powder or violet gel paste

Meringue
7 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup caster sugar

For the frosting:

2 cups thickened cream
250g cream cheese softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 oz jar of macapuno (preserved coconut strips)

METHOD

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 170C. Line two 9 inch round cake tins with baking paper. Do not grease sides.

2. In a large bowl, combine and mix well all the dry ingredients. Add in the wet ingredients and beat until smooth and well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add in the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

4. Fold in egg white mixture into wet cake batter until very well combined. Divide batter equally into the two prepared pans.

4. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Invert pans onto a wire rack immediately and let cool completely. This will help the chiffon stay tall and high.

5. Carefully run a thin knife around the sides of pans to release cakes. Using a serrated knife, cut each cake in half horizontally. Set aside cake halves for assembly later.

Frosting

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. When the mixture is smooth, slowly pour in the thickened cream and continue whipping until the cream can hold a stiff peak. Don't overbeat the frosting as you want it to still be a little bit soft rather than lumpy.

To assemble:

1. Drain some of the syrup from the macapuno. This ensures the cake doesn't get soggy and also to prevent the cake from becoming too sweet.

2. Place one of the cake layers cut side up and spread and level some frosting onto the cake layer until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Scatter 1/4 of the macapuno on top of the whipped cream.

3. Repeat for the other 3 layers of cake. When each layer is done, carefully place it over the previous layer.

4. If you wish to frost the sides of the cake, spread a layer of frosting over all four layers of cake.

Note: If you are adding cake crumbs on the sides of your cake, use the 4th layer of cake and crumble it in a food processor for fine crumbs or by hand for rougher crumbs. Carefully stick the crumbs onto the frosting around the cake.

Reviewing the Reviewer - Dubecki's Scathing Review of Vapiano

There's constant talk on the interwebs about how unprofessional bloggers are with their writing. I have to agree with that to an extent. Most bloggers are unprofessional in the sense we do it as a hobby and won't have the trained skills that a professional writer may possess in conveying the message in an eloquent and articulate manner. However, that does not mean that every professional writer is actually good at what they do. Like any field, there are the good, and the bad. On the side of good writing, locally I love Matt Preston's writing. He is able to transport me into his world without sound aloof and condescending. I love Jay Rayner's writing after Agnes introduced me to his work. His scathing reviews are written in a manner where the humour is so dominant that you don't finish reading it with a bitter taste in your mouth. In fact, sometimes I feel like visiting the restaurants just to compare whether his unusual description of something does fit with the item in question. Lastly, you can't go past the English in regards to English. My two favourite food writers are Rick Stein, the man of a thousand book references, and Nigella Lawson, the woman with a thousand descriptive terms. Both have such a wonderful grasp of the English language and are able to transport you into a wonderful landscape filled with enticing food. I know some people think Nigella is a bit over the top with her descriptions, but I find her wonderfully original and sometimesshe makes me think of the flavours and textures of food in a way that I didn't think of previously.

One local writer who I cannot tolerate at all is Larissa Dubecki. There have been countless reviews of hers that have made me want to throw something at the computer screen, such is the frustration I have with her use of words or my disagreement with her views. I just don't see eye to eye with her in regards to reviewing or food I suspect. I tend not to read her reviews by choice and only by chance should they be a place I want to go to or I didn't know she wrote the review. I think this blog post by Crikey called Critiquing a Food Critic perfectly sums up my opinions about her reviewing style.

I thought I'd have some fun as I happened to have dined at Vapiano last week and write a response to address Dubecki's latest review on Vapiano, which is scathing to say the least. It's more her choice of words that irked me rather than her opinions, as I actually agree with some of them.

Let me start the dissection.

Dubecki: It's known in the biz as a "famil" – a familiarisation exercise, aka a freebie jaunt in which a bunch of journalists are flown to, say, a Queensland resort, wined and dined and put up in some nice accommodation (please, don't worry about the minibar account), following which they will presumably write some nice things about what a nice place it is.

Despite declining repeated offers of a famil, I can tell you this: Melbourne's is the third Vapiano on home soil, the idea imported by an Australian businessman who planted his first flags in Queensland. Like McDonald's, which was once revolutionary in its own right, Vapiano offers the same menu whether in Berlin or Brisbane.

I Eat Blog: It's great that she's explained a famil to us and clearly shown her contempt for them, but I don't see how this is only relevant to this restaurant. Surely she has been invited by almost every restaurant in Melbourne on a famil to sample their wares. Why isn't she putting that in every review? Are restaurants not allowed to invite her to famils? She probably doesn't need a famil as the website comps, oh that's an industry term for complimentary ;-), the cost of her meals anyway.

I actually dined at Vapiano on a famil, so let me get that clear up front. I'm not defending them because of that. I'm not even defending them, as I actually agree with some of what Dubecki has said. It's just I don't find this fact relevant to her review so why has she added it is my question. Did something occur that she's mad about and is not revealing? Or is it all part of her story to show that any place who dares to invite her to a famil and she happens to dislike will feel the wrath of her pen? Many questions, no answers unfortunately.

On the point about a standardised menu, I'd hate to tell Dubecki but even good restaurants who have multiple shops have standardised menus. Is she not familiar with the restaurant game and people's expectations at a chain restaurant? Maybe a chain restaurant should just serve chains, that way we all know what to expect.

Dubecki: Naturally enough the practice has metastasised into the restaurant trade. Food writers and bloggers are routinely invited to pretend they need a new eatery's "concept" explained to them over a free dinner. It's difficult to imagine a restaurant so conceptual it needs a middleman to explain it – maybe if Ferran Adria decided to open a bacon bar on Mars – and sure enough it proves true with Vapiano, a 100-strong restaurant "concept" invented by a German McDonald's franchisee.

I Eat Blog: How did she know what they explained or didn't explain if she didn't attend the media famil? I don't see anything wrong with a restaurant explaining their "concept" and any other items they believe is worth mentioning. Not everyone is as knowledgeable as Dubecki obviously and knows everything already. Also, the contempt at which she holds the owners is rather staggering, given she doesn't know them. So someone owns a McDonald's, does that make them a bad restauranter automatically? I find her associations rather pitiful and unnecessary. It's a swipe for the sake of hurting and is not relevant at all. These are the types of things she writes that drives me bonkers (bonkers = insanely mad for the Dubecki fans out there).

Dubecki: Put it this way: whoever orders a caprese salad in winter deserves the insipid tomatoes that defy their vibrant-red looks to taste of precisely nothing. As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

I Eat Blog: Puh-lease, with a capital P. Almost every restaurant around Melbourne would be serving tomatoes in some way. Excuse all of us ignoramuses for ordering a dish we think we might enjoy. So sow your own tomatoes and reap your own rewards Dubecki. What if the tomatoes you sow happen to be dull and flavourless as well? What then? OMG, end of the world. Quick, call the tomato emergency line.

Dubecki: The fitout is 21st-century canteen. The broad first-floor space is decked out with oak share tables and chairs, a distressed olive tree providing a centrepiece, the tables kitted out with pots of fresh herbs for the plucking. It's designed to drive the fresh message home, an illusion that ends with the antipasti, an impressive wooden paddle littered with foodstuffs that taste of little more than fridge.

Go to Rosa's Kitchen to see how good real Italian antipasti can be, as opposed to this depressing collection of overdone/undercooked roasted/marinated vegetables, personality-free meats, very ordinary slices of what's simply billed as "parmesan" and sun-dried tomatoes. Remember them?

I Eat Blog: I actually totally agree with her about the Antipasti Platter, but it's the manner in which she linked how she disliked the antipasti to imply nothing in the restaurant is fresh. Most places do use canned/jar items for their antipasti and shame on all of them. Vapiano is no different and I disliked nearly every item on the antipasti platter. Only the cheese was tasty. If Vapiano are to pride themselves on being fresh, they should drop the antipasti dish or actually source some good ingredients, preferrably making it themselves.

Yep, I remember sun-dried tomatoes and love them. What's your point Dubecki? Are you above sun-dried tomatoes with your condescending manner or are you just a tomoto freak who only likes fresh tomoatoes? I'm sensing she may have a tomato habit she needs looked at.

By the way, I still need to get to Rosa's Kitchen one day. *makes mental note to order tomatoes at Rosa's Kitchen*

Dubecki: The carpaccio comprises tissue-thin slices of mushy beef stuck to a fridge-cold plate. These are topped with raw slices of button mushroom and parmesan, an undressed lump of rocket and some squiggles of mildly tangy mayo.

I Eat Blog: I agree with her about this dish. The beef was mushier than a teenage girl (or guy, equality for all) at a One Direction concert and lacked any real flavour. The rocket was totally indecent and not dressed at all and the mayo would fail any drink driving test from the police. I agree about the flavours but it's just her turn of phrase that always has this knife sticking out of it.

Dubecki: The pasta's fresh. You can see them making it on an impressive industrial machine behind glass, and the clever induction cooktops using wok-like contraptions means it's ready in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, garlic and onion don't cook quite as fast. Crunch, crunch. The ravioli stuffed with bolognese paste are actually quite tasty, although the tomato cream sauce inexplicably contains carrot sticks and spring onion.

I Eat Blog: The pasta at Vapiano is really good and I loved the Carbonara, Ravioli and Salmon Spaghetti. The wok-like contraptions were....*drum roll*....woks, on topf of a concave induction cooktop. Side note, I totally want one of those concave induction cooktops. Can you imagine the heat you'd get from cooking in a wok from one of those babies. Awesome. Ok back on the main road now. Dubecki is totally nit picking about the garlic and onions as mine were cooked fine and had a great caramelised but not burnt flavour. Carrots in Bolognese is always a contention, but meh, it happens everywhere and the Carrot Association of Bologna (CAB) are really pushing to have carrots added as a core ingredient in Bolognese sauce. I've signed the petition and recommend you do the same.

Dubecki: The idea of topping a pizza with prosciutto, fig and honey – seasonality aside – quite appealed. The crust is chewy, the base cardboard-esque, the topping – including a thin smear of tomato sugo – desultory. It's $20.90. Pause to reflect that the same money would buy a pizza at Ladro.

I Eat Blog: The idea, mark that word, idea idea idea, appealed to Dubecki, but in the same sentence it was desultory. I had to Dictionary.com that word, coz I'm not as au fait with the English language but it means lacking a plan. Doesn't that contradict the earlier idea? I have no idea, but I suspect it does. Someone with an English major please tell me.

I actually agree that the pizza idea is great and had a wonderful version of such a pizza at Ciao Bella in the Mornington Peninsula, but this one wasn't executed as well and was pretty good. I wouldn't say that the base tasted cardboard like though, having eaten cardboard at many restaurants before. Same goes for the other pizzas, pretty good but not worth the price. If the price was 20-25% cheaper, they would be competing in a different market and then it would be acceptable. As is, I don't think the pizzas are worth it.

Dubecki: A chip card replaces the need for waiters. You order from one of the red-bandana-wearing cooks, swipe your card, wait for the order and carry it back to your table. Expect to repeat the process at the bar, at the pizza counter (here you get a buzzer to summon you back when it's ready), antipasti counter, pasta counter etc.

The service is laughable. I don't just mean my own. Empty glasses pile up in between visits to the bar for water refills or another stab at the short, unremarkable wine list. Plates are cleared once – just before the pizza buzzer goes off, which is a nuisance. Off to find some replacements while my pal minds the bags. No chance of a good bitch session when we're so busy retrieving plates, waiting for food, tag-teaming across the joint.

I Eat Blog: I have to totally agree with how much I hate the swipe card payment system. It's really crazy to have to wait in multiple queues for different food items. I passed this feedback onto the restaurant manager and he said the system works well when you only want to order one item as you can be in a shorter queue. I agree with that. So maybe the way forward for Vapiano is to use that system at lunch when most likely people will be on a lunch break and only ordering one dish for themselves. However, for dinner service, they should switch to a centralised ordering system where you can then walk away and come back when your order is ready, or have table service. I can't see too many groups of people ordering just one type of food. I wonder how the system fares in the other restaurants in other states? Do people just get used to it or it still causes problems? Anyone know?

I also found the flow of the meal rather interrupted with the need to go grab different foods at different times. Vapiano really need to think about the purpose of people going to their restaurant, and one main driver for most people is to chat with their friends. By the time you get all your food and have settled down, 45-60 minutes may have passed, which means you've used up half your dinner time not talking to your friends.

Oh don't worry Dubecki, you've had your bitch session, it's written all over the review. Maybe that's what got her so upset, that she had to fetch her own food and didn't have time to bitch about things?

Dubecki: By our last sortie to the bar for a set cheesecake coated in a lurid yellow layer of medicinal-tasting lemon substance, it's perfectly clear Vapiano is just one big conversation interruption. In our Italian-hearted town, you can do so much better than eating here. But if eat here you must, make sure it's with people you don't like.

I Eat Blog: I actually rather liked the desserts here. The cheesecake was ok, but the chocolate cake and tiramisu were really good. If she had just written about the cheesecake, I wouldn't mind, but the "...if eat here you must, make sure it's with people you don't like" pfftttt. She's so clever with her funny backhands. Even her final summary of the worst bit, "everything else" is such a swipe. She wrote herself that the pasta is good. So how can that be everything? Maybe she also needs to consult Dictionary.com more.

And that my friends, concludes my review of the reviewer. My hatred of Dubecki's writing only ever deepens and my respect for even her professionalism is well and truly down the drain. If she had actually focused on the restaurant as opposed to using this forum to vent whatever anger she had, I'd have respected that. Vapiano is not the best place ever, nor is it the worst. There are some major issues in my mind, being the payment and ordering system. Aside from that, the food is generally pretty good, with the pastas a real highlight for me. Would I go back, yes for a quick meal of just pasta but I wouldn't make it a place to dine with a large group as the ordering system doesn't function the way I want it too.

I Eat Therefore I Am 7th Birthday + Amazing Black Forest Cake Recipe

Today marks the 7th birthday of this blog, woohoo. I can't believe it myself. What started out as a bit of fun and what I thought would last a year at most has turned into a lot of fun that's lasted 7 years. I have to thank my friend Kevin immensely as he was the person who encouraged me to start a blog and also helped me to set up this blog. While my first blog was a personal account of my daily life, I met a group of wonderful people online and this food blog came about because of that. I've already written about that story and you can read it here.

For this blog post, I thought I'd go further back in my food biography. Inspired by my fellow food blogger and friend in Adrian's account of how he became an EATER, I've decided to write down my story. So if you've got a spare 20 minutes to read my story, I'd love it, and maybe you can tell me your story afterwards. But if you're here for cake, scroll down to the bottom to learn how to make an epic and amazingly delicious Black Forest Cake.

The Olsen Twins (Full House) Years
According to my parents, I was born loving food. An incident at age one sort of sets the scene for my journey with food. So, one day when dad returns from work, he is carrying a big meat bun, the type with the fluffy white bready skin and a mixture of meat inside. Normally he would just give me the bun to eat (I started eating solids very early). This time, he decides to tease me with the bun and make me run to him to get it (I also started walking and running early and by age one I was a proficient runner already). I run towards him to get the bun and.....BAM, I trip over the ledge at the bottom of a door frame. All houses have this ledge in Vietnam to stop water coming in I think. Cue slow motion falling and CRACK, my head hits the concrete floor and I'm bleeding like a zombie. Mum and dad dash me off to hospital and nowadays I have 7 stitches in my forehead and a great story to tell about how much I love food.

I don't remember that incident itself and my memory of Vietnam is rather vague too, but I do have many photos of me eating food in Vietnam. Apparently I loved everything, but there is a lot of cake photos haha. So nothing's changed there.

The Simpsons Years
Moving forward some years, I have immigrated to Australia with my family and we go about starting a new life to escape the political regimes in Vietnam. We arrive here with virtually nothing, but in all my childhood memories, I always remember having lots of good food (doesn't necessarily mean expensive) to eat in the house. Mum and dad went without going on holidays or buying nice things to ensure my sister I were always well fed and had a good education. I cannot thank them enough for this. Even writing this now is making me slightly emotional (real men don't get emotional right?). So throughout my primary school years, I remember having lots of delicious meals that mum cooked, and very occasionally going out for meals at restaurants. We always had a lot of snacks in the pantry, but unlike some kids I've seen nowadays who just go to the pantry and grab whatever they wanted, I most definitely had to ask my parents if I wanted a snack. This meant I never over indulged in bad snacks and ate quite healthily actually.

Up until I went to high school, my school lunches were actually rather boring affairs. Literally I was eating a sandwich every day. I tended to favour sweet sandwiches, with things like peanut and jam, nutella and butter with sugar being my favourites. I wasn't that fussed about what I had for lunch, instead looking forward to playing after the meal.

The Dawson's Creek Years
With high school and uni, the addition of money meant I had a lot more choices for lunch and the food I ate. My parents had trusted me to control my own eating and I would say I didn't go too overboard. In high school, I still had sandwiches for lunch but would mix it up with some food bought from the canteen. Inevitably this food was greasy, oily food, as is still the case at canteens in schools around the country I would think. So there was dodgy chiko rolls (which I never fully developed a taste for and today makes me feel sick when I smell it), dim sims (which I still love), chips, sausages rolls, pies and pizza. Thinking back now, the current me would say I should have packed a variety of lunches but tell me which kid isn't lured in by all that greasy food.

By the time I was going to uni, I had multiple part time jobs and a car. The car provided the ultimate freedom and meant I could go to so many places to eat different foods. I was now eating cuisines I had never heard of or tried before and at restaurants in all different locations throughout Melbourne. People who like food must gravitate together as I had a group of uni friends who were also open to trying out different foods, and hence we went on many food adventures together. As we were still students, we sought out good cheap food everywhere, with some items at the uni shops that weren't too bad. The options are rather limited when you go to Monash Clayton as if you leave campus, you can't find a car park when you return, so we tried everything in the union building. I still dream of those spicy fried chicken wings and the gourmet bratwurst sausage that you can pick your own toppings. I must say though, as good as those things were, you can't eat them everyday without being bored. So lunch by the 4th, 5th year of uni (I didn't fail, I just did a double degree) was getting so boring and the options were looking less and less tempting that I had returned to eating sandwiches for lunch.

Dinner though, that was a whole other story. With a bit of money, I tried so many things. You wouldn't know it now but I used to hate things like sashimi and sushi, I didn't like lamb (OMG, I'd slapped my own self if I could travel back in time and meet the former me, although if I let the former me see the new me I could change the future and possibly wipe out my own existence, which wouldn't be good), I didn't like any vegetables at all, I had never eaten much European food. Hence, literally a whole new world was opening up before my mouth and I was loving every bit of it.

The Friends Years
The early Friends' years was where I would say I went a bit crazy and overdosed on food a bit. I don't mean that I ate so much that I had become a whale, it was more that I spent so much money that thinking back on it, I'm shocked at my obsession. Once my friends and I got jobs, we suddenly found ourselves with a massive amount of disposable income. I've never been into cars or stereo systems so decided to use my money on what I loved most, food. Literally every week we would all go eat out once or twice a week at a fine dining restaurant. We were going through degustation meals and high end eating like no tomorrow. Everything was so new and amazing. The food was all so delicious and I had become so addicted that I thought a $100 meal was cheap. It was utterly crazy.

Luckily, I snapped out of that phase after about one and a half years. If I had continued like that, I'd be so broke and also extremely overweight, as high end food is full of calories. It was near that time that I started my food blog, and that's when my eyes were again open to a whole other world of food. I was learning so much information about food and becoming a more informed person. I feel I have a fairly good sense of smell and taste and while I knew what flavours I like, I didn't know much about what ingredients produced those flavours. I knew a bit about Asian cuisine, but other cuisines were still a mystery to me. For example, I had hardly tasted any herbs in my life. Apart from obvious ones like mint that were used in Asian cooking, I couldn't tell a rosemary stalk from a thyme stalk. By reading many food blogs, I was seeing the cooking aspect to food and slowly getting intrigued.

The "early days" (this is the one and only time time I will use those word about food blogging) of food blogging was just like what you've read and seen in Julie & Julia. It was so exciting when someone left a comment or if someone recognised that you wrote a blog. The blogosphere was still a mostly empty expanse of nothingness. It was also pre-Twitter days so people didn't interact as often, only occasionally in blog comments. Slowly though, people would start making online connections and finally real life connections. I remember the first bloggers meet up and how scared I was. Luckily, when I got there I was greeted by lots of other friendly people who loved food as well. A great night was had and from that point, there are now more meet ups than I can find time for.

The food blogging community has grown so much in Melbourne. For whatever reason, there is an unusually high number of food lovers in Melbourne, who also happen to write a blog. I think it's due to the amazing vibrant and varied food scene we have here, and enthusiasm tends to drive enthusiasm. I know that at work my enthusiasm for food has rubbed off on so many of my colleagues and I think that's the same with the whole Melbourne food scene. A small number of people are enthusiastic about food, who then share their enthusiasm and so on and so on. For example, I'm so happy that I inspired my cousin Allan to start his own food blog. He has since inspired his friends to do the same.

The food blogging scene has changed since I started blogging, but I find it a good thing. Nothing can stay stagnant for long and unlike some who keep talking about what it used to be like and how good it was, I like to think how good it is now and what's yet to come. People tend to remember things better than they are, because at the beginning of food blogging, I didn't experience half the things I enjoy now. Change is inevitable and I for one like to find the best in the change. In this social media age, there are so many more connections that occur between people. This sometimes leads to meeting people in real life, and a strengthening of relationships. Geographical, sociological and physiological borders are eroded with technology and people from all over the world can get to know each other. I am so happy with the number of amazing friends I've made through food blogging. Yes, food was the catalyst for our initial meeting, but nowadays we connect on so many other things. I count some of my fellow food bloggers as some of my best friends now, and we are involved in all aspects of each other's lives, from birthdays to weddings to births. They're no longer food blogging friends, they're friends who happen to write a food blog. A shout out to the SFBS "gang". You know who you are.

A final item about food blogging that I'll touch on is the still ongoing debate about bloggers taking freebies. It's such a boring subject and I've written about it here if you wish to read about it. My stance on this topic has not changed at all, and has instead strengthened. The one difference is that with age, I have become far less caring about what others who aren't close to me think. I now do what I want and do so happily. Should that not suit the way in which someone else thinks I should live my life, boo hoo to them. I encourage everyone to do the same and stop pushing your judgement on what others should do. I have gained so much out of going to blog freebies that I thank the food Gods that I've had such opportunities to see so many aspects of food and the food industry. My favourite freebie of all time, and there are a number of contenders, is most definitely the boot camp I did at Steer. It opened my eyes to how hard the restaurant game is and gave me some perspective, and I also gained 3 amazing chef friends (who I see and call to talk with nowadays) from that stint and I'm so happy about that.

So, that brings us to the current day. At this moment, my love of food has turned to trying to find cheap good foods that I haven't tried yet and learning to cook better. I want to explore different cuisines and try to use those flavours and change them up a bit to create something different myself. I've liked baking cakes and making desserts for a while now but lately I'm really into making savoury foods too. I've also taken more of a liking to vegetables and even try to cook some vegetable dishes (have you fallen off your chair Cindy?). My food learning continues and this blog will be one aspect of it. Nowadays, more and more I find myself almost micro-blogging via Instagram. So drop over to Instagram and follow me, ieatblog if you want more food in your life. Else, enjoy what you do in regards to food and I'd love any feedback from you about anything.

Black Forest Cake
To celebrate this blog's 7th birthday, I've decided to post this epic Black Forest Cake that I made a little bit back. The recipe is from the Masterchef website and it's an epic cake. First, let us all take a moment and drool at it.

Now, wipe the drool from your chin and let me tell you a bit about the cake. The full recipe makes a massive cake that won't fit into any regular cake carrying container. The recipe is a non-traditional recipe and a whole lot of work. But boy, the result is an amazingly delicious cake with many flavour profiles and a real stunning cake to present for any occasion. I decided to make this cake on a weeknight after work as my work mate said he wanted a black forest cake for his birthday. I didn't read through the recipe at all but had assumed it wouldn't be that hard from the photo of the cake so foolishly said yes. It took me 6 hours to make this cake, and some more time to clean up everything. My kitchen looked like a bomb site and I was covered in chocolate. The cake cost me around $60 to buy all the ingredients. Despite all that, it is worth it. I would make this again, on a weekend so I had the whole day, for someone's birthday or any other special occasion.

Some tips for a better cake
* I wouldn't deviate from the recipe too much. The ratios are right for a three tier cake and the flavours are really good with the full compliment of elements.

* The chocolate sponge is quite a good texture and can be cut into the recommended number of layers and long as you are careful and cut accurately. A tip is to use toothpicks poked around the whole edge of the cake to define the height you want to cut at and then the knife can rest on those toothpicks as you cut.

* I couldn't find semi-candied cherries so I used canned cherries in sugar syrup and that tasted great too.

* I'd recommend using fresh cherries as per the recipe because you cook them down. The fresh cherries retain some texture and stay whole whereas cherries from a jar would probably fall apart and become a bit like baby food and won't have the same mouth feel.

* The hazelnut praline is a lot of work but it does add another element to the cake. However, I'd probably buy the praline (I know you can get peanut praline) if I could and just use that rather than making my own. Peeling hazelnuts is a pain and making a caramel is scary.

* Needless to say it but I will anyway, use a good quality dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa butter to ensure you have a nice rich cake.

* Follow the assembly instructions to build up the cake as trying to build it up as one thing will end in disaster. Do each layer as suggested on a separate chopping board and then lift that onto the main cake.

Black Forest Cake Recipe
Recipe from Masterchef Australia website.

Cooking time: 6 hours
Feeds: 20 regular people or 12 cake fiends

INGREDIENTS
For the chocolate sponge
7eggs
250gcaster sugar
200gplain flour
50gcocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the candied cherries
1/2 cup semi-candied pitted cherries, 1/4 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup caster sugar

For the cherry compote
1/3 cup caster sugar
600g pitted fresh cherries, halved 1 tbs brandy
1 tbs brandy

For the cherry sugar syrup
90gcaster sugar
1/4 cup cherry juice

For the chocolate hazelnut praline mousse
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted lightly and skinned
300g chopped dark chocolate
3egg yolks
300ml thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the mascarpone cream
500g mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tbs icing sugar

For the dark chocolate ganache
150ml cream
200g chopped dark chocolate
shaved chocolate
fresh cherries

METHOD
For the chocolate sponge
1. Preheat oven to 160°C fan forced. Grease and line 2 x 20cm springform cake pans.

2. Add eggs and sugar to a heatproof bowl of an electric mixer, and set over a saucepan of simmering water over very low heat. Whisk the mixture until 37°C. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat with an electric mixer on a medium-low speed for 5-8 minutes or until the mixture has cooled and thickened to a mousse-like consistency. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together twice. Using a large metal spoon, fold the dry mixture into the egg mixture in 3 batches until combined, adding the vanilla extract with the first dry batch.

3. Pour the mixture into the lined cake pans and smooth surface. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until sponge springs back when lightly touched. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks. Place in the blast chiller for 10-15 minutes until cake has cooled completely.

For the candied cherries
1. Preheat oven to 120°C. Place cherries on a lined baking tray. Lightly dust with the sugar and place in the oven for 50-60 minutes. Remove and cool. Coat with remaining sugar. Set aside.

For the cherry compote
1. Add the sugar to a non-stick saucepan and place over medium heat. Once the sugar begins to dissolve add the cherries and cook until they start to release their juices. Add the brandy and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the liquid has reduced and thickened. Strain, reserving liquor

For the cherry syrup
1. Heat 170ml water and the sugar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the reserved cherry juice and compote liquor. Allow to cool.

For the chocolate hazelnut praline mousse
1. Line a baking sheet. In a dry heavy-based saucepan, cook sugar over medium heat, stirring, until melted. Once melted, cook without stirring, swirling pan, until lightly golden. Add hazelnuts, stirring until well coated. Immediately pour mixture onto the baking sheet and cool completely, in blast chiller for 5 minutes. Break praline into pieces. Place into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk the egg yolks in a small heatproof bowl. Heat 250ml of the cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir through half of the hot cream into the egg yolks. Return the mixture to the saucepan over low heat and stir until thickened. Strain into a clean bowl. Stir the melted chocolate into the hot custard. Add the vanilla and allow to cool. Whisk the remaining cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into the chocolate mixture with the praline, until just combined. Set aside.

For the mascarpone cream
1. Beat the mascarpone, vanilla and sugar in a bowl until smooth and slightly thicker in volume.

For the chocolate ganache
1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Set aside. Bring the cream to just below boiling point in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat, then add the melted chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool until thick but still pouring consistency.

To assemble the cake
1. Slice both cakes into thirds. Place the base of 1 cake onto a serving plate and brush with some of the cherry syrup. Spread over half of the chocolate praline mousse.

2. Place the next layer of cake onto a board, and brush with cherry syrup. Spread over half of the mascarpone cream. Divide the cherries into two parts for two separate layers. Place cherries around the border of the cake, 5mm from its edge and scatter remaining in the middle. Carefully remove layer from the board and place on top of the first layer. Repeat each layering process on the board (you will have 1 spare slice of cake), starting with the praline mousse and ending with the cherries on the mascarpone cream.

2. Place the next layer of cake onto a board, and brush with cherry syrup. Spread over half of the mascarpone cream. Divide the cherries into two parts for two separate layers. Place cherries around the border of the cake, 5mm from its edge and scatter remaining in the middle. Carefully remove layer from the board and place on top of the first layer. Repeat each layering process on the board (you will have 1 spare slice of cake), starting with the praline mousse and ending with the cherries on the mascarpone cream.

WTC Wharf Progressive Dinner

Last year, I went on a progressive dinner of WTC Wharf with my fellow food bloggers and we had a great time. This year, the progressive dinner at WTC Wharf is back on. Below are the details.

When: Every Wednesday night (beginning 1st March 2013)
Time: 6.30pm & 7.30pm sittings
Tickets: $55 per person
Bookings: (03) 9629 9228

For your ticket, you get to have one course each at Kobe Jones, The Wharf Hotel and Byblos. For the July lineup that I tried, entree was at Kobe Jones, mains at The Wharf Hotel and dessert at Byblos. This lineup changes each month so ask for details.

We started our meal at Kobe Jones and were seated at the teppanyaki tables. Our chef introduced himself and proceeded to flame up some mushroom salad. It must be deeply ingrained into our genome that fire is important as seeing the food flare up in flames was really impressive. The mushrooms were really good and had a nice charred flavour. The chef then cooked up some salmon in a foil bag, which puffed up more than your eyes when you accidentally get chili into them. I thought the bag was ready to explode, but amazingly it didn't. He then opened the bag to reveal some perfectly cooked salmon in a simple soy based sauce. I really liked the pepper in this dish and it really came through. I'm not a pepper fan in general but somehow the pepper in the fish worked for me.

Mains at The Wharf Hotel included a choice of dishes from a one page list. Most of the mains did not seem that exciting, with the majority of them being salads of some form. I choose a lamb salad, while my dining partner chose a caramelised onion and cheese tart. I had imagined my lamb salad to be beautifully pink pieces of seared lamb on a fresh bed of salad leaves. Instead I got a massive bowl of gyros type shredded lamb with so much rocket you could feed two supermodels for a week. There was also pumpkin and chickpeas in the salad. I liked the soft pumpkin and chickpeas but the cold lamb wasn't very good. The onion tart was far nicer, rich and creamy. However, it was a bit too salty for both our liking.

For dessert at Byblos, we got served a chocolate fondant with yoghurt ice cream and a cocktail each. I loved my lychee cocktail and the fondant had great flavour. It was a tiny bit undercooked so the centre was quite runny, but it was huge so we didn't finish it anyway.

In terms of atmosphere, I love Kobe Jone and Byblos. There's a good vibe in both those places and I really enjoy dining there. However, I don't like The Wharf Hotel's environment at all. It's dark, super loud and just uncomfortable in the way the tables are wedged between the bar and corridor. I can see how it will be nice to sit in the alfresco bar in Summer, but the inside dining room is all wrong for me. The service at all three places were quite varied. Kobe Jones had the best service, followed by The Wharf Hotel and finally the staff at Byblos were extremely busy as everyone ended up there for dessert at the end of the meal. I like the concept of a progressive meal and with all three restaurants so close, it works well. The food styles are very different and I like that. If you're like me, I would recommend giving the progressive meal a try.

My guest and I dined courtesy of WTC Wharf

Jazz Apples Masterclass with Alana Lowes - Sticky Ribs and Apple Slaw Recipe

Last year was the second year I had been eating Jazz Apples. Just like the previous year, the season was over far too quickly. If you don't know about them, Jazz apples are a mix between a Gala and Braeburn apple. They have a nice tang to them while being very sweet and crunchy. If you don't like crunchy apples, these aren't for you. Me, I love them. They have overtaken Fuji apples as my favourite. This year, the season for Jazz apples is getting longer as the trees mature more and more. The season is expected to last 6 months this time so we'll get to enjoy them for longer.

Last year, I went to Jazz apple masterclass with Fast Ed. At that class, I really saw how well apples can be used in cooking, especially savoury food. I've always thought of cooking apples are a desserts orientated thing, but they're very versatile. So when I was invited this year to attend a masterclass with Alana Lowes of Masterchef fame, I happily accepted.

Upon arrival, Alana served us some Apple and rosemary sorbet. It was so good. The small addition of rosemary just elevated what would normally be a pretty standard apple sorbet into something really interesting and delicious. While we cleansed our palettes, Alana went out explaining the next dish, which was a Spicy sticky pork ribs with smokey BBQ sauce served with a apple mayonnaise salad. I was hooked at ribs and the huge chunks of meat looked so enticing. Alana went about cutting up apples, mixing the glaze, all the while multi-tasking and chatting with us. She was so personable and really lovely. Also, I bow down to any woman who can cook a meal wearing glittery gold high heels. That's a skill.

After we had drunk our wines, the ribs were ready to be served. The oohs and ahhs when the ribs were taken out of the oven really reflected how wonderful the ribs smelled. We moved to the dining table at the Raw Materials studio and setup to eat the meal. While I started eating the ribs with my knife and fork, it was just too slow and ended up using all my fingers to munch into the amazing ribs. The crisp Jazz apple salad really helped to give a nice contrast to the heavy ribs. We, ok I, ate through so many ribs and so much salad. I was one McFatty by the end of mains, and there was still dessert to come.

Dessert was a simple affair, called an Apple and rhubarb filo scrunch. As Alana said, you can throw this altogether when you come back tired from work but still want some dessert. The amazing dessert queen ironchefshellie (who has a real name but I like to call her that) helped Alana make dessert as Ms offthespork (again, not her real name) and I were too busy drinking wine. Michele helped butter all the filo pastry sheets with ghee. Alana told us that ghee doesn't burn like butter and is great to use in this way or in your fry pan to make pancakes. Such a good tip as my butter is always burning when I make pancakes and I don't like that burnt flavour. So Michele gheed all the filo pastry, and then Alana threw on the rhubarb and Jazz apples and scrunched up the pastry. When the scrunch came out of the oven, Alana put on a perfect quenelle of ice cream and voila, one super delicious dessert made in minutes. The rhubarb and Jazz apples were a great flavour combination and I'd highly recommend you try this.

And that concluded a great night where I learned to make even more dishes using Jazz apples. It was heaps of fun, and super delicious. Thanks to Alana for cooking up such a great meal for us.

Sticky Smoky Spicy Pork Ribs with Jazz Apple Slaw Recipe
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 5-10mins (+marinating time)
Cook Time: 1hr – 1 ¼ hrs

Ingredients
2 cups smoky spicy BBQ or Mexican style sauce
Juice of 1 orange
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup brown sugar
1.5kg American pork ribs (small end are the best)

Apple Slaw
1 tbsp mild English mustard
Juice of ½ lemon
½ cup whole egg mayonnaise
Salt
pepper
3 Jazz apples, cut into matchsticks

To serve, lime segments, coriander leaves and sesame seeds

Method
1. For the pork ribs, place the smoky spicy sauce, orange juice, garlic, maple syrup and brown sugar into a large baking dish. Stir to combine. Add the whole pork ribs and turn to coat completely in the marinade. Allow to marinate for at least 30mins, preferably for 4hrs or overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 165°c.

3. Drain the marinade and reserve for basting. Cover the baking tray with foil and place in the oven and bake for 45mins.

4. Turn the oven up to 180°c. Remove the baking tray from the oven and remove the foil. Baste the pork ribs with some of the reserved marinade. Return to the oven for 10mins. Baste again and return to the oven. Repeat this until all the marinade has been used and the pork ribs look caramelised and sticky. Approx 15-20mins.

5. For the apple slaw, whisk together the mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper together until well combined. Stir the mustard mixture into the whole egg mayonnaise. Stir the mayonnaise through the Jazz apples.

6. To serve, cut the pork ribs up into 1-2 ribs. Place on a serving tray and sprinkle with coriander leaves, sesame seeds and squeeze over the lemon juice. Serve with the Jazz apple slaw.

I attended the masterclass courtesy of Media Moguls

Laguiole Cutlery Set from Kitchenware Direct - Tres Magnifique

When most people go to a restaurant, they tend to look at the decor and then focus on what to order. I like to look at the decor and menu. but then also focus on the cutlery and crockery. I love seeing what brands of plates and knives restaurants use and then go about determining how a) aesthetically pleasing it is b) how functional it is c) how it all blends together to enhance the meal. The first time that I dined at Vue de Monde, I was transfixed by their water cups and the knives. Oh the shiny baubles of delight. While I found out the water cups are made to order for Vue de Monde and sold via their website ($150 each if you're asking), the knives were Laguiole brand. Many of you have probably used a Laguiole knife in a restaurant before. Generally the steak knife might be the one you've used. It's got the little bee on the handle. Ever since that meal, I've been lusting after the Laguiole cutlery. Therefore, when Kitchenware Direct asked what I wanted to review next, it was without a doubt that I wanted to try the Andre Verdier Laguiole Cutlery Set.

The Laguiole Cutlery Set arrives in this beautiful wooden box, which sorts each cutlery type into separate compartments. The set itself contains the usual utensils of knives, forks and spoons in these amazing colours. I love vibrant looking things and these fit the bill. They work well with simple white or black plates where they are then the focus, or can be paired with patterned plates to give some contrast. Any which way, they are so beautiful. I love the little bee insignia.

I've used all the cutlery to eat a variety of food. Obviously the forks and spoons work as expected. They feel really great in the hand, with a balanced weight to them and I just can't stop staring at the coloured handles, so pretty. However, it's the knives that I'm most in love with. Firstly, I love the shape of the blades, but most importantly, they are sharp. I sliced through my lamb cutlets so easily and it makes eating more enjoyable. I hate having to struggle to cut food as all the grunt I need to exert distracts me from the meal. These knives not only work functionally but in the most fashionable way too.

The cutlery set is not the cheapest, but I can't recommend them highly enough. Get this set and they can sit pride of place amongst all your cutlery. And no, don't shelve them away waiting to be used when guests come over. Use them all the time. You deserve to use the good stuff and feel good. I never understand when people save the best things for their guests. I say, use the best things yourself as you paid good money for it and deserve to feel the luxury and joy the items provide. That's my philosophy anyway. Everyone is different. So I will keep using my Laguiole Cutlery Set and should you come over with a cake to share with me, you can use the cutlery set too.

Thanks to Kitchenware Direct for giving me the Laguiole Cutlery Set. I am totally in love with it.

Good Food and Wine Show 2013 - FIJI Water Blogging Team

This year, I was really excited about the Good Food and Wine Show for two reasons. Firstly, I got to meet Maggie Beer about the show and was knew that she would be there. I was secretly hoping I'd bump into her and get to chat with her some more. Secondly, I was invited to join the FIJI Water blogging team to cover the show as their roaming reporter. Ok, I made the roaming reporter part up as I've always wanted to be one of those roaming reporters at events who stick their noses into everything and survey the mood of the crowd. Anyway, I stuck my nose everywhere and tried to gauge how people were feeling. Most people looked to be enjoying themselves, or enjoyed themselves a bit too much already after trying out all the wines at the numerous stands.

This year's Good Food and Wine Show was even bigger than previous years, if that was possible. I have attended previous years, 2012, 2011 and 2009, missing out on 2010 when I was overseas on holidays. This year's show follows a similar format to previous years, with some additions to improve it. One addition that people have loved is Cheese Alley, and it's even bigger and better this year. The other new addition that I'm sure is going to be a big hit is the Fisher and Paykel YUM Kitchen, where people got hands on experience to cook some dishes. The kitchen looked amazing and the people taking the classes looked to be really enjoying themselves.

As usual, the show was full of so many things to see. The Celebrity Theatre was as usual really popular, with lots of people sitting in on various sessions to listen to their favourite food celebrities talk about different food topics, such as the Maggie Beer session I witnessed. Everyone absolutely loved her and she had the crowd in the palm of her hands with her charm. This year though, a new addition is Michelle Bridges, of The Biggest Loser fame, to discuss healthier aspects about food. I love Michelle as she is not only extremely fit, she also seems like a really determined person and I admire people like that. I guess with everything, you need a balance. So you can eat some of Maggie Beer's butter and verjuice roast chicken sometimes, but you should also eat some roast Winter vegetables on quinoa as that can be really tasty too when done right. As our nation is getting fatter and more and more people are becoming obsess with our sedentary lifestyle, we need to be more conscious about what we eat and drink as having a balanced diet is the key to staying healthy. There is no way you can exercise enough to negate the effects of eating 6 pieces of KFC with a tub of ice cream afterwards.

With the introduction of Michelle Bridges to the line up, the Good Food and Wine Show are acknowledging that the health aspect is very important too and they are now catering for that. There were a number of stalls that were focused on healthy food options, amongst them FIJI Water. As we all know water is essential to our survival and well being. I'm hardcore about drinking lots of water everyday and even though I know there's no definitive scientific evidence to say we need 2 litres of water a day, I use it as a guide to keep myself hydrated as I feel much better when I do drink more water. Whenever I drink less than about a litre of water a day, I feel really awful. Whether it's physiological or psychological, I don't know, but I do know I can prevent that terrible feeling by just drinking lots of water. I drink a mix of tap water and bottled water, depending on what's available and what I want at the time. I like the taste of bottled water actually and it feels really refreshing. I drink FIJI water sometimes and the water itself tastes good and I really like the unique design of the bottle. As the name suggests, the water is from FIJI, in a place called the Yaqara Vaelly of Viti Levu. An underground acquifier houses the water that's used for the FIJI bottle water.

As part of the FIJI blogging team, I sniffed my way around all the stalls and below is a few of my favourite photos from the show. There was a mixture of healthy food, and some a bit less healthy. But you know, life is about balance, and you can have some unhealthy things in moderation. I also got to visit the VIP lounge, which was really pretty and I enjoyed a glass of wine in there and some canapes.

If you're going to the show this year, here are some tips for you.
1. Get in line early for the free Celebrity Theatre sessions.
2. The Nespresso class is free and worth doing.
3. The Barilla pasta class says it was $15 but today I just walked in. Do it anyway if it does cost $15.
4. Cheese alley is a must.
5. Get the $3 wine glass to taste all the wines. Don't get smashed, as it's a really bad look.
6. Violet chocolate from ChocoMe, get onto it. Violet is so underrated.
7. Salami Shack, hello cured meats.
8. Passionfruit curd from Unforgettable Products, mmmmm.
9. Samples, samples, samples.

Overall, as usual there was so much to see at the show. There's something there for everyone. There were many interesting things and I really loved Cheese Alley as I'm developing a taste for all sorts of cheeses now. My highlight of Friday's session was seeing Maggie at the Celebrity Theatre. I was waving at her like mad, but so were 500 other people so she didn't see me unfortunately. My secret wish that she would spot me in the audience didn't come true, but her class was still excellent. Normally, if I wasn't going away on holidays, I'd come back on the Sunday afternoon session. A good tip for you, come on the last day to pick up some awesome bargains as the stalls try to sell off everything. I picked up these amazing caneles one year for 50 cents each when they're normally $3.50. I love delicious food, and it's even better when it's a bargain. Till next year's show, eat up.

This is a sponsored post from FIJI Water and I attended courtesy of FIJI Water.

Lavazza A Modo Mio at Melbourne International Coffee Expo

There are a number of things that I like the smell of, but don’t want to taste. Firecrackers, roasting woodchips, Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee. All these things smell so intoxicating, and until recently, I wouldn’t want to taste any of them. However, I can now strike coffee off that list. I’m a tea drinker, but for the past year, I’ve slowly been getting into coffee. Previously I used to drink coffee very rarely, maybe after a dinner or at breakfast in a café. Now, I’ve become a 3-4 cups a week drinker of coffee. Whereas I used to find the taste of coffee very bitter and unpleasant, I now find coffee to be smooth and full of flavour. This was the same with chocolate. Once upon a time I was a Cadbury’s milk chocolate eater. There’s nothing wrong with milk chocolate but nowadays I find it rather awful and won’t touch it. My taste buds have migrated to dark chocolates, with their smooth, buttery texture and wonderful flavour profiles. I’m currently sitting at about 70% cocoa solid chocolates and still find the 80-90% chocolate too bitter for my liking but I’m experimenting. With my coffee intake, I still favour single shots with milk in it, no sugar, so I still get the flavour but in a weaker hit. Having been deciding whether to buy a coffee machine (a Nespresso), it was fortunate that I was invited to the Lavazza A Modo Mio class at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, as I got to learn about how to use the machine properly, and take one home to use. How lucky is that.

At the Lavazza A Modo Mio class, I learnt that A Modo Mio means “My Way”, which instantly made me think of Frank Sinatra of course. Or if you’re a youngster, you might think of Usher. However, in this case, the “My Way” refers to how you want your coffee. The Lavazza capsule coffee machines are called A Modo Mio because of the flexibility of how you can enjoy your coffee. The machines come in many forms, but their basic premise is they take a coffee capsule and do the rest of the work to give you a perfect cup of coffee every time. There are 8 coffee blends, made using Arabica and Robusta beans in different combinations and roasting methods. I cannot remember any of the names as they’re rather long and complicated. Instead I just use the colours as a guide. I like the light brown one, which is a medium flavoured blend, and the purple one, which is really smooth.

To use the machine, it’s as simple as putting a capsule into the machine and pressing a button. You then wait 30 seconds or so and out comes this rich, fragrant espresso coffee. I was pleasantly surprised how nice the coffee is. Of course it won’t taste like something that comes out of a $50,000 machine made by a barista, but for something so convenient and relatively inexpensive, it’s a good result that I’m very happy with. The machine I got also has this automatic milk frother. You just put the milk into the jug and it does the steaming and stirring all for you. Then, you pour the milk for either a latte or cappuccino into your espresso or espresso lungo (a more diluted espresso). The maintenance of the machine is really simple. You need to occasionally clean out the water jug, and if the coffee dispensing or milk frother tips get clogged, just clean them out with hot water. Every few days when the drip tray fills up, you just tip it all out into the sink.

Price wise, I believe the machines are about $200-$300 and the capsules work out to be between 50 cents to 80 cents depending on the flavour. I was informed that there’s 7.5 grams of coffee in each capsule, which according to Google is 0.5 grams more than the European Standards for defining a cup of coffee. The capsules themselves contain a quadruple layer of foil so aren’t that easy to accidentally rip. When you put it into the machine, it punctures 16 holes in the capsule, which allows the water to flow through. These capsules are unique to the machine and you can’t use another brand.

Here’s a video showing how you make a cup of coffee. It really is this easy as I have timed myself and in under 5 minutes I have a cup of cappuccino ready while my soft boiled eggs are cooking in my Aldi egg cooker.


Overall, I really love the Lavazza A Modo Mio machine. It’s really easy to use and produces a quality of coffee that I’m happy with. I think if you’re a hardcore coffee drinker, this is not for you. You probably won’t be considering this anyway. Otherwise if you’re a general coffee lover or new to coffee like me, this machine is perfect. Obviously, there will be obvious comparisons to the Nespresso machines. As I’ve never used a Nespresso before, I can’t do a direct comparison, but I’m sure they’re just as easy to use and also produce a good result. It’s just down to you trying them out and seeing which one you like more. While the Lavazza machine may not be the original, it doesn’t mean that it will be inferior. In fact, the engineers have probably seen some of the issues and corrected them. Look how Apple were the innovators, but nowadays Samsung has possibly superseded them in the smart phone stakes. As long as your product makes the experience easier for the user, that is what matters. So while Nespresso has George Clooney, Lavazza does have 110 years of coffee experience behind them. It makes for more choice for the consumer, which is a good thing. I’ll drink to that…my A Modo Mio cappuccino.

I attended the Lavazza coffee class and received a Lavazza A Modo Mio machine courtesy of Lavazza.

Barmah Park Vineyard and Cafe

I've started to have an addiction, an addiction to op shopping. It's the disease where you feel a rush going through other people's junk that they've donated. The quest is to find some piece of "treasure" at a great price. For me, the treasures are all food related, in the form of plates, cutlery and various props that I can use for my food photography. Luckily my addiction is shared by my fellow food bloggers Az, Maz and Haz. So, we go on these road trips where the goal is to find lots of treasures at many op shops. Obviously, there's always heaps of food involved on the trip too and we try to find new places to eat at. Our current favourite destination is Mornington Peninsula as there are lots of nice op shops and vintage shops to pick up our treasures. On the most recent trip, in between our op shopping and llama spotting, we were invited to try out Barmah Park Vineyard and Cafe for lunch.

Barmah Park Vineyard and Cafe is a cute little place, where they sell their wines and have a cafe for food and to drink their wines. We started our meal with some wine tasting, trying out the various Barmah Park wines, including Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. We settled on our drinks and while the girls got red wines, I went with a nice refreshing Pinot Gris.

For lunch, of course we all agreed to share the food so we could try everything. We started with a meze plate to share. The plate consisted of salmon on a savoury scone, grilled vegetables, chorizo, a vegetable tart, crumbed calamari, cured meats, salad and some bread. Most items were quite nice. I wouldn't say anything stood out as being amazing but one item did stand out as being very strange. The crumbed calamari was actually tender, but the crumb matched with the sauce was really not nice. It was super salty and then the sauce was really sweet. I didn't find the combination pleasant at all.

Next up, the Roast Pork Belly with Scallops was really delicious. Crispy pieces of fatty pork belly crunched and oozed in my mouth. I love pork belly and this one was done well. The scallops were also fresh and went well with the pork. The obligatory apple slaw accompanied the dish and gave it some lightness.

As mussels are my current obsession, I convinced the others to eat it despite the usual "we can order mussels anywhere", to which my constant reply is "but I want mussels now". The flavour of the dish was quite nice, but the mussels themselves weren't super amazing like I've had elsewhere in the Mornington Peninsula. They just didn't have the super sweet sea flavour that some mussels possess. I forgot what variety these were but maybe all the different varieties taste different.

We tried three other dishes that were hit and miss. As we didn't know the meze contained the calamari, we ordered it again. Obviously it was the same dish and I didn't like it again. The wedges were much better. Crispy and soft inside with sour cream and sweet chili dip. Lastly, a pumpkin gnocchi in a tomato based sauce was delicious. The gnocchi was soft and had great flavour and I loved it.

Despite being full, I was tempted by the sound of the apple strudel, so convinced everyone to have dessert. I didn't need to do too much convincing when Michele suggested we also try a sticky date pudding. The apple strudel in custard was beautiful. The pastry was flaky and the filling perfectly spiced and soft. The custard just finished the dish perfectly. I thought this would be the highlight but once I tried the sticky date pudding, I was speechless. I never order sticky date puddings because they're always crazy sweet and rather ordinary. But I can't recommend this sticky date pudding enough. It was so amazing, with a perfect texture and the most amazing butterscotch sauce.

The meal overall was quite good. Some items were very nice and some weren't. I'd recommend to skip the meze platter as that was quite generic stuff and to order various dishes instead so you can taste the food style of the chef. The desserts were super amazing so don't forget to order that. If that sticky date pudding is on the menu, get it.

I dined courtesy of Michele and Barmah Park.