Bloggers Banquet 2

Introduction
After the success of the first movie, Bloggers Banquet, we decided to make a sequel for all the fans out there.

Location
The setting of the first movie was more rustic and had a nice country feel to it. This time, we wanted to bring a more seaside feel to it. After much scouting, we finally decided to use the holiday home of one of the main cast members. Ella from A Goddess In The Kitchen provided the perfect location for the film at Chez Fur de Mur in Dromana.

Cast
Ella and Furry from A Goddess In The Kitchen
Cindy and Michael from Where's The Beef
Agnes and Alaistair from Off The Spork
Vida from Vida
Claire from Melbourne Gastronome
Duncan from Syrup and Tang
Jon from Melbourne Foodie
Thanh (your intrepid reporter) from this blog
And last but not least, Marc and Lillian from Canada. Canada is not their blog, it's the country they're from in case you're wondering.

Synopsis
The synopsis of the film is that we have a bunch of food loving people who gather to have lunch. They stand around, sit occasionally while the whole time munching on food and talking to each other. They occasionally laugh and share stories and get to know one another better.

Photos From The Set
Vida doing her pre filming profiling to make sure the camera was capturing her best aspects. Michael in the background is talking to the diretor.


Duncan at the front doing his best "stare into the distance" method acting. Claire is doing her best to give a natural smile. Jon in the background is doing his De Niro "are you looking at me" stance. Furry and Cindy in the far far back are being "support crowd".


Cindy, Ella and Agnes are resting between filming their eating scenes.


Preparations take place to make sure all the props are in the correct places.


First scene is Tofu balls by Cindy with the most divine "Chinese inspired" tomatoe sauce I've tasted. I did the best take and gobbled down about 6 for the cameraman to film.


Upon moving the filming indoors, it was onto more action. There was Poor Man's Potatoes from the Movida cookbook by your intrepid reporter. It went down pretty well, if I say so myself. It was the first time I made them and I thought they were nearly as good as those from Movida.


The most anticipated dish by myself and Vida were the famous Duncan macarons. Duncan had fought off thugs in Frankston and made sure the macarons were delivered unharmed. They were the most divine things. The orange and rose macarons were great, but the violet macarons were in another league again. The flavour was so wonderful, untterly indescribeable except for mmmmmmmm, I want more.


Ella's fig tart with blue cheese worked. The contrast of sweet, savoury and a bit of tang with crisp pastry was delicious.


Jon's chocolate tart was pure indulgence, and so well decorated to boot.


Agnes' Caramelised Onion and Cheese tarts were a wonderful starter to the whole show.


Vida's Oblatna was more indulgence. As if we weren't already indulging enough, these caramel nut filled wafers upped the ante some more.


Again, Agnes provided a yummy combo of bagels with smoke salmon. A nice savoury respite from all that was sweet.


There were some unseen stars which I forgot to photograph. Claire made a "free form" cheesecake that was more indulgence with lashings of cream everywhere. Michael made a Chocolate Brownie with a Surprise. My question of "what's this white thing inside" got a response of "cream cheese" from Cindy and "where have you been all your life" from Vida. Finally, I also made a Coconut, Lemon and White Chocolate Cake.

You may have noticed an over abundance of sweet. This meant that we had to film all the sweet scenes before the savoury one. Luckily, Ella was prepared and knocked up this beautiful lamb. It was enjoyed by most after eating all the sweets.


A before scene.


And an after scene.


It was a fabulous day of filming. I got to know a lot more about my fellow Melbournian food bloggers. It was also great to have a different perspective about food from our overseas guests, Marc and Lillian. Plus when they spoke in French, that was just delicious.

Food wise, I would have to nominate the highlights as being the macarons obviously, but the Tofu Balls with the "Chinese inspired" tomatoe sauce was right up there. I will definitely have to make that soon.

Thanks to Ella and Furry for hosting the event. And to everyone else for making the day so much fun and tasty. Till the next filming. Any suggestions for a location and theme? May I suggest some co-ordinating in regards to food next time. :-)

Rating
5 stars out of 5

Your Intrepid Reporter
Thanh

EDIT: A huge apology to Jon from Melbourne Foodie who I totally left off the cast list. This is because I used his links about the banquet to compile my list and obviously he didn't have a link for his own blog his own blog post. This has been a lesson, always double check my own work. But then again, I'm too lazy to do that so let me know if I make any errors on anything. :-)

Rockpool Bar and Grill Melbourne

To satisy my current obsession with Wagyu, I decided I needed to go and try the daddy of all Wagyus at Rockpool Bar and Grill in the Crown Casino complex.

I went with a couple of friends, all three of us intent on trying out the Grade 9+ Wagyu. We could have got one or two Wagyus and shared them, allowing us to try other dishes, but nobody wanted to share only a portion of a Wagyu. It turned out we made the right decision to try one each. More on that later.

Upon walking through the barely noticeable main door near the lift, we were greeted with this wonderful smell of grilled steaks. We were all salivating already. We walked down the long corridor, passing photos of the Wagyu cows and also the cold room where the Wagyu was hung. I informed the hostess that I had a booking at 9:30pm. It was still only 9:15pm at the time so we were told our tables weren't ready. She suggested we go for a drink first. So I proceeded to walk towards the bar when she stopped me and said that it was very busy already and maybe we should go elsewhere. What the? I've been to much busier bars and people manage. Anyway, off we trodded for 15 minutes.

When we came back, at 9:30pm precisely (we were eager to start eating haha), again we were told our tables weren't ready. Anyway, this time we went to the bar and got drinks. The bar area looks very nice and we got some drinks and sat around. Browsing through the drinks menu was fun in itself, seeing all the wines they had available. I noticed that they marked up all their wines by at least 100%. Hence we skipped wines and had beers all night.

Finally, at 10pm, another hostess led us to our table and took our drinks as well. She placed back the drinks for each person correctly. They also put your bar tab onto your main bill, a nice touch I thought.


Our waiter, with his very cool French accent, gave us menus and served us the ice water we had chosen instead of sparkling water. I don't believe in paying for water, even at high class restaurants. Anyway, we proceeded to make up our minds for entrees and desserts, with mains already covered. A quick question to the waiter as to how best to have the steak confirmed that medium rare was the go. So three medium rare Wagyu grade 9+ sirloin steaks it was. At $110, they are extremely expensive, but we all wanted to try what they were like, having enjoyed grade 7 steaks at other restaurants.

After placing our orders, I couldn't resist but go by the kitchen and take a few photos. A couple of the younger assistants were happy to smile at the camera. They must be used to people taking photos of them all day. I asked them how it was working there, and both said it was good.


Our entree of Sydney Rock Oysters arrived and the waitress explained that there were two types, each with a slightly different flavour. I had one with lemon and one with Mignonette sauce. Both ways of eating them were delicious and the oysters did have slightly different flavours. One was more creamy and richer in flavour while the other tasted more of the sea. I forgot what the two types were so maybe someone can tell me?


I had told our waiter that we would share the Hand Cut Linguine with Spanner Crab and Spicy Prawn Oil. I was surprised when three plates came out. They had split the dish for us already. That's a good initiative. Usually we have to ask for extra plates despite telling waiters that we are sharing the entrees. The linguini was cooked perfectly and the crab added great flavour. I was expecting the whole dish to be spicy as it says it has spicy prawn oil. But instead, the dish was fresh and light with a lemony tang to it. It was the perfect start to whet our appetites for the steaks.


When the steaks arrived, they were served simply with just a wedge of lemon. A waiter came round to tell us about the Bernaise sauce and also offering various mustards. I opted for the seeded mustard. I tried a small bite of the steak by itself, then with Bernaise sauce, then with lemon. After the trials, it was clear the steaks needed nothing else and was best eaten by itself. The steak is the best steak I've ever eaten. It was so soft and the fat was delicious. The smoothness is just amazing. It was grilled to perfection, with pink meat still inside and a slightly charred crust. The flavour of the meat was evident in every mouthfull. We were glad we each chose the steak as having half a steak would just not be fulfilling enough. We all chewed each mouthful slowly and savoured the flavours that got released the more you chew it.


We had side dishes of Onion Rings and Sauteed Mushrooms. The onion rings were good, but the mushrooms were great. I'm not much of a fan of mushrooms, but these were sometimes firm, sometimes soft and full of flavour. It was the perfect accompanyment to the steak.


For desserts, I chose the Rum Baba. The Rum Baba I had at Philippe Mouchel's Brasserie was delicious already, but this one was even better. The cream chantilly helped to break up the rum a bit. I couldn't stop smelling the dish, the rum just smelt so good.


The Praline Mille Feuille was surprisingly delicious too. We all expected it to be those bad Mille Feuilles that you can get at bakeries. This one was not one of those. The pastry was flaky and crispy. The cream filling was a highlight. It wasn't some bad cream thing, it was hazelnut mixture that tasted fantastic.


The last dessert of Creme Brulee with prunes and armagnac was probably my favourite dessert. But if it is my favourite, it's just because the desserts were all so good. Like Amelie Poulain, I got the honours of cracking the creme brulee with great pleasure. Ever since that movie, I can't help but smile every time I crack creme brulee. This creme brulee was so smooth and beautiful. The prunes at the bottom was a nice flavour contrast and the Armagnac just made the whole thing so fragrant. I just love the smells of alcohol in food when done properly and not too excessively.


To the service. I've read many other people's blogs about Rockpool and some have had great service whilst others have had some of the worst service. On this occasion, I had fanstatic service. There wasn't much to fault, but here is my observations. I found the hostess at the front desk a bit aloof and totally devoid of warmth and humour. Maybe it's a tough job being out there, who knows. But my two interactions with her just left me cold. In constrast, the hostess who took us to our table was warm and bubbly. When she saw me taking photos at the kitchen, she mockingly posed in front of the camera.

Our main waiter, who I talked to a bit and found out that he was here on a one year working holiday and had worked at Vue de Monde a month earlier, was very professional but also personable. He joked that he was glad that we at least left the lemon wedges on our plates and joked about how full we looked after dessert. He refilled our water seemlessly whilst we talked and dishes arrived and were explained. He placed down our foods with explanations when required, such as how someone would be coming round with mustards for our steaks if we required and also the Bernaise sauce on the table. Things were cleared efficiently and everything ran so smoothly. Even when another waitress described the Rum Baba as the Creme Brulee, she picked up her own mistake and corrected it jokingly.

The only small fault was that no waiter asked to put my coat in the coat closest, despite my coat just hanging there on my chair. Also, on our bill, we had been charged for two Mille Feuille. However, when I pointed this out to the waiter, he quickly got it fixed and showed me the new bill, pointing out the fixed error. He was really good all night so we tipped him well.

To the ambience. We were sitting right in the corner of the room, which we all really liked. We had a great view to outside on the Yarra. We also got to absorb in the whole room, whilst having enough privacy to talk and laugh quite loudly. I wouldn't like to be seated near the walkways where the waiters and people going to the toilet walk past you all the time. That would be a bit annoying I would think. Otherwise, there was a buzz in the room without it being too loud. The sounds of the steaks cooking the whole night was great. The lighting was low but not so that you couldn't see. Each table had a small lamp as well as a spotlight onto the table from the ceiling.

So to sum up my whole experience in one word, fantastic. I had no problems with the service and loved the food. The ambience was smart but yet still casual and not stuffy at all. Of course the prices of the food is at the very very high end. I always see-saw between whether it was worth it to have a steak that cost $110. In the end, I think it is. I could never justify eating this steak regularly, but as something to be had occasionally, it is worth every penny to try such an amazing steak.

I will only deduct half a point for not being seated till 10pm since I know that the restaurant cannot control these things precisely. But part of that half point deduction was also for the hostess who turned us away from the bar the first time. Secondly, another half point deduction as no one (not the hostess or the four waiters who visited our table throughout the night) offered to put my coat away even though it was hanging messily on the booth chairs as its hard to get a jacket around those chairs. I know I could have asked, but I wanted to see what they would do.

Overall Rating: 19/20, Food, service and ambience were all fantastic.

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.

Pescare

Pescare is located in the Century City Walk cinema area of Glen Waverley. It is sort of tucked in strangely a bit further back between Pancake Parlour and Yokohama Teppanyaki. Hence I've never really thought about going there. But since we didn't know what to eat, we decided to give it a try.

I don't really like the decor of the restaurant. It's all a bit strange, from the lighting to the colour scheme. We choose a booth seat which were really comfortable.


For an entree, we got the Antipasto. The highlight of the antipasto was the grilled calamari. It was really tender still and had a great flavour to it.


Jo got the Linguini Marinara. It was actually surprisingly good. The sauce had a slight chilli hint to it, which I liked. The mixture of seafood was fairly good quality too.


Phuong got the Roast Duck, which was a whole half a duck with a cherry sauce and some flour things. I don't know if those floury things are suppose to be gnocchi, but whatever it was, it was terrible. The duck was ok. I'm not a huge fan of duck and am rarely impressed with it. There have been a few exceptions.


The Steak that Kin and I both got was really good. The meat was done medium as we asked and had a lot of flavour. Mine with the pepper sauce was much better. Kin went for the red wine sauce and they put too much (cheap) red wine sauce on and ruined the steak a bit. The steak is huge, along with heaps of chips and salad.


After eating as much as we could, we were all totally stuffed. Despite saying she didn't want dessert as she was watching her weight, Phuong ended up getting the Baked Berry Cheesecake. I tried a bit and it was good, but not in the same league as the Baked Cherry Cheesecake that I made.


This place really surprised me. I was expecting them to be another terrible Italian restaurant. However, all the food was good and very cheap. Now there is another option to eat at Glen Waverley as we have tried all the restaurants twice over at least already. The service was good, althought it was ultra quiet since we were earlier than dinner time.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Food is good and inexpensive.

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.

Wine Making At Brumfields

Last June, we had gone to some wineries in the Yarra Valley region. One of those wineries was Brumfield At The Oaks, run by husband and wife team David and Anda. We had a great time there and David and Anda explained so much about wine to us. When they mentioned that they had a wine making day, we put our names down. I didn't really expect to hear back from them, but true to their words, they sent an email about their wine making day. So we all signed up and went for a fun day.

We left nice and early. After a quick stop at Maccas for some breakfast, we arrived at Brumfields at about 10am. There were a few other people already there, but we were one of the early ones. We were each given a pair of snippers and instructions. Then it was off we went with our buckets and start cutting down grapes.


We took it fairly easily (we were working for free) and chatted away while I also snapped photos. The grapes we were picking were Cabernet Franc. David instructed us to try some and keep chewing to bring out the flavours in the skin. After chewing for a bit, it did have some nice flavours.


When we reached the end of the row, we stopped for a photo. From left is Kin, Jo, Phuong and myself.


There was also a horse in the next paddock. It was very tame and let us pat him. Horse breath does smell of grass. The horse did this massive blow of it's breath on mine and it didn't smell good.


In one of the vines, there was even a nest and some eggs. We cut around it and left it where it was. One egg had hatched but there were still four eggs unhatched.


After two hours of "hard work", it was time for a free lunch. There was some very delicious burger patties (meat and vegetarian) that Anda had made herself. She had also made some of her own relish and the ultra delicious garlic sauce. Salads and bread rounded out the BBQ. Oh, how could I forget the wine. David opened so many bottles of wine and we all drank up. I liked the Cabernet Sauvignon the most, although the Chardonnay was nice too.


After lunch, it was time to crush the grapes. Look how many buckets we all picked.


The grapes were thrown into the crushing and picking machine. The machine pulled the grapes from the stems and ejected out the stems. It also crushed them.


When we finished crushing all the grapes, it was back into the house for some more wine tasting and buying. We each bought a few bottles of wine to take home. We thanked David and Anda for a very fun day. If you're out in the Yarra Valley region, why not stop by Brumfields and try a few wines. David and Anda are very nice people and will help explain things to you if you don't know much about wine, like me.

Yar

Yar, no it's not how a Swedish person says yes. It's a Japanese and Korean restaurant along Southbank near Crown Casino. We headed off to eat there before going to see Eason Chan in concert. Hence we needed a quick meal so we could get to the concert in time.

Supermodels Candy, Jasleen and Kevin pose for the camera.


Here I am with my newly shaved head for charity.


Anytime I see a restaurant that lists two types of cuisine, such as Chinese/Vietnamese or Malaysian/Indian or Thai/Chinese, I'm already have bad feelings. These places are rarely any good. So when I saw this place listed as Japanese/Korean, I was feeling worried already.

I needn't have worried. The food here is actually quite good. The waitress actually sounded Korean so maybe the chef may be Korean who just happens to do some Japanese dishes as well.

We ordered a Beef Bulgogi and Beef Teriyaki. The Bulgogi was alright but the Teriyaki was surprisingly good. In fact, it's one of the best teriyakis that I've tried. It wasn't overly sweet and had a nice chargrilled flavour to the meat.


The sushi and sashimi platter was also fresher than I expected. Everything was nice, and not expensive either. I guess the restaurant wouldn't survive in the southbank area if it was really bad.


The Pork Leg with dipping sauce was nice too. But the plate was humungous. I only managed to finish half of it. In fact, all the dishes are huge here. I suggest ordering a bit less here to start and ordering more when needed.


Service was ok. It was fairly empty at that early time of the night. Hence, there were a lot of waitresses standing around ready to serve us. But when you didn't need them, they tended to be standing around. But just when you need a waiter, no one can be seen in any direction.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Food was surprisingly good and not expensive.

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.

Chocolate Cake....Again

If you haven't worked it out by now, I'll fill you in. I love chocolate. There are so many recipes on this blog for chocolate things, especially chocolate cakes. I made another chocolate cake for Hien's birthday using a Chocolate Mud Cake as the base.

Then it was just a matter of decorating it differently. Hien loves the colour purple and wears it almost everyday to work. So I tried to do a purple frosting. However, I didn't have red food dye and only had pink, so it came out a very light purple. Add a few fruits and you have a birthday cake.


Here is Hien in a different shade of purple.


And look at me eyeing off the cake. I didn't pose for this photo, its genuine. Hey, I love chocolate cake, especially ones I make myself. And look, you know this is from a few weeks back because I still have hair.

BBQ Installation 101

I used to have a tiny Asian hawker style BBQ. I love the flavour that the coals produced on the meat, but it was so much effort to fire it up. So finally, I decided to get a gas BBQ. I bought a four burner BBQ, which is more than enough. It was really cheap as the shop was having a weekend sale.

Despite asking whether I could pay for installation of the BBQ, they still said they didn't install. Hence I had to do my own installation. The instruction manual was quite light, with pictures of the steps. Step 1 already had errors in it, with more screws displayed than was actually used. Not to worry, I pressed on.

First the legs and base went together.


Then the burners and side panels.


Three and a half hours later when it was all done, it was time to eat. The food tasted fantastic. It still had that taste of meat over flames. The best part is that its so easy to get started. The chicken wings also didn't burn like using the coal since I could control the heat. Now I won't be envious of the neighbour who fires up the BBQ every weekend. I too can have a BBQ every weekend.