Giveaway! 2 Free Passes to the Taste of Melbourne!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

Congrats to Theresa W! :)

Hey guys! It's my first giveaway! I'm really excited. You should be too! Blackie is clearly!

I was talking with a friend (who has sworn me to keep their identity secret), about the Taste of Melbourne, and they very kindly presented me with two complimentary tickets to attend with them.

Unfortunately though, I am actually overseas during the Taste of Melbourne festival (oh woe is me...), so with their permission granted, they're letting me give them away on my blog to one lucky person!

Firstly, what is the Taste of Melbourne festival you're asking?

It is a festival (of food), where a number of the city's finest restaurants congregate at the Royal Exhibition Building, to give you a taste, a sample, of the goodies they may serve in the actually restaurant. So yes, this means, you get to 'nibble at' many restaurants in one night, under one roof!

On top of that, there will be premium food and drink producers tempting you with all their gourmet treats as well. Go ahead...splurge a little!

Above two photos pinched from my bestie David!

I attended the first Taste of Melbourne back in...ur...2008? I think that was it. And it was a very fun affair, my friends and I were nibbling on beautiful desserts from Jacques Reymonds and found ourselves quite tipsy after attending a beer tasting session by James Squire. Some of the notes I learnt from that tasting, are still with me, dark chocolate + porter = surprisingly delicious!

So I can only hope someone else will be able to go and have all the fun for me! (And take lots of photos? Please?)

Now you're probably wondering where it is, when it is and all that delicious stuff.

The Taste of Melbourne festival runs from the 15th of September to the 18th of September, however the invitations I have will admit you to one of the following sessions:

Thursday 15th September - 5:30pm to 9:30pm

Friday 16th September - 12:00pm to 4:00pm

Friday 16th September - 5:30pm to 9:30pm

Where do you need to go? The Royal Exhibition Building, 9 Nicholson St, Carlton, Victoria 3053

How does it work? My invitation will get you through the door, subject to venue capacity...get there early! Normally tickets to enter are $30 on the door! However! You will still need to buy Crowns to spend to nibble on delicious delights. When I went, dishes ranged from 8 crowns to 12 crowns, depending on how luxurious your treat was! You can either buy them on the night or pre-buy them at ticketek here. Want to already figure out what you're going to eat? Want to see a menu? Click here!

The wonderful restaurants featured at Taste of Melbourne...

Botanical

Esposito & St Peter's

The European

The Kitchen Cat

Libertine & Le Traiteur

Longrain

Mahjong Black

Mezzo & Mister Bianco

The Millswyn

St Katherine's

Stokehouse

Sarti

The next thing I suppose is, how can you get your hands on one of my lovely little purple invites?

I just need you to do two things for me. Leave a comment on this blog post....and visit my facebook page and like me (if you haven't already)!

And there you have it, voila, you have your entry into the draw! Only one entry per person though!

I will draw the winner (at random of course) sometime on Friday the 9th of September, so make sure you enter before the 9th!

Unfortunately, I will have to limit this to Australian residents only and since I will need to be able to contact you if you do win, please do make sure you leave an active email, so that I can grab your address and get the invites to you! Otherwise I'll have to forfeit you from the draw...which would just make everyone sad...or not?

And that's it. Simple enough? Do ask questions if you're confused, otherwise enter already! :)

And yes, I know Food Rehab also has a giveaway for the Taste of Melbourne happening too, so why not enter both for double the chance?!

Cafe Andiamo

I am a terrible Melbournian.

I've never had breakfast in Degraves St.

Can you imagine? The quintessential brunch, breakfast or coffee spot in the CBD, which I do frequent fairly often, and I had never stopped to try and suss it out.

I'm one of those strange people though that usually get put off by massive crowds at a cafe or a restaurant, because I usually can't be bothered waiting to be seated, and reckon that if a restaurant is so busy, surely the service will be stretched out a bit thin.

At any rate, I finally popped my Degraves St. cherry when Brad and I went to the city one morning to check out some of the buildings at the Melbourne Open House, as part of the State of Design festival in Melbourne.

I had wanted to go to Cumulus Inc. to try the breakfast, but we got lazy.

For being a fairly cool day in Melbourne, it was still somewhat surprising to see that all the tables outside in Degraves St. were just about all taken. The scene was quite crazy actually, the cobblestone alleyway filled with tables, umbrellas, waiters running in and out of restaurants, passer bys and other couples and groups such as Brad and I, scratching our heads and figuring out which cafe to pop into. How do you choose?

We eventually sort of just got shoved into Cafe Andiamo, which had a couple of tables free inside. It was quite dark and had a traditional feel to it, with lots of wood and well, lots of tables. It was quite squishy and cosy inside.

I did like the cute little touches though, a Ferrari sticker there, a photo or two here...gave a hint of personality to the place.

My chai latte and Brad's latte. It actually quite surprised me how good they were, the milk was just magnificently frothed and was lovely and smooth. It perfectly hit the spot.

Brad ordered one of the big breakfast's they had on offer, with an egg, mushrooms, tomato, baked beans, a hashbrown, bacon and a slice of toast. Presentation was a little slack and overall everything came across a bit oily. The poached egg was over cooked, with the egg white being a bit too firm. The hashbrown to me, wasn't all that different from one you can pick up at McDonalds either, no crisp to it at all!

I decided to go 'peh' at my gluten intolerant body and ordered the pesto scrambled eggs on a sundried tomato bagel, as I'm a sucker for pesto and a sucker for sun dried tomatoes.

Alas, another lack lustre dish, although the bagel did look quite promising, hinting that it might be lightly toasted and crisp, as I tried to use my fork and knife to cut my bagel apart...it was so tough I couldn't actually get through it, and I did use a fair bit of muscle! At the end I just had to pick up the bagel with my hands and chew very, very hard on it. And where was my sun dried tomato flavour? It didn't come through at all.

The scrambled eggs were a little more edible, but were quite rubbery, there was no fluffiness or lightness to them at all.

So good coffee (which I suppose is absolutely essential in Melbourne), uninterested service and not at all exciting food. I suppose I don't feel so bad about not having eaten in Degraves St before this and I certainly won't be back at Cafe Adiamo anytime too soon. It is indeed, more for the tourists than the locals...

Do you guys have any favourite spots on Degraves Street? I don't want to write off the street already, but it's kind of hard when one is spoilt with gorgeous cafes in South Yarra or Collingwood....

Cafe Adiamo

36 - 38 Degraves St

Melbourne, 3000

FOODelicious Photography Workshop

So I take a tiny break from my dining out experiences, to have a slightly more self indulgent post. It's my blog, I'll do what I like no? Hehe. :)

About two weeks ago, I was asked by FOOD Pampering to volunteer a little of my time to do a short presentation of food photography, as part of a food photography workshop they wanted to hold, to start off their 'FOODelicious Photo Competition'.

I was quite nervous leading up to it, since I only had a week to put a presentation together and figure out what I could possibly share, as a self taught photographer (although I still don't like using that term to refer to myself...I just take pictures!). I also certainly don't consider myself one of the best photography blogs, as I look up to so many other food bloggers and their gorgeous photos! Maybe I would not be good enough! :s

It was an interesting experience trying to put to words what I know, and at the same time, very satisfying when I could justify a lot of the stuff I was doing when it came to composition and lighting and all the other technical beauties of photography. There was method behind my madness!

I was still worried though, that everyone would already know everything I was going to say, that I wouldn't be able to explain anything that I wanted to.

Photo compliments of Bing Cheng and Radityo.

Somehow though, last Saturday at Pan Asian, with about 40-ish (maybe?) members from both photography clubs at Monash and Melbourne University, I got through my 30 minutes of very animated (or as I was later told 'perky') presentation. I can be quite chatty if you give me the right topic apparently and I do indeed flail my hands around like a loud, Italian man.

It really did end up being a lot more fun than I anticipated and afterwards, as Pan Asian produced plates of pretty food for everyone to try their cameras out on, I was absolutely flattered as people came up to tell me how much they had learnt, ask for feedback on photos or to ask me elaborate on points I had covered. It surprised me how much knowledge I could actually part with people and I had some lovely conversations with people afterwards.

I got a bit lazy with photo taking, since there were about another 30 digital SLR's going rampant, clicking away like crazy. I don't think I've ever seen so many digital SLR's in one room at the same time....it was inspiring to see everyone really get into it though and sharing their results with each other. Pan Asian spoiled us with a great mix of dishes including chicken 'macarons', a lovely prawn entree, pannacotta's, chilli chocolate brownies from Bees Knees Brownies (which were, so insanely delicious) and beef rendang, to provide a little challenge. I was actually really impressed with some of the curry photos I saw, as I normally hate shooting it myself!

It was quite funny watching as everyone descended around the plates of food as they were dished out! As one blogger might have said when I tweeted about it, '....like pigeons!!!'.

Photos compliments of Radityo and Michael King

All in all, it was a fabulous day. I think the attendees had a lot of fun, I certainly did, and I can only hope that I was able to share at least one thing new with most of them.

Thanks for having me FOOD Pampering!

So leading on from this, I'm thinking I might start doing a series of photography posts...maybe...if I find time (because I'm not a month behind in posts!)....just because I can and because I think it's always interesting to learn how everyone approaches photography a little differently...and hey, sharing is caring right?

Locanda Borgo Antico

The scenery in Tuscany is outstanding. The drive from Siena, back towards the Florentine Chianti area (yes, that Italian wine...), was absolutely outstanding, even as the skies threatened to open up and the temperature dropped quite dramatically.

I really try not to use cliches, but what's not to love about the rolling green hills, dotted with little houses and vineyards? There is nothing about this landscape not to like. Unless you've got a soft spot for concrete...

This was one of those nights where my mum again, wanted to take us kids to a place she and dad had eaten at, two years ago, when they were last here...but of course, she had no idea the name of the place. Great.

The only thing we had to go off from was that it was near the Carpineto winery or wine tasting place. Which again, we only had roughly the town or suburb even, that it was in.

However, we would not be deterred, so I popped in 'Dudda' into our GPS and to some random road in the middle of a hill we drove to.

We were brightened when we passed by Carpineto, which was closed, since it was 6pm or something already and continued down the road.

20 minutes later, we were still driving around, mum avidly remembering there was a carpark opposite the restaurant on the right hand side of the road but as we drove and drove, we still didn't see it.

Oh. We so nearly turned back, when we passed by a patch of land with a scarce reminder of a building on it. It's so odd the things that bring back memories. Dad suddenly got excited at the sight of this and adamantly insisted that he remembered driving by here....two years ago....and so we continued on.

Our patience and my parents persistence was rewarded, as the glowing sign of Locando Borgo Antico glowed ahead of us shortly after, with indeed, the carpark across the road on the right.

The last time my parents had visited, it had been for lunch. I can only imagine how lovely it would have been to sit outside on a sunny day, with a glass of wine in hand and that view!

This thought would have to stay an image in my mind, as the winds started to pick up and get nippy, so we scuttled on inside to be seated.

The interior inside was so cute, so rustic, hearty and homey, from the sandy walls to the chequered tablecloth and dark wooden furniture. I loved how they put the wine glasses on the table, something a little different and quite elegant!

These guys are obviously used to tourists, as the menu was fortunately both in Italian and English....albeit a little broken, which always provide a good chuckle anyway. At Locando Borgo Antico, you can expect only authentic country flavours, hand made pasta and desserts, garnished with only extra virgin olive oil. And apparently long life dairy produce and mass produced foods are strictly forbidden. Ah Italy, I love you.

I unfortunately don't have very vivid memories of this place, other than a few of the dishes, but will recollect what I can!

I believe this was mum's dish, I think it was a local bean soup, maybe with some barley in it? Mum recalls that it was homey and hearty...which I think it definitely looks.

To share we got a serve of mushroom and liver pate, lovely bread (although not as lovely as Switzerland or France unfortunately...), and the pate itself was quite rich and luscious.

Daddy ordered a porcini pappardelle...oh I just love the look of pappardella pasta, especially when it's fresh and lovely like this. The thick ribbons are just so much more appealing to me over other pastas. And then they're al dente and so perfect and life is so good.

I've mentioned it before, but I absolutely love the portions for pasta and risottos when you're actually in Italy. A fistful and a half of pasta maybe, enough to be comfortable and filling, but not leave you completely stuffed. And of course, just served simply and elegantly, in this case, porcini, olive oil and a scatter of herbs. What else do you need? When on earth did we manage to bastardize something so simply beautiful and straightforward?

Sorry can't remember this dish...so here's a cute picture of my parents. :)

Mum's dish of white beans and pork was nice, but nothing particularly remarkable.

My dish, was the absolute star of the night. Although the whole dinner was actually quite lovely and I feel terrible not being able to remember more of it, this dish just eclipsed everything else and it's all my family talks about when we recall this night (which is disturbingly more than we should be...).

This was a simple dish of guinea fowl. It doesn't look remarkable, but we all have memories of how it absolutely smelled amazing as it was being brought to our table. Heads may have turned as it entered the room, it was just so intensely aromatic that it just filled the entire room. A little smokey, a little char, but not too much to be overwhelming, more along the lines of that comforting roasted smell I suppose...

And of course to eat, the meat was just beautiful, so juicy, so tasty! The skin was simply dressed, but just oozing with flavour and parted the aromaticness to the palate. Oh happy sighs....

To finish up, we had a little dessert platter. A delightful and chocolatey (obviously) chocolate cake, beautiful home made tiramisu and...something else. A pannacotta maybe? The biggest disappointment really was that the portions were only enough for a bite each, but that's what we get for sharing dessert I guess....

Locanda Borgo Antico

Dimezzano - Lucolena 50022 Greve in Chianti (Firenze) Italy

+39 055851024