The Innaugural Sausage fest and a new ice cream shoppe

The Sausage fest was a chance for visitors to sample some of the markets offerings.This was held on the Australia day long weekend at Prahran Market. Lots and lots of people turned up to this fest.

Foodies and locals alike tried and tasted the different sausages made in house by some of Prahran's best butchers. Then they voted. The winner takes home the crown and $1000 to be put towards Facebook advertising.

Sausages

Sausage cooking demo

You can vote for your favourite

The sausages were boiled and blanched in water and thus this created this perfectly cooked sausage. There were nine different ones to try and I loved the flavour of number one. It was sweet, but not too sweet. I also loved the chicken and spinach sausage with pine nuts.

Blood Orange gelato

Ice cream Flavours 

Sizes

Now there was a new ice cream shoppe in the pop up part of the market and they used fresh fruit to make their sorbet. It was really nice and they did put any added sugar in there which is great. Now for the H20 project I am trying to have a sugar free diet if I can.

Some tips on enjoying the beach

Melbourne's summer can get really hot and the sun's rays can be harsh. Here are some ways to protect yourself from the harsh rays of the sun.

1) Stay hydrated
Make sure you bring plenty of fluids to drink. If there is not enough fluid you could be dehydrated and pass out.

2) SPF 30+
The suns rays can be very damaging to the skin resulting in sunburn and melanoma (skin cancer). The melanoma can be life threatening.

Make sure you wear sunscreen which is right for your skin.

3) Do have a cover up such as a large t-shirt to cover your body
The suns rays can be very damaging on skin. This is where your free t-shirts from O week comes into handy.

4) Wear a hat
You can usually get a cap or two for free from Orientation, but if you really want a wide brimmed one then do go to Rubi.

5) Make sure you plenty of shade.
Do bring some shade in the form of a tent or a beach umbrella. You can buy one from Ray's Outdoors or any camping shops.

6) Do swim between the yellow and red flags.
Do try and go to a patrolled beach.

7) Have one person mind your stuff if you a going in a group. Its very easy for your stuff to get stolen when its unattended and you're in the water

Cleo's Deli and Jasper Coffee

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

Both Jasper and Cleo's deli are at Prahran market and they are both good. I had a soy piccolo from Jasper and a salad from Cleo's. Cleo's deli changes their salads depending on what they have and it is freshly made in house. They also got the best award in the Foodies guide 2014.

They also sell ham and cheeses and 3 for $10 dips.

Dips

Cheeses

The salad that I had today was a farro salad with cherries. I wanted to try Farro which is a grain. Farro tastes like barley and its a low GI grain. It kept me full for a while. The salad was $4 for a small tub.

As for the piccolo it was soy milk which has less fat and doesn't taste as bad. It has that sweetish taste to it.

Do visit the market for your healthy needs

La Notte

La Notte is an Italian restaurant in Carlton which has been around for many years. I had heard from friends that they do great food at reasonable prices. It is on the student side of Lygon st just a short walk from RMIT.

RNIS bought a Groupon for this for $12.50 for a main and a drink. Since they couldn't have soft drinks due to the H30 challenge they had to have iced tea instead.

There was one grumpy looking lady though and she didn't like to be told off by the boss.

My iced tea came in a cute Saint Vittoria bottle. I didn't know that Saint Vittoria makes iced tea.

The staff there were very friendly, but we already knew what we wanted which was vegetarian pasta. We chose spaghetti over rigatoni and penne. I really enjoyed it, however I wished there was a little bit less of that rich tomato sauce. It drowned out the flavour of the pasta and vegetables.

The tomato sauce though was creamy.


Rating: 16/20- liked it but there were some minor adjustments which need to be made here. We would be back and do buy the groupon.

We wanted dessert but we were too full for it. They did look good though and so did the young boy's hot chocolate.

The Swiss Club of Victoria

The Swiss Club is the oldest club in Victoria for Swiss migrants. It started in 1889 as a club for everyone to meet. To this day it is a strong club which attracts Swedish and non Swedish people alike. They also operate a restaurant in which profits goes to their club. Their club organizes many events and gatherings.

They don't take Dimmi bookings for the Groupon voucher. I thought that they would as after all they are getting my money.

But the place is old fashioned and very clean. In fact it was quiet. The older couple sitting on the table next to me had really nice salmon meals with rosti

The club's restaurant offers some of the finest foods to date. I bought the Groupon which was $15 for a glass of wine/soft drink and a meal. There were limited choices so I chose the vegetarian risotto which came with a rosti (grated potato). The risotto was quite cheesy and rich in flavour. The rice was cooked well and I enjoyed the sundried tomato.

The complimentary nuts were nice and very addictive.

The bread too was lovely, but I did not enjoy the melted butter which was placed right near the candle. It was a lovely Swiss bread. I had to remind them to bring my bread since they had forgotten.

My tea came with a little chocolate nougat which was a nice touch to a lovely meal.

I was going to get dessert but it was too full. But I did enjoy the look of someone's strudel dessert.

Rating: 18/20-  Do support this little gem.

Harvest snack box treats

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

Healthy eating is really important in terms of trying to lose weight and maintain a healthy diet. I was looking for a healthy snack for the tennis and I found these.
I bought 2 for $ 4 at Coles this week.

This is a healthy lunchbox snack. Here they are individually packed for the lunch box and contain about 100 cals. They also contain just a little bit of chocolate and fruits and are healthily addictive.

I really enjoyed having this at the tennis and this is good for your lunchbox or as a snack for uni.

Absolute Organic Beetroot chips

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015
Abosolute Organic is an Australian organic chip company which focuses on health

I bought this at Prahran market for $3.25 for 45 g pack. Organic can be sooo expensive sometimes, but it is good for you. This is great for the lunchbox, or the movies.

I really enjoyed the saltiness in these and I also loved the fact that vegetables are hidden in there which is great for the veggie servings a day. It is about 130 cal and they are low gi.

I have also tried the pumpkin one and enjoyed that immensely.

They are also available at Woolworths and Coles as well as selected health food stores.

Australian Open and the Arena cafe

RNIS was invited by Study Melbourne
As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

The Australian Open is on again this year and I had heaps of fun watching Kei Nishikori play as well as Raonic. They both won their matches. Raonic played Becker and beat him and Kei beat Steve Johnson. It was their third round matches.

The rules were explained clearly and there was a clear scoreboard. For challenges it is 3 per set per player and if it is a tiebreak then the players get an additional one each. A set has about 6-7 games and the first of six wins.

The fresh food sign

In Garden Square

Seating area

Free sausage

Cooking stage

Menu

We also had the chance to visit Garden Square and the Woolworhts pavilion. Here was so much fun and games that everyone can participate in. A ground pass is $54 in the first week but you can do so much in between matches and plus you'll get to see whoever and whichever matches you want. Now of course there is lines, but if you are in a hurry you could push in. There were huge queues on Hisense arena but luckily we prebooked seats to the Kei Nishikori match which was 2.5 hours long (they played four sets).

A café worth relaxing in is Arena.  It is just outside Hisense arena. Here they are a lovely bar as well as a restaurant and a lot of people ordered champagne and pizzas. They don't do pot of teas which is what I was hoping for for $4.10 and then I can have as much as I want. But I did order a really good looking pistachio mousse and green tea cake ($5 for a mini). The base was store bought but the mousse was lovely.

My cake

Cake display

The service was just ok. Not too attentive and not too friendly.

ISFF (International street food festival)- our wrap up

RNIS was invited by the organisers and Study Melbourne to attend. All up they paid $16 (out of Study Melbourne's money for the food)

It was on for two days at the Melbourne Showgrounds. But after the first day the organizers received a lot of negative criticism about the costs and all. Surely it wasn't all that bad as RNIS soon discovers this.

The International food festival is supposed to be about food and a nice outing and that's exactly what it was. I came by train so it was no problem for me.

I didn't really like the comedy show that much as comedy is not my thing. The comedian in there was rather offensive talking about old women and other things. I didn't really get why everyone laughed along with him.

Inside there is a world of food that awaits and a world of samples and if people stayed until dinnertime a lot of the samples would be offered at the main stage. There was also a Jols stall offering free glasses and Frisbee in return for a photo of you and the truck. We sampled the free lemon lime and bitters, Mideye's mussel, the pakora stuff, the chicken in four different sauces at Sabours de Timor, a veggie ball and dessert from Gad. We also sampled some Gridon grill's food and Mesa verde's sauce. We loved the Mideye mussel and if ever they are in town we will buy. Gad's popcorn and fudge was a huge hit with us. The lemon lime and bitter slushy was an alcoholic hit as it had a little bit of alcohol. We were transported back to India with the pakoras and balls.

Fruit skewers

Chocolate fountain

Bretzel.biz sign. 

Mussel and ball

Indian food

Popcorn tastings

The slushee  van

Tomatoes

Things which were just standard was the Chattime teas and another popcorn stall. Steel Drums Co looked good but we didn't end up buying any popcorn to take home.

Tea samples

Rosa's kitchen tomatoes. I so wanted to try Rosa's but there was no chef's table in the chef's zone. You had to pay $10-$15 for a full meal.

Izakaya Den

Lemon and lime slushee

More food

Cheap toys

Lollird

Dips and more dips (below)

However we bought sushi for dinner and rice paper rolls from Bun. We had a late lunch hence we were not very hungry. That day there was a huge discount and the sushis were 2 for $4. The fish was really fresh in my sushi.

Advertising from Snowtree for Pandan milk tea

I had this really weird Pandan milk tea from Snowtree which it tasted too milky. Would love to go there someday for desserts.

Bun did do some good rice paper rolls and it was $6 per plate. I had mine vegetarian of course and it was freshly made. It went really well with the homemade salad that I brought along.

It was a wonderful day out and a wonderful twilight concert with Pete Murray. He was a wonderful artist. The fashion show was also awesome and if they organize this next year maybe they could work with the City of Melbourne as they have some awesome designers as well. Oh and if this was a dog friendly event would be even better.