The Greek fiesta at Prahran Market

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

This was a free event for all and it was held on a fine sunny Saturday. The market was packed of course.

At the market there was lots of Greek dancing and although we are not great dancers, we had a lot of fun burning the calories from the day before and it was a lot of fun dancing with the Greek girls. The couch should do a Greek zorba dancing thing where everyone is forced to join in. That would be fun and it would get people to mingle.

The Greeks love their meat and there was lots of meat being sampled such as sausages and Phillip Varkos's meat sausage dish with tzakiki (another famous Greek dip). We also sampled Sumac which tasted like Moroccan spices and its used a in lot in Greek dishes.

There were also a whole lot of trader specials from $0.99 per dish of fruit and veg to about $3.50 for a jar of salt. Also the guys from Sweet Greek, Taki's balls and Hellenic hotdogs had stalls in the market square. There were samplings of Sweet Greek's vegetable tart and it was gorgeous.

Cheese

Apples

Sausages

Meat patty

Sumac

Someone's hotdogs

Specials

 Many thanks to Prahran market for having me and I hope to see you at the next event.

Viva Multicultural festival and Taste of Harmony Picnic

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015
RNIS was invited to the Taste of Harmony Picnic by Refugee of Hope via their Facebook page.

Refugee of Hope is a group that works with International students mainly Latin America and Columbia, but this year they are hoping to have more cultures included. The Refugee of Hope provides a lot of assistance to newcomers by providing free food (in the form of a parcel), meetups such as this and other events. They also come to the Couch on a regular basis.

I met up with the lady that runs the program and she is lovely.

Across the river from the picnic was the Multicultural festival and here they had a lot of things going on. They had all of their arts and crafts as well as food galore. I didn't buy any food there as I was saving some stomach room for the picnic.

Clothes

Tacos from Los Amartes

Some sort of fried sticks

Menu

Pretzels from Bretzel.biz

Another menu

At the picnic I ate a fair bit and it was a good chance to mingle and learn about Columbian food. I learnt about their desserts and drinks all of which it is homemade. I guess that you can say that some of the Columbian food is very similar to the Mexican style food. I really enjoyed the rice pudding which someone brought in.

I also tried this Columbian drink which had fresh coconut juice and water and it was divine.

The torta was good but the cream was sickly sweet. I also liked the chapatis that the African guy brought in. It was not too oily as some of the Indian food is.

The chips dish with this weird sausage was fine without the sauce.

Pizza

The food

Jenga

Alcoholic shots

Some sort of Colombian dessert

I of course brought something in and that was pretzels and rice crackers. Some of the bars in Melbourne feature these snacks.

Wrap it Up

RNIS bought a Groupon for this for $6 for one wrap.

Wrap it up is a Middle Eastern store in Camberwell. There is also one in Kew. It is right near the train station so it is very easy to get to.

Here they are a tiny store which shares with the massage parlour, hence the bathroom is just outside. They just opened before Christmas so they are still finding their feet. The owner tells me that they will have a Facebook page for the Camberwell store soon and the owner is heavily invested in social media so she'd be posting a lot of stuff soon.

This is a good place to unwind, relax and study and you can do group work in here.

And yes we talked about Urbanspoon and how some people can be haters and others are true avid foodies like myself.

The felafel wrap that I had was really good,; except some of it fell out. But then again I'm a messy eater. The felafel was cooked expertly but there was a little bit too much sauce. I couldn't really taste the felafel.

I chose the chilli sauce as it increases the metabolism. I would have gone for meat, but it is fattening and it has lots of calories.

Rating: 14/20 would go again for the sweets, gozleme and the coffee as I saw that guy's coffee and it looked really nice. It is a good place to study and eat healthy.

Don't believe the reviews on Urbanspoon. Hopefully others will come here soon.

Oree Duck Korean Cafe

RNIS purchased a Groupon for $9 for a drink and duck meal (lunchtime only)

This place has been opened for about a month now and RNIS was keen to check out. They specialize in duck so here's hoping that their duck will be good.

The service was friendly and we loved how they  have their business card competition and in fact we left ours.

RNIS's favourite food is bibimbab and we enjoy a good one with the rice and vegetables cooking at the bottom and lots of duck and veg. It had lots of veg, but not a lot of duck. And it had lots of microwaved rice. It did not have that smoking feeling to it. The duck was tender and smoky tea infused flavour.

We enjoyed the special spicy sauce and we know to mix it in without the waitress having to tell us.

Orange juice (left) and banchan (right)

The Korean juice was good though. It was the real thing

The dumplings on the other tables looked good.

Rating: 10/20 not a fan of the bibimbab but a fan of the service, drink and business card competition

Palate

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015
RNIS bought a Groupon for this-$20 for $40 to spend at 10 venues by JBS Hospitality group and they choose this place for its Paleo health inspired menu.

The place is a stones throw away from Prahran station and the market. It was also very busy on Saturday with everybody waiting and waiting for their lunch orders.

Of course being a health freak that we are, we had to have their 7 foods tasting plate. You can choose up to 7 foods from a list to try for $23. So we went for the chilli and cabbage salad, cauliflower rice, pumpkin, Tasmanian salmon, poached eggs, lettuce leaves with vinegarette and mushrooms (our favourite vegetables). This dish has about 3-5 serves of vegetables and the omega 3 fatty acids from the eggs and fish.

This is a good study dish to have as it has everything that you need for a growing mind. The wait however was really long for that dish. So long that the juice was finished by the time that dish arrived. That's how hungry we were.

The detox juice ($7.50) is great for those that need to lose some weight as it has carrots, celery, beetroot and apple. It is made fresh on the premises and you can hear the juicer doing its thing in the background.

Rating: 13/20- good clean healthy food, but it is the service that is bad. I have had a couple of wait staff ask me "Have you been looked after?" just after I placed my order. GODDAMM IRRITATING! The wait staff just stood around not doing much.

Sacred Heart Missions tropical party

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

RNIS found out about this event via Weekend Notes and they love a bargain. So do many students hence this is why we took part.

Sacred Heart is a charity in South Melbourne and St Kilda where all the profits goes towards helping the homeless and needy people like some of the International students as reported in the Age earlier this year. We also did a post on them not long ago.

The nachos and drinks are from the lovely people at Taco Bill and it was free for the guests. The tropical punch that I had was really nice and I loved how it was tiny. I loved the tomato salsa yum. I was given a voucher for a soft drink at Taco Bill but it was waaay too late in the night for me. And I was still full from the buffet lunch earlier.

nachos

Sushi

Skewers

But I had some room for the sushi and tiny meat skewers which were just ok. I think the sushi was from Sakura and it was really nice.

Necklaces

Sake cups

Trash and treasure stall

Heels- gosh I love these shoes!

Shot glasses

Some people had champagne from the older style vintage glasses. And yes, most things were between $1-$5. I bought a little elephant and had fun playing with the shoes and all. The shoes looked very stylish and were $12. But it was too high for me.

One lady spent about $200 in that little store just on gifts.

Do support Sacred Heart as they support you!