Taste of Chadstone

As part of the Taste of Melbourne, Chadstone is proud to present the "The Taste of Chadstone".

For three days the fresh food market has been transformed into a Taste of Melbourne plethora with live cooking demonstrations by some of the Masterchef contestants from previous years. There was also plenty of sampling to be done.

I watched Dani Venn (2011 Masterchef contestant) make a sumptuous Thai Calimari with picked cucumber salad.   Here she used palm sugar and had this lovely smelling spicy sauce.


There were also plenty of specials to be had.

I loved the fresh fruits at Colonial market. They were sweet and full of flavour.

I also loved Shari's Indian groccery. Now I wished that Melbourne Central had a shop just like this one.

Next time if the food photographer is in your way, move around them. There's plenty of room. We don't care about you- we just want the shot for food blogs/media. Sorry. We hate being asked to move when we want good photos.

Many thanks to Chadstone Shopping Centre for putting this on and inviting me. For all their latest events and offers check out their Facebook page

Cupcake Central "Hatch that dream"

Cupcake Central opened its first store in 2010 in Glenferrie nearby Swinburne Uni and it is here that we talk about how that dream came about. We first heard about that dream in Run the World Conference on Saturday.

Cupcake Central was founded by Sheryl Thai who had just been made redundant in 2009. Here she decided to have a go at baking cupcakes and opening her own store. She started off by baking for farmers markets and using her own kitchen to bake the cupcakes. From there on it was a success.

Sheryl is one of the co founders of the League of Extraordinary Women. 
She has an online business as well as a blog and you can check out Sheryl's blog.

Cupcake Central now has 38 people working for them in their three stores.
" Having a business is easy to do if you have the right attitude", says Sheryl Thai at the Run the World event. Sheryl believes very much in the saying that "Practice is perfect", and it shows in her cupcakes. They always have a Surprise Friday flavour which many people love and it is advertised well on Social Media.

Sheryl believes in not giving up and the "You can do it" attitude. She believes in being positive and surrounding herself with many positive people. Her staff at the Glenferrie store is always positive and very friendly towards customers.

Her cupcakes are not too sweet and they are not too salty. They are just like a homemade cake. Some people say that they are too dry, but they are moist. They are baked freshly every day.

There are three stores in Melbourne and they plan on opening more.

Students who want to start their own dreams can join their universities business clubs and may be eligible for some sort of grant depending on the uni. RMIT has their own Business plan competition which if you are a student at that university you can enter it and achieve your dreams.

Ajisen Ramen in Melbourne Central- a revisit

You might remember the last visit to this place which has been about a year ago.

Here nothing much has really changed. They still offer the Entertainment book discount of 25% off the total bill.

I went with a group of twenty people

The service was rather slow at times and not everyone's meals came out together. Some of us waited a while for our meals and didn't enjoy watching the others eat.

We ordered drinks to start off with. I had the lemon iced tea ($3.50) which tasted more like cordial and less like tea. Someone else in my group had genmacha which looked really weak.  I loved the cute little teapot but that was about it. I have had this before and I didn't really like it.

They are known for their ramen especially paiku ramen. Whilst I didn't order any a few people in my group did and I had a chance to try some of it. The broth was extremely salty which one of the group member did not like. It tasted really garlicky so probably best not to order this if you are working that day. But the noodles were very springy and the meat was very tender. When it came to the table it was lukewarm at best.

I had the Salmon sashimi Ikura don ($15). This was rather small for the price paid. Whilst the fish was fresh the rice was very very warm, something which I don't expect for chirashi sushi. The vegetables were really minimal. The lettuce was fresh though. My meal was one of the first ones to be served at our table within five minutes. Hence I thought that they didn't really put a lot of time into it and they just microwaved the rice.

The wasabi was the powdered type.

I really hope that they lift their game. I really prefer the Bourke st store rather than this one. It is really confusing how they have two stores that are so close to each other in the CBD. They should have one Highpoint or nearby there so that the Westies can get to this place.

Third Wave Cafe in Prahran by Claudia

As part of our "At Home and Abroad" series.

This is a sponsored post as I was invited to try the place by Gary the owner.

There are two cafes, all run by the same owner. The original one is in Port Melbourne and the other one is in Prahran. The one that I was invited to try was in Prahran.

Third Wave is a cafe that serves American and European food. The owner is of a Russian background.

This one is near the train station as well as the number 72 tram. This one is about ten minutes walk from Swinburne Uni. Hence this is great for the Swinburne students. It is across the road from Safeway.

Here I was greeted by a lovely New Zealander (guy) who was just new and starting out. The lady was also very friendly. She kept smiling. I love good customer service as all customers do and this one didn't disappoint.

The bathrooms are very clean and homely. The owner has put a lot of time into the design of this place and it has paid off.

They do wines as well as great coffees. I had a latte. I loved the art on top. But the only thing is that they are not opened for dinner and the one in Port Melbourne is.

Here I had the Russian filled pancakes (blintzes) and the Pelmini (also Russian dumplings).  I have never had these before as they are rarely found in Melbourne so I really can't comment too much on these rather than to say that these are good. I think though it is better to serve the cream on the side so that the customer can have as much as they want. I liked the mint though- it provided a very nice touch.

I hope that they do get a lot more positive reviews like this one. I also do hope that they be on Groupon as it will attract more customers to the new cafe. I can't wait to try out their interesting brunch menu which has the queasidilla. I wonder if they can make this vegetarian as I can't eat a lot of meat. I wonder if their menu is halal as some of the students at RMIT and Swinburne are Muslim.

Many thanks to Gary and his team for having me.

Hello SAM cafe by Katherine

A rather healthy burger cafe.

I was invited by the owner Katherine Sampson to try this out.

So I rocked up at 11am and was the only one there which is great as I could have more time with the lovely owner and her staff. Her staff are fairly new to the job but they are down to earth.

Katherine is down to earth and caring and she took the time to explain the menu. They had just been opened for a week or two and already they are busy. They have had a few corporate events and openings. The name Sam originated from her surname.

Here the place is clean and gorgeous. The bathrooms are inviting and clean not like some of the other burger joints where they are messy.

Like Realfoods most things are homemade which is great to see. Like Realfoods they also do the naked burger (lettuce leaves instead of the bun) for those that are gluten free. They cater for those that are gluten free and those that are vegetarian which is great too see. Oh and I think that they are a halal place too.

They have a limited paper menu. They are still waiting for the big menu board to arrive so give them some time. They do have local wines and beers for those that love to drink. And for those that don't they have organic drinks like the Soho bottles which are healthy.  I have never tried a Soho drink before but these are better than the normal cans of soft drink in that they are less carbonated.

Unlike Babu burgers which are all meat and dried veggie patties their burgers are much better. I had their ever so popular spicy tofu burger ($10). Only that it wasn't spicy at all. This is great for those that don't love a lot of spice.

I loved their homemade peanut sauce. You can see that they have put a lot of love and care into their burgers. The bun was slightly sweet (mainly from the peanut sauce) and it was soft. I loved that they didn't put a lot of onion in there.

The sides were $4.50 each and they only just had half the cup full. I had the onion rings and the chips. I guess they have to pay the rent hence the slightly pricier sides. But the goodness made up for the price. Unlike what others said on Urbanspoon about it being cold they were nice and warm and went well with the aioli (garlic sauce). The chips were really good and they tasted like they were homemade. I guess it is the type of potato that is used which is a rustic one. Katherine tells me that they aren't.

Its great to see that there are some healthy options in South Yarra and I wish Katherine all the best. I hope that more bloggers come and visit the place. I would love to try the rest of their menu.