Italy 1 at Camberwell

Italy 1 at Camberwell has been around for a long time and they have a few awards including the one from the Entertainment book..

It was here I decided to have lunch and knowing that I had to use up the 25% off offer in the book.

Italy 1 is easily accessible by tram and train- no need for the bottleneck traffic on Burke Rd and the crazy drivers. One woman was nearly knocked over whilst she was crossing. No reason for Italy 1 to be quiet. They were ever so quiet on a Friday lunchtime.

I wasn't very familiar with that area, so I got lost finding it. BUt in the end I found it. I booked the restaurant via Dimmi, knowing that they may not accept walk ins.

The service was attentitive and very friendly and they were accommodating of me and a family. I had the $35 lunch express menu which includes wine, but since I don't drink they happily replaced it with juice. That family they were happy to provide a bowl for the little one.

Orange Juice

Complimentary bread

The bathrooms are down the back and their signs are in the form of nude artwork: one for the ladies and the other for the lads. I didn't know which is which until I saw the artwork.

The entree of bruschetta was brilliant. Everything worked well together and it was a little bit on the sweet site. I thought that they put a touch of honey in there.

Again the risotto was magic. But the calamari was a little bit on the chewy side though. I think it was just a tad bit overcooked. But I loved the shoots and the tomatoes and the flavour was just right.

I hope they get more foot traffic and bloggers soon. Lets Get Fat together would like this with his partner Fatbee and same for Ashley of I'm so Hungree. I hope they do host a series of dinners soon to get people to come to their place. Its not right that a gem in Camberwell should be so quiet.

 

MSFW: Further, More Exhibition

This exhibition was at RMIT's First site Gallery. Here RNIS went to their opening night. Sally explains the whole show.

RMIT's First Site exhibitions are usually done by third year RMIT students who have to exhibit their artwork as part of their course. And they always do an amazing job.

Onion bruschetta

When we got in the first thing we saw was the food. The food was eye catching particularly the fairy bread which reminded Claudia of Alice in Wonderland. Then the quiches added a nice touch to the canapes which there was mountains and mountains of them. What we really loved was the pintos with goats cheese and onion. The organizers had put a lot of work into making this event a success. They in fact made the food themselves.

Posing for the camera

Reminds me of a pirate

About 200 people were there so it was hard to move past them. The costumes were spectacular and crazy like and Claudia said to me "whoa it reminds me of the Mad Hatter Tea Party".

Then we saw the video where the girl popped all the balloons and then we got freaked out. The paper dress was good. I loved the ballerina in this dancing away. The choreography was breathtaking.

The white dresses reminded us of Wonderland.

Love this one

And this one

Orange jacket

What was also cool was the shadows and the comic costumes. I really loved the paintings on the wall. I wasn't too sure of the glass masks.

Many thanks RMIT for the invite and I hope that next years event is bigger and better.

The opportunities for graduate jobs are about to get worse

Students are you looking to stay on in Melbourne after you graduate? What are your future plans? We explain the job situation.

The Jobs market at the moment. Image courtesy of Adam Troyn on Facebook.

The Financial Times has just released on a report on the difficulties of finding work after graduation. The reporters did a small survey about four months after graduation and they spent many months analyzing this data.

At RMIT about 58% of graduates have difficulty in finding a job after graduation for Creative Arts. This indstry is slowly dying. Graduates in the psychology, science and communications field have had some difficulties in finding jobs even though they are well paid ones.

Melbourne is no better with 65% of graduates looking for psychology jobs after they graduate. Also Health sciences, languages and science graduates are having difficulty finding jobs. Science jobs is also hard to come by for VU graduates with about 65% of them still out there looking. Psychology and science at Latrobe is pretty similar with well over 50% of graduates looking for full time work. Swinburne says that 54% of graduates are looking for jobs within the Science sector but their IT sector is pretty good with only 35% of graduates looking for an IT job.

Latrobe's dentistry sector is pretty good with only 6% of graduates looking for jobs.

So what next for students?
"Its better to do some part time casual work whilst at uni" says Anna McCloud@Navitas at the latest AFIS info day. Danny Ong from Monash said the same thing, but he also stressed the point that volunteering helps you to get your foot in the door.

Anna also stressed the point that recruiters are now looking for candidates through Facebook and Linkedin. "Do start early and don't leave it to the last minute", she says. That advice is true as Sally has struggled to get a great job.

What are your tips for looking for a well paid job? Do share it below.

New Shanghai

RNIS was invited to dine at New Shanghai by the owner and was recommended to try their Xiao Long Bao and Lychee drink.

New Shanghai entrance by Alexander Yap on Urbanspoon

New Shanghai has been opened for a while in Emporium. They are a popular chain in Sydney having opened five restaurants and the Chatswood one is a favourite for all the food bloggers in Sydney.   They have been fairly busy with new and old diners and everyone ordered the Xiao Long Bao and the drunken chicken. Most people also had the Lychee drink.

It was busy when I arrived at 6:30pm so its best to book ahead. I hope that they get Dimmi soon as it is an easy and fast way of booking.

The bathrooms are near the Myer exit of Emporium. The restaurant shares with the other tenants.

The service was attentive and the menu also acts as your place mat if you make a mess- easier for them to clean up. In fact they are kind to children. One of the waitresses had a frown on her face. I hope she is ok.

Lychee drink (left), Xiao Long bao (right) and Spring Onion Pancakes (bottom left)

The Lychee drink ($5.80) was very refreshing. It wasn't too sweet. I loved the shaved ice in there. It is nice for a summer's day.

The Xiao Long Bao ($7.80) was fun to eat. I have never had these before but I read that you poke your chopsticks in there to make a hole to let the hot soup cool. It was yum and it didn't need vinegar.

The shallot pancakes were fried well but were a little on the smallish side at $9.90. Some siracha sauce would be nice to go with it.

Chicken soup (left), noodles (right)

I really enjoyed the fried shrimp with shallots and noodles ($9.90). Although I would have love to have tasted a lot more spicy sauce or at least given that option at the table. The chicken soup was a nice touch but I thought it didn't work well with that dish.

For dessert I had pumpkin cakes with red bean filling ($9.50). I have never tried these before so I can't comment too much on it. The pumpkin cakes were yum and very sticky. My red bean filling did not fall out.

Many thanks for having me New Shanghai and I hope you have a bonus offer in the Entertainment book soon.

Do come and try this for yourself.  To the Sydneysiders who are thinking of coming to Melbourne, there is a New Shanghai in town.

Daiso underpays its staff

Another store underpays its students. We explain the story and why its important to speak up.

Daiso is a Japanese chain store which has five stores in Melbourne. This year it was found that Daiso has been underpaying 27 of its staff. This happened a lot at the Mid town plaza store in the city. Mid town was opened in 2012 with others opened shortly afterwards.

Everything there is $2.80  Most of the time when I went into that Daiso most of the staff were really unhappy. Some of them claimed to be local, eventhough they are not.

Most of its staff are on student visas which is a big concern for us. But at least Fair Work has forced Daiso managment to repay their staff and do an enforcable undertaking.


The 27 current and former employees complained to Fair work. This is not the first time that this incident has happened in 2012 where 10 people were underpaid. Most of the employees were not paid all of their entitlements. Most were not paid penalty rates for working nights and weekends. Daiso was forced to pay back $38,000,000 to its employees.

Lets hope that Daiso lifts its game.

Lesson learnt: You need to speak up if you are being unpaid unfairly.
Says Connie of Eastern Legal district centre on AFIS day: " You need to know your rights and the minimum legal pay per hour". The minimum wage is different for each level and you can check on this site   .

Otherwise that employer will just get away with their wrongdoing. Most employers do the right thing but there are some that employ international students and think that they can get away with this.