Looky what I found in the Saturday paper - best breaky and coffee reading - and yes, breaky was out.
Catriona Rowntree is an Aussie TV presenter and I happen to think she is fabulous.
As a presenter myself I take much pleasure in watching Catriona, I can't help but study her every move and always find myself thinking 'whatta lady, so smart, so honest, I want to be just like her, but me'.
If I could buddy up and mentor with anyone I'd choose her.
Ahh inspiration, love it.
Krasi in the Greek language means wine. Growing up my grandparents always had a grape vine growing and it was about this time of year that the vines would start to adorn big, luscious, green leaves and purple grapes.
We'd do two things with the grapes; make krasi by hand and eat them. I remember each bunch of grapes weighing around 2kg each! That's a lot of wine!
Last year, or possibly the year before, my Yiayia (grandmother) decided it was time to cut down the grape vine.
I remember how much of a simple pleasure sitting under the grape vines on a hot summer afternoon was, these vines are part of almost all of my childhood memories.
I remember my grandfather playing his guitar and singing to Greek music under the vines, I also recall racing snails under the shade of the vines when I was 3 years old, my grandfather and I built a small wooden seat under those vines and my Yiayia would serve us lunch under the shade. I could go on and on.
Over the past few months I've had my eye on one corner of the pre existing grape vine and guess what - it's flourished, the leaves are beautiful, bright and luscious AND I think we might have some grapes soon!
I'm relying on this one little corner to provide me with what might be my last opportunity to drink krasi made from my own vine.
I have a morning ritual that marks the beginning of my day and has done so for at least the past five years.
Morning coffee, out.
Paper a must.
Same table as always.
I can't cope with not sitting at MY table!
The cafe I go to is also a great little Italian bakery and is only a short walk from my parents home and luckily
only around the corner from my very own new home. Its really nothing spectacular
but they know my name and order and leave me in peace to read my paper! I always feel so far away when I'm sitting here drinking coffee and scoffing almond macaroons.
And yes, I've decided to post after the fact. Cheeky, I know.
We can't always be as driven and motivated as what we'd like to be but having friends who are always helps..so does big trees..coffee..good food..amazing kitchens.
There must be some sort of technical issue, I mean seriously, why hasn't the one available episode of my new series hit one million views on YouTube yet? [hashtag] whatajoke.
Just joking! Although, I'm not joking about how well I think the one available episode of Welcome to Korean Food is doing. With only a puny amount of press and no names to herd masses of attention our Korean cooking series is doing pretty well on it's own two feet (in my head I picture feet, so what) with a current count of 4,547 YouTube views and that number is increasing daily.
Now, we have been really slow in releasing episodes, would you believe me if I told you that episode two had no tracking number and got lost in the post?
Uh, I lie, we actually have episode two almost ready for release along with friendly little competition prizes to sweeten the deal and it shouldn't be too long before all that jazz.
Furthermore, we have another fab episode in pre-production that is being supported by a huge-global-brand [hashtag] omg. We will be filming this mega episode in September and will strive to get our butts into gear and deliver via express post, registered of course.
Things are happening, YouTube is responding and one of these days this little baby will be cruising television screens.
Yesterday I achieved a little milestone - my first radio interview!
Jason and Kayne from 'The Asian Pop Experiment' on Joy FM were so lovely, however, despite their efforts to calm my nerves I just couldn't shake them!
I think that you can hear the nerves in my voice at the beginning of the interview but luckily toward the end I get more comfortable.
All in all radio interviews aren't really that bad, I think now that I've done one I will be a lot more confident and prepared for the next - should there be any!
The time has finally arrived where I can announce that the very first episode of Welcome to Korean Food is available for your viewing pleasure.
Here's the lo' down, Welcome to Korean Food is a series that explores Korean culture through the universal language of food! So, that means cool facts and information about the Korean culture paired with delicious recipes (which we teach you how to make, of course)! Only problem is.. I get to eat at the end of each episode and you don't.. that is until you get into your own kitchen and cook the recipes you've seen on the show!
"Welcome to Korean Food", friends, I hope you enjoy!
I recently did a small shoot at Black Rock in Melbourne and for those who know me well - or have read previous blog posts - you'd know that I don't really like photographic shoots!
Mackintosh Casting in Melbourne posted a Facebook status announcing that they were casting beach girls for a BIG M commercial and that's what led me to do the photo shoot. You see, after reading the casting brief and examining my headshot I decided that my headshot didn't portray me as the brief requested. I knew deep down that I could be the beach gal they were looking for but feared they wouldn't see or know that because my headshot didn't scream it ... so off I went to Black Rock with my pal Jasmine Mosedale (photographer) and we rocked 'beach'.
Did I get an audition - no - but it was certainly worth doing the shoot because I got one photograph that I actually really like. You never know, there's always the possibility that the ladies at Mackintosh sat up and thought "oh wow, how proactive" .. but then again, maybe not.
Just for the record, I am proactive and I love it!
I've been working on a brand new project and although I can't say tooo much about it at this stage I can safely blurt the following information; first season, content will introduce you to something new, episodes will leave your tummy rumbling... and that I am of course hosting the show with a handsome chap named Aiden. I am also producing - lucky for me I like hats because I'm wearing two.
Stay tuned for a teaser including footage from the first episode. Once that has been released I will be more than happy to brag away and fill you in on all the goss.
