All posts filed under: Reviews

MICF Review: The Morning After

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Last week we were invited to check out Evan Hocking’s 2017 Melbourne Comedy Festival Show – The Morning After, basically, his ode to the next day fear one experiences after only the largest of nights…., you know, the whole – ‘what have you done’ scenario. The show started with some short banter with the audience and then we were transported to tropical Port Douglas, which made us first think of sea, great barrier reef. However, a young man nicknamed “Buddha” (Evan Hocking), then walked us through the gradual piecing together of a big night out with friends and the ensuing consequences, with a remembered flashback to his Dad’s words “If you do something wrong, you have to pay the consequences”! Interwoven with short snippets about his family, his education, his friends, society’s fascination with reality TV, his breakup with his long-term girlfriend and the culture of a small town in Port Douglas, Evan took us on a carefully crafted and compelling tale of alcohol-fuelled misadventure. What the hell happened last night? Evan’s gentle, self-deprecating humor …

MICF Review: Self Sabotage

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Last week we checked out up-and-coming comedian, George Dimarelos in his Melbourne Comedy Festival stand up show – Self Sabotage, at the Bull and Bear Tavern. Self Sabotage weaves in and out of various tales and recollections throughout George’s life when, essentially, he stuffed things up for himself.  Though simplistic to describe, the stories are fun, and told in a warm, self-effacing manner through which you can’t help but be drawn in, as the story comes to life in front of you. He sure can paint a picture with his words. George has a super high energy execution, which he maintained for the entire performance, leaving literally no opportunity to tune out, a real sign of an interesting, engaging and entertaining show. Our highlight, was his musical evolution portrayal of picking up girls, from the 1950’s through to a very intense modern day interpretation of chatting up in a nightclub, which is pretty much burned into our memory. My how times have changed. Audience engagement in this show is continuous but not uncomfortable, more like …

MICF Review: Coloured Aliens

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Coloured Aliens is a short insight into the interracial relationship between two main characters, Mai Nguyen a struggling female Vietnamese-Australian playwrite and Kevin, her white, western boyfriend, a security guard who grew up in the rough areas of Melbourne. Each role is ironically played by a western woman (Mai) – Melbourne-based performer Annie Lumsden, and Kevin, by Asia-Australian John Marc Desengano, a quirky twist which works to lighten some of the heavy content of the piece. The chemistry between the two characters was easy, warm and believable. Mai, the main character was narcissistic, self-absorbed, irritating and difficult to like – the kind of character that has a chip on their shoulder, who holds onto the sins of forefathers past and thus cripples themselves with blinkers, unable to embrace the positive around them. This, thankfully was balanced with Kevin’s sweeter, more simplistic nature. Though the intelligent insights, cleverly disguised as witty banter between two lovers were aimed to re-educate western audience members, we felt a little uncomfortable and guilty, for no reason which made the experience …

MICF Review: Desperate & Dateless

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As comedy shows go, Ginger and Tonic’s ‘Desperate and Dateless’ is funny but not overly hilarious…. however it doesn’t matter at all, this fabulous foursome of ladies in red have voices like naughty angels, offer all the fun and entertainment of  Pitch Perfect, but without the hideous cup song and put forward cheeky, relevant content about the modern world of being single, desperate and well…. dateless. Their repertoire was a mix of original lyrics to familiar tunes (our favourite, Tinderella, is one that we guarantee you won’t be able to walk away from the theatre without it stuck in your head), plus parodies and some straight up covers – including an awesome Salt n’ Pepa rap from Laura “Burzy’ Burzacott – fantastic! The 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival offering has taken a definite shift this year to be more inclusive and cognisant of the LGBTI community, it’s a refreshing move and one that unifies Melbourne’s festivals as cultured, educated, appealing and open to all, and we were exited to see that this show was on board …

Soko – Abbotsford

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Soko is a high-end Japanese restaurant hide-out in Abbotsford where you can dine and be inspired by their beautiful, delicate plating and their Scandinavian-style décor. Spoil your taste buds with traditional Japanese dishes and delicious Malaysian fusion rice bowls. Soko is owned by two talented businessmen from Japan and Malaysia (hence the Malaysian fusion), which serves up mainly cold dishes like sashimi and sushi, plus Sinzuku ramen & craft beer. The chefs at Soko are all trained in Japan. Their sushi chef worked in Japan for 8 years and their ramen master has worked in Japan for 10, so the quality and taste is of the highest, traditional level. We recently visited Soko to check out their fabulous menu and fell in love with the intricate, artistic plating and relaxed, minimalist ambiance. Our favourite item of the menu was Soko’s Kingfish Carpaccio, which comes with kingfish sashimi, radish, cucumber, and a cucumber and wasabi sorbet. It was extremely refreshing and every mouthful was full of flavour, their inclusion of the cucumber and wasabi sorbet definitely …

Proud to Be a Chef Awards

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Do you love cheese as much as we do? Is dairy THE diet you can’t go without? Fonterra, a global co-operatively owned company which sources high-quality milk products recently hosted the annual Proud To Be A Chef Awards, and we were lucky to be invited to their gala dinner this year. The program has been running for 18 years and this year, with no surprise, was an amazing success for both Fonterra and the contestants. Each year, Fonterra Foodservice provide a not-to-be-missed opportunity for 30+ young and ambitious apprentice chefs to go on an incredible culinary experience. Giles Gabutina, the winner of Proud To Be A Chef 2017 is a young inspiring pastry chef based in Sydney. He got his first job in the kitchen when he was 16 and is keen to work hard to achieve his culinary dreams. In his own words “I hope to “bake” the world a better place by inspiring people to follow their dreams in the same way my inspirations have done for me.” And here he is today, not only the winner of Proud To Be A Chef …

Arts Review: All This Living

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As the intro to this piece states, ‘age comes to us all you know,’ we’re reminded of this in the opening act, a recollection of a bathroom encounter, when some young pretty things, applying lipstick in the mirror, label the character, Jay, portrayed beautifully by Camilla Blunden, ‘just an old woman.’ This comment, makes it real for her, and thus launches the rest of the performance where she digs deeply into the phenomenon of getting old, and how over time, older women somehow lose their voice, become invisible, and incorrectly feel they have become a burden to society. As the piece progresses, she attempts to turn these beliefs on their head, re-empowering women, as wise, important, highly visible beings with stories to tell, all the while batting off the inner voices that creep up, and try to convince her otherwise. This show was difficult to follow in parts, as the narrative jumped from whimsical inner thought to thought, from real life to fantasy through paint stores, pots and pans, to magical woods filled with fiery …

Arts Review: Sad Digger Mad Mary

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Digger, a shell-shocked soldier, sent back from the war for reasons which become clearer as the story progresses, lives hermit-style in a gum leaf shanty in the Australian bush with his little mate Bluey (expertly played by a toy dog on a skateboard), trying to escape the war, his personal persecution and memories which haunt him about a man he once loved. Before going into this one-man show, you’d be forgiven for thinking it might just contain some pretty heavy content, but then suddenly, the story takes a colorful, unexpected twist in the way that all fringe theatre productions do. Enter Mary Poppins, a character dreamed up by Digger’s tormented madness, to save him from himself. But a Mary Poppins interpreted as you’ve never seen her before… meaner, nastier, shinier, better, more interesting, hilarious. Through Mary’s tough-love guidance, inter-space and time travel, Digger is able to finally find his true self, and free himself from the shackles imposed by an earlier time, emerging as a strong, proud individual Sad Digger Mad Mary is weird, but …

Are these Melbourne’s Best Dumplings?

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Tucked away down Market Lane lies one of Melbourne’s best dumpling restaurants, HuTong Dumpling Bar. With a cult following, HuTong Dumpling Bar first made it’s mark on the Melbourne dumpling scene back in 2008. Going from strength to strength, the dumpling bar still solidly books out on most nights which is a testament to just how delicious their dumplings are. With three levels of dining on offer, this restaurant offers everything from Shanghai street food to spicy Sichuan and northern China specialities. There’s an extensive menu with a range of dumplings, soups, seafood, local and seasonal dishes, including the fiery, red-hot oil dishes. The scalding Shao Long Bao meat and soup dumplings are a specialty and if you don’t already know the rules on how to eat this we suggest you follow this guide. We put our skills to the test last week following this guide and after a couple of failed attempts we think we nailed it. The textures of the dumpling itself was on point, slightly chewy but not tough. The pork inside was …