Around two weeks ago, I got an email (those that you subscribe to a mailing list) from Discovery Travel & Living Channel. It was about a contest for Bob Blumer's fans to attend a cooking workshop. If you are like me, you will usually press the delete button for these 'win' something emails ya? But wait, I saw the name Bob Blumer and took a seond look. Hey, it's Bob Blumer, the toaster mobile guy on TV!
Then I remembered a few months ago, Lyrical Lemongrass had a night out with Bob too in KL. I happen to be emailing both HairyBerry and Lyrical Lemongrass about something else and I just drop this URL ( www.travelandlivingasia.com/bobblumer ) to HairyBerry. If you read HairyBerry's writing, you would know he writes really well. The competition needed contestants to describe in less than 60 words the best meal you had. (Hairy's the person to write, I somehow knew he will win it!)
I was too busy at work and I forgot about it! On 15 July morning, HairyBerry emailed and said he submitted it just on time before 12 midnight on the 14th July. It was then I realise I forgot! Arrghhh....
The next day, Nic was being nice and said don't worry, he most probably did not win because there was no call informing that he won. Then during lunch, I got an text message from him: "Dude, u wont believe dis! i won da bob blumer contest!" Wow! Was so happy for him. Then he said, he can't go because he's going on a makan road trip to Penang with some friends, and he will see if he can arrange for the tickets to be passed to me. How kind of him! Thanks Hairy! So, Momo and I got to go. Yey!
The day before, while I was on Facebook, AromaCookery chatted with me about it because I left a message about a cooking workshop I was going. She told me that she's being invited to go as well. She's being invited as a food blogger. (Julia is this famous food blogger that has fans everywhere, one of her fans was sitting beside us and she screamed when she met her idol - Aromacookery. hehe.) Later that night, I met TheBakerWhoCooks and Divine Essentials too! Both were also invited food bloggers.
So here we are, last Saturday night. We had no idea what's going to happen, so it was really a surprise!
The event was held at-sunrice. I have always wanted to take a course here, but never did. Why? Their courses are held only during the day. I have to work during the day!
Anyway, when we went into the kitchen, we were delighted with the whiff of lemongrass scent. See the lemongrass boiling on the pot? (I love those mirrors where you can see what's inside the pot!)
If you are wondering how to make the lemongrass tea, here's the ingredients: Lemongrass, tea bags and sugar, with lots of crushed ice. Very nice!
Everyone was so excited and cameras, DLSR, compact, phone cameras of all shapes and sizes were just snapping away. While waiting for Bob to appear, we were glancing at the recipes for the night.
Bob's a real entertainer. We were laughing the whole night away!
The way it goes is that he will demo, then the whole class (divided into groups of 4) will cook the same thing. Oh boy, the whole kitchen was mayhem. It was so so noisy, so so smokey, so so chaotic that Bob nearly went mad. LOL...
The first dish was Chicken Popsicles. He said it's really simple, it's his version of a glorified chicken mcnuggets. It tasted really good and yet it's so simple to prepare!
Here's the end product. How to make it look good? Just skewer the chicken pieces and stick it on a pineapple! Tada!
Hmm what's Bob doing? With some variation of kung-fu action, you can turn it into Kung-fu Chicken Popsicles! He's such a funny guy.
The chicken pieces were wonderful, it was tender and the herbs and Parmesan used made it a hundred times better than the stuff we get from the 'golden arches' store.
Bob continued to entertain us while he prepared the second dish. He was telling us about his latest series of Glutton for Punishment that's premiering on Thursday 23 July 2009, 10:30 pm.
He was telling us his secrets of winning the competitions on each episode of Glutton for Punishment. We really salute him! The things that he does to prepare and win the competition!
Before I went, I was catching preview of the episodes on Youtube of the season not shown in Asia yet. hehe... With the previews, whatever he said, make me want to catch the new season coming soon!
Here's Bob preparing the second dish: Coconut Shrimp Lollipops.
Hmm before he opens a coconut, is he doing some sort of ritual?
Did you think he karate chopped the coconut?
The coconut part's settled, so he's preparing the shrimps to look like a lollypop.
What a brilliant idea eh? Rolling the shrimps and skewering it to look like a lollypop.
The end product! Looks good ya?
The whole class then cooked the same thing after he demonstrated for us. It was lovely with the apricot ginger dip that he prepared for us. Yes, he made it look fanciful by sticking them into a watermelon!
How does it taste? The shrimps taste nice with the batter dipped with stringy coconut shavings. It tastes nicer with the Apricot Ginger Dip that has chilli padi in it!
Time passes so quickly when you are being entertained. You could see the person in charge (from Discovery) was trying her best to hurry everyone! Bob was nice, in order to let us try the last dish, he said he will demonstrate it, and the chefs from at-sunrice will prepare it for us instead! (Excellent idea!)
The third dish, the dessert dish is called Chocolate Kiss Wontons.
How to make it? You get a piece of wonton skin, spread peanut butter at the bottom, then a slice of banana. Top it up with a Hershey's Caramel kisses.
Wrap it up, shape it nicely and make sure there's no openings on the skin and deep fry it.
While he wraps, he told us we can all ask questions, anything! So many people asked lots of questions. Here's some answers that I am sure you would also like to know:
- The Toaster mobile's still around!
- He's decided that as he gets more mature, Marge Simpson's hairstyle does not suit him anymore. That's why it's shorter now. LOL..
These on the tray are done by the chefs. You know they are called chefs? So consistent and they follow exactly what Master Chef Bob tells them to do!
OK imagine this, you put the crispy wonton into your mouth. You bite it, and then the caramel, chocolate, peanut butter and banana oozes out. You get to savour the sweetness of all the ingredients, a hint of saltiness from the peanut butter, and oh... the melting chocolates. Divine isn't it?
Thanks to Nic, for transferring the tickets to me!
Thanks to Discovery Travel and Living too for bringing Bob Blumer aka Surreal Gourmet in and organizing this workshop. Continue to organise more workshops for your faithful viewers.
Ahem.. we would like to meet Jamie Oliver, Nigella or even the foul mouth Gordon Ramsey. What about Take Home Chef, Michael Smith and Kylie Kwong too. :-)
