Monday, July 20, 2009

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop @ Discovery Travel & Living Channel

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!

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop

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!

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop

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 Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chicken Popsicles

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!

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chicken Popsicles

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.

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chicken Popsicles

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?

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Coconut Shrimp Lollypops

Did you think he karate chopped the coconut?

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Coconut Shrimp Lollypops

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.

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Coconut Shrimp Lollypops

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!

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Coconut Shrimp Lollypops

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.

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chocolate Kisses Wonton

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..

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chocolate Kisses Wonton

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!

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chocolate Kisses Wonton

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?

Bob Blumer Cooking Workshop - Chocolate Kisses Wonton


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. :-)



Stumble Upon Toolbar

8 comments:

Camemberu said...

Hey I'm glad you got to go and meet Bob! It all looks and sounds so fun! Gorgeous photos!

Hahaha nice to know the Toaster Mobile's still around! I love that thing!

Meg said...

Nigella or Kylie would be absolutely cool! So, how many dishes will you recreate at home?

red fir said...

Add Anthony Bourdain to the last sentence hehe. The chocolate kiss wontons look yums!

ros2319 said...

Came to your blog while looking up for a restaurant. Wow your blog rocks and so lucky to attend the Bob Blumer's workshop. I joined the contest too...... Great work here. keep it up.

HairyBerry said...

u r welcome, dude! hope there'll be more contests like this!

i wanna meet nigella!!! or the whole cast from on the road again....spain. hehehe...

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

when we went into the kitchen, we were delighted with the whiff of lemongrass

I was there in spirit. boo! :-P

Great pics, Keropokman. And great commentary. So jealous that you got to eat his masakan.

Unknown said...

Camemberu,
Apparently you can rent the toaster mobile :-) You wanna do a cooking show on it?

Meg,
Up to now, I have not recreated it. But the idea's good, so simple, one of these days I will!

ice,
You realise that Anthony's on TV a lot these few weeks? On one channel he looks so young. The other his current self. :-)

I get confused!

ros2319,
Thanks! Let's hope we win more similar contest eh?

nic,
Spain... and end up at El Bulli? hehe...


Lyrical Lemongrass,
Ya, you were there.... The smell of lemongrass filled the whole room. LOL..

We masak our own lah. He demo, then we prepare the same thing under his supervision.

Lulu said...

its Chef Gordon Ramsay . And he is not fouled mouth. he is just an expert in his field and have a unique way of doing things :) Gordon Rocks my socks :P hehe

Blog Widget by LinkWithin