July 2010

Hello, Donkey Wheel House!

by Sunisa on 2 July 2010

STREAT has found a new home. A heritage-listed beautiful building that used to be the old tramways station. We spent the last week in boxes and this week in our new diggs. We are now located at the deliciously-named Donkey Wheel House, at 673 Bourke Street. It’s the home of another social enterprise, Kinfolk Café, that is keeping us fed and watered as we get settled. Hub Melbourne is also located here, making this one big creative and social community. It’s pretty amazing.

The wonderful interior architect Guy Matthews has been helping us design our space.  It’s definely a work in progress, (click to see the Facebook album) but just imagine what we could do with the bright white spaciousness —we’re already working with some artists to do paste ups on the walls and have grand plans for couches, creative hots desks, and more.

Watch this space to see how the Donkey Wheel collaborative grows.

Thai hawker food review: Banana pancake

by Anthea on 13 July 2010

Like most backpackers visiting bustling Bangkok for the first time, back in 2005 I found myself on the Khao San Road. A Mecca for budget travellers the area is a melting pot of cultures and accents from all the around the world.

In the evenings the road is pedestrian only. You can perch on a plastic stool at one of the pop-up street cart bars in the middle of the thoroughfare and enjoy ice cold beers while sampling some of the best hawker food in the world.

The smells of Thai cooking mingle with the sticky heat of the night: grilling chicken, fish sauce, nose-tingling chilli. Most meat dishes are cooked on skewers over white hot coals, while Pad Thai noodles are tossed lightning quick in giant woks.

Kids in the kitchen

by Bec on 15 July 2010

You may have seen the small mention of STREAT in The Age’s Epicure yesterday. The article mentioned how we source our food from Original Foods—and proudly so, because they’re a sustainable catering company who uses local, seasonal and organic produce.

But not all of our food comes from Original Foods. What the article didn’t have space to tell you is that not all of our food is sourced through them. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays our youth are in the kitchen with training chef Janis Munro, cooking up batches of food for the following week. Last week was Spicy Thai pumpkin soup, and tomato and vegetable soup—big favourites if you’ve been to our food carts. Here’s a few pics of our trainees hard at work last week in the kitchen—and what they had to say about their cook-up.

Why I want to be a pastry chef

by Jamie on 26 July 2010

STREAT is starting a series of blog posts by the STREAT trainees, as they reflect on their journey and share some of their passion around the skills they are learning. Here's the first example of the series, from Jamie, a STREAT trainee.

I was watching Masterchef recently, with special guest Adriano Zumbo who brought in one of his signature cakes called the V8 cake. He used white tempered chocolate to make spikes, of different heights, almost claws, on top of the cake. There were eight different layers of vanilla. Watching it, I felt like I wanted to do what he was doing. It looked so perfect. It’s something that I’d want to make for my family some day. For me, to cook for my family… my grandma has always cooked for me, and I’ve liked everything she’s made. Both my grandmas are sort of chefs, so they both cook. I’d be happy to cook for them one day, because they’ve cooked for me for 17 years.

I decided recently that I want to be a pastry chef. I talked to a couple chefs and they reckon pastry chefs are really good because there aren’t many good pastry chefs out there, and I like a challenge. Dessert is my favourite food. Dessert looks better than other food— it looks more clean. It tastes better. I reckon it’s very hard to make everything look so good.

Fine dining joys

by Damien on 29 July 2010

I started STREAT with a very limited knowledge of food. I have always loved fine dining and have always wanted to be able to make fancy dishes, presenting them with excellence, working with complex tastes, but not overpowering or being over complex. Now I feel I have acquired the right knife skills and understanding of different tastes and sensations to make dishes even I am surprised of.

It wasn’t always like this. About a year ago I was working in a call centre. It was hell. I was getting abused by angry customers 100 times a day. I ended up having panic attacks and got emitted into hospital. It really is the worst feeling working in a job your hate and I believe it is bad for the body and soul.

Now that STREAT has helped me with accomplishing my goals I feel a lot happier and healthier, I have made some good mates and am always motivated to come into work. I am sure it shows too. Everyone is telling me I’m looking better and am smiling a lot more.