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Eat Drink Blog 4: The Australian Food Blogger’s Conference 2013

Posted by  | Categories: Bars, Events, Featured, Perth

Last year was the first time that I was selected to attend the Eat Drink Blog Australian Food Blogger’s conference and I spent three days in Adelaide eating more food than I ever thought was imaginable. And for those of you who know me you will appreciate that is a LOT of food! My blog was barely a year old at the time and I felt humbled to be in the presence of so many talented writers and photographers. Friendships that had previously only existed in cyberspace were materialised and new friendships were created. It opened my eyes to the strong sense of community and togetherness that food bloggers share and inspired me to improve my blog with the aspiration it would become something much more individualistic and personalised.

 "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

"Jean Pierre Sancho" "West N Fresh" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Breakfast Sponsors Jean Pierre Sancho & West N Fresh

"raw food" "raw banana bread" "rawgy" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

I popped out to the Farmer’s market for a gluten free breakfast from Rawgy

"Current State of Blogging” "Adam Roberts" "Amateur Gourmet" "Russell Blaikie" "Must Winebar" "Ed Charles" "Tomato" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

“The Current State of Blogging” panel: Adam Roberts from Amateur Gourmet, Russell Blaikie from Must Winebar & Ed Charles, journalist and blogger for Tomato

"Little Sweet Baking" "Choc raspberry brownies" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Little Sweet Baking: Choc raspberry brownies (GF)

"Little Sweet Baking" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Little Sweet Baking: White Choc and Raspberry Blondies

This year Eat Drink Blog was held on home ground at Perth City Farm where many of you may remember I visited to go behind the scenes for Mushroom Mania just a few months ago. Eat Drink Blog is a free conference for selected delegates and all costs are funded by sponsors and donors. Coordinating such a venture with zero start-up funding sounds like a horrendously difficult task yet despite this significant hurdle the Committee managed to create an experience that exceeded most people’s including my expectations.

"Little Sweet Baking" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Little Sweet Baking: Choc, Salted caramel & Peanut butter cupcake

"Little Sweet Baking" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

 "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Orange almond Honeycomb cakes (GF)

 "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Food & Mobile Photography: Simon from The Heart of Food blog

"Blueberry cupcakes" "Little Sweet Baking" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Little Sweet Baking: Blueberry cupcakes

Although a large part of the weekend involved a serious amount of eating; contrary to popular belief that isn’t ALL us food bloggers do. Behind each blog is a person with their own aspirations, core values and ambitions. Some bloggers are in search of a big break such as a cook book deal, some blogger’s ultimate goal is to score free meals or products and on the opposite end of the spectrum there are some bloggers who are so determined to do it on their own that they refuse to write anything sponsored be it a free product, meal or holiday.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

At the end of the day’s motivating lectures and discussion panels, I reflected back to try to define where my blog falls on this spectrum. Whenever considering a sponsored post or free meal, I always stop to think very carefully about whether it is applicable to my blog content.

I bring myself back to my vision of why I created this blog in the first place: to connect with others with food intolerances and show them that you can still be a foodie despite the barriers and restrictions.

I ask myself “Would I pay to go and eat a meal here?” or “Would I use this product at home?” If I find myself answering Yes to this question, this prompts me to give the offer further consideration.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

"Kuih" "Red Hot Spatula" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Afternoon Tea provided by Red Hot Spatula (yes those are Kuih!)

Ultimately one of the most important things I try to achieve when writing these types of reviews is to remain truthful, accurate and give you dear readers full disclosure. I am naturally quite a blunt and truthful character, so I feel that this honesty comes relatively easy to me but because of the potential bias for sponsored posts I never give these meals a score because this cannot be done accurately unless I’m incognito.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street" "Food trucks" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Food truck heaven!

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Bangkok Jump Street:

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Bangkok Jump Street’s Pork Crackling Salad (GF). Some of the best pork I’ve had in a while!

In total contrast to Eat Drink Blog’s more formal sit down dinner last year at the Hilton Adelaide, this year the team organised a pop-up dinner containing a number of Perth’s well-loved food trucks. Butty’s, Marcelita’s Empanadas, Jumplings, Delish Ice and Bangkok Jump Street all donated their time to provide an evening of highly addictive scrumptious street food. We even managed to twist a few rubber arms and get a West Winds Gin bar spontaneously created at the thirteenth hour after a series of thirsty gin-craving tweets from delegates earlier the day.

I MAY have played a central part in the last-minute gin-spiration! 😉

"Jax Coco" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Jax Coco provided some kick arse cocktails

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Marcelita’s Empanadas (GF) I ate no less than six of these babies!

"Must cocktails" "Starfish" "Absolut Citron Vodka" "PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur" "Fresh Grapefruit juice" "Indian Orange Bitters" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Must cocktails: Starfish Absolut Citron Vodka, PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur, Fresh Grapefruit juice, Indian Orange Bitters, Shaken Served Martini style

As the celebrations drew to a close for the evening, Michelle from Foodie Cravings and I headed into Must Wine Bar along with our newly found friend Coconut Joe for a couple of night caps before heading home. Michelle’s blog remains one of the most popular Perth based blogs and is usually one of my first go-to references to suss out new places to eat. I find her a wealth of knowledge for advice and guidance with blogging but even better she is a wonderful friend who can always make me laugh.

Although she does think I’m a little crazy. Just you wait until you read her Coconut Joe post and then we can discuss crazy!

"Coconut Joe" "Coconut Joe EDB13" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Meet Coconut Joe

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

Enrique’s School for to Bull fighting G&T

Our final stop was at Enrique’s School for to Bull fighting where we continued in the spirit of the ongoing gin-theme for the evening. We were served Glorious Gin from Brooklyn based Breuckelen Distilling mixed with Kaffir lime leaves, fresh white grapefruit and the uplifting botanical flavours of Fentimans Tonic. Without any doubt it was the best G&T I have ever had and THAT is a big call! It provided the perfect ending to a fabulous day.

Organising an event of this magnitude wouldn’t have been possible without the vision, energy and efforts put in by the most awesome five Committee Members. My thanks and appreciation cannot be expressed enough in words and without these dedicated people none of EDB4 would have been possible.

Thank you 100 billion times over! You guys rock!

● Ai-Ling from Food Endeavours of the Blue Apocalypse (Chair)

● Matt from Abstract Gourmet

● Bri from Eatmeetswest

● David from Food Blarg

● Chris from Bon Viveur

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Eat Drink Blog" "EDB13" "EDB4" "Blogging conference" "Eat Drink Blog Conference" "Food blogger" "Perth City Farm" "East Perth" "Mushroom Mania" "LIttle Sweet Baking" "European Foods" "red hot spatula" "red hot spatula catering" "thailand" "thai food" "thai cooking" "Butty’s" "Marcelita’s Empanadas" "Jumplings" "Delish Ice" "Bangkok Jump Street"

My Loot from the Show bag!

Butty’s Food Truck

Buttys Food Truck on Urbanspoon

Must Winebar

Must Winebar on Urbanspoon

Enrique’s School for to Bull fighting

Enrique's School for to Bullfighting on Urbanspoon

Mushroom Mania 2013: Perth City Farm and the GRO Project

Posted by  | Categories: Breakfast/Brunch, Featured, Modern Australian, Perth, Restaurants, Vegetarian

This year is my second year that I have been selected as one of fourteen bloggers from around Australia to participate in Mushroom Mania.  This is a campaign run by the Australian Mushroom Growers Association in the month of July every year where they join thousands of restaurants, cafes, bistros, pubs and clubs to celebrate the wondrous mushroom.  They spread their message through both traditional and online media and run competitions where you can win $100 restaurant vouchers. For the past few years they have embraced food blogs as a way to communicate with foodies and recruit a handful of us to do what we do best, go out to restaurants, eat and shoot food then go home and write about it.  The only catch is that we have to eat dishes containing mushrooms!

Now this is an easy task for me. Mushrooms have got to be one of my favourite ingredients and I am not lying when I say I eat them daily. Last year my Mushroom Mania posts were two very different experiences. Firstly we visited the stunning Millbrook Winery in Jarrahdale where after our meal the manager took us mushroom foraging and we then dined at Divido, Mouth Hawthorn where three out of four courses contained mushrooms including some black truffles!

"street art" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe"

"street art" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe"

This year I was keen to learn more about these highly nutritious fungi so I met up with Cris Douwes from Perth City Farm where their recently funded GRO project has commenced growing their own organic mushrooms. Perth City Farm is a not-for-profit organisation funded by government grants and is helped out by many volunteer workers. The mushrooms that they grow are served in local cafés and restaurants including their own café, and they also sell them in both fresh and dry forms at their weekend organic farmer’s market. The plan is eventually to expand this business commercially once they are happy they have their formula perfected.

"Scarecrow" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe"

I love seeing someone who is passionate about their job, we spend so much of our lives working it seems negligent to your own happiness to not follow in pursuit of something you love.  Within minutes of meeting Cris I could tell that mushrooms really rocked his world. He was a wealth of knowledge and proudly showed us around the farm detailing how his mushrooms are grown.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe"

Fungi are known to be the biggest organism on the planet with the  fungi mycelia being able to spread over large distances over thousands of years. Mushrooms are the “fruit bodies” of fungi and are part of their reproductive state. In nature fungi have to compete with many other organisms.  In order to maximise growth of mushrooms in a commercial situation, they must be grown on pasteurised substrate in a very controlled environment giving them exclusive access to all nutrients.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth bars" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Perth City Farm" "sustainable restaurant" "Perth City Farm cafe" "Mushrooms" "mushroom growers" "mushroom mania" "australian mushroom growers" "perth cafe" "organic cafe"

At Perth City Farm they lessen the impact coffee production businesses have on the environment by utilising coffee by-products to grow their gourmet mushrooms on. Left over coffee husks and grounds that would normally be discarded as rubbish are turned into nutritious soil compost. As the fungi grow on this substrate they recycle the by-products into what can then be sold as garden compost. To make the substrate for mushrooms to grow on, they have to pasteurise it to remove all other organisms. In summer this is achieved by use of their solar-powered “oven” which can reach temperatures of over 85 degrees Celsius in summer. In winter they are unable to achieve adequate temperatures with this oven and instead use a 44-gallon drum which they heat using steam that is powered by natural gas burners.

The sterile coffee by-product substrate is then inoculated with the mushroom’s spores (mycelium) in front of a laminar flow hood that was kindly donated by King Park. The laminar flow hood provides a sterile air environment to prevent any contamination.  They currently have fungal cultures that are able to grow a variety of edible mushrooms including Pearl Oysters, Gold Oysters, Shiitake, King Oysters, Grey Oysters, Pink Oysters, Blue Oysters, Ulmarius and Phoenix. The inoculated bags of mycelium mixed with substrate are then kept in a climate controlled dark room and allowed to grow into a solid white brick called a “cake”. This is the fungi in its vegetative state and it will continue to grow until it runs out of nutrients.

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In order to turn this hardened bag of fungi into the delicious fruits we call mushrooms it needs to be triggered into its reproductive state. There are four triggers needed for fruiting: fresh air exchange, light, temperature change (shock) and humidity. Cris informed us it is an art form to get the balance of these trigger factors in the “fruiting room” just right. As we cast our eyes around his fruiting room it looked like he was pretty close to cracking the code.

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Oyster mushrooms with City Farm herbs, goats cheese & gluten free toast.

Just as we finished our tour the chef came over to us with a plate piled high with what looked at first glance to be pieces of chicken.  My eyes widened as I learnt that the delightfully fleshy dish was actually made purely of oyster mushrooms that had been freshly harvested.  The mushrooms were lightly sautéed using fresh organic herbs from their garden and topped with some goat cheese and crisp rocket. Even a seasoned mushroom lover like myself was left surprised how meaty this dish seemed and I can understand why some people call it the meat for vegetarians!

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Chickpea and roasted vegetable salad

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Oyster mushrooms with City Farm herbs, goats cheese & gluten free toast.

The Boy is an avid gardener and had dashed out in his lunch break to join us on the farm tour so he ordered a salad for something quick before returning to work.  Richly coloured roast vegetables, more flavoursome herbs and chickpeas turned his vegetarian salad into a satisfyingly filling express lunch that he wolfed down before departing quickly.

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Soft boiled eggs, dukkah, buttered soldiers with grilled mushrooms

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Grilled mushrooms from the farm

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Well its not like I was going to miss out was I?

The café staff were much too kind to us and refused to let us pay for our lunch despite our retorts so we decided to sneakily return the next day as a fee paying customer. I ordered some soft-boiled eggs with dukkah and gluten free buttered soldiers accompanied by some more grilled mushrooms.  My eggs were perfectly dippable coating each strip of toast in yellow happiness. The dukkah was a flavoursome addition to this simple favourite. The farm’s fresh herbs featured again in the grilled field mushrooms dish although these were nearly as meaty as the oyster mushrooms the previous day.

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Eggs Benedict

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Eggalicious

Neither of us had woken up very well that morning and in my sleepiness I think I accidentally ordered the Boy Eggs Benedict instead of the requested vegetarian version; the Eggs Florentine. He wasn’t very impressed with the sight of meat on his plate and I felt a bit bad for my careless error.  Aside for the unwanted addition of ham, the rest of the dish was very much to his liking most notably the house made hollandaise, which he found rich and buttery with a slight tang.

Perth City Farm Café is a must visit breakfasty-brunch spot in Perth. For those who have grown their own produce at home you will appreciate the freshness of their home-grown ingredients. Your body will love you for eating organic and most importantly you will be minimising the impact your meal has on the environment.

This restaurant was reviewed as part of Mushroom Mania month which is happening all across Australia during July 2013. Head to the Power of Mushrooms website for loads of mouthwatering mushroom recipes plus if you write your own review on a mushroom dish you could win one of 40 $100 restaurant vouchers!
 
Disclosure: Chompchomp dined at Perth City Farm with compliments of the Australian Mushroom Growers Association.
Perth City Farm Café
1 City Farm Road, East Perth WA 6004 | 0418 594 408 | perthcityfarm.org.au
 
Price:                     $
Food:                    4/5 (home grown, seasonal fresh produce and gooey eggs)
Service:                4/5 (everyone obviously loves working here)
Ambience:          4/5 (feels like a country garden in the city)
Drinks:                  4/5 (Rubra coffee is a winner)
Total:                     16/20 

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