Betty and I doing our best C.S.I. imitations. Photo by Kath from A Cupcake or Two.

Picture this: six bloggers with their friends and or partners huddled around a dish. Some sniff, some look at it from all different angles, some close their eyes and inhale deeply. Then a portion is taken to the table where using a fork each piece is savoured, pulled apart and each minuscule, ground up piece turned over and examined as if under a human microscope. Welcome to a Forensic Eating Dinner party, C.S.I. food blogger style.

Ellie’s dish

This night we’re gathered at Trissa and Dan’s house and in attendance are Betty, Kath, Trisha and Richard as well as their friends and partners. I first heard of the term “Forensic Eating” from my friend Liss from Frills in the Hills who mentioned it in a comment on my blog. I then floated the idea of having a Forensic Eating dinner party while we were brainstorming a theme for a dinner party one night at Guylian Cafe and everyone seemed eager to give this a try. Fast forward a few weeks later and we’ve all brought a dish to taste. A sheet of paper and a pen is handed out to everyone. The rules are simple: forensically determine what is in these dishes using sight, taste and smell. The creator of each dish tells everyone how many ingredients there are in the dish and everyone sets about compiling a list of the ingredients.

You are only allowed to name as many ingredients as the creator says there are in the dish and points are awarded for correct answers (none are deducted for wrong answers). First up is Ellie’s dip served with French bread. “The dip has 7 ingredients and no salt and pepper” she says and we get to work. I’ve teamed up with Mr NQN who loves the idea of a challenge. There is a strong taste of garlic and it reminds me of a tapenade and there’s a salty fishyness which screams anchovy. “There’s something else in there to give it body” Mr NQN says “like bread and there’s also water”. I can see parsley and tomato and what I think is olive but he is less convinced about the olive. We come up with a list of 7 ingredients based on both of our guesses.

Kath’s dish

Next out comes Kath’s dish, or more specifically Mama Eugenio’s (her mum’s) noodles. “This dish has 11 ingredients” Kath says counting them mentally. There are some obvious ones like carrot and obviously noodles (points are deducted if you couldn’t figure that one out), Lup Cheong or chinese sausage, sugar snap peas, wombok and chicken as there are clear pieces of each. However we have trouble coming up with 10 ingredients.

Trissa’s dish

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First of all, I promise that this will be the last Masterchef post…for a while at least. Tonight is the night-the night where we learn whether Julie or Poh is crowned the Masterchef Australia winner. Weeknights will now be empty – no rushing to prepare food before the 7pm deadline and Sunday nights will be cliff hanger free. I thought I had Saturday “off” from my addiction but this was not so – patissier Adriano Zumbo would be holding a Masterchef Cake Auction.

Up for auction were the cakes that he made for a photoshoot for the upcoming the Masterchef cookbook. Rather than have the cakes go to waste, they thought that they would auction them off with all proceeds going to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. The Masterchef cookbook will come out in November this year (the winner’s cookbook will come out next year) and will feature recipes that contestants have contributed from Mystery Box challenges and Invention Tests with the contestants writing the introductions for their own dishes as well as commenting on others by telling us what they did right and what they did wrong and explaining what they would have done differently, given the chance. The celebrity chefs that have contributed recipes are Adriano Zumbo, Alex Herbert, Manu Fieldel, Pete Evans, Matt Moran, Guy Grossi and Ben O’Donoghue among others. And fans of the show, they want to hear from you as to which recipes you’d like to see so you can leave a comment here to let them know which recipe you want or twitter “Masterchefbook”.

Watching a photo shoot for a cookbook is interesting stuff indeed. For as much as a photographer like myself loves light and flocks to it, the background and lighting for the shoot were quite dark. The photographs however looked amazing on the preview screen so obviously they have a much greater knowledge (using a long exposure and a tripod) and much more expensive equipment than I could ever dream to possess.

Adriano Zumbo

Adriano’s mum, Mrs Zumbo and his nephew

While we’re waiting for the auction to start, I chat to another woman who confesses that she had a $40 a week Zumbo chocolate habit (which is about 30 chocolate’s a week) which culminated in a chocolate intolerance. We even have a chat to Adriano’s mum and nephew (who just happens to look quite like Zumbo at that age) . Mrs Zumbo says that she allowed Zumbo to leave school early as long as he had a job lined up but if he quit the job, he would go back to school. We also meet the self confessed “really, really good customers” Sebastien and baby Mathilde who loves visiting because she gets chocolate.

Zumbo and chocolate fan Mathilde

The crowd gathered for the auction

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Moo!

Egg judging

I was looking forward our visit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show with great anticipation. The last time I went was when I purchased a Wonder Woman showbag which gives you an indication of just how many years ago that was. I remember the showbag clearly and the headband, name tag, bracelet and other assorted goodies that made me my own pint sized version of Wonder Woman. This was of course when it was still housed at Moore Park. I haven’t been since it moved to Olympic Park.

Although I love traveling by the comfort of car, venturing out there by train is easy and it’s fairly straightforward and relatively quick. Before long we’re standing in front of this enormous swell of people and contemplating our first move like seasoned chess players. Volunteers are handing out copies of maps with some vouchers on the back so we make sure to get one of those so that we can get our bearings. Food of course is priority, but then again so is the many other things that I’ve scheduled courtesy of the show planner on the Easter Show website. Sure some of the things are lower on the priority list (chook washing I could probably give a miss) but some things are too iconic (woodchopping and the ingestion of Dagwood Dogs) or too adorable (the many farm animals) to miss.

Wood chopping

Our first stop is the Woolworths Fresh Food dome. It’s huge, about the size of the Good Food and Wine Show and full of exhibitors peddling their goods. Samples are a little rarer than at other events but most things are available for purchase and most things are discounted from the retail price.

The Chili Factory’s range of chili from mild to frighteningly scary

We try some ferociously hot chili – if you dare, try the 10 out of 10 heat one although a word of warning, try it very sparingly!

My Little Cupcake’s stand

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