foodies | Mango and Pumpkin

{April 8, 2010} Mango and Pumpkin BEGINS.

Welcome to the new and exciting blog Mango and Pumpkin. This is a ‘foodies’ blog that shares recipes, restaurant reviews (primarily Melbourne, Australia) and the love of food. I am no chef extraordinaire but a young 21 year old learning how to cook. I hope to inspire and create an open dialogue on my website, especially those new to cooking but enjoy eating such as myself. The website name was contrived out of my favourite fruit (mango) and vegetable (pumpkin).

Currently, I’m at my parents house as they go on holiday in Adelaide! I am fishing around for food in their cupboard (they said I could help my self). Looking in the pantry, I find cans of tomatoes, lentils and all sorts of beans and things.. I wonder if I could make dahl? The only question is, how do I make dahl with very limited ingredients?

I have recently returned from camping at a massive hippy festival in NSW near Deniliquin. The below photo spelling out “Bex” was also taken at this camp! I have clearly had too many ‘blonde beers’ and caution all my viewers to drink responsibily. lol. The festival would be a delight for any travelling foodie, it’s just a shame I didn’t bring the camera to this occasion.. there was a lot of communial cooking! In fact, Confest is what inspired me to cook something with lentils tonight! If you love mud baths, fire twirling, saunas, hot baths, wonderful lakes, singing, drumming,nudity, yoga, massages, meditiation, community, art, craft and getting back to nature with community cooking/food stalls – go to Confest! Confest runs during Easter and New Years! The Confest website: http://www.dte.org.au/ What was even more amazing at the 4 day event was that I kept bumping into people I knew – including the Chef/Teacher from Certificate 2 in Hospitality training at the Sliding Door Cafe with PRACE.

For curiosities sake, here are some photos of the Cert 2 in Hospitality I did in 2009:

Note: Notice the woman in blue sitting next to me? Well, I bumped into her Confest! Hiroku (sp?) used to be the Chef at the Sliding Door Cafe. She taught me a lot about the hospitality industry.