2008 WA Web Awards Dinner
Excuse the break in the custard like flow of posts about Europe for this little bit of news from the home front.
I was recently fortunate enough to be nominated as a finalist in the WA Web Awards, and funnily enough actually came away with the winning entry in the blog category for this year. Yay blogs ! This explains the new little piece of bling on the sidebar of the site, and the new found skip in my step (that my real work is slowly trying to crush out of me).
The awards night was a rather lavish affair held at the UWA Club, on the grounds of my lovely former university, where I spent far too long doing very little, and rarely anything that could be even remotely considered good eating (unless you have a penchant for mock chicken pies in dubious creamy sauces).
Nothing quite so horrid on display at this event though. I started in style arriving by limo with many salubrious members of the Perth web and twitter community. Getting things going with some tasty and some not so tasty sparkly bubbles.
Then on to the event to be greeted with two of my favourite things. Complimentary wine, and classic table top arcade games with endless credits ! After a brief smackdown with the ever dexterous Luis, I realised I had met my match at Galaga, but still reigned supreme at Miss Pacman (You can draw your own conclusions as to what that means).
On to the events. Before we’d even had a bite to eat the first categories were drawn. The student prize and then the blog category. A slight sense of dread coming over me as I heard my name called out, realising that I had no speech prepared whatsoever. Fortunately a few glasses of champagne and a general ability to talk crap on command served me right, and after thanking my designer Teresa, and pondering that I never thought I’d win an award for being a bad dinner guest… It was back to the business of eating.
The soup course was fairly bland to be honest. The two choices of pumpkin soup and tomato soup were fairly safe, but I guess you’d call them sure fire classics. Once I’d added a fair dose of salt and pepper to my pumpkin soup it was quite tasty. Though a vaguely unsettling creamy concoction constantly threatened to settle on the top if I left it alone for too long. The tomato soup I tried was a little more robust, which what tasted like actual tomatoes in it (always a good sign a large catered events).
A few more awards and lots of claps and LOL’s. The 5 Senses crew taking out both categories they were finalists in. An excellent effort for Jordan their web developer and the rest of the crew responsible for feeding the info through on the site.
Mains were then served, and although I’m not sure I actually got a choice in the matter, ended up with the steak. Now cooking at large functions is hard. Cooking well at large functions is even harder. Cooking steak well at large functions is nigh on impossible, and in my brief career as an awards night attendee has never actually happened. Until this night.
Imagine my joy when after being presented with the next available dish by an overworked wait staff, I cut in to reveal a perfectly cooked medium rare piece of beef fillet. It was served with some pancetta wrapped asparagus that had both bite and flavour, and a little stack of potato gratin, that made a lovely cheesy accompaniment. The other option for the night was a salmon fillet, which I didn’t get to try, but the ones next to me looked great too. The vegetarian option looked good too, and not the standard vegetarian lasagne mess that so often discerning vegos are forced to choke down.
Finally, dessert was a stack of mini pavlovas with a berry couli and a little chocolate stick. Light airy, and with a casual mashmallowy texture. Everything a good pavlova should be, without the dreaded moisture sapping dryness that can so often afflict this classic dish loved by Kiwis and Aussies alike (though we all know who came up with it :) ).
The night didn’t end there of course. A round of 5 Senses brewed coffee and as much more wine as could be haggled from the staff who had probably had enough of a few hundred rowdy nerds by that point, and it was time to hit the town. Sated by what can only be described as a marvellous achievement in large scale dining.
So thanks for everyone who continues to come back to this site, despite my complete inability to stick to any kind of schedule, and I hope I can continue to produce things that you all like to read, however badly worded and inappropriately punctuated they, may be… :)
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Well-deserved! Congratulations!
Congratulations Mr. Gourmet. Truly well deserved, but not that I had a doubt anyway.
Congratulations, well-deserved mate!
Congratulations on your win! I was both both surprised and delighted by the quality of the food (and the beverages) at the awards – easily the best meal we’ve had in the four years they’ve been running.
Well done Matt, you scrub up very well!
Your link to the UWA website is wrong! (And Congrats. :))
Congrats to Costa Simatos for cooking you such a fab meal! ;)
Congratulations! Really well done and very deserved.
he posts! congratulsions and nice suit.
and excuse my poor spelling.
Congratulations Mattle well done cleverpants!!! and dont you look smart oooolalaa you dont brush up to badly for a … dare I say it???….
Shazzie
Yo Matt … big up’s and super props!
Congratulations Matt, keep up the good blogging………………
Great work Matt, a well deserved win.
Good to see they had some quality vegetarian fare on offer too :)
You genius! Nice to see you get the recognition you deserve. So much unsung, unpaid time being done at such high quality.
You deserve to brag over this!
PS, Mondo markets sometime?
Congratulations, Matt. Can we hope that this will egg you on to post with more frequency? =P
Congrats Matt. The judging panel definitely made a top choice.
Nice to hear that the beef fillet was so good too. Earlier this year I completed a course that involved monthly sessions at the UWA Club. The quality of the lunches was more than decent, which was a nice change from the usual catered lunch i.e. soggy sandwiches made with odd ingredients (what’s with people who put sultanas in sandwiches?) and bulk baked muffins and slices of cloying sweetness.
Hi Matt,
Congratulations. I am regular reader of your blog.
Andrea.
Hey there Matt. Congrats on the win.
And thanks on the kind words about our site :)
I enjoyed the food, but I was probably buzzing on the double win a bit too much so didn’t really pay it the attention that it deserved. I do remember saying that it was quite miraculous to get food that good in an event of the size.
Here’s to next year!
J
ciao complimenti ottimi piatti, io sono uno chef Italiano ho il mio sito web perchè non vieni a trovarmi
Ciao
Congrats mate, so thoroughly deserved and I can’t think of a more deserving winner! First round’s on me next time our paths cross!
Cheers everyone for all the nice wishes and thoughts. I feel thoroughly loved (well sortof). Though once again I’ve slipped into a bit of a posting lull, not because of nothing to write about, more the case of all too much, and not sure where to start :)
Keep reading and I’ll try to keep writing.
WOW, you little star you! Great work and really deserved (even if you won’t play tag!!)
Congratulations Matt.
Kam