Blue Monday at La Camera

Last Monday was our monthly Community night and we were all a little Blue.

The lights were low, candles lending a little mood and the gravelly sounds of our blues musician ... set a good mood.

What do you get when you mix an Italian with a Jamaican?

A Pastafarian!

Well Reggae night was a blast. With resident DJ 'Deejay King Dubby', we spun some smooth sounds of the carribean and mixed in the fiesty flavours of Jamaica's fine cuisine with a couple of interesting cocktails to mellow you out. This will definately be a theme that we will revisit, maybe next time some steel drums and a bobsled race. If you missed out on this one, see you at the BLUES NIGHT on Monday 26th July.

Purday's Sweet Idea's

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

Ingredients:

250g plain chocolate biscuits
150g butter, melted
2 teaspoons
1/4 cup (60ml) water
1 1/2 cup (360g) packaged cream cheese, softened
300ml thickened vanilla extract
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
180g white eating chocolate, melted
150g cream-filled chocolate biscuits, quartered (oreo's work well)
50g dark eating chocolate

Recipe:

1. Line base of 23cm springform tin with foil or baking paper.
2. Blend or process plain biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add butter; process until combined. Press biscuit mixture evenly over base
and 3cm up side of springform tin, place on tray; refrigerate about 30mins or
until firm.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatine over water in a small heatproof jug;
stand jug in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves;
cool for 5 minutes
4. Beat cheese, cream, extract and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until
smooth. Stir in gelatine mixture and white chocolate; fold in quartered biscuits.
Pour cheesecake mixture over biscuit mixture in tin, cover; refrigerate about 3
hours or until set.
5. Drizzle with dark chocolate to serve.

*tip when dissolved gelatine is added to a mixture, both should be roughly the same
temperature. Place the dark chocolate in a small plastic bag with the corner snipped
off to help you drizzle the chocolate evenly over the cheesecake.

Enjoy!

Little Johnny's Drink of the Week

Shogun Assassin

Glass: Martini

Ingredients:
15ml Absinth
30ml Midori
30ml Sake
15ml Lemon Juice
Pulp of 1 passionfruit
Carambola or 'Star Fruit' to garnish

Method: Pour Absinth, Midori, Sake and Lemon Juice into a shaker half full of ice. Add half the pulp of 1 passionfruit, then shake. Chill a Martini glass then place remaining passionfruit pulp in glass. Pour shaken cocktail, then garnish with a thin slice of Star Fruit.

Farewell Principessa

Monday our Italian dancer/waitress left for warmer climates, the gang said goodbye with a lot of alcohol, and a little dancing. Emily was only with us for a few months but she brought a lot of energy to the restaurant. We still remember the staff party where she won the limbo contest showing us more flexibility than Gumby.

There were also a lot of good nights out that we'll half-remember.

Fizzy Bubblers for All!!

Last Friday our bar manager John Scali turned 25 and celebrated at Match Bar on Swanston St. Everyone was looking particularly 'Silky Smooth' and there were apparently plenty of Fizzy Bubblers going around. This was also the night we lost our German friend Andre, as he returns home to pursue a career in finance (we actually think he just didn't wan't to see Australia beat Germany in the in the world cup). A little background about John, he's a Carlton supporter, likes working out and trying new imported beers. He plays the bass guitar and is a Chilli Peppers fan. When he was younger, he wanted to grow up to be Bumblebee from the Transformers. Maybe one day he will.

3rd B'day Community Night

It was quite busy and Paul and Renee were running around making sure everything
was running well. Mind you with the musician not confirmed, Paul was sweating a bit,
hoping that he'd show. Luckily Ced, our local guitarist, didn't let us down and appeared
a little after 6. I think Paul thanked Jesus, Allah and Buddha that he showed up.
Everything went off pretty well, there was outside seating/standing for mingling and
inside for dining, and the Yum Cha was flowing. I think next time we could make it a
little more Yum Cha'ish and use a couple of trolley's, that's usually half the fun.




















The free drinks / cocktails warmed us all up to start with. Thanks John.










We saw a lot of familiar faces. Paul was serving soup like a pro. Then there were the
freebies. We love freebies!













If you missed it, the next one is 28th June, Reggae night with Caribbean style food.
If you want to see Paul in dreadlocks, let us know.

Grandpa Joe

If you ever come in for a coffee in the morning, then you have probably met ol'Joe. He's been a permanent fixture of the restaurant for many years, this Wednesday Joe got the call that he's been made a granddad, again. We just want to congratulate him and wish his family the best. Look out for new baby pics to come.

Community Nights Turn 3

La Camera is proud to announce it's 3rd year of Community Nights. For those that don't know, every so often on a Monday, we have a particular theme night to encourage locals and regulars (and others too) to meet, enjoy a meal, and sometimes a performance. We've run Jazz n Shiraz nights, Classical, Operatic, Cooking Demos, and even had an all male Full Monty Review (well almost full monty). But on Monday the 31st of May we'll be celebrating with live acoustic music and finger food. All are welcome and if you've got nothing to do on a Monday night, it's a fun way to have a meal and maybe meet people.

The Re-Birth of Cool

Yes La Camera has finally entered the 21st Century and found out how to use a computer. So we decided to create a blog to show the behind the scenes life and daily antics of the restaurant world. If you're a friend or regular or just want to share your thoughts, drop us a few words.