Attend & Host Dinner Parties in London

"I work as an interior designer, and traveling back and forth to Europe is quite expensive coming all the way from Australia so I decided to come here and complete a working holiday visa. The short weekend trips to beautiful European cities is way more convenient from London. And the food!.. I am a foodie, I don't try to hide it... I can travel far for good food. 

Cooking and hosting have always been part of my life. 

Both of my parents are originally from Indonesia, and when I was younger we used to have an Italian restaurant. So I grew up in the multicultural mixture of all these wonderful food cultures. Melbourne is a foodie city much like London. People talk about which new restaurant they visited last and compare experiences. The street food & markets there are divine. In London too. The biggest difference between the two cities is that in Melbourne you don't have to wait for too long to get into a restaurant. In London there are always long queues to the best restaurants.

My cooking is a mixture of all cultures in Australia but I do have a special spot for Indonesian cuisine also cause I have spent long times there when I was younger. I shop my ingredients usually in Soho in ethnic stores or at the Kingston Road Asian market. Some of the ingredients are difficult to find here like for example daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves). My mom advised me to replace it with Kaffer lime but it doesn't taste quite the same. So if anyone knows where you can get daun salam in London I'd love to hear about it!

I am really looking forward to my first hosting experience at Social Belly. 

I participated Marias Design & Art event couple of weeks ago and had a really positive experience. All these people with different backgrounds sharing stories... In the end we all nearly missed our buses as we had so much fun! I am really looking forward to meeting more like-minded people, to share my cooking and my stories of travels in Asia. So join me for my first Social Belly dinner “the Bali Night” the Saturday 13th of February!”

- Rosalind, Host at Social Belly-

“I came to London in September. After working for years in Germany and in Australia, and finally traveling for six months around the world I decided to settle here. Besides great business opportunities London has so much to offer; social opportunities and rich cultural life. So I was willing to give it a chance.” 

“First time I heard of Social Belly was at a Internations event where I saw the founder Dimple was talking. Since that I’ve attended three Social Belly events and they’ve all been great, all in their own different way!”

“The first one was a waffle brunch. The food was amazing and it was plenty. The hosts took very good care of us. By chance I sat on the same table with people from the same industry and we had a lot to talk about, about worklife but mostly life in general. My second event was the Ethiopian Vegan feast. The host Nazareth sat down with us kindly sharing her knowledge on the Ethiopian cuisine and for example coffee making. Again I met interesting people from around the world and the evening was very pleasant.”

“My last dinner party took place just before Christmas. This time I booked a “Japanese Udon Feast.” This event was again very different. A bigger one organised in an old art gallery space. They played short videos on the background to bring us to an authentic Tokyo experience, so it was all visually very impressive. Again amazing food and great people. Afterwards we went out for drinks with some of the other guests and eventually the fun evening continued until early morning!”  

“All my experiences have been different and I have met some very interesting people through Social Belly. I’m already looking forward to my next event and telling my friends to try Social Belly out too!”

“I have been living in London for a month now and this time I'm here to stay. I first visited London 8 years ago with my mother. I had my big (A-level) exam coming up and wasn't too confident about my English, so we decided to make a trip here - to see the city and potentially to polish my English a bit. We fell in love with the city. It took us just a couple of months as we packed our bags and moved here for the summer. We decided to stay as long as possible and then ended up staying until my university started in Madrid. Next summer we came back again and this is when my mother had resigned and decided to stay.”

“Cooking is something that soothes and relaxes me. I am passionate about testing new dishes and every time I taste or see something new I rush home to try it out myself. My cooking style is mixed - I preferably cook Spanish and Italian but I've become quite good in cooking English food. My big inspiration here comes from the various British cooking shows, from which I also learned much in my teenage years. My specialty is lasagne but for some reason I haven’t been able to succeed in it since I’ve been here!... maybe it’s the oven. Also, my salted caramel trifle is to die for too.”

“After an Erasmus year in Prague, I moved in with my uncle in Madrid and we lived in the same house for three years. It was perfect - he loves food so I always had a guest in my table to cook for. And now I will again, thanks to Social Belly!”

“Right now I am in search for a job. I am an interior designer and am looking for an assistant or junior role. Things work a little bit different here than in Spain so I am ready to start from the basics. I also run a Spanish beauty blog and will also try to volunteer for the National Trust, National Gallery or British Museum as a guide. I’m a renaissance person and I like to do a bit of everything.” 

“Social Belly is an exciting opportunity for me to meet new people and to ‘wow’ them with my cooking. We (my mom and I) are planning to host our first dinner party and we’re currently working on the menu... Maybe something Spanish, maybe Italian. One thing is for sure, it will be delicious!”

We are loving these Pumpkin & Buckwheat Pancakes from our amazing and talented host Marie.

Basically she transforms the typically not-so-healthy treat into something which is both delicious and good for you! She knows her pancakes, and we can't think of anything better!

Photo credit: Bain-Marie

Recipe (serves 4)

Ingredients:

150g (1 cup) sprouted buckwheat flour (oat or brown rice flour would work too)

180g (1 cup) pumpkin purée

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/3 cup plant milk of choice (I used Homemade Almond Milk)

20g (2 tablespoons) coconut oil or butter, melted

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder

2 eggs

Photo credit: Bain-Marie

Instructions:

1. Combine buckwheat flour, spices, salt, and bicarbonate of soda.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, milk, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla and eggs

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.

4. Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat. Lightly grease the surface with coconut oil or butter.

5. Once the pan is hot, ladle a bit of batter into the pan and gently spread into circles using the back of the ladle.

6. Cook until bubbles form around the edges of the pancake. These pancakes take slightly longer to cook than regular pancakes so just keep the heat on medium and give them some time. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes on the other side.

7. Serve warm with maple syrup and fresh berries if you like!

8. Enjoy!

Read more about her love for pancakes here.

Photo credit: Bain-Marie

So now, here’s the news...

On December 16th Bain-Marie will be co-hosting a fundraiser charity dinner "Bleu. Blanc. Rouge.” at the beautiful Goldfinger Factory in Portobello.

Organised in the wake of Paris attacks the "Bleu. Blanc. Rouge.” is a collaboration between Bain-Marie, Nordish Supper Club and Social Belly to raise money for The Red Cross. The  money raised will provide medical care, food and blankets to people that have lost their homes throughout the violence around the world.

What: 3 course combination of French fusion dishes including a 'bleu blanc rouge' pancake cake by Bain-Marie.

Where: Goldfinger Factory, Portobello

When: Wednesday, 16th December, 7.30pm

”It has been an exciting year and I feel I have many things to be grateful for. This spring I left Finland to study abroad. This decision has lead me to meet amazing people from all around the world, with whom I have spent great times with, and and now to my move to London to work in the talented Social Belly team!  I have always believed that good things come to your path when you stay kind, curious and open-minded and say yes to upcoming challenges. I am grateful to have followed this thought and that I have family and friends around me who support me in this adventure I am in”. Petra, Community Champion 

"I've never celebrated Thanksgiving. I've always thought that one should always feel thankful regardless of the day or time in the year, but this year I have to say that it's a different story. We're sometimes so busy that we forget to say thank you and today that is the purpose of this message. To be totally honest, I'm thankful for all the decisions I've made in life. I don't know whether they were all good or bad decisions but they were all a choice I had and they've made me become the person I am today. If it wasn't for these decisions, I wouldn't be doing what I'm most passionate about and I wouldn't be working with the people who I believe can make this dream become a reality. Our life is now. Let's seize it and make it amazing." Dimple - Founder & CEO 

“As an Englishman, I have only ever celebrated thanksgiving for the wonderful pumpkin pie,  However the word thanksgiving does always stick in your mind. So this year I am thankful for all the wonderful people I have met in my life of living and travelling across the world. Everyone has there creed and philosophy my own personal one is that meeting and making human connections is the greatest thing you can do with your life. I'm therefore thankful for my supportive family, wonderful friends, beautiful girlfriend.... oh and of course pigs... for without pigs we would have no bacon, ham, ribs, bacon of course..... so I’m really just thankful for bacon!” Alex - Business Development 

“I've celebrated Thanksgiving for the last three years, basically since I moved to the US. Independently of the historical meaning, I believe that having some time during the year to focus on what we are thankful for is fundamental. By focus I mean not only, think about it, but also act accordingly. And I made a tradition of that, every year around thanksgiving I let my family and friends know how thankful I am for having them around. And what best way to thank them than inviting them home for a great meal!” Sergio - Head of Product

Round two - the voting begins

17th July 2015 - I got an email from the MBJ team saying that we were in the next round. This meant that my video was going to be made available for online viewing and it would be watched by members of the general public who will be invited to vote for their favourite ideas. From 400 applications, only 20 were selected. That itself was a great achievement for us.

24th July 2015 - First day for voting, six weeks to go, only four of 20 startups were going to be in the final. We could all see how many votes each startup had so you can probably imagine the competitive spin. On the last week, we decided to go out on the streets to ask the general public to vote for us. It ended up being more like a ‘team bonding’ week. Not only did we speak to countless amount of people about our startup but our website’s traffic was over the roof!

Round three - the final

The team at MBJ chose five finalists to pitch at Google Campus; Social Belly was one of them. It was an exciting time for us; we were one of the five startups to get selected from 400 entries worldwide.

Leading up to the final pitch day, we had an extremely inspiring presentation coaching session by Stewart from Amplify Coach. We met industry experts like Michael Smith, Marketing Lead for IBM Commerce, Social and Mobile UKI and Bao Tieu, Head of Operations at Movinga and Founder of PixaVida. Their advice was excellent!

22nd October 2015 - Pitching day. The best advice we got throughout these days was that people want to hear a story, your story. They want to know why you’re so passionate about the business and where you want to take it; your vision. People want to see the energy and your willingness to make this business a success.

I felt great after the pitch. I felt like I had told the world why we’re doing what we’re doing and we were successful doing that. People kept coming to us and congratulating us for our achievements. Social Belly’s entire team was there and it was a powerful feeling. Each one of us had the drive to make our vision a success.

Photo credits: Rafa Garcia

Unfortunately, we didn’t win the competition that evening. However, we made excellent relationships with everyone we met along the way as well as the MBJ team. They are a startup too and it’s great to see them helping other startups to make their dreams a reality. Most importantly, that day we won something even more valuable.

We won the confidence needed to achieve our vision. We were ready for the next step, the next challenge and the execution of all of this.

It was a great experience. Thank you.

- Dimple Lalwani-

Founder & CEO at Social Belly

The evening was a success - getting to know and talking to so many new interesting people, over good craft beers and delicious food, and lots of laughter. After some intense competitive moments, ;) the team “Paprika” won the quiz and each took home a price to collect a free wine bottle to take with to their next Social Belly dinner. Not bad huh!

We are already looking forward to our next community event in December. It will be a Christmas house party 😆  (more info coming out soon). Join us again then or book your spot to one of our amazing events right now. We are changing people's lives one meal at a time.