Great food and fun at Eastwood Plaza and more to come!

The Ryde Lunar New Year celebration committee successfully kicked off the festivities with the Eastwood Food Fair in front of a big crowd at Eastwood Plaza last Sunday.
The day began with Ryde Mayor Artin Etmekdjian, Minister Victor Dominello, John Alexander MP, President of the Ryde Lunar New Year celebration Committee Councillor Justin Li, President of the Eastwood Chinese Senior Citizens Club Hugh Lee and God of Fortune greeting shop owners to wish them prosperity in the year of the Dragon.
With last year’s reigning champion Police Commander Peter Marcon not recontesting, eight community leaders participated in this year’s cooking competition, being Minister Victor Dominello, John Alexander MP, Chinese Australian Forum & NSW Community Relations Commissioner Tony Pang, Day of Difference Foundation’s Ron Delezio, President of the Sydney Korean Women’s Association Agnes Shim, the Indonesian Welfare Association’s Carla Indriarto, Eastwood Chamber of Commerce’s Catherine Sullivan, and Chinese Australian Services Society’s Tao Bai.
After a closely fought contest, the judging panel of May Lee (Chinese Cooking Columnist & Radio Presenter), Epping Nero’s Café’s Mr. Luigi Caravella and UTS student Emma Yuenwoo Lee awarded John Alexander’s special fried rice third place, Tony Tang’s Turkish hamburgers second place, and Agnes Shim’s Korean vermicelli the winner of the 2012 Eastwood cooking competition!
Committee President Councillor Justin Li said “After so much rain recently, God was kind to us with the weather this year and great fun was had by all. The cooking competition has become a great annual tradition that promotes Eastwood as the pre-eminent place to eat in the City of Ryde.”
The most popular part of the day was the free food tasting and cooking demonstrations during the Sunday lunch hour at Eastwood Plaza.
An even bigger event with Lions, Dragons fire crackers and many other performances is coming up at the Grand Celebration Day finale on Saturday 4 February at Eastwood Plaza whether rain hail or shine starting at 10.30am!