Together they make perfect life, fitness and business partners: three-time Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Josiah Ng and award-winning Cirque du Soleil-styled uber-cool aerialist and pole dancer Kim Ong, of Melbourne’s Spectablend.
Josiah, who represents Malaysia in track cycling, lives and trains in Melbourne with his internationally successful dancer wife Kim. Essentials recently met the pair in their Port Melbourne home/office studio, which incidentally was once Albert Tucker’s seaside painting studio. Here the pair continue their healthy lifestyle while also peddling the health benefits of their heavy-duty kitchen blender brand, Spectablend, which offers serious bang-for-buck brilliance.
The Spectablend is perfect for making the nutrient-rich smoothies and easy meals and soups a busy athlete needs, Josiah says: ‘What you put into your body each day dictates what you will get out of it so ensuring you maintain a balanced, nutritious diet is imperative, especially if you are an athlete.’
Last year Josiah started producing a few blenders for himself and friends who wanted a value-for-money alternative to the available commercial blenders. Demand quickly spread, trending to a point where launching the Spectablend brand nationally was a no-brainer. Spectablend has another advantage over other products on the market: its direct-to-manufacturer after-sales support and great extended warranty options.
Kim and Josiah suggest their 1500 watt, 35,000rpm stainless steel blade blender with huge 2-litre jug and mixing tamper is perfect for raw foodists, weight management enthusiasts, exercise nuts and so on. We feel it’s a must-have for any serious foodie. To prove the point we put the Spectablend to work, testing a range of gourmet party tricks.
1. Tomato purée, skins on, no stock. We took a small bag of Roma tomatoes (about 10), trimmed their tops and blended. The mixing tamper was required to initially mash down the tomatoes, however within 15 seconds at slow speed the lot were blended evenly. Next we blended for a further 10 seconds, gradually taking the unit from slow up to full speed and back down again. The result was a fine, silken smooth consistency. Of course, a pre-blanch, removing skins and seeds, and adding a little vegetable stock is advised for that perfect ‘bellissimo’ tomato purée.
2. Crushed ice, perhaps for a mojito cocktail – yes we know that’s less healthy, but what about mind, body and spirit? Sure, this job sounds simple enough, and sure the Spectablend effortlessly turned a litre-and-a-half of ice cubes into ‘slush puppy’ styled perfection; but we were caught out by the sheer blending power. Care is required NOT to over-blend; our ice slush was so finely blended, it was in danger of melting far too quickly! As with any professional tool, this one does require some practice, not that we’re making any weekly suggestions…
3. White bean purée: we placed half a can of white cannellini beans (drained), three tablespoons of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and seasoning into the blender jug. Again, we took the Spectablend from a slow speed gradually up to full speed and back down again, several times. We did this repeatedly for about 40 seconds. The results were outstanding. We arrived at a bean purée that was thick and velvety in texture with a bonus mousse-like air – chef perfection at its best.
But wait! There’s more… the Spectablend blender can blend, grind, purée, cut, mash, make hot soup and even ice-cream; and it’s a positive investment towards your health (we like that part!) Spectablend comes in three colours: white, a bold red and black. Their sleek and modern design also looks the part. You can chat with Kim for friendly after-sales service.
Can it get better? Of course it can! There’s a special offer for Essentials readers: you will receive a full $100 off the recommended price of $399 when you buy Spectablend before December 2014. Simply enter the promo code ESSENTIALS, when you purchase online.
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