Some of you may remember that last year I attended the first Dine at Mine event in collaboration with Southampton Hospital Charity which saw a group of us enjoy a meal cooked by Masterchef winner Shelina Permalloo in a hotel room. The idea behind Dine at Mine is holding a dinner party with friends, family or co-workers and encourage everyone to play fun games and eat delicious food all while raising money for a ward or department of your choice with Southampton Hospital Charity.
You can view that post here - Room2 & Southampton Hospital Charity and see what we got up to but in the meantime, I'm gonna give you a look into our night at Lakaz Maman where we were wined and dined and left with very satisfied bellies.
Dine at Mine was created by Southampton Hospital Charity to raise vital funds for one of our busiest hospitals. We actually experienced the new children's department last weekend after Joshua had a tumble and were blown away by how bright, child-friendly and impressive the new department is and it's things like Dine at Mine and many other fundraising efforts that enables them to make the changes that they have.
Southampton Children's Hospital is one of only four children's hospitals that provide all specialist services on one site. Southampton is also one of the largest and most reputable cardiac centres in the UK and the Wessex Neurological Centre serves a population of over three million people from across the south so you can understand why things like this are so important, every little bit really does help.
By holding your own dinner party in May, you can raise money for your local hospital while having a great time doing so. It can be as big or little as you like and there is a wide range of ways to maximise your fundraising such as charging an entry fee or holding a raffle. The possibilities are endless.
You can register for your free pack via this link - www.southamptonhospitalcharity.org
We headed to Lakaz Maman last Monday to spend the evening with Southampton Hospital Charity and were served an amazing array of colourful Mauritian courses by Shelina with a side of fruit punch. The only thing we were missing was the Mauritian sunshine although the sun did shine bright in Southampton that evening.
We started with appetizers of Butterbean pate with roti crisps followed by Gato Piment Mauritian Chilli Cakes, Anana Confit which is a street style pineapple and aubergine baja coated in chickpea batter. The butterbean pate and aubergine bata were my favourites and I would've quite happily sat and eaten them all evening but I had to leave room for the main course!
The main course consisted of Aubergine and sea bass curry and butterbean rougaille served with fragrant rice with sides of carrot and coriander salad and green chilli chutney. It was beautiful and bursting full of flavour.
The final course was a mouth watering tropical coconut pavlova with passionfruit and mint which was unbelievable.
The entire evening was enjoyable and enlightening, I think you can sometimes forget just what goes on behind the scenes of our busy hospitals and finding out more about what the hospital does and just how much funding they're lacking was eye opening.
If you need an excuse for a dinner party, this is ideal especially as it goes much further than just having dinner with friends, you could be helping to raise money for vital equipment for those in need.
If you need any more information on Southampton Hospital Charity then please do head to their website and take a look at the vital work they are doing.
You can find Lakaz Maman - 22 Bedford Pl, Southampton SO15 2DB
This was a press event, food was complimentary - see disclaimer.