I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Steve and Jane (pictured above) on 3AW’s Saturday morning gardening show last weekend. Great show, lovely people and a real pleasure. Here’s our chat tabletopbbq-segment-200609 it runs for 5 minutes.

I’ve just been restocking my retailers as the phones have been running hot.

If you would like to stock them please let me know by commenting on this post and i’ll get back to you.

Onwards

The table top BBQ breaks new ground…bringing the blokes and the ladies together, designed to be the centre of attention on the table.

Perfect for unit-dwellers who might be spatially challenged or just for those more intimate BBQ moments.

All the rage, in Viet Nam, one table top BBQ can cook for four people.

Entire restaurants are dedicated to these little beauties. The idea is for each person to cook a few morsels at any one time similar to fondues. The trick is to prepare your strips of chicken, beef, calamari, vegetables etc. ahead of time, to be grilled over charcoal, along with special fried rice and authentic Vietnamese dipping sauces. Enjoy.

Better Homes & Gardens magazine will be featuring them in their February “BBQ-special” issue hitting the street on 9th January.

We would like to use this page for users to share their recipes & experiences with the Table Top BBQ. Here is a few sauce recipes to starts things of. Feel free to add your below in the comments area.

Retailers at the moment are….

- Elwood General Store, 5 Ormond Road, Elwood tel 03 95319584

- PFS, 975 North Road, Murrumbeena tel 03 95790140

- Hagens Organic Butchers, Prahran Market (tue, thu, fri & sat)… they are located on the corner within the meat/fish market. All their meat is organic and they are very happy to cut any meat into Table Top BBQ-bitesize pieces for easy cooking.

- The Gardners’ Corner Store, 1 Centre Road, East Brighton tel 03 95928081

- Garden & Patio, 514-518 Hampton Street, Hampton tel 03 95210322

- Just Planet,  37 O’Shanassy St, Sunbury tel 03 9740 3106.

The recommended retail cost for the BBQ, cooking grill, sauce dishes x 3 and four pairs of chopsticks is A$30 including gst. ($25 each for two or more). Postage and handling generally varies between $20-$35 depending on numbers and which State. Overseas P/H will need to be separately quoted.

If you would like one (or more) please let us have your delivery address and we’ll dispatch within a day or two.

Please credit our account accordingly

a/c name - Martyn Thomas

a/c no.    - 23191727

bsb         - 803 140

For trade inquiries please leave a comment.

It’s a great time to be a stockist because we’re in the beginning of the BBQ season plus we’ve just been told that Delicious magazine (readership 498,000) is featuring Tabletop BBQs in their April issue (on sale 18 March)

If you are paying from overseas we have two options for you….depending on your bank’s requirements

Telegraphic Transfer
mecu Limited
C/- National Australia Bank
330 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
BSB: 083 370
A/C No: 01921 3532
MEMBER NAME: Martyn Thomas
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 23191727

OR

Swift Transfers
mecu Limited
C/- Credit Union Services Corp Australia
222 High Street
Kew, VIC 3101
ROUTING CODE:    CUSCAU2SXXX
BIC CODE:             AU//803140
MEMBER NAME:    Martyn Thomas
ACCOUNT NUMBER:  23191727

 Well ultimately it’s the very clever Vietnamese people.

To bring them to Australia we have created a dedicated team of enthusiasts, some in Viet Nam and some in Australia. The team has sourced the BBQ’s and as we write are organising the packaging, shipping to Melbourne, design of the brand “Table Top BBQ” and ultimately marketing and selling them.

The Vietnam team, Dave and Phuong Campbell are based in Nha Trang whilst in Melbourne we have Patrick, Holly, Sara and myself Martyn Thomas.

There are many others who have provided support, encouragement, advice and enthusiasm which makes the whole process more palatable and we are very grateful to you.

One of the most worthy causes in Viet Nam is aimed at helping victims of agent orange.
(http://www.agentorange.org.au/projects)

In sourcing our BBQs from Viet Nam we are conscious of the need to give back somehow. At first we considered helping the local community who have pulled together their collective resource to manufacture sufficient numbers for us…..and we may yet see what contribution we can make on our next visit.

In the meantime we have decided to donate 5% sales to victims via The Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange, based in Hobart. We are dealing with Bruce Montgomery from the Trust. The current initiative is to generate funds to be able to buy 75 cows for Agent Orange victims in Phong Dien district north of Hue in central Viet Nam.

The irony of generating money from the sale of BBQs to buy cows has not gone unnoticed.