Yarraville Festival, Yarraville, February 16, 2013

It’s hot and getting hotter.

Maybe that’s why every other stall on Anderson St and surrounds seems to be very big on hats.

There’s a lot of friendly and familiar faces and food around, such as the lovely ladies at St Nicholas Orthodox frying up their loving batches of syrupy dough goodness.

One new wrinkle is the freshly shucked oyster being offered at the pub for $1.50 a pop.

Sadly, I’m done food-wise by the time I notice them.

From the stall being manned by the staff of Kawa-Sake at the river end of Andrson St, I grab a good chicken yakitori skewer and really, really good mini Japanese pancake.

Nearby are three poorly distributed stalls serving up paella, two of them being run by local businsses.

But I get a $10 serve from the one providing their rice in cardboard containers, having already been dismayed somewhat by the amount of plastic being used and discarded at the festival.

I scoot back to the Kawa-Sake stall to eat it, being granted permission to grab a small table and stool in the shade.

Thanks, Lucy!

My paella is nice, with a tang and plenty of seafood, chorizo and chicken, and it’s a much bigger serve than it appears.

In leafy shade near the train station, I stop for nice natter with Ross and Breda at their Garden Honey stand.

We’re not honey eaters in our home, but I think it an intriguing hoot that these folks are producing salable quantities of bee juice … in Kensington.

So expect a story on how they do it some time soon right here at Consider The Sauce.

At one of the Ballarat St stages, there’s a whole lotta love for a group called Mother.

This virtually all-chick aggregation with a token bloke does classic ’70s rock.

Just a covers band, you say?

Well, yes … but this lot stomps it out with such passionate glee that for a while there they make me and many others true believers.

Loud, crunchy and swaggering, their music is just the right distance below the pain threshold in terms of volume.

There’s a handful of paunchy, black T-shirted fans down front getting RIGHT into it.

During a certain Led Zeppelin song, these air guitar cats do the famous guitar solo note perfect.

Check this band out if you see them playing near you – they’re hot!

Let it rock!