After watching episode two of Blogger’s Treat, I decided to write a review on it. After all, the videocast is “created by bloggers, for bloggers and with bloggers”. So, how can a blogger not give his/her 2 cents worth on it?
A little background on Blogger’s Treat; It’s a videocast produced by Aaron Koh with support from Michael Cheng at Podfire.sg and the host is Sabrina.
This is how Aaron describes Blogger’s Treat:
Blogger’s Treat is a under 10 minutes videocast that features blogger’s favourite and popular food haunt.
It is created by bloggers, for bloggers and with bloggers.
Each episode you will see a guest blogger bring the Blogger’s Treat team to somewhere in Singapore to eat.
As you can see, the “with bloggers” element is very strong here as we often let the guest blogger determine where their favourite food haunt is.
We are limiting ourself to kopitiams, food stalls and small cafes because of budget. Hopefully, we can bring bloggers to high end restaurants in future episode, but I think that itself would be another series.
More of his introduction can be found here.
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So far, there are 4 episodes filmed and the 2 episodes available to the public right now are the ones below
Episode One with Guest Blogger, Daphne Maia
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Episode Two with Guest Blogger, Hillary Chan
The youtube videos can be very slow to load and if you can’t wait, the faster loading episodes can be found here(Ep1) and here(Ep2).
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On the positive side of things, it is a great idea by Aaron to create such a show. Who doesn’t like food? And what better way to introduce food online than with bloggers, who are quite the mini-celebrities in recent times. Aaron might have emphasized that the show is “for bloggers”, but I would see that the viewership of the program will extend to the interested readers of the various bloggers who appear on the show. The videos are also nicely edited with a very light and catchy acoustic guitar tune to kick every episode off.
Okay, the stuffs I am going to say next might send hordes of Sabrina fans calling for my demise (or even Sabrina herself) but oh well, it’s just my view. 
In both episodes, both the guest bloggers totally outshone Sabrina in terms of presentation, speech fluency, presence, enthusiasm and personality. If I didn’t know beforehand and if Sabrina didn’t introduce herself at the start of the show as the host, I would have easily thought that either Daphne or Hillary were the hosts.
In episode 1, Daphne showed good diction, poise and was very believable as a person introducing a food she really liked. There were moments of awkwardness when Sabrina was introducing the chef and also when making small talk with Daphne. The saving grace of the episode is when the chef performed his ‘la mien’ skills which was very entertaining.
In episode 2, Hillary was much more aggressive compared to Daphne in the 1st episode and it resulted in Sabrina taking a backseat almost throughout the whole episode. I thought Sabrina did pretty well in the 1st 20 seconds of the 1st episode but throughout this one, she appeared nervous and uncomfortable when speaking and disinterested when not. Before tucking in, her reactions to the food were not of interest but of “Ah…. So much food ah. I don’t wanna eat leh.. I scared I will grow fat”. Not that it implies that the food sucks, but it still makes the viewer reduce his/her interest in the food.
I am not asking the bloggers on the show to act till they point where they put food in the mouth and then flip over screaming, “OH MYYYYYYYYYYYY GOD!!!!!!” while having orgasms, but it’s good to show enthusiasm and interest in the food that you are presenting and eat it with gusto.
With that much negatives said about Sabrina, I do have to say that it’s only two episodes so far and she is definitely still nervous on camera. She is very presentable looking and definitely performing way below her potential in terms of hosting.
Evidence of how Sabrina can be more believable is from the video below.
It isn’t the most interesting of videos, but if you watched it till the end, you will mostly likely see the same thing as I did. Sabrina spoke with much more comfort and confidence and thus showed a more believable person that we would want to see on Blogger’s Treat.
Good luck to Sabrina and kudos again to Aaron for producing such an interesting local show. I will look forward to future episodes with anticipation.
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Yeah I felt the same awkwardness when watching the shows too though I would say I love the shows’ content. I’ve never tried out the food for both places and am definitely going to try them out soon.
Let’s give them some time, and hopefully the shows will get better.
We must show them mango chicken sandwich!
I simply wonder why “Blogger’s Treat” tries so hard to be just like yet another food show from MediaCorp.
Uzyn> I love the content as well and the prospect of seeing more bloggers on the monitor screen.
And… no mango sandwich pls. this is not “Which Food Made You LaoSai Anyway?”
Heng-Cheong Leong> Actually, I don’t see that they are trying to be ‘another’ MediaCorp food show. The elements are different with the introduction of bloggers and its advertising medium.
Krisandro,
Thank you so much for the review.
Michael has done a great job with the post production, kudos to him.
Having worked with Sabrina, she is usually gain confident after every episode.
The first two episodes was done on the same day, one in the afternoon and the other in the evening.
She was indeed nervous for the two episodes.
I was also at fault too as I didn’t want the show to be scripted and I let it just go with the flow.
But by making mistakes in the first two shows, we can learn from the viewers to make the show better.
I take the comment about us “trying hard to be another food show from Mediacorp” as a compliment to Michael.
This shows that with a Sony DVD cam and some iMovie magic, we can be criticised as wanting to be a Mediacorp copy cat.
Krisandro is right that the elements of the show are different from Mediacorp.
First, the stars are the guest bloggers.
Secondly, we get the guest bloggers to tell us where to go, not the other way round.
Third, we are willing to make mistakes and get feedback from our viewers. With this feedback, we will respond by making the show better with it.
Finally, we try to make the show as short as possible. Concise is the word.
Again, the team at Blogger’s Treat would like to thank Krisandro for his review.
And yes, Sabrina is on a strict diet during the week so she will eat with more gusto on Saturday.
i think treats.sg should pay ms Sabrina more.
That is all.
See see! Sobs. I knew it. I’m not the star of the show
They (actually just Aaron) are very mean to me. I cannot talk (ask me smile and look at camera more can already), and cannot eat off camera. (Let’s not even start with the 3 sentence script that’s only given 5 mins before the take.)
Epi 3 worst. I went to chat with a friend, when I came back the food all gone.
And to think, for the whole day and the day before I couldn’t eat cause Aaron keep saying I’m fat and if I don’t lose weight they gonna replace me!
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But in Episode 4, you finished a whole claypot of chicken wings and 1 or 2 chili crayfish….
Don’t think I never see!!!
Aaron Kohs last blog post..Respond to the "right" issues to improve your brand imageght
Haven’t seen the show, but aarons right that the star of the show is the guest blogger.
And for once its nice to see that the actors can express themselves honestly and naturally instead of feigning gusto.
That’s why blogging became so popular in first place right?
An avenue to express freely and frankly?
I would view the show as the blogger treating sabrina and viewers to their favourite hawker food (make sure they pay!!)for food and good conversation, kopitiam-style.
Just cos the blogger enjoys the food doesn’t mean sabrina will mar
Just my two cents
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I think this review is very good and I agree with most of your comments.. Sabrina appear really nervous and we know she can do better. I like the idea and the nature of the show. I know where to get good food and I get to know more blogs that I might actually visit.
wahh *blush*.
anyway. i don’t like watching myself on video or hearing myself speak. so to be honest, i’ve only watched that video once (during the podfire launch) n i’ve never watched it at home by myself.
i can’t exactly remember what i did / said in the video anymore. but thanks for making me sound good anyway. haha.
Many thanks, Kris. Ep 1 & 2 were filmed on the same day. We haven’t had time to digest everything or do postmortem on what we did right / wrong. With episode 3 (which i just finished editing today), i hope the improvements and constructive advices all come to the surface.
I guess we at Podfire.sg are committed to quality - quality of content and of the production value. Many of us do not have any significant experience with video / media work… but we are trying our best.
Look out for new shows coming from Podfire in end-May - i’m sure we’ll knock the socks off everyone.
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Who say I agressive hur? hur? *sharpens her parang*
Aaron> Hey dude! Didn’t get to talk to you much at the ayam penyet gathering. I am glad you did not take offense at my review. Looking forward to more episodes of Blogger’s Treat!!
Dingo> I think they are earning peanuts right now, and according to Aaron on his blog, that little money goes into “diaper and milk powder fund” You wanna invest in the show?
Princessa> Hey host! You that bullied ah? Not a prob. Call this number 1800-22766-47-2-28559 (1800-AARON-IS-A-BULLY)
cat> Normal bloggers write on their views and life. Interesting bloggers write on their views and life with a dash of ‘color’. Normal food hosts eat food. Interesting food hosts eats with gusto and interest.
What I am trying to say is… pretending to be interested on screen even when it’s not is akin to writing an exciting view when it’s not. Both the host and the blogger are ‘entertainers’, as the ‘audience’ wants to see/read something interesting.
Jester> Thank you for the compliments~
Daphne> I give credit when it’s due.
Miccheng> Like Aaron said, good job on the post editing. I totally understand the lack of experience and any criticism (good or bad) will definitely help you all get there faster.
Hillary> Hello HILLARY! *smiles sheepishly*
It is the considered opinion among all I spoke with that Sabrina adds no value to the show. In fact it’s a parachute adding drag to a plane, if you get what I mean. Why did blogger’s treat pick her in the beginning is hard to understand. And from the looks of the 2nd episode, maybe they should have Hilary take over as the host. But that’s if Hilary wants to do it in the first place.
krisandro> I love reviews, positive and negative. It will help me gauge what has gone wrong or right with the show.
Saul Grisman> I agree with you that Sabrina needs to work more on her hosting in the show. I am working with her on it has each show goes on.
Please understand that Sabrina isn’t a professional host. It was gutsy of her to volunteer to be the host of Blogger’s Treat. She, too, understands that a lot of improvement is needed on her part.
This is where the strengths of Web2.0 come in. It has provided us with the medium to broadcast our shows, warts and all. I don’t think this was even possible during the Web1.0 or pre Internet days.
Furthermore, Sabrina needs to be commended for volunteering her Saturdays and car fuel for the show. We have yet to make money from the show, yet Sabrina has been willing to do so much for the show.
Without the car, we would not be able to travel to the various places for filming.
Can you imagine standing in front of a kopitiam (coffee shop) with people looking at you? It can be nerve wrecking.
I agree with you that Sabrina can and should do a better job, but with the little experience she has, I feel Sabrina is going a fantastic job in learning to be a better host!
By bloggers, for bloggers, with bloggers?
What’s going to differentiate this show frm the Travel and Living or Food Channel or any other mainstream media channel or tv station (MediaCorp) besides the fact bloggers are in it?
Aaron gonna say I over react
But would love to know
Btw, good luck to sabrina on future episodes… Relax gal! I would have loved to see u polish off the whole claypot and chili crabs!
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Saul Grisman: All i can say is that she will improve. I’m heartened by the high standards everyone place on our host and crew. All i can say is watch out for episode 3 - Sabrina improved alot.
cat: Alas, you are comparing us with the wrong apple. Blogger’s Treat is purpose-made for the online community. Its target audience are the regular YouTubers and people accustomed to consuming contents online, where the format needs to be shorter and the content and subject matter is more genuine and heartfelt (not faked gusto and enthusiasm).
The design and program sequence of Blogger’s Treat does stick to a formula that seemed to have worked for mainstream media - formal intro, intro chef / owners, intro food, chit-chat, last words and credits. I do this to try to attract a mainstream audience. Its something familiar for them and our online viewers.
Blogger’s Treat is not meant to compete with the mainstream media. We don’t pretend to be such and neither do we have the marketing muscle and production budget of one. We serve the online community, people like you, who watch more YouTube than your local TV / cable channels.
Do look out for other shows we are developing within Podfire.sg. If a food related show is not really your thing, there might be others that appeal to you. Of if you wish to contribute ideas and develop a show with us, do let me know. Email me at miccheng@podfire.sg.
Hi cat, thanks for the support.
Like Mic said, Aaron’s idea for the show isn’t to compete with the mainstream media.
It’s quite easy to differentiate actually. Although Aaron tries to starve me. He makes it a point to make it as original as possible. If I make mistake in the introduction so be it. We learn from the mistakes made.
If you ask the guest blogger’s on the show, the “script” is usually just a couple of sentence Aaron comes up with like 5 mins before the take itself. Which makes it tons of fun. ;x
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sentences*
Kris> We have a surprise for you in Episode 5 of Blogger’s Treat….
Aaron Kohs last blog post..Respond to the "right" issues to improve your brand imageght
Okay… this has become a mini forum for the show already.
Aaron> Surprise?
The best thing you can do for me is to put my URL there for 10mins.
The funniest thing you can do is to have you show a “behind the scenes” portion where you whip sabrina and starve her of food. After tt, have sabrina eat something, scream “Oh MY GOD~~” and fall over having orgasms.
The worse thing is to have you guys swearing at me in pubic… which is not a bad thing actually… wahahah
Damn… Episode 5 is 3 weeks away…. i can’t wait…
I was there for the filming of the 2nd episode and the environment was not easy for the hosts at all. So do cut Sabrina some slack there.
I’m sure she did much better in the later shows.
Aaron’s a mild guy and in no way a bully lah.
Kudos to Mic and podfire for giving the blogging community new shows like Bloggers’ Treats to look forward to!
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