Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic!
Saturday was the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic!
Strawberry santas! By Ayana
After wandering around lost in Centennial Park for 1/2 an hour (tweeting feebly as my block of brie began to melt) I knew I’d found the people I was looking for when I came across a suspiciously large group of people holding large cameras, taking turns to photograph a slab of concrete festooned with plates of food.
AHA! FOOD BLOGGERS!
I was wondering why I didn’t recognise more of the bloggers I’d met at the last outing – until I realised that I’d met everyone under somewhat different states of appearance haha! Under closer observation, I recognised few familiar faces, including the delightful Chocolatesuze and Grabyourfork – hostesses with the mostesses of this fine gathering.
Everybody was charged with bringing a plate – and WHOAH did they deliver:
Check it outtt
I thought (somewhat correctly) that everyone would be bringing sweets, so instead I brought a few dozen slices of proscuitto from my local deli, and a rather fetching triangle of tasmanian brie. And I’m glad I did!! There’s no way I could have competed with such a delicious array of baked goods. There were homemade marshmallows, cupcakes aplenty, salted chocolate and caramel cookies, pecan tartlettes, white chocolate fried wontons, christmas tree meringues, adorable santa strawberries, red bean sweets, turkish delight…. you name it, we had it.
On the savoury side, we had curry puffs, bbq ribs, mini quiches, dumplings, smoked salmon dip, mini banh mi. I wish I could have sampled it all – it was intense!
Ribs by Billy at atablefortwo – a minute after I took this photo, the crowds descended and they were all gone! So gutted I missed out on one!
Gorgeous looking and tasting cheese, berry and walnut tower from Bakery Bookery
Yummy smoked Salmon dip by Spotted Pufferfish (animal themed blog names rprsnt!)
How cute are these little meringue christmas trees?? Spotted Pufferfish and I spent a long time eyeing these longingly until one of us got the courage to tip toe amongst the food pile to rescue them from the middle!
More food!!
Right when we were all starting to get tucked into the food, I heard a gasp from the people standing behind me. Swivelling around, I was graced with this beautiful sight!!
A macaron tower, coming closer and closer to me. Stuff of dreams
The amazing macaron tower was made by the amazing Cleony! Make sure you check out her blog about it.
Chocolatesuze breaking the ice
The chocolate ganache one was so good!
After eating was blogger olympics! Numbers were pulled from a hat to determine teams.
First challenge was chopsticks! Transfer 50 soybeans from one bowl to the other using chopsticks. Fiendishly difficult!
Second challenge, taste test!
Third challenge! Plating up – use whatever leftovers you can grab from the picnic to create a plate.
Clever Melba Toast from The Adventures of Miss Piggy grabbed the rest of Cleony’s macaron tower!
Final Challenge! Photography! Time to take photos of the plates from challenge number 3! iphones and twitter required!
The last part of the day was dedicated to a massive round of Kris Kringle. Everyone had brought a gift, and placed it in the pile.
After drawing numbers out of a hat – we go in order… either picking a present from the pile, or stealing one from someone else who’s already drawn. Hilariously got out of hand, with the Cakewich and Ninja Gingerbread cookie cutters emerging as firm favourites of the group.
The lucky final winners show off their spoils!
I went through 3 presents, not too bad! Ginger ninjas (I think everyone in the group got to hold this for at least one round!), Mango and banana cutters, which finally got stolen and replaced with matryoshka measuring spoons! Quite chuffed with my final gift! Who brought it? I’d love to thank them 🙂
Spotted Pufferfish very pleased with her egg flip!
Phuoc ‘n Delicious looking a bit apprehensive about her bug lollipops!
Karen from Citrus and Candy looking….. intrigued by her ahem…. banana.
All in all it was an amazing day! Met so many cool people, hope we all keep in touch! See you on the twitters!
Check out other people’s posts:
Chocolatesuze
Grabyourfork
Spotted Pufferfish
Angie Lives to Eat and Cook
Cook Republic
Eat My Shots
Gastronomous Anonymous
Mel’s Love of Food
I Eat Sweet
Bakery Bookery
The Heart of Food
Diary of a Food Addict
(Let me know if I missed yours!)
Follow Me on Pinterest
Awesome photos! Lol that banana is gonna haunt me for a while… *hides face in shame*
Ah, you were the one who brought that! Nice of you to shore up the savouries. Far too many sweets to go around.
Not that that’s necessarily a problem 🙂
great to see ya again dude! and lol thanks for bringing the proscuitto i heart you so much 😀
Billy’s ribs & those little strawberry santas look great!!! Sad I arrived too late to eat them v_V
It was great to meet you btw! Thx for the post.
I’m devastated I missed out on Billy’s ribs too…next year I hope he makes one for each of us.
I thought i was pretty clever grabbing Cleony’s macaron tower too, but I hope she didn’t mind!
I bought the measuring spoons, so glad you like them. They are VERY cute aren’t they.
omg, your photography is incredible. i have camera envy.
you missed my post.
http://starloz.com/2010/12/11/2nd-annual-sydney-food-bloggers-xmas-picnic
Thanks Laura! I’ve added your blog too 🙂
Glad you liked my meringues 🙂 and boy was I glad to see that prosciutto and cheese so I could take a break from all the sweets!
they were so cute!!
hehe glad my proscuitto helped!!
I missed out on Billy’s ribs too!
I love the photos! It was a great idea bringing the prosciutto!!
I missed out on the ribs too 😦 HAHAHAH at Karen and her… banana 😉
she does seem to be fascinated with that…. banana! hehee
Great post and pics melly! I was sorry not to be able to make it this year and catch up with the lovely bloggers from suze’s bday party. Hopefully I will be able to see you all again in the new year! Merry Christmas 🙂
it was nice meeting you mel! great photos you have there. anyways happy new year!
Your photos are stunning! Thnx for some nostalgia, it was an awesome day and I was so glad to relive it again through your post :-). I even saw myself in one of the photos! yayy!