Monday, December 14, 2009

Xmas Special: Sydney Foodies' Xmas Party 2009

This post is being done a little differently. All three writers are contributing their own little version of events on one day...

WX: Yesterday JL, AY and I had the fortunate chance to attend the Sydney Food Bloggers' Xmas Picnic, hosted by the lovely Suze and Helen. The gorgeous afternoon weather was perfect for the occasion - not too hot and showering us with plenty of sunlight.

Suze's Tower of Goodies

Not surprising there was plenty of food for all. Everyone brought their own plate of food (made or bought) and as a result we ended up having enough food to feed the whole of Africa.


Apple Cinnamon Tartlets (Ninja-ing as Fruit Mince Tarts)

It was a lovely afternoon meeting everyone. It was Team Nom's first time meeting the gang and needless to say we all struggled a little with all the names. Luckily, Suze and Helen were super-organised and provided name tags for all, just to minimise confusion and embarrassment.

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon scrolls (from a fellow Pioneer Woman Fan)

Being possibly one of the youngest groups in the circle, I must admit it was pretty inspiring to listen to all the stories people had to share and their own foodie escapades. It was also interesting to see what people actually did as their dayjob - sometimes you forget that people have lives outside of food behind the computer screen.

Kris Kringle Presents for all!

All in all it was a fun-filled day, with lots of surprises, especially with a steal-or-gamble style Kris Kringle. Funnily enough, JL's pick of a present exchanged hands many, many times - until finally Suze stole it back. I lost track of working out who the face plate was with.


AY: One word. Awesome! The weather was perfect for a large gathering of food-lovers in Hyde Park. Since this was the first invitation we’ve received to any sort of foodie event, I think I speak for both WX and JL when I say we were a tad nervous. But seriously? There was absolutely nothing to worry about. Everyone I spoke to was so friendly and willing to include a newbie like myself into the conversation – a conversation about food, photography and travels was almost like a mini journey for myself!

Billy cutting up his champagne jelly

I must’ve repeated myself constantly throughout the day but I felt like I was entering an entirely new industry – the industry known as food blogging – a job, a passion, a life where you live and breathe food and capture the true essence behind all those aromas and flavours. Talking to our fellow bloggers, whether they were new on the scene or veterans to the trade, I just became more driven to develop myself as a writer and consumer of foods. I think at some point, I became a bit self-conscious that I loved food but knew very little about it. This gathering really spurred me to learn more and write more!

Helen's awesome Elvis Cupcakes

I think when you look at the photos from the day capturing the wide expanse of food on that patch of grass at Hyde park, you honestly do begin to salivate. From cupcakes to jellies and fairy bread to chicken wings – I’ve never seen such a wide array of both home-cooked and purchased platters of food. I was pretty lucky that I didn’t give in to my hunger at lunch and just grabbed a small lunch! It was a shame that there was so much food and only one small stomach – so much I didn’t get to try!

The Kris Kringle activity which followed was an awesome pre-Christmas treat of hidden goodies. The catch? If you managed to pick out one of the smaller numbers and got to pick your present first, you were subject to group-wide scrutiny! Anyone who grabbed a larger number was able to either pick from the pile or steal a present from those already picked! I was a bit unlucky on that side of things and managed to lose my bobble headed Darth Vader figurine so instead, I ended up with a cool set of paper cups which have a range of different noses on them to make drinking from them quite a novelty!

Potato Pancake with Chorizo

Thanks to
Helen and Suze, the party was a huge success and an extremely good networking and mingling experience for those of us who are fairly new to this amazing ‘industry’. Thanks so much! And of course, thanks to all the friendly and equally passionate food bloggers for making our Sunday an awesome one! We’ll be sure to expand our reading list :)

18 comments:

  1. Great to meet you guys yesterday! Although I think I only caught two of you...oh well, there's always another time and lots more food! =p

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  2. It was a pleasure to meet the three of you in person. Not a bad day of fun, food & food bloggers, huh? :)

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  3. great to finally meet you all in person! Sorry i didn't get to chat to you for long but we'll def have another get together soon! and hey join twitter!

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  4. Glad you guys had fun and lovely to meet you all. I think you can find inspiration from everyone and it's always good to find fellow food-loving friends!

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  5. Hey, it was fantastic meeting you three (again, in some cases ;P) Hope to see you at future events!

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  6. It was lovely meeting you all, it's such fun being a foodblogger in Sydney. Gummi Baby wants me to explain that the mince pie looking pies were actually apple cinnamon tartlets which only look like mince pies because she hates mince pies and wanted to eat something that only looked like a mince pie but not taste like one... oh never mind. It was a lovely day!

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  7. great post. so glad you had a good day and enjoyed meeting new people. keep up the great blog :-)

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  8. Simon: It was indeed! Shame we didn't get a chance to chat properly - hope to see you again at the next meet and hopefully you make good use of your little KK utensil! :D

    Suze: Thanks again for all your organisation and hard work. See you soon at the next meet! I've actually already set up a Twitter account, but it won't come into play until the new domain is launched. But watch this space! =)

    Helen: It was great to see everyone and be inspired and spurred on by everyone sharing the same passion. Thanks a whole bunch for the organisation and general awesomeness Helen! Thanks!

    Chris: It was great meeting you guys - loved the Viet rolls by the way! :D

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  9. It was great to see all of you for the first time although we didn't get to meet or chat properly. Always the case in large gatherings especially when one is quite *shy*

    Oh and sorry for accosting Darth off AY but it was love at first sight with the Sith Lord :P (hides face in shame).

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  10. wow you guys updated so fast! it was nice meeting you all :)

    Cheers,
    Brad

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  11. Perfect weather and perfect food and perfect company. What a shame I couldn't make it. Thanks for the post though!

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  12. I am sorry didn't get the chance to say hi to you all! Was too busy eating pork! HAHAHA. I am glad you guys had fun, and myself was tad nervous when come to meeting strangers too. Oh well, im sure there is always next outing when we all get to introduce ourselves properly! :)

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  13. Karen: Haha, I will remember this for eternity and rest assured at the next KK, your present shall be miiinneee! MUAHAH! Haha, but it was nice semi-meeting the stealer of my present ;) Looking forward to our next meet!

    Brad: We weren't fast enough for all the veterans unfortunately! Hope your flight was a good one and looking forward to more of your awesome macro shots!

    Joey: Indeed! Next time we shall meet! Thanks for your continual readership!

    Billy: Yeah it was a shame! I really wanted to try eating your pork toooo - it looked delicious! Next outing, be sure to cook some more up to feed us - please? ;) I'll be sure to make more forward introductions next time! :D

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  14. @Karen: At least we know the Sith Lord is in a good place where he's loved and cherished. Hahahaha.

    @Brad: Are you back in Singapore now? So glad you could make the party! Hopefully we can meet you next time in Singapore and you can show us around =D

    @Joey: Yeah where were you!? We were all looking forward to meeting you as well but you never showed up =[ I hope the excuse is good! Nevermind - there's always next time

    @Billy: Don't worry, if I had that slab of pork in front of me I'd be too distracted as well. Hahaha It looked heavenly! I was very nervous myself walking to the event - it takes a little courage to walk up to veteran foodies to say hi! But it was great that everyone was friendly and inviting.

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  15. The food looks amazing! It's such a great idea to do a picnic as well, the community building aspect of food is really brought out. The pictures are gorgeous and really capture the mood of the day as well do full justice to the food. Is making my mouth water at my desk!!

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  16. hehe, thanks for the update in the photo of the apple cinnamon/mince pies! You guys rock!

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  17. It was great meeting you guys at the picnic although I don't think I managed to talk to all of you properly. Hopefully we'll be seeing each other at more foodie events in the future :)

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  18. What an awesome gathering that was!
    Hope to see you guys again (properly, next time!) for more eating occasions to come :)

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