Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Party

Last Saturday I managed to get myself invited to the 2nd Annual Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Party.

Lucky for me my better half is developing quite a little following on her food blog, and since I have been doing all her proof reading and spell checking (yes I am responsible if you spot a spelling error) she felt it only just to take me along with her.

Now I would have to admit that I'm not the most outgoing of people and a large group of people I have never met scares the willies out of me. But somehow I find the idea of a large group of people who love to cook or at least know where to buy the best tasting treats (yes I am looking at you Mel) is something that I was very eager to be a part of.

We duly trekked off to Centennial Park from our base in the wild west of Sydney, with just a few necessary stops along on the way.

Now the directions to the actual location within the park were a little vague (as neither Mel nor I actually fully read the directions given by Suze and Helen) but we knew the general area we were heading to, in the end it came down to just looking for a large group of people who were mostly all holding cameras.....

The invite had come with the instruction to bring a plate. I briefly toyed with the notion that this meant an empty plate to put goodies on but was over ruled on that point. Mel had dutifully picked up some Turkish Delight from her new favourite haunt, Rowda Ya Habibi’s in Newtown.

The Great Wall of Delight

Thanks to Angie for letting me use this picture of our sweet treat

Upon arrival we were greeted by Helen and Suze who were the organizers of this little get together and we staked out our little plot of grass and headed off to marvel at the assorted goodies that had been assembled in the middle of the group.

Now I will be the first to admit that I have a sweet tooth so the assembled bounty was right up my alley.

There was every sort of sweetness available, cupcakes, meringues and chocolatey treats. Luckily there was also some savoury dishes to help avoid the sugar coma.

The highlight of it all had to be the Macaroon Christmas Tree. It assumed the pride of place amongst all the food and had everyone talking about how great it looked. There was much anticipation waiting for the first person to try one so that we could all have a go without feeling guilty about spoiling it.

Another much coveted dish was the BBQ Ribs, they were sweet and tender. I later found out that Mel had been chatting and had missed out. I felt a little guilty the I had not grabbed two - one for each of us of course.

Once we had all had our fill of the food it was time for the Food Blogger Olympics.

Four teams of four had been chosen while we were getting our tickets for the Kris Kringle and Mel was one of those chosen. Yay Mel! She was very happy to hear that there was nothing strenuous involved as she has a wonky knee.

We all assembled around the world's largest picnic mat for the first event "The Chopsticks Race". The aim of this was to move 50 soya beans from one bowl to the other without touching the bowl. I could see the relief on Mel's face at not having to do this one (she is chopstick'ly challenged).

Event number two was the blind taste test... nothing too challenging here but there was a little bit of fun had with the competitors with comments like "Oh look it's still moving" and "is that safe to eat" coming from the audience.

The final event was a two man "Plating Up" and photography relay, firstly left over picnic fare was chosen and plated as well as possible then it was photographed and tweeted.

Now I may be somewhat biased on this one but I think that Mel's idea to grab the remnants of the Macaroon Tree and augment it with leftover cupcakes was sheer genius. Although the idea didn't pay off in the final judging it did induce a new interest in the Macaroons with everyone close enough to reach the tree grabbing one.

So with the games done it was time to move on to the Kris Kringle. We had all drawn tickets to set the order of choosing our gifts. Added to this we also had the right to steal a gift if we so chose.

This sounded pretty simple but as usually happens some times the simple things can get complicated all on their own. Needless to say there was a great deal of laughter as the highly prized items of the Ninjabread men and the Cakewich changed hands on almost every turn.

Mel picked up a nifty set of iceblock moulds and I scored a fridge shaped tin filled with coke bottle lollys, oddly no one tried to steal it from me... go figure.

With the fun over it was time to pack up the picnic rug and say our goodbyes, I had met some pretty cool people and it had been a great day and I look forward to the next gathering of the Foodies of Sydney.

On our trip home, I was a little shocked when Mel turned to me and said "I'm feeling hungry. Let's head to Auburn for some Lebanese".

Who am I to complain? So, I turned off Parramatta Rd as requested and we headed to Jasmine1. Click here for the full story.