Sydney Food Blogger’s Christmas Party, Hyde Park
I started the blog purely for vanity purposes. I thought that it would be a bit of a laugh. I mean, I’m not a particularly good photographer or a good writer. I don’t experiment and come up with amazing recipes and I don’t provide any sort of helpful reviews or news on the Sydney food scene.
So it was with some bewilderment that I find myself smack bang in the middle of about 50 food bloggers. I nearly decided not to come, and was so neurotic and anxious about the whole thing (social anxiety, the usual) that I was sure that my partner was this close to telling me to shut my yap. OK, so he kinda did in the end.
Thank god for Helen and her name tags so I didn’t actually have to say my blog name out loud. I did prepare some cards the night before, just in case. So – pictures:
Billy’s dog Amelie, who I fell in love with. Here, Amelie contemplates a restraining order against me.
Tim and Christina of The Way It Crumbles. This level of cuteness should be illegal.
Gummi Baby (oh god, I forgot your real name, I suck) of YaYa’s Yum Yums and Sara of Belly Rumbles. I typed out Berry Lumbles first and only noticed just before I published this post.
As you can see we had a bloody huge turnout.
FOOD GLOOORIOUS FOOOOOD. Omfg. This is only about 3/4 of everything there.
MORE FOOD. Oh my god everything was fucking delicious. We had a 10 minute photo taking session before swooping down like vultures.
Billy, that amazing and slightly crazy wonderchef brought slow roasted (6 hours, bitches!) pork to the party. He even made homemade sauces to go with it. When the roast came out, he was instantly everyone’s best friend. The roast was super tender and moist. No close ups, sorry. Was too busy having foodgasms.
I sampled this cupcake first (by someone from YaYa’s Yum Yums – again, my memory fails me) – it was just too cute to pass up. I was right to pick this, of course – it was delicious.
Closeup of the savoury rice noodle roll. Can’t get enough.
This is what the spread looks like an hour into eating. If you think that we hardly made a dent in it, you’re right. Regretfully the stomach space available was smaller than the amount of food. I made a Herculean effort and was still defeated at the end of it. From my (hazy) memory, I had one of the little cornflake cups by Susan, a slice of pound cake, Simon’s mini burger (which reawakened the pickle-eating monster in me), roast pork, a prawn sushi, a roll with bacon bits in it, Denea’s s’mores, a bit of the chocolate tart I brought along (bought, obvs), some biscuits that Peter brought, custard puffs, the cupcake I mentioned before, rice noodle roll, Billy’s champagne jelly and uh that’s all I can remember. I REALLY wanted to try the gingerbread that Jacq mentioned on Twitter but I didn’t get around to it 
For the Kris Kringle I got these – can’t wait to try out some recipes!
I learned these important lessons from the party:
- Food bloggers don’t do things in half-measures. If the invite says to bring a plate, they will bring a giant plate (or two) of something delicious.
- I was right: Sydney food bloggers (aside from muggins here) are an extraordinarily attractive bunch. I too want a machine that converts calories into hotness.
- They’re also hilarious – I’m looking at Peter and Grace.
- Don’t wear a short dress if you’re going to be sitting on the grass for an extended period of time. I think I spent most of the day trying not to flash people.
- Chill the fuck out, self. The people you like will like you back. Most of the time. If you don’t, you know, act like an asshole.
- Don’t change my blog name. Ever. Although Fouad was the only person who knew where the domain name was from.
- Sydney is tiny. I met two people who live in my suburb who I swear I’ve never seen around before.
- Lady Iron Chef is a man.
I’m super chuffed to have met a couple of bloggers who I’ve conversed with on Twitter, e.g. Karen of Citrus & Candy and to meet a couple of familiar faces, e.g. Yas. I didn’t really get to talk to that many people but those that I did get to talk to are lovely. If I didn’t mention you or link back to you, give us a holler. It’s not that you’re not awesome, it’s because I suck.
Many thanks to Helen and Susan for organising – a good time was had by all.
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hahaha i loved this writeup oh man you crack me up! good seeing ya again dude!
Yeah… I changed my mind… don’t change your blog name.
Finally glad to meet up with you! Shame we didn’t have too much time to socialise but there’ll always be next time.
One minor correction I’d like to raise. As much as I appreciate the shout out, I’d hate to take credit for Billy’s champagne jelly with longan fruit and gold leaf. Might have just been the case of wrong person at the right place at the right time
I don’t know whether the pickle-eating monster bit is a good thing or not but, for what it’s worth, those were my mini burgers that awoke the beast within. So too the trays of chili chicken wings next to them.
Nice post. Can’t wait to see what you’ll do with the KK ingredients
LOL! Good thing you didn’t change your mind about coming along (I had the same anxiety with not knowing anyone), otherwise I never would have got to meet the person behind the distinctive blog name. And, no, don’t ever change it =)
=) It was fantastic meeting you too! I’m still in love with your blog-name! That’s a really cute photo, did you mind sending Tim and I a copy? We rarely take photos of ourselves..
And that chocolate tart, if its the one I’m thinking of, was absolutely heavenly!
Catch ya around!
[...] believe Rose from Food F*ck Yeah brought this amazing looking chocolate tart. It was deliciously rich, with a silky mouthfeel to the [...]
Oops! Thanks for the correction Simon… I thought I heard someone say it was yours, but I heard wrong… fixed now! I’m glad I got to sample one of your food though, that burger was fricking amazing.
@Chris – no worries! I don’t have your e-mail address (I can’t seem to find it on the site, think I’m blind or something) so just give us a quick buzz on hesbianlam@gmail.com and I’ll send you a copy of the photo tomorrow evening.
hahahaa, ladyironchef indeed is a man! hahaha
Actually Peter G also knew where your domain name came from, he told me so.
It was lovely to meet you too, kinda jealous u have a cool blog name that everyone talks about!
Love your important lessons, although the gender of LadyIronChef is not particularly important I would have thought!
You should have grabbed some gingerbread off me at the end because I had so much left over! It was great seeing you again but such a shame I didn’t get a chance to talk to you properly. I’m sure they’ll be a next time though
Love the pic of Amelie – she is so cute!
So glad you made it! Anxiety? The most stressful thing at these events is trying to work out how you’re going to fit everything in! Great to finally meet you and I love your post – really captures the spirit – and food chaos – of the day!
[...] a slice of this cake which I believe was Rose’s (hmm… just click on the link, you’ll find out). This was a really nice cake. Would love to find out where it was purchased [...]
Looks like you all had an awesome time up there!
Hee hee great to see you again even though we didn’t get to talk much :S Great coverage ^^! Mmmm wish I had all of that food here right now hungryyyy
Lol! yes I gotta admit you did make a solid effort to put away all that food
next time we’re not eating lunch haha! gotta clear parking space
[...] Bo Ssam by Billy; Cake by Rose; Prosciutto wrapped [...]
Such a funny writer! You expressed exactly the same trepidations I was feeling too and they all turned out to be a great bunch of people!
PS: You don’t suck!
Rose, you’re gorgeous! Thanks for the photo! For the record, I’d like to remain Gummi Baby online but I’ll remind you next time we meet! : )
Heya! Can’t wait to catch up with you around Balmain – I still haven’t bumped into you! Maybe this holiday season okay?! Merry Christmas and great to meet you!