IRL: Sydney bloggers' yumcha
We had a Sydney bloggers yumcha today, forcibly drawing back the curtains from the anonymous stage of cyberspace.
In attendance was pinkcocoa, ShinChan, BHR, R, R's sibling, Casey, and of course yours truly. The rollcall was modest, but the appetites--happily--more than compensated.

We had yumcha at perennial favourite, East Ocean, whereupon a frenzy of urgent finger pointing and vigorous head nodding quickly resulted in a groaning table of delectable delights.
There were dumplings with prawns (har gow), dumplings with garlic chives (gao choy gow) and dumplings with snow pea sprouts (dao miu gow).
We had sticky rice, bean curd parcels, beef siu mai, Chinese broccoli (gai lan), long prawn noodles (har cheung fun), fried rice noodles (jin cheung fun) and pepper beef.
There was tripe. There was chicken feet. And then there were desserts.
Coconut jelly, almond jelly, mango pudding, mango pancakes... *sigh*
It was hard work but we had commitment.
We had integrity.
We had emergency stomachs.
Pinkcocoa took on the onerous task of photographing each dish. Check out her post here.
All in all it was great fun in the midst of like-minded company. The tastebuds are always heightened in the company of foodies and it was fantastic to finally meet the people behind the blogsites.
And it seems like we're not the only city to turn URLs to IRLs. Seattle bloggers also met for the first time last week.

Sydney bloggers doing what they do best!
posted by Helen (AugustusGloop) on 2/27/2005 12:00:00 pm


22 Comments:
At 2/28/2005 9:19 pm,
Ben said…
I trying to remember if that photo was staged. You've goota be fast around food bloggers :)
At 2/28/2005 9:20 pm,
R said…
But there were no shark fin dim sum :)
Thank you for a wonderful time.
At 2/28/2005 9:20 pm,
R said…
But there were no shark fin dim sum :)
Thank you for a wonderful time.
At 2/28/2005 9:20 pm,
R said…
But there were no shark fin dim sum :)
Thank you for a wonderful time.
At 2/28/2005 9:21 pm,
Ben said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 2/28/2005 9:22 pm,
Ben said…
Wow - commenting stuffed up for both R and I just then :)
At 2/28/2005 9:25 pm,
Ben said…
And thankfully because there was no shark fin eaten we were able walk home with a few dollars in our pockets :)
At 2/28/2005 10:41 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Ack! A commenting combustion!
Hi BHR - Did I not capture your chopsticks' good side? :P It offers an interesting analysis of chopstick technique anyway.
Hi R - Glad you enjoyed it. Foodies are always cool.
No, no shark fin on the day. There is of course scepticism that they even contain shark fin anyway. Besides I've been lectured enough by scuba divers about shark fin!
BHR - Yup I was pretty impressed with $15.50/head. Bargain!
At 3/01/2005 12:04 pm,
Veruca Salt said…
Looks like I missed out on a yummy spread but what happened to the pai kquat(no idea how to spell it)Yum Cha cannot be completed without the scrummy pork rib bits in the delicious garlicky black bean sauce. Oh the goodness!
At 3/01/2005 12:55 pm,
pinkcocoa said…
hiya AG
it was great meeting you and the lot! We should definitely plan another get-together again. This time maybe in a more quiet atmosphere! My poor hardly-audible ears were bad at yumcha. I could hardly catch the conversation but I did enjoy watching you guys talk!
R: I just received info on sharkfin dumpling. Apparently the sharkfin dumpling is shaped to look like the sharkfin. There is actually no sharkfin in there!
At 3/01/2005 12:55 pm,
pinkcocoa said…
btw, post is up!
At 3/01/2005 1:43 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Veruca Salt - Aye, it was grand! You'll know next time to mark this one in your diary!
No pai kwut (I have no idea how to spell it either) I'm afraid. I did notice this, but there was so much food avail otherwise, that the stomach didn't complain too much.
Hi pinkcocoa - Yup I had fun. I'm sorry you couldn't hear well. I didn't realise. We should definitely organise another eat-fest (woohoo!).
Nice pics. Thanks for the post. I'm glad I could count on your photographic diligence. I think I was camera'd out after my frenetic EoMEoTE that morning!
At 3/01/2005 2:21 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hey! Great to know that food bloggers all over the world are getting together and putting faces with blogs! How funny that these meetings happened so close together!
We're working on another meeting for next month - this time for cocktails! And we hope to invite others in our area.
Sounds like you guys had a great time - now we just need to work on a world conference so we can all meet each other! :-)
Brenda
At 3/01/2005 4:55 pm,
pinkcocoa said…
Yess another eat-fest would be good. ;-) I can't wait. hehe!
So you actually had that EoMEoTE for breakkie that morning? No wonder you didnt eat much during yumcha! Hope to see you in full eating action next time!
At 3/01/2005 10:41 pm,
Ms One Boobie said…
Hey..AG,
That's so nice.. :) to be meeting up.. with ppl who love food as oneself.. :)
Ahhh.. where's the pics of the bloggers..???
At 3/01/2005 10:47 pm,
Reid said…
Hi AG,
Wow! I love dim sum. Mmmmmmmmm! I haven't had it in a while. I actually was going to have dim sum in Singapore, but I think we went somewhere else instead.
I'm glad you had fun with the Aussie bloggers. I had fun with the gals in S'pore. I forgot my camera, so no posts.
At 3/01/2005 10:48 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Brenda/culinary fool - Yeah I remember thinking "great minds think alike" when I saw Meg's posting.
I suppose it was inevitable and you can never have too many foodie friends to call upon.
We did have fun and I'm sure there'll be another one in the pipeline shortly. As for world conferencing, I think Reid is doing a one-man show himself having met bloggers on his travels to Singapore recently and plans to come Down Under later this year.
That's what I need to do. Organise an international food bloggers' relay trip.
Hi pinkcocoa - Yep, sounds good. Can never eat out too much!
And yes I did eat the EoMEoTE that morning. I thought I did very well at yumcha considering normally I arrive with an empty stomach!
Hi MrsT - Yes it was fun. I thought the pics of our chopsticks was much more creative! ;P
At 3/01/2005 10:54 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Reid - How funny. I think we were both typing comments at the same time.
Anyway yes we had much fun and yes, yum cha/dim sum is always good value. It's always interesting too to eat out with different people as I always find people have their own peculiar must-eats!
As for your photo-less S'pre meeting, I would've thought one of the other bloggers would've had a camera! I'm sure the memories are more than vivid though.
At 3/02/2005 12:46 pm,
Fish Fish said…
hahaha!! AG, what a great pic of the last one. I just enjoyed this post so much. It was nice to have a bloggers gathering, wasn't it? ;)
At 3/02/2005 3:17 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi fishfish - Haha. Yes inspiration struck so I got all chopsticks to pose! :P
We had fun. Maybe next time you're in town you could join us? :) Good food but not as much to eat as your all-you-can-eat dessert smorgasboard! :P I still remember that post with wistful envy!
At 5/12/2005 12:14 am,
Anonymous said…
I am a Sydney blogger too. Tell me when you are organising a Sydney blogger dining out again!!!
At 5/14/2005 6:34 pm,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi kuponuts - Ahh yes, thanks for reminding me. It's been a while since we've had one!
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