What makes people happy? Giant sheets of pork crackling! It was the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic on the weekend, organised by Chocolatesuze and I, now in its 5th year.
After sending out 300 invitations, we had 100+ rsvps. Everything was set until Mother Nature decided to start raining 2.5 hours before our event. There was thunder. There was lightning. There was even a threat of hailstones.
There is no greater feeling of helplessness than staring at the sky and willing it to stop raining. Please!
Suze and I were determined this would go ahead. It had to. We had this.
Picking up the world's biggest box of crackling, donated by Mr Crackles
While we were talking about our picnic on twitter, Mr Crackles contacted us out of the blue and offered to donate pork crackling for our event. Not just a handful of crackling. 25 KILOS OF IT. Who were we to argue?
Frantically setting up the marquee and tents - thanks Rosa for coming to the girl scout rescue!
As the storm clouds rolled in, Suze detoured on her way in and bought two marquees and two sunshelter tents to make sure that if it continued to rain, we'd stay dry. Especially the crackle. Save the crackle!
So Suze, Noods, Raff and I are scrambling with the tents like we're competing on an episode of The Amazing Race. Only problem was that none us had set up a tent before, so we were so glad that the first person to show up - Rosa - was an ex-girl scout! Thank heavens she knew exactly what to do!
Oh hai, I have pork crackling. Do you?
The pork crackling was safe and wouldn't you know it, by 2pm when the picnic started, the clouds had gone and it was all kinda of glorious sunshine. Even the crackling was smiling.
Pork crackling for everyone!
We knew why we had faith in Sydney food bloggers. Even the threat of hail stones wouldn't keep them away from food. We had a total of 71 food bloggers turn up - that's four more than year. Hurrah!
The food tents
Our successfully pitched tents were soon host to a banquet of homemade foods. Everyone brought something to share and it was great to have everyone mingling and meeting the people behind the blogs they'd read for so long.
Here's a small selection of the food we enjoyed:
Lemper by Irene's Getting Fat
Homemade bread wreath with seeds by Crunchy Tiger
Rice paper rolls with fried tofu and roast chicken by Food is Our Religion
Chicken Caesar wraps by My Seefood Diet
Sydney food bloggers!
White chocolate raspberry muffins by The Chronicles of Hilda
Pesto and tomato puffs by The Adventures of Miss Piggy
Pulled lamb with mint sauce and crackers by Jeroxie
Simon Food Favourites manning his pop-up bar
Grapefruit and ginger fizzy and mint & lavender lemonade by The Littlest Anchovy
Santa deco roll by Absolutely Ayana
Mandatory photo call before eating
Peach cobbler by 84th & 3rd
Vegetarian marshmallow with chocolate crackle and milo by Spoonfuls of Goodness
Pineapple and coconut cupcakes by Love Swah
Salted caramel and malteseron macarons by Ramen Raff
Evil Secret Santa time!
Evil Secret Santa means you can open a present or steal someone else's
The Evil Secret Santa game that just keeps on going
One of the most stolen presents of the day: Superman apron
Sydney food bloggers Christmas picnic attendees 2013. Image by The Heart of Food
Overall a fantastic day. Thanks everyone for coming!
For more pics and posts, check the hashtag #sydfbxmas2013 on twitter and Instagram.
Sydney Food Blogger Christmas Picnic Attendees:
A Fashionable Emulsion | A Foodie's Joy | A Little Bit of Tang | A Swoonful of Sugar | A Table for Two | Absolutely Ayana | Alana Bread | Angelica's Blog | Angie Lives to Eat | Bad Table Manners | Char Post | Chocolatesuze | Christine Thai | Citrus and Candy | Cook Suck | Corridor Kitchen | Crunchy Tiger | Crystal Noir | Ellie's Belly Adventures | Fit for a Pig | Food and Other Delectable Things | Food Booze Shoes | Food is Our Religion | Foodlee | From Australia to America | Girl in a Food Frenzy | Grab Your Fork | Hangry Riley | Irene's Getting Fat | Jeroxie | Jugernauts | Just One More Spoon | Lateral Eating | Local Sprouts | Love Swah | MAB vs Food | Mademoiselle in Sydney | Milkteaxx | Muppys | My Hunger Will Go On | My Purlieu | My See Food Diet | Nessy Eater | Next Stop Food | One Bite More | One Small Pot | Panda & Cakes | Penguin Says Feed Me | PlanMB | Ramen Raff | RDYN! | Ripe Journal | Simon Food Favourites | Soft & Stiff Peaks | Spoonfuls of Goodness | Steven's Lil Corner | The Adventures of Miss Piggy | The Chronicles of Hilda | The Heart of Food | The Lamstock | The Littlest Anchovy | The Man Craves | The Random Foodie | The Sticky and Sweet | The Suz Chef | Twee-Eats | What Em Did | When the World Stops Spinning | 84th & 3rd
Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Sydney Food Blogger Christmas Picnic 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
Sorry i didn't have enough faith in mother nature and didn't attend anyways. My absolute loss because it looks like you guys had a great time! Thanks Helen and Suze for organising - you guys did a superb job! x
ReplyDeleteThat crackle... INSANE!
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit touch-and-go for a while but glad to be at another successful Xmas picnic. Thanks to you and Suze for organising it :)
ReplyDeleteI am so happy I came despite the weather warning! Would be devastated if I had to miss those cracklings lol
ReplyDeleteThanks again for organizing, you guys are the bests! :D
Another fantastic and successful Blogger Xmas picnic by the looks. Well done to both you and Suze. Sad to have missed #5 and that awesome crackling!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting all day for this post... highlight of my weekend!
ReplyDeleteI told you! Rain being goodluck doesn't just apply to weddings lol turned out to be a fab day. Thanks for organising again Helen and Suze! We all love you guys. Thanks to Rosa too! haha
ReplyDeleteWow Helen, this is amazing. I want that superman apron. Just picturing myself on it, holding the pork sheets and posing for a photo-click
ReplyDeletethanks again for org Helen! great picnic as always! xoxo superman
ReplyDeleteHey Helen!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for organising this! It was lovely meeting you :) :)
XX
Olivia
Such an awesome event and so much thanks goes to you & Chocolate Suze for making it happen, despite the rain & thunder! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I braved the crazy weather and left my house because it ended up being a beautiful day and I got to be at two amazing picnics. In any case I had my best rain-frolicking shoes on so I was prepared for a bit of storm-dancing. Awesome work Helen and Suze as usual x
ReplyDeleteHAHA! I was glad I could help! Thanks for the flattery. hehehe.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for organising it, it was better than I expected. And I'm sure to come next year!
teehee so much crackling! good times :P
ReplyDeleteSo glad the crackling gods smiled down at you, fabulous blog as usual!
ReplyDeleteI so wanted to be there this year. I spoke to Nick from The Man Craves and he said it was an awesome day and he has never eaten so much crackling. Lol. The rain gods were on your side and I am so glad the afternoon was amazing. I am there with bells on next year.
ReplyDeleteAnother fantastic picnic - thanks for organising and keeping everyone on track with evil secret santa!
ReplyDeleteThank god the weather held out. It was a great day in the end. Thank you i had lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteHow is it possible that I want MORE pork crackling after I ate about 24kgs of it on Saturday?
ReplyDeleteIt was a great picnic, glad the weather pulled up its socks for us; and thanks to you & Suze for organizing this again this year.
ENVY IN MY SOUUUUUUL
ReplyDeleteThanks so much to you and Suze for organising the picnic and being optimistic despite the storm clouds rolling in. Luckily the weather held up and it was a great afternoon!
ReplyDeleteThanks again for organising the picnic and taking care of the weather!! :) The crackling made it the best picnic ever.
ReplyDeleteAMAZING EVENT. thanks for organising with suze. great to catchup with so many other food bloggers. that pork crackling was amazeballs! thnx Mr Crackles!
ReplyDeleteWe really need to do this in Melbourne - it looks brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, I have the meat sweats just looking at all that crackling!! What a fabulous day out, glad the weather held out for you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for organising a great afternoon Helen! And that crackle was AMAZING
ReplyDeletethank you so much for organising the picnic! been having cravings for pork crackling ever since then haha
ReplyDeleteIt was a great event! Both your determination to hold it come rain, hail or shine was extremely commendable. How could I bail out? ;) loved the crackling and meeting you, chocolatesuze and so many other bloggers. Thank you Helen and Susan for organising this for us Sydney bloggers! :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like such a blast!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome bunch - love Sydney food bloggers! Wish I could have been there!
ReplyDeleteI am straight away putting my hand up as an apology for Saturday!! Ended up having to emergency baby sit for my sister and sadly, missed all the amazing food! Looks like you all had a ball.
ReplyDeleteThanks once again to you and Suze for organising the event! So glad the sun came out at the right time! :)
ReplyDeleteThis event turned out to be sunny! Thanks Helen for organising a MASSIVE picnic event :D
ReplyDeleteThanks again for organising the event with Suze! So happy when the rain decided to stop :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's amazing how you guys always have a huge Food Bloggers Xmas picnic :) It's so great to get everyone together and all the delicious dishes you guys make but seriously NOTHING beats 25kg of crackling and I love the tent you guys got to 'save' it hehe AWESOME!
ReplyDeletehopefully one day I can self-invite myself to this picnic :P
You and Suze did a fantastic job at hosting such a fun event. Thank you so much. Can't wait for next year!
ReplyDeleteGreat job organising as always Helen + Suze - alas I didn't think it would go ahead because of the weather and by the time the picnic started I wouldn't have been able to make it in time due to my living in Narnia. I cannot begin to imagine how much 25kg of pork crackling is...
ReplyDeleteGreat job as always - had the tents not been there it would have, of course, kept raining ;D Thanks again for organising and for including my pie in your wrap up!
ReplyDeleteThanks again Helen for an awesome time!!!! :D
ReplyDeleteOh those hailstone threats got nothin on us hehe. Super appreciate the lengths you organisers went through to keep this going for 5 years! This year was my first time and I'm surely looking forward to more :) Thanks again Helen!
ReplyDeleteoh wowwwww... yumm!! i wish i was a food blogger!!
ReplyDeleteI feel so bad that I didn't come along now - it looks like everyone had such a great time. :)
ReplyDeleteEveryone had an awesome time, so thanks to you and Suze for organising!
ReplyDeleteThank you for organizing this! it was such a fantastic and fun day! hope to see you all again next year.
ReplyDeleteI am glad the rain cleared before your picnic kicked off. Looks like a great spread of food and loads of friendly faces. I am not sure how you could of easily shared that pork crackling. Its all mine, mwah ha ha ha.
ReplyDeleteFar out. So sorry to have missed it.
ReplyDelete