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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014

Red velvet cake at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014

Last year we endured a thunderstorm. This year our food bloggers' Christmas picnic took place on one of the hottest November days ever seen. The mercury hit 36C on Sunday but that didn't stop 74 Sydney food bloggers congregating at Bicentennial Park to celebrate good food, drinks and each other.

Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 at the Hill Pavilion, Bicentennial Park #sydfbxmas2014
Hill Pavilion at Bicentennial Park

This was the 6th picnic organised by Chocolatesuze and I, an event that grows each year in size. We'd booked the Hill Pavilion in case in rained, but it ended up providing much needed shade from the scorching sun.

Picnic table lunch at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Getting ready for foods

Everyone brought a dish to share, an overwhelming bounty of savoury food, desserts, soft drinks and alcohol.

Food bloggers photographing food at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
But first let me take a food photo

There were mandatory food photos of course. After the formalities were over though, everyone was keen to dig into everything all at once.

Lemper Indonesian sticky rice with chicken at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Lemper Indonesian sticky rice with shredded chicken by Irene's Getting Fat

There's somehow more sweets than savouries, but I'm glad I nabbed the last lemper, a bundle of fragrant sticky rice stuffed with tender shreds of chicken.

Massaman beef empanadas at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Massaman beef empanadas by Random Meals

Massaman beef empanadas at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Potato and meat croquettes by Eat Your Teacup

Thai milk tea macarons and pistachio macarons at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Thai milk tea macarons and pistachio macarons by Ramen Raff

Raff's macarons disappeared in flash but I managed to try half of each. Raff's macaron shells are always impressive, with just the right amount of chew.

Strawberry Nesquik cheesecake shooters at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Strawberry Nesquik cheesecake shooters by Crystal Noir

There was no shortage of desserts.

Fancy Santa cookies and milk at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Fancy Santa cookies and milk by The Sweet Lab

Baked doughnuts at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Baked doughnuts by For Food's Sake

Hamburger cupcakes at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Hamburger cupcakes by Oh Burger, Me

The hamburger cupcakes were probably the most photographed dish of the day. The brownie sandwiched in a cupcake with icing cheese and salad looked just like the real thing!

Evil Secret Santa at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Evil Secret Santa gets underway

Evil Secret Santa is always a highlight, with everyone keen to steal the most lucrative presents.

Waffle maker fun during Evil Secret Santa at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
OMG it's a waffle maker

You do not want to know how many times this animal waffle maker was stolen.

Piggy bank reveal during Evil Secret Santa at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Just checking whether there's money in that piggy bank

But over-riding everything was a great sense of humour about it all. 

Selfie stick group photos at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Selfie time!

A selfie stick made an appearance and it's actually quite amazing how it changes the dynamic of a group photo. Everybody wanted in, and couldn't stop laughing either.

Selfie stick group photos at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Selfie stick group photo

Selfie stick group photos at the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 #sydfbxmas2014
Not one, but two selfie sticks in circulation

Thank you everyone for coming and for surviving the heat! Don't forget you can view all the tweets, pics and Facebook posts from the day by checking the #sydfbxmas2014 hashtag.

Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2014 group photo #sydfbxmas2014
[Photo credit: Rosa]

#sydfbxmas2014 attendees:
2 Hungry Guys | Angie Lives To Eat | A Little Bit of Tang | Artaco Eats | A Table For Two | Aus2Usa | Belly Rumbles | Chewing Around Town | ChocolateSuze | Citrus and Candy | Confessions of a Glutton | Cooking Crusade | Crystal Noir | Culinary Runway | Diana Suen | Eat Your Teacup | Excuse Me Waiter | Food Is our Religion | Food MAB | For Foods Sake | Four Fifth On Food | Go Bake Yourself | Grab Your Fork | I Snapped Et | iFat | I Love My Food Lots | Inner City Stinge | Irene’s Getting Fat | Journey From Within | Just Food No Words | Khismosa | Lateral Eating | Live To Eat Or Eat To Live | Maddie Loves Food | Meet the Bff | Milktea | Ms Brulee | Nessy Eater | Next Stop Food | Oh Burger Me | One Small Pot | Penguin Says Feed Me | Petit 4s | Ramen Raff | Random Meals | Raspberri Cupcakes | Rosa Dyn | Sarah vs Carbs | Small But Hungry | Spoon Fork and Chopsticks | Spoonfuls of Goodness | Sugarlace | The Chronicles of Hilda | The Food Diary by CK | The Gourmet Couture | The Perks of Being a Food Blogger | The Random Foodie | The Sweet Lab | When the World Stops Spinning | Weekend Food Escapes | Western Sydney Food Blog | What Em Did | What the Fork Should I Eat | Wonderlaind

36 comments:

  1. Looks like so much fun! My bad for missing out. Next time, for sure. Loving the look of ALL the food - so impressive!!! I wanna eat everything and more! OMG - how's this heat! Geeeeez! Great groupie photo folks! :D

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  2. Thanks Helen and Suze for organising another awesome picnic! LOL at the selfie sticks!

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  3. Hahahaha yay for selfie stick! I love your photos, Helen! The one with Isaac gaping is the best LOL. Thanks for organizing! :))

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  4. It was great to finally put faces to names, it was a fun day. Thanks so much to you and Susan for organising. :)

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  5. An interesting demographic which only a big grou photo can capture.

    A great list of food blogs for me to traul through on a quiet day. Nothing like a good list.

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  6. Thanks so much for organising! You guys are awesome

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  7. Thanks for organising again Helen. Another success and it was great to meet more bloggers! :)

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  8. teehee thanks for keeping me sane and hydrated!

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  9. All the food looks oh so good - such a cleaver bunch of bloggers - hopefully I can make it next year.

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  10. Looks like AWESOME fun and omg, my mouth is watering at those food pix. Dammit, wish I was a food blogger - looks far more fun than being an advice columnist ;-)

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  11. Thank you for organisaing another awesome picnic! looking forward to the next one!

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  12. Ahhh so sad I couldn't make it. Looks likes so much fun + amazing spread too. Glad nobody melted in that heat!!

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  13. This picnic is a winning idea. Cheers to both you and Chocolatesuze for the invite this year.

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  14. Thanks to you and Suze for organising another awesome picnic, and yes super grateful for the shelter against the searing hot sun!

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  15. Looks amazing - so much fantastic food, sorry I couldn't make it!

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  16. Thanks for organising. The picnic was awesome!

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  17. Looks like another epic day! I do remember the fun & frolics of evil secret Santa last year! ;)

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  18. You know an event is serious if the selfie sticks make an appearance.

    Really sad I wasn't able to make it this year. The curse of bad timing! Here's to an awesome 2015 picnic (that I can hopefully attend)!

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  19. We definitely had a great turn out this year. I think Secret Santa was definitely more evil this year than the last. It's a shame you're so far back in the group photo! Thanks for organising such a successful day. Looking at all those smiles in these photos should be enough evidence of its success :D

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  20. I'm so sorry I missed it. Somehow I didn't think it was coming up this quickly. I'm glad you all had a great day despite the heat! I was out on the water trying to stay cool. It looks like a wonderful array of foods arrived to be shared so what a great picnic xx

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  21. thanks Helen and Suze for organising the picnic and the shelter to protect us from the epic heat! fantastic event as always :D

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  22. Looks like you had a ball even in the scorching heat! Trust Ramen Raff's macarons to disappear in a flash! :)

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  23. Thanks again for organising! Great photos BTW!!

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  24. Thanks again Helen for organising this! Really enjoyed the picnic (and the food!!) haha

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  25. What a fabulous idea! I love the 'mandatory food photo' shot :)

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  26. Mm, reading this is making me hungry all over again! Thanks so much for organising along with Suze, I had such a great time :)

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  27. Was definitely down in the dumps missing the picnic and watching it all on social media from Melbourne... but I was stoked you and Suze got your posts up the same day! YAY! x

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  28. It was such a fun picnic, thanks for sharing your photos and organising the event! :D

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

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  29. Sounds like so much fun (wishing I was a Sydney food blogger :P)! Loving the cute burger cupcakes (so creative) and the macarons made, that's some mad skills :)

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  30. We finally caught onto this phenomenon in Perth this year with our first one being a much more humble affair than yours in Sydney. I hope ours grows to this calibre!

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  31. Thanks for organising this again! It was so much fun to see so many new and old faces! :D
    The heat cannot stop food lovers!!

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  32. aw... sounds like a great event! Haven't been the past 2 years but have always looked forward to it when I was in Sydney! Food never disappoints!

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  33. Boy, this year's evil Santa is EVIL alright! :P Thanks for organising another fantastic food bloggers event Helen. Totally enjoying the photos, thanks.

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  34. OMG YOU GUYS! It looks like a lot of fun... I'm so bummed that I couldn't make it but judging by the number of people turning up, maybe there's an opportunity for Christmas in July? :P

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  35. Hehe thanks for organising Helen! So much good food and a great bunch of people to hang out with :D

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  36. I didn't get to go this year, but thank you to you and Suze for always organising this event every year, and getting our tribe of food bloggers together! :) It looks like it was a wonderful day.

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