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.
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.
Getting ready for foods
Everyone brought a dish to share, an overwhelming bounty of savoury food, desserts, soft drinks and alcohol.
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 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 by Random Meals
Potato and meat croquettes by Eat Your Teacup
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 by Crystal Noir
There was no shortage of desserts.
Fancy Santa cookies and milk by The Sweet Lab
Baked doughnuts by For Food's Sake
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 gets underway
Evil Secret Santa is always a highlight, with everyone keen to steal the most lucrative presents.
OMG it's a waffle maker
You do not want to know how many times this animal waffle maker was stolen.
Just checking whether there's money in that piggy bank
But over-riding everything was a great sense of humour about it all.
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 photo
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.
[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
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
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen and Suze for organising another awesome picnic! LOL at the selfie sticks!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha yay for selfie stick! I love your photos, Helen! The one with Isaac gaping is the best LOL. Thanks for organizing! :))
ReplyDeleteIt was great to finally put faces to names, it was a fun day. Thanks so much to you and Susan for organising. :)
ReplyDeleteAn interesting demographic which only a big grou photo can capture.
ReplyDeleteA great list of food blogs for me to traul through on a quiet day. Nothing like a good list.
Thanks so much for organising! You guys are awesome
ReplyDeleteThanks for organising again Helen. Another success and it was great to meet more bloggers! :)
ReplyDeleteteehee thanks for keeping me sane and hydrated!
ReplyDeleteAll the food looks oh so good - such a cleaver bunch of bloggers - hopefully I can make it next year.
ReplyDeleteLooks 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 ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for organisaing another awesome picnic! looking forward to the next one!
ReplyDeleteAhhh so sad I couldn't make it. Looks likes so much fun + amazing spread too. Glad nobody melted in that heat!!
ReplyDeleteThis picnic is a winning idea. Cheers to both you and Chocolatesuze for the invite this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and Suze for organising another awesome picnic, and yes super grateful for the shelter against the searing hot sun!
ReplyDeleteLooks amazing - so much fantastic food, sorry I couldn't make it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for organising. The picnic was awesome!
ReplyDeleteLooks like another epic day! I do remember the fun & frolics of evil secret Santa last year! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou know an event is serious if the selfie sticks make an appearance.
ReplyDeleteReally 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)!
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
ReplyDeleteI'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
ReplyDeletethanks Helen and Suze for organising the picnic and the shelter to protect us from the epic heat! fantastic event as always :D
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a ball even in the scorching heat! Trust Ramen Raff's macarons to disappear in a flash! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks again for organising! Great photos BTW!!
ReplyDeleteThanks again Helen for organising this! Really enjoyed the picnic (and the food!!) haha
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous idea! I love the 'mandatory food photo' shot :)
ReplyDeleteMm, reading this is making me hungry all over again! Thanks so much for organising along with Suze, I had such a great time :)
ReplyDeleteWas 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
ReplyDeleteIt was such a fun picnic, thanks for sharing your photos and organising the event! :D
ReplyDeleteCheers
Choc Chip Uru
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 :)
ReplyDeleteWe 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!
ReplyDeleteThanks for organising this again! It was so much fun to see so many new and old faces! :D
ReplyDeleteThe heat cannot stop food lovers!!
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!
ReplyDeleteBoy, this year's evil Santa is EVIL alright! :P Thanks for organising another fantastic food bloggers event Helen. Totally enjoying the photos, thanks.
ReplyDeleteOMG 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
ReplyDeleteHehe thanks for organising Helen! So much good food and a great bunch of people to hang out with :D
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDelete