Blogger's Banquet

Finally, I have some time to write up the wonderful Blogger's Banquet that Ed over at Tomato had organised. It was held at the Vegout Community Gardens in St Kilda, situated right behind Luna Park. I never even knew such a peaceful serene place existed right there.

Firstly, before I start, apologies if I get anyone's name wrong. I'm hopeless with names so please correct any mistakes. Here goes.

I was one of the earlier arrivers as I came straight from work. I put on my "Yoda Says: Blogging This I Am" t-shirt just for the occasion. Already at the wood fired oven were Ed, Peggy from A Goddess In The Kitchen plus hubby Furry (real name I forget) and Kate from Get Real was also there with partner, whose name also eludes me. I started off by replying to Ed's comment about how he looked like Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear and saying there was a little resemblance. Judge for yourself, below is Ed on the left and Jeremy on the right.



That got everyone started about Top Gear and their favourite episode. I thought I was a fan since I have watched quite a few episodes, but I was no match for everyone else who seems to have watched EVERY episode.

As the night wore on, more and more people started to arrive. Elliot from 1001 Dinners 1001 Nights arrived with his lovely wife Sandra (sorry if this isn't your name, please correct me). I'm not sure about the name, but Sandra (I'll keep using that name for now) and I talked about China, as she was actually born there, despite being Russian. We talked about various Chinese cuisine. Elliot also came prepared and handed out a very very difficult food quiz. I have to admit I wasn't sure of any answers. It turns out, from reading Elliot's blog, that Neil from At My Table won. Neil arrived with the whole family, including daughter, who I only ever knew as P from the blog. And you've guessed it, I've already forgotten her name so it will remain P for me.

We all tucked into the tortillas and prawns that Neil brought whilst more people arrived. Josh, from The Day of The Expanding Man (who should be sued for inaccurate portrayal of himself as he is really thin) arrived and made a grand entrance. Let's just say there was some flying wine involved. We tucked into Josh's delicious dips while we waited for more people.

Vida from Vida fame arrived, with cake in hand I saw. Then a face I finally recognised, Anna from Sharing My Interest arrived. She looked confused when I called her name, until I showed her my "Blogging This I Am" t-shirt.

From there, I sort of lost track of everyone as I was too busy eating. But Jon from Melbourne Foodie, Sarah and friend Hannah (?) from Sarah Cooks, Cindy from Where's The Beef (answer, there is no beef, she's vegetarian), Jackie from Eating With Jack, Claire from Melbourne Gastronome, Stickyfingers Jane with hubby Jon from Deep Dish Dreams (love this blog name, somehow it keeps triggering a link with some sci-fi book) and Ned, from a yet to be made blog all arrived. Phew, hope I didn't miss anyone.

Ok, I didn't miss Duncan, I was going to start him in a new paragraph, seeing as he arrived a bit later than everyone. So while we were all eating away, last to arrive was Duncan from Syrup and Tang, holding a box of the yummiest macaroons ever. Mmmm. I only ate two as I wanted to leave some for others. Actually I know I missed one person. Someone arrived much much later and I didn't even catch his name.

Some group shots. You can try to guess who is who.




Kate and Ed did a fantastic job cooking the pizzas all night. There were a few minor errors at the start where we got some really black frisbees, but after they started to get the hang of it, some wonderful pizza combos were arriving. I like the one where we drizzled Vida's "Secret Special Sauce" (apparently not that secretive as she has posted the recipe on her blog but it was more alluring to call it the secret sauce still) onto the pizza. The sauce had chocolate in it and we drizzled it on pizza, but strangely it worked.


Some close ups, Sarah, Cindy and Vida.


Peggy and I trying not to show our double chins.


Cindy and I. I have really small eyes when I smile, smaller than usual even.


All night, Stickyfinger and I were having a shoot out.....with our cameras.


Again, I got another shot of the elusive creature known as Stickyfingers. You can only ever see her behind a lens. I have to admit defeat, she definitely outshot me. She had much bigger equipment and won through magnificence of photos.


And my one food porn shot of the night, this stunning looking Barramundi and Risotto dish provided and cooked by Stickyfingers. It was delicious, and you all know I don't really like fish.


You can check out more photos from the night at the Flickr Group page.

It was such a fun night and thanks heaps to Ed for organising it and being such a great host. It was so great to finally put faces to blogs that I read all the time. There were many lively discussions about all aspects of food, from legal issues, to recipes, to personal experiences on various topics, and of course restaurants.

I have to say that as much as I enjoyed meeting everyone, the people who I was most pleased to meet was Ed, because I really respect his views on many issues in food. Cindy, just because I've read her blog the longest and feel like I know her the most. A surprise was Vida, who I only recently started to read her blog, but her bubbly personality put a smile on my face all night. Vida, Cindy and I will also be connected due to one brief moment where we all said "I love 'So You Think You Can Dance'" and all cracked up laughing like crazy.

Hopefully we can organise another meetup and catch up with like minded "food blog friends" and meet even more new friends.