Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2013

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