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Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

October 22nd, 2011 by Rose

Sydney Craft Beer Week, 22 – 29 Oct

Sydney Craft Beer Week starts today for all you beer snobs (me included) – you can go to the website to check out events and sign up for whatever catches your fancy. There’s craploads on so I’m sure you’ll find something you like. I’ll be going to the Beer Lover’s Guide to EXTREME BEER event, so do say hello if you see me (I’m the one who looks like this).

Full disclosure: I work with one of the BeermenTV guys who coordinated the Sydney Craft Beer Week, but think this is a v worthwhile event hence the writeup. Also he said he’ll buy me booze if I tell all of my three blog followers about it.

August 2nd, 2010 by Rose

Bastille Week 11 Course Degustation @ Restaurant Balzac, Randwick

Or, I Really Shouldn’t Have Worn a Dress with a Belt

What up? At the moment I’m sitting in front of the computer wearing bright pink penguin pajamas, having taken the day off because I’m coughing my lungs up every 5 minutes. It’s a great time to get stuff done though. So far today I have: answered some work emails (and was told off by my boss for being out of bed already), eaten muesli with yoghurt, read through several pages of I Am Maru, faffed about on Facebook, Twittered and went through my usual early morning anxiety. Now, I write.

Last month my good friends May and Cam organised a day out with a bunch of us, starting with mini golf in Narrabeen (I failed spectacularly), then degustation at Restaurant Balzac in Randwick. I’ve always wanted to try out Restaurant Balzac, and our timing was good – they had a special 11 course degustation menu that week to celebrate Bastille Day. It was priced at $110 and $180 with matching wines. I made a big show of umming and aahing about whether to get matching wines or not, but I really didn’t need any encouragement as I’m only one drink away from being an alcoholic. Read the rest of this entry »

March 28th, 2010 by Rose

Art, Booze and Carbs: The ABC of Happiness

Guys, I had a great weekend. Granted, most of today was spent trying to sleep off the greatness of yesterday, but even a level 7 hangover can’t dampen my spirits. Unless I puke on it (and I didn’t, hurrah for me!).

My good friends May and Cam hosted an Arty Party on Saturday as a belated housewarming. Our gorgeous hosts supplied the canvasses, oil and acrylic paints (some salvaged from Cam’s bludging fine arts days in uni) and paintbrushes while everyone else brought with them alcohol and imagination. Everyone really got into it – the room was silent as creative juices churned from brain to paper, broken only by the occasional “Who’s got the Burnt Umber?”

Of course, creativity has to be well-fed. May’s mum generously contributed baked goods for us starving artists:

Best apple pie ever, fat with chunks of spiced apple and sultanas. May said that her mum only learned how to bake recently. “Unpossible!” I said through a giant mouthful pie, clumsily spraying bits of buttery flaky crust everywhere.

May’s mum also made a zingy, creamy lemon tart. May served it with some lemon sorbet.

I’m a bit hesitant about putting everyone’s art up because I forgot to ask if it’s OK, but here’s my finished masterpiece: Read the rest of this entry »

March 16th, 2010 by Rose

Taste of Sydney, Centennial Park

I’ll be honest – I didn’t even know this was happening until Legoman offered my partner and I free tickets to Taste of Sydney. A quick Internet search later, I found out that Taste is a festival that showcases dishes, drinks and food products from Sydney’s top restaurants and various food producers (boutique and otherwise). For myself, the biggest lure of the event was the opportunity to sample the tasting menu of various fine restaurants I can’t afford. This year it was held from March 11th to March 14th at Centennial Park. My partner and I went to the Friday afternoon session to avoid big crowds. We were running late so we just grabbed a cab to get there. We had a nice conversation with the cabbie until he turned out to be racist. Awesome.

The event uses books of vouchers called “Crowns” as its currency, with the price being 1 Crown = $1. Dishes on the tasting menu costs 8, 10 or 12 Crowns.

Our first dish was Assiette‘s Sydney rock oysters with “Vietnamese dressing”, crispy deep fried shallots and baby coriander. Ohhhh man our tasting went off to a great start. The textures in this were absolutely divine. I like my oysters naked, so I was happy to find that the dressing complemented the flavour of the oysters instead of overpowering them, which I tend to find with most oyster dressings.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 20th, 2010 by Rose

Perth 2009: A Very Merry Christmas

This is a long overdue post, and after an emotionally draining weekend it’s good to look through happy photos.

Ever since I told BusinessClass that I was coming over to Perth for Christmas, we’ve been brainstorming themes for our Christmas lunch. BC picked up two cactus-shaped candlesticks from a church sale and suggested a Mexican themed Christmas lunch. As fate would have it, the SO was given a bottle of tequila from a Mexican friend last September. Life has a way of working itself out.

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Our Christmas lunch, hosted at our humble rented apartment in Freo. Yes, we used Old Del Paso burrito kits (crumbed chicken & beef) – haters to the left plz. We also had crackers, hummus, fresh cherries, crisps, shortbread and Gran Centenario Anejo tequila. Guys, let me tell you about this tequila. It’s smooth, slightly sweet and burns like a motherfucker going down. BC and I sat away from the candles in case we’d catch on fire by breathing on them.

Christmas dinner was hosted at BC’s, where BC’s mum slaved all day over a hot stove to make the most amazing Christmas dinner I’ve ever had. Before I get to the photos, let’s have a look at BC’s pickle tree.

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The story goes something like this: One day, BC walked into a Bed, Bath & Table to find a box full of pickle-shaped Christmas ornaments. The helpful salesperson said that it’s tradition in Germany to hang pickles on the Christmas tree (note: I Googled this and apparently it’s a myth). BC, naturally, bought the whole lot – she now has the dubious distinction of being the only person in the whole of WA to have bought any, let alone multiple, pickle-shaped Christmas ornaments.

This is why I love her so much.

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BC’s family is big on Christmas – check out the awesome decorations on the dinner table.

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Everyone gets a cracker, a present and personalised reindeer gift tag.

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BC’s mum kept insisting that the dinner is just “simple” – it’s not! We had roasted parsnips, broccolini, baked stuffing, Caesar salad and of course succulent roasted turkey. Everything was delicious.

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This, however, is my favourite part of the meal – single-portion Bombe Alaska with a macadamia and cherry ice cream filling. This Bombe Alaska kicks arse, takes names and for good measure punches the face of any Christmas desserts in the history of all time.

Then we sat around chatting and drinking tea. Best Christmas ever.

December 14th, 2009 by Rose

Sydney Food Blogger’s Christmas Party, Hyde Park

I started the blog purely for vanity purposes. I thought that it would be a bit of a laugh. I mean, I’m not a particularly good photographer or a good writer. I don’t experiment and come up with amazing recipes and I don’t provide any sort of helpful reviews or news on the Sydney food scene.

So it was with some bewilderment that I find myself smack bang in the middle of about 50 food bloggers. I nearly decided not to come, and was so neurotic and anxious about the whole thing (social anxiety, the usual) that I was sure that my partner was this close to telling me to shut my yap. OK, so he kinda did in the end.

Thank god for Helen and her name tags so I didn’t actually have to say my blog name out loud. I did prepare some cards the night before, just in case. So – pictures:

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Billy‘s dog Amelie, who I fell in love with. Here, Amelie contemplates a restraining order against me.

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Tim and Christina of The Way It Crumbles. This level of cuteness should be illegal.

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Gummi Baby (oh god, I forgot your real name, I suck) of YaYa’s Yum Yums and Sara of Belly Rumbles. I typed out Berry Lumbles first and only noticed just before I published this post.

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As you can see we had a bloody huge turnout.

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FOOD GLOOORIOUS FOOOOOD. Omfg. This is only about 3/4 of everything there.

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MORE FOOD. Oh my god everything was fucking delicious. We had a 10 minute photo taking session before swooping down like vultures.

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Billy, that amazing and slightly crazy wonderchef brought slow roasted (6 hours, bitches!) pork to the party. He even made homemade sauces to go with it. When the roast came out, he was instantly everyone’s best friend. The roast was super tender and moist. No close ups, sorry. Was too busy having foodgasms.

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I sampled this cupcake first (by someone from YaYa’s Yum Yums – again, my memory fails me) – it was just too cute to pass up. I was right to pick this, of course – it was delicious.

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Closeup of the savoury rice noodle roll. Can’t get enough.

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This is what the spread looks like an hour into eating. If you think that we hardly made a dent in it, you’re right. Regretfully the stomach space available was smaller than the amount of food. I made a Herculean effort and was still defeated at the end of it. From my (hazy) memory, I had one of the little cornflake cups by Susan, a slice of pound cake, Simon‘s mini burger (which reawakened the pickle-eating monster in me), roast pork, a prawn sushi, a roll with bacon bits in it, Denea‘s s’mores, a bit of the chocolate tart I brought along (bought, obvs), some biscuits that Peter brought, custard puffs, the cupcake I mentioned before, rice noodle roll, Billy’s champagne jelly and uh that’s all I can remember. I REALLY wanted to try the gingerbread that Jacq mentioned on Twitter but I didn’t get around to it :(

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For the Kris Kringle I got these – can’t wait to try out some recipes!

I learned these important lessons from the party:

  1. Food bloggers don’t do things in half-measures. If the invite says to bring a plate, they will bring a giant plate (or two) of something delicious.
  2. I was right: Sydney food bloggers (aside from muggins here) are an extraordinarily attractive bunch. I too want a machine that converts calories into hotness.
  3. They’re also hilarious – I’m looking at Peter and Grace.
  4. Don’t wear a short dress if you’re going to be sitting on the grass for an extended period of time. I think I spent most of the day trying not to flash people.
  5. Chill the fuck out, self. The people you like will like you back. Most of the time. If you don’t, you know, act like an asshole.
  6. Don’t change my blog name. Ever. Although Fouad was the only person who knew where the domain name was from.
  7. Sydney is tiny. I met two people who live in my suburb who I swear I’ve never seen around before.
  8. Lady Iron Chef is a man.

I’m super chuffed to have met a couple of bloggers who I’ve conversed with on Twitter, e.g. Karen of Citrus & Candy and to meet a couple of familiar faces, e.g. Yas. I didn’t really get to talk to that many people but those that I did get to talk to are lovely. If I didn’t mention you or link back to you, give us a holler. It’s not that you’re not awesome, it’s because I suck.

Many thanks to Helen and Susan for organising – a good time was had by all.

November 29th, 2009 by Rose

Ben, Jerry and a Bunch of Bloggers

Look mom I’m socialising with the internets!

I follow chocolatesuze on Twitter and she mentioned free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream on the 28th and do any food bloggers want to come? Crippling social anxiety nearly made me say no but FREE + ice cream? I’m down with that. So I woke up way too early on a Saturday and caught a ferry to Manly.

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Fuck me, $12 for a return ticket? Oh OK whatever. I take the ferry almost every morning to work, but I’ve never been on one of the big-ass ferries before. It has a cafe, gazillions of seats and uhh… a lot more lights.

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There was a queue about half a block long when I got there but thankfully the weather down in Manly isn’t as horrific as the rest of Sydney. Ben and Jerry’s had an impressive cast of thousands for their Sydney grand opening, complete with camera crew, gift bags, tambourines, cow bells, dancing girls (not the rude type), stickers and the po-po to make sure that people don’t get run over in their haste to get ice cream.

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There were a few of these characters around.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 14th, 2009 by Rose

Newtown Festival 2009

Newtown Festival was on at the Camperdown Memorial Rest Park on the 8th of November. It was a day full of food, music, shopping and hipsters. I didn’t take many photos when I arrived (with the SO and Pimento in tow) because I stupidly left my camera memory card in my computer. I had to wait for my friend Cam (and gf May) and poach his camera off him for a bit.


A band that didn’t suck.


One of the few purveyors of food products. This was OK but a bit too healthy tasting if you know what I mean. I bought a spicy capsicum chilli relish from relish this and am very keen to try it out.


“Flavours of Brasil” stall with many delicious Portuguese snacks.


I got the beef empanada which had egg and olives along with tasty beef mince.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 11th, 2009 by Rose

Zumbo Macaron Report

I was going to do a blow by blow (I checked Google to see if I’m using this phrase right and one of the first few sites was a blowjob tips site so thought better of it) full on report on all 12 macarons that I got, but thought it was excessive. Plus I’m lazy. So here’s the condensed version.

Remember these suckers?

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Last Saturday me, my partner R – I should probably think of a better pseudonym for him sometime – and pimento of nastybun girded our loins and did a taste test of the 12 macarons to see if we can match up the taste to the flavours they’re supposed to be. Some were hits, most were delicious and a couple were a bit on the meh side.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 6th, 2009 by Rose

Macaron Day at Adriano Zumbo

Today is Adriano Zumbo‘s birthday, and he’s celebrating by working his (and his teams’) arse off for Macaron Day – the shop is selling 60 different flavours of macarons today only. The website has a list of some of the macaron flavours on sale.

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As expected, it was a bit of a squeeze at the shop (which is the size of a three office cubicles) as die hard foodies flock to get their hot little hands on the goods. I felt super self conscious because there were heaps of people, so excuse the shit photos but when were they ever not shit?

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Zumbo peeps hard at work. They deserve a hard drink by the time this is over.

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Some of the macarons on sale – they’re walking out the door with the speed of… well, Zumbo cakes on a weekend.

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SUCCESS. I went in a second time to get a random pack of 12 for a friend as well (and had a quick chat with the man himself but was much too shy to ask for a photo). I can’t even remember what flavours I got, I think I got overwhelmed and just got the dude to give me a random 6. Off the top of my head I got – chocolate and red wine, avocado, Caramello Koala, Turkish Delight, bacon pancake & maple syrup, French toast, blackcurrant, carrot cake, green tea and cheesecake.

Next post when I have gathered strength to taste 12 macarons: deciphering mystery macaron flavours!