Foodbloggers fishing? Yes indeed! The awesome Billy had organised a weekend away on the Hawkesbury River with Helen, Richard, Simon, the Pom, Tim, Brian, Dave and I. And so our journey begins one super early morning with Simon picking up a bleary eyed Helen and I and being greeting by this awesome sunrise!

Powered by Mother energy drinks!

We arrive at Brooklyn Marina and the sun that shone so prettily that morning had all but disappeared leaving the place looking like a scene from Harper’s Island…

Feeling peckish we wander around and find a cafe selling bacon and egg burgers. That bacon was so freaking awesome and super crispy, I would totally go back just for the bacon oh yes.

Not wanting to take any chances, Helen and I split a box of Kwells. You know, just in case.

Our houseboat and home away from home, ‘the big dickie’! We hired the houseboat from Holidays Afloat and it was pretty big and fit us 9 comfortably with enough beds for all, decent kitchen area with fridge and stove + oven, dining room area, outdoor bbq, toilet + shower and an upper deck that we didn’t use much cos it was a tad cold.

The view from the back of the boat as we leave Mooney Mooney Bridge behind us

Hoho I’ll save you!

The Pom made a Victoria sandwich minus the royal icing but I reckon it’s perfect as the buttercream icing in the middle is nice and thick and mmm sweet!

DSLR porn

Oh don’t worry, I wasn’t the one steering the boat heh

And then it’s lunch time and Simon whips up his fabulous beef bulgogi on the bbq along with some spicy chilli pork with rice and lettuce cups

Apparently Tim is known as the crazy sweet dessert guy and his coconut ice does not disappoint with it’s hot pink coconut layer and zomg it is sweet but oh so good

We all caught fishies! But uh they were all undersized babies so we threw em back in. I failed in getting a photo of billy and his fishie so lol i snuck in a pic of the 2nd fishie i caught. How Helen caught her fish was particularly funny because she wasn’t sure if she’d lost the bait and kept yanking her line up and down to see if the weight of the bait was still on and finally reeled it in and lo and behold a fish! Who must’ve had a very sore neck… not that fish have necks…

And because we had only brought along 3 fishing rods + 1 fishing hand-reel, we took turns catching fishies and playing poker but since we didn’t have any poker chips we used sachets of sugar 😛

And i managed to wipe everyone and take their sugar sachets woohoo! And then it is tea time and billy has brought along some zumbo cakes but they sadly have not survived the trip and are a bit smashed but are still tasty

Billy takes me for a spin in the rowboat to the shore where I go looking for shells while he throws rocks at the jellyfish. I’m not sure why but jellyfish freak me out.

Darkness came fast and after playing a game of what weird songs does billy have on his phone we start on dinner of steamboat! Billy has whipped up 2 different broths- a vegetable, and a curry laksa soup base. The vegetable soon gets turned into a bak kut teh broth and the chopsticks go flying at the meat, fishballs and vegetables

Food bloggers attack!

But of course what’s dinner without desset? Tim the dessert king impresses us again with his chocolate bread & butter pudding that is so rich and chocolatey that I fall into a food coma

I awaken in time for Helen’s fondue where she has used jarlsberg, gruyere and tilsit to create a gorgeously cheesy mixture along with a bowl of blanched veggies and cubes of sourdough bread from luneburger

Heh stretchy! Every bit of cheese is finished and Richard laments for more but alas it is time to sleep so we clutch at our stomachs and wander off to our respective sleeping areas

The boys wake up early and start on the breakfast. The smell of bacon has me stumbling out of bed and greeting a much too awake Simon manning the bbq

Billy and his Hello Kitty pancake HAHAHA he looks sad here but really he’s about to chortle as he uses up the last of his tubs of ricotta haha he soon gives up on making individual hello kitty pancakes with Helen’s fry pan and resorts to giant random circular shapes in the bigger frypan

Our brekkie table! Creamy scrambled eggs, golden hash browns, crispy bacon, ricotta pancakes, Richard’s mushrooms, the leftover sourdough and of course hiding in the photo is billy’s jar of dulce de leche oh man the awesomeness that is dulce de leche

As the sun starts to set we head back to shore and grab a last minute group photo. Much love guys!

let’s fly jetstar heh this is how happy I was!

Our group of happy campers. Super thanks to Billy for organising! I had an awesome time and next time we bring more fishing rods haha

it’s high tea time at the loft (3 Lime Street, King Street Wharf) and wait the theme is christmas in july! the christmas high tea finishes this weekend (July 25-26) so quick make a booking now! our girlie foodblogger group are: betty, helen, karen, lisa, lorraine and steph


hush the teapots are talking. they are so pretty no? the traditional high tea is $35 but the high tea with a twist is an extra $10. the twist being cocktails in pretty teapots! we have ordered 1 each of the cocktails: Santa’s Little Helper- Fresh berries crushed with cranberry juice, bourbon and fruit liquers balanced with a hint of citrus topped off with red fruits tea; Rudolph’s Nose- Fresh rhubarb puree and fresh cherry shaken with bison grass vodka and a hint of citrus finished with Turkish apple tea; Silent Night- Chocolate liquer combined with Martel VS and a touch of chilled espresso, rounded off with peppermint tea; Sencha Quince Fizz- Lillet shaken with a hint of vanilla, fresh passionfruit pulp, pink grapefruit and chilled T2’s Sencha Quince tea


heh pink!


pretty cocktails. if santa had been drinking the santa’s little helper he wouldnt be able to steer his sleigh because my goodness it was super alcoholic! i wasn’t a fan of the silent night because i have issues with peppermint but i liked the rudolph’s nose which was sweet and the sencha quince fizz was freaking awesome


our 4 tiers arrive and ah there is just something so cute about bite sized portions of food placed so prettily on a tier


bloggers!


our bottom tier of savouries: sandwiches of baby prawn mayo with sprouts; honey-roasted leg ham with mustard pickle; and turkey and cranberry served with chicken and pistachio galantine; ham and roast onion frittata; and baby red peppers stuffed with goat’s cheese. i loved the prawn and sprouts sandwich but was sad there wasnt any sandwiches with cheese. the frittata was a cube of super soft eggy goodness but oddly the onions were a rather unappealing shade of blue.


fluffy scones with cream (jam was on the next tier up) and white christmas rum ball truffles.


indeed my ratio of cream & jam was slightly over the top


dessert tier: macadamia nut brownie, traditional mince pies and baked custard tarts with cherry compote. the brownie was definitely my favourite- a square of rich fudgey chocolatey goodness studded with macadamia nuts. the custard tart was tasty but was annoyed by the cherry compote drippage and the mince pie has a nice buttery base


our ‘normal’ teas of French Earl Grey, Chai, English breakfast, Buddha’s tears (jasmine), and Turkish apple to finish up our high tea. was great to catch up with the girls and thanks again lisa for organising!

once upon a time in the year of ’89 a dude called carlo petrini founded the Slow Food movement with the emphasis on good, clean and fair food. tonight we have been invited by chef Craig Macindoe to MuMu Grill’s Take It Slow dinner along with a bevy of other foodbloggers with super thanks to lorraine for organising.

the foodbloggers arrive earli and the lovely craig takes us on a quick tour of his kitchen where first he proudly shows us a tray of potatoes roasted in duck fat. oh yes. it was as delicious as it sounds mmm golden

lamb racks resting oh baby

wines for the evening were from Polin and Polin

mmm wine

18-month Jamon Serrano. while a documentary on Graham Strong’s Arcadia Saltbush Lamb farm played on the tv at the tapas bar i managed to park myself right in front of the plate of buttery, soft, and oh so moreish jamon. i think i could easily eat a kilo of this in one sitting.

slow roast Arcadia Saltbush Lamb done 2 ways- 13 hour shoulder plus grilled cutlet with pea and mint puree and kumato chutney with Mache. the cutlet was juicy and meltingly soft and i couldnt resist picking it up and gnawing at the bone hoho classy i am not. the shoulder while tasty was no match for the awesomeness that was the cauliflower gratin. i am a sucker for all things cheese.

Aged Taralga Springs Rib Eye Roast 100% grass fed beef slow roasted for 4 hours served with duck fat potatoes, green beans and bone marrow sauce. look at that slab of juicy beef draped so seductively over mah potatoes! slow roasted for 4 hours at 80ºC the beef is tender tho with some gristly bits but it is nommed up with the potatoes which were golden and crispy on the outside and buttery smooth on the inside nicely soaking up the bone marrow sauce

billy checking twitter, simon taking notes. we are multi taskers.

chocolate and raspberry square with wattle seed ice-cream and Belgium chocolate tile. and it’s dessert time! i had been waiting for dessert the whole night after reading craigs tweet about a flourless chocolate cake which he then sent his first evah twitter recipe haha and he uses 30 eggs and 1.7 KILOS of chocolate mmm chocolatey indeed! the brownie was dense and fudgey with the icecream and coulis cutting thru the richness and i saved my chocolate tile to last to nibble on slowly mmm bliss

much thanks to craig for the awesome dinner and the delicious slow food learning experience!

[chocolatesuze dined courtesy of Mumu Grill with thanks to owner and chef Crag Macindoe]

look! an inflatable cube! it’s not every day you see a giant inflatable cube on the Customs House forecourt but tonite is the launch of Russell James’ new book Retrospective. “kristin davis will be there from sex and the city. oh and canapes too” adds the awesome darcie and so helen, jen, lorraine, shez and i enter the inflatable cube and up the red carpet


shez and i sneak in a quick photo on the red carpet


and we are then greeted with a line of waiters bearing trays of vitamin water cocktails. wooo so colourful! we have been given instructions that asking or taking photos of kristin davis was not allowed so sorry dudes no pics of her but hey look food!


peking duck pancakes


scallop ceviche


jen and i in front of the mini igloo inside! it was so cute it housed the dj and the awesome singer


mini burgahs! teensy tiny deliciousness in bite sized morsels but with fail beetroot


when this giant platter of lamb cutlets arrived you could see all heads swivel and all conversations were paused while people started following the waiters around. and they were good. so very good. tender, juicy and not exactly the most ladylike thing to eat at a party filled with non-eating models


bowls of beef stew with mash


and a blackboard where we tagged our blogs


hohoho