ERMAHGERD! So like, I read a lot of food blogs. In particular, Sydney food blogs and after reading a blog so long I tend to think I kinda know who the writer is behind the blog. So every year Grab Your Fork and I organise a meet up of all Sydney food bloggers to put a face to the blog and every year the group just keeps on growing, at last count we reckon there’s more than 400 Sydney Food Bloggers!

This year we had a whopping 67 bloggers attend and where there’s bloggers there’s an epic amount of food!

We began with an empty cement ‘table’…

So. Much. Freaking. Awesome. Foods! Cakes, brownies, gingerbread, macarons, slices, cookies, popcorn, breads, tarts, noodles, croquettes, spring rolls, quiche, salads, sandwiches, fruit, pancakes, cheese oh em gee

Some pics of foods: Oh Ayana‘s super cute swiss roll with trademark santa strawberries!

(Photo from Cooking Crusade) of Muppy‘s Rhubarb Curd Meringue Tarts.

(Pic from The Home Food Cook) how cute are these Thanksgiving Oreo Turkeys from Gucci and Gyoza!
And for the over 18’s… drinks!

Simon Food Favourites pop up bar was a smash hit mmm alcohol the social lubricant of the shy..

Lols (pic from Simon Food Favourites) of my rainbow nails 😀
Oh hai!

And hai!

Pile o pressies for our ‘evil’ secret santa game teehee

<3

Cheeeeese

Group photo! (Thanks Simon!)

Aaand a roundup of everyone who came, thank you everyone for being awesome and thanks for all the delicious food! (If I missed anyone please let me know!)
A Food Story | Alana Bread | Angie Lives To Eat | Belly Rumbles | Bite Me Show Me | Bull In a Cake Shop | Can’t Believe It’s Not a Food Blog | Chew Town | ChocolateSuze | Citrus and Candy | Clean Spoon | Confessions of a Glutton | Cook Suck | Cooking Crusade | Corridor Kitchen | Crunchy Tiger | 84th and 3rd | Excuse Me Waiter | Flick Your Food | Food Booze Shoes | Food Is Our Religion | Food Porn Nation | Food Scene Sydney | Fruit Salad Mixed Veg | Gourmet Getaways | Grab Your Fork | Gucci and Gyoza | Here Comes the Food | Insatiable Munchies | Irene’s Getting Fat | JB Jose | Jen Is Hungry | Jugernauts | Love Swah | Milkteaxx | Miss Potato Princess | Ms Brulee | Much a Munch | Muppy | My Delicious Blog | Next Stop Food | Nic Cooks | Oh Ayana | Phuoc n Delicious | Polkadots and Chopsticks | Raging Cravings | Ramen Raff | Raspberri Cupcakes | Scoff and Quaff | Simon Food Favourites | Spoon Fork and Chopsticks | Spoonfuls of Goodness | Star Loz | Sugarlace | Tea Thymes | The Food Mentalist | The Heart of Food | The Home Food Cook | The Lamstock | The Random Foodie | The Sticky and Sweet | The Two Taste Buds | The Way It Crumbles | Vegetaraian | Veggies and Me | When the World Stops Spinning

Edit: CLOSED

It has been a looooong week. Whew. The boy and I have been criss crossing the city all weekend and we just happened to be in Alexandria when we spotted The Grounds but alas! The crowds! The hordes of humans! Instead, we turned the corner and nabbed a table at Vicinity (90-96 Bourke Rd and Cnr Collins St, Alexandria) which was just as packed but lady luck was shining and a table had just left.

It was super late in the arvo but we just managed to place our order with the kitchen before they closed and first up is the Sticky Beef Ribs ($14) which was so freaking tender and just straight up awesome that I’m drooling at the very thought of how delicious it was. Like seriously, my stomach was all like, &#8216;hot damn I want more.’ Followed by &#8216;I wonder how much I can eat before Noods notices..’ All the flavours were just balanced, from the fresh slivers of apple to the ridiculously crisp potato wafer and the irresistibly moreish slab of meat with just the right amount of fat to flesh ratio. Did I mention how much I love coriander? Oh and puffed rice?

I couldn’t resist ordering the Pork Scratchings ($6.60) envisioning golden curls of porkilicious crackles and while tasty they weren’t quite what I had imagined and oddly felt like a healthier version. But they were still good! Esp with beer!

Chicken Liver Parfait ($14) is always a must-order on my personal hit list of all time favourite foods and it did not disappoint. Perfectly smooth and rich, the serving of parfait was pretty much spot on with the amount of seeded bread provided even with my overly generous inch thick schmears.

The Whole Flounder ($22p.p), was impressive in presentation and tasted every bit as delicious as it looked. Noods was overjoyed with the amount of clams and mussels scattered about while I had fun sneakily stealing the shreds of speck and scooping out spoonfuls of delicate fish. Unfortch by the time we made it through our food we missed out on ordering dessert but it was a great meal and I know where we’ll be again this weekend 😛

Edit: CLOSED

I love Japanese food. The clean flavours, how everything tastes so fresh and light and how refreshing and delicious Japanese beer is&#8230; It was a weeknight and I was craving salmon but Noods didn’t want sushi and after a wander around World Square we stumbled upon Fuku Restaurant (Shop 1103, Level 1, 644 George St, Sydney), opposite Din Tai Fung. The staff were extremely friendly and while food was a tad slow to begin, once the first dish rolled out the rest soon followed in quick succession.

After ordering a round of Sapporo and Asahi beers (on tap woot!), we start off with Kingfish Carpaccio ($12.50), which was incredibly fresh and tangy with the ponzu dressing. There may have been a standoff over the last piece but it pays to be quick with your chopsticks haha

Salmon Aburi Sashimi ($12.50) arrives with the Assorted Sashimi (Small Serve, $15- I think.. receipt got smudged). The aburi salmon is seared on the edges with a smokey flavour and topped with a sweet jam/relish I can’t quite place but it is amazing and I may have bargained my &#8220;allotted&#8221; share of sashimi in exchange for the rest of the aburi salmon. Noods is a huge tuna and kingfish fan so this worked out well or we may have had another staring competition heh

Grilled Sweet Miso Glazed Eggplant ($9.50) aka Nasu Dengaku aka best vegetarian dish ever is always a must whenever I see it on a menu and it didn’t disappoint with soft innards and an addictive sweet and slightly salty miso paste. The lotus root chips were a fun decoration that we used to scoop out the eggplant but I kinda wished they were deep fried to be more crunchylicious.

Saikyo Miso Black Cod Sugiita Yaki ($17) came with a bit of a show- a lid was covering the plate and the cod was wrapped in a thin cedar wood with the edges still alight.

The smell was incredible, heady and aromatic and the cod was perfectly succulent and tender and just the right amount of smoky flavour without being over powering. Best tasting fish I’ve had in aaaages!

We’d been warned that we had over ordered but we couldn’t resist the Sake Steamed Clams with Grilled Scallop, Calamari and King Prawns ($27) and it was just so beautifully presented and tasted every bit as good as it looked (but we’ll just ignore the whole foam thing yeah?). I’m not a big fan of clams but Noods is fanatical of all things mollusc and soon strips the shells clean while alternating between spoonfuls of the broth zomg the broth! There was just enough butter in it for me to feel satisfied but enough sake in it to balance the flavours so it wasn’t too rich. The baton of crusty baguette sure became useful to mop up the remnants!

Aaaaand what’s a meal without dessert? Noods has never before had so much ponzu in his life so we had to order the Yuzu Pannacotta with Green Tea Ice Cream ($9). The pannacotta is firm without being overly gelatine-y and just the right amount of wobble and citrus zing to be a refreshingly light dessert. We were blown away by the food and the fact we hadn’t been to Fuku sooner so I know we’ll be back soon to try more dishes!

OH HAIIII! So like, Mother Nature is being pretty damn annoying with her ups and downs in temperatures! I was all set to chillax on the beach over the weekend when ugly grey clouds started to form and bam instead of getting some much need Vitamin D my thoughts turned to hot pot.


It’s pretty rare for me to want hot pot as I’m usually super picky of what goes into a hot pot as I have a certain order that I reckon foods should go in (mushrooms, tofu and fish balls first, followed by meats, followed by noodles and leafy veg). But this post has been lurking in the back of my mind and woot I do love a bit of novelty, so the boy and I headed to CQL Mini Pot (117 Burwood Rd, Burwood) for lunch.


Check it out!!! Individual hot pots!!! I die at how cute they are AND how practical it is! No more fighting over other people’s sliver of meat! No more stealth needed to nab that fish ball! Mini Hot Pot Buffet is $29.90 and is only available at lunch on the weekends but available for dinner every day except Monday. You get a 2hour time limit but seriously that is heaps long. The hot pot broth comes standard with a chicken soup but if you want to pay a bit more you can get the chili soup (extra $1.80). Some metal platters land on your table so grab em and pick out what you want from the freezer at the front or from the containers towards the back wall.


It was a little weird picking out the frozen scrolls of thinly sliced lamb and beef but they cooked so fast like within 10 seconds!


The other side of the freezer had fish balls, fish dumplings, seafood sticks, taro balls, mushroom filled dumplings, and even fish dumplings filled with curry.


Move towards the back wall and be greeted with a seemingly never ending wall of fresh vegetables! Oh and eggs. Crack in an egg into your hot pot for poached egg goodness. Trust me.


I love mushrooms. Especially enoki mushrooms. They are seriously the best things in a hot pot!


Tofu galore! And er potato slices? Well hey whatever floats your boat.


Oodles of noodles. There’s a hot bain marie section too with fried foods incase you cbf cooking your own noodles and/or you wanted something non soupy to go with your hotpot. Oh and also a seafood section filled with prawns, mussels and slices of fish but I uh forgot to take a photo of it my bad.


Mah pot! The flashing lights on the induction stoves confused us a tad but the lovely waitress came by to explain when she saw us frantically stab at them haha the key is to only lightly touch the left button! 3 different temps- keep warm, cook, and crazy ass boil- be warned if you have too much liquid in your pot or you run the risk of freaking hot soup everywhere!


This is Noods’ chilli soup pot. See how red it is? It is exactly as spicy as it looks haha


Once your meat is cooked don’t forget to grab a dish of sauce or make up your own! Dip the meat into your sauce and enjoy!


Total destruction. There are freshly cut fruits available but we were too full and our bellies were sloshing about. There is a larger range of desserts available during dinner so methinks I will have to bring the family out and hot pot again soon!