Bloggers aren’t always quick off the mark. Heavens! It took Melbourne’s community a whole evening and maybe a night to put up the first post about yesterday’s second Bloggers’ Banquet. And to think we had been joking about everyone running home to post about it first!
The two-and-a-half-hour trek on public transport from Melbourne to Dromana was worth it. Ella and Furry had a lovely venue for a bayside gathering and we listened to the parrots, breathed sea air and, um, cried through the wood-fired oven smoke. Call me smoked sausage. The gathering was more modest than the first banquet, but it was great to be able to sit around in the garden and stand around in the kitchen with many conversations flowing.
Jon of Melbourne Foodie is the first-post winner and has a number of captioned photos, so you might want to pop over there for a little more info. Here are my photos. I’m afraid this isn’t a comprehensive catalogue as some photos weren’t good enough.
The Where’s the Beef? soy bombs (frightening name) saved the day when hungry hordes needed immediate feeding! Where’s the recipe? Here. Delish.
Agnes and Alistair from Off the Spork brought these tasty treats:
Jon of Melbourne Foodie filled tarts with an excellent choc-orange ganache:
And viviacious Vida had us groaning with condensed milk delight at these oblatne filled with walnut and chocolate dulce de leche:
There is a slight obsession with photographic documentation of food:
And last but not least, my contribution… Two flavours of macarons. Rose/lemon and Violet. I had contemplated doing an entirely different dish, but anticipated a wave of ‘no macarons?!’ exclamations. 😉
In addition to the people mentioned above, it was also good to see Thanh and Claire and to meet Ella’s Québecois friends Marc and Lilian. Another great Melbourne Bloggers’ Banquet!
You bet we would have slaughtered you, had you thought to turn up macaron-less!!! So glad you saw the light and brought much sunshine into my day with those little delights. As I told you I did steal a few and I am savouring them now!! Vida x
Was lovely to meet you, Duncan. I’m ecstatic that I got to experience the famous macaroons!
Good to meet you again Duncan. I’m so glad I got to taste your amazing macaroons this time. I was blown away as to how good they were.
Thanks everyone!
Jon, I’ve edited the booboo you tipped me off about.
You would have been the biggest tease Duncan if you had arrived without macaroons. I could never forgive you after being so enthusiastic about making them. I am now reinvigorated after tasting you wonderful delights and will attempt them again soon.
I’m sad I couldn’t make it 🙁 Was looking forward to it.
I’ll have to plan better for the next one.
I am so jealous, again………. 🙁
Duncan,
only you could create something that, with one bite, transported me back to being 5. It says something for flavour and memory when in a single mouthful, all I can tell you is that I am a kid, dressed up for going into “Town”, to watch a movie and eat lunch at Myers Food Emporium.
Brilliant work.
So I hope Thanh has gone off and made some! Amelita, you need to add macarons to your list of baking projects (but remember that puff pastry is first on your list:P).
PG, I’m so glad the violet ones had that effect on you. It’s my experience every time too… (and also why I so love the Haigh’s violet creams). However, I must say that there’s no genius on my part in choosing violet. Violet has been a popular flavour in France for a while (typically flavoured crème pâtissière in choux pastry), and crops up in Britain too, though mostly in chocolates.
Floral flavours can be so wonderful, but dropped off the radar (except the often overdone rose!). I’m disappointed with ‘lavender’ things in Oz, because it’s so rare that the baker/chef captures it properly. There are other floral ideas to play with too…