Sydney food bloggers meet up at yum cha

It has been 2 years since my first and last meet-up with other Sydney food bloggers so I was thrilled to receive the email invitation to a yum cha meet and greet at East Ocean. Who was there? Suze from chocolatesuze, Helen from Grab Your Fork, Kathryn from Limes & Lycopene, Lisa from spicyicecream, Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella, Howard and Qing from eatshow&tell, Belle and William from Ooh, Look..., Reem from I Am Obsessed With Food and a big thank you goes out to Christie from Fig & Cherry for organising this lovely lunch. I had such a great time... conversation flowed continuously from discovering that a few of us loved to treat on avocado with condensed milk, to learning that Vegemite made good stock. We also discussed our varied experiences with the sometimes negative response of restaurants, magazines and celebrity chefs, and of course swapped lists of our favourite places to dine and produce to buy. Each dish made its way around the table, ensuring each of us had the opportunity to photograph the food before it was touched. We ooohed and aahed at the thousand layer cake which Suze had spent 10 years hunting for... and racked up a $220 bill which was not bad for a table of 12 hungry foodies! All in all, I've been introduced to some fantastic new food blogs, which I have already become a fan of, and have been pleased to have had the opportunity of putting faces to some of the blogs that I've been reading for years. This time, I'll have to make sure it isn't a 2 year gap til my next meet-up. Here are bits and pieces of what we munched down:

Siu mai (pork dumplings)

Xiu long bao (soup dumplings)

Steamed rice noodles with prawns and soy sauce

Ham sui gok (also known as crescent dumplings or footballs)

Steamed gai larn (Chinese broccoli) with oyster sauce

Pan-fried shrimp rice noodle rolls, served with peanut butter and hoisin sauce

Vegetable dumplings

Har gow (prawn dumplings)

Pork ribs

Chicken feet

Food bloggers in action

Egg tarts... mMmm... these were perfect. The pastry was still warm and flaky and the egg custard was the ideal proportion.

Custard buns

Mango pudding I've never had the thousand layer cake before. It was soft and sponge-like... the top layer was similar to the typical steamed bun but the layers beneath it were rich with lotus seed paste (the kind in moon cakes) and egg yolk.

Thousand layer cake

Thanks for the wonderful company guys! Hope to see you soon... and in the meantime, happy photographing, blogging and eating.

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East Ocean Restaurant 421 - 429 Sussex St, Haymarket, Sydney Web: www.eastocean.com.au