A bowl of edamame soy beans and a masquerade mask. Not something that you would normally associated with each other. However, when chocolatesuze is involved, anything is possible.

Meet chocolatesuze, or rather an SP Studio version of her.

For those of you who don’t know her, she’s is one of the more popular, well connected and high profile food bloggers in Sydney. So, when she decides to celebrate her birthday with fellow Sydney food bloggers (a masquerade-themed party no less), you know it’s going to be one hell of an occasion!

Thirty food bloggers gathered in a 25 person capacity private room at Wagaya, a Japanese restaurant located in the Chinatown area of Sydney. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but we all managed to get along and enjoy the evening all the same.

Oh. My. God. Ohmygod! That was my initial reaction when seeing how some of the photos had turned out.

As you can see, I was a little excited!

If you’re wondering why the quality of pictures have jumped up dramatically compared to my usual posts, all I have for you are four letters – D, S, L & R. That’s right, DSLR, as in a digital SLR camera.

The camera for this shoot (Canon 5D mkII, 24-70mm F/2.8 L series zoom lens & Speedlite 530ex flash) was a loaner from a photographer friend of mine. Unfortunately my stock camera, the Canon G10 digital compact, had its lens take a bit of an oil bath during my first attempt at a Daring Cooks challenge. Needless to say, it’s somewhat out of commission.

Lucky me… :)

Anyhow, getting back to the awesomeness of the 5D mk II + L Series lens, though I’m under no obligation to do so, following is a free plug for his photgraphy company 247 Studios, whom he runs in partnership with another close friend.

Here endeth the plug :)

To finish up on the DSLR tangent and get back to the party, for the bloggers at the party that asked how much the camera weighed…

… it was this much.

Aside from the decently delectable delights indicated previously, and the touch screen menu ordering system (not pictured), one thing that Wagaya is known for is the sushi roulette.

For those of you who are not aware, the sushi roulette is a take on the sadistic game of Russian roulette. In this case, rather than being shot with a bullet if you lose, instead you’re hit with sushi bomb that is pack with as much wasabi as can be concealed within the rice. I think it works out to be the equivalent of a heaped teaspoon of sinus searing pain. Not a pleasant experience for the unlucky victim that comes across the “bullet”.

The dichotomy of the sushi roulette. One blogger throws his hands up in victory (and perhaps relief) while the blogger to his right feels the burn of defeat.

Believe me, I know first hand how it feels to be “burned”. However, that’s material for another post.

Another noteworthy thing to mention of Wagaya is its prompt service. Generally you’ll be serviced with your order in around 5 minutes, depending on how much you’re ordering and how busy it is. That’s rather speedy service! However, imagine if you will the following scenario:

You’ve just been the unlucky victim of the sushi roulette. You need a drink fast but all you have around you are empty cups. You quickly decide between the oolong tea and Coke Zero but which do you choose…?

It worked out on the night that oolong tea won hands down to Coke Zero with regards to speed of service, with a best time of 63 seconds. Coke Zero’s only managed a best time of 200 seconds.

If speedy service is a must, I know what drink I would choose. :)

Towards the end of the night, presents were handed out to the birthday girl and, well, presented for lack of a better word. However, no one at the party missed out. Not only did the birthday girl bring gifts of candy necklaces and lollipop rings for everyone but Trish from sugarlace was thoughtful enough to make personalised cake-pops for all attendees.

Thanks Trish :)

I’m not normally a fan of carnage aftermath shots but when it involves a cute girl, how can I refuse.

Either this is the result of a 30 food blogger birthday party or Betty (pictured with the purple scarf) was a really hungry girl!

Towards the end of the night, whatever food bloggers were still around gathered together to take a group photo. As food bloggers are generally are a camera-shy bunch, in homage to this group photo I present to you…

The above “photo” includes all of the the attending food bloggers for the night, including the ones that weren’t around for the group photo.

Recognise anyone? Might be a little difficult with the above image. So…

Meet the bloggers!

From top left to bottom right: Ellie, Billy, Betty & Richard, Suze, Karen, Howard & Minh, Tina, Eden, Trina, Helen, Richard, Reem, Jen, Pete, Lorraine, Grace, Shez, Belle, Jenny, Leona, Lili, Mel, Steph, Trish, Betty, Chris & Tim.

A big thanks to chocolatesuze for organising a great party, the attending food blogging party goers for making it a very enjoyable night, the guys at 247 Studios for the loan of the most awesome camera I’ve ever had the pleasure to use and to Wagaya for the venue and food.

Happy Birthday Suze. Hope you had at least as much fun as I did! :)

See The Red Balloon (website).

See the man behind The Red Balloon. Ok, technically he’s in front of the red balloon…

Before I lose anyone, there is food below! Please read on…

Meet Billy. He’s the photographer behind this thought-provoking photography exhibition known as The Red Balloon – an exhibition highlighting the tragedy of the Victorian Bush fires whilst conveying a sense of hope and optimism through the medium of a single red balloon.

For those of you who don’t know, Billy is also the writer/photographer of the food blog A Table for Two.

The opening night crowd.

To me, the red balloon symbolises the positive spirit of the local people affected by this tragic moment in our recent history, as well as the kind nature of the people who had volunteers their time or offered financial assistance through charitable donations.

However, is the symbolism of the red balloon really as I’ve stated? Is there more to it, or were there other intentions for this symbolism? What were Billy’s motivations for going down to Victoria to take these photos in the first place? You can find out the answer to this and more.

There will be a Q&A session with Billy held on Sunday 21st June, at 1pm at the exhibition. Apologies for the short notice but for those of you who are able to make it, please spare a moment to drop by the exhibition, ask a few questions and get to meet with the man himself. There is also the Danks St Depot restaurant right next door, or Fratelli Fresh Italian produce store just up the road if you’re looking for other things to do while you’re in the area.

Now, I did mention that there would be some food, so here it is.

Due to what seemed to be a spontaneous arrangement, Richard, Yas and I met up with Billy during the week at the exhibition to have lunch. Not just any old lunch but the legendary kastu sando that you may have heard about recently if you’ve been following the chatter on twitter (if not, follow here).

For those not in the know, it’s simply a tonkatsu sandwich – a piece Japanese styled crumbed pork, with grain mustard slabbed between two fluffy white pieces of bread.

Well, at least they should have been fluffy. Since they’ve been steaming away in a box for around an hour, they ended up more soggy. However that did little to affect the overall taste, which was pretty good.

You can find more info on the katsu sando, where to find it and cost at hungry.digital.elf.

For dessert, both Yas and Richard provided a little treat.

Funwari Meijin, which loosely translates to “fluffy expert”, was Yas’ contribution. There’s something lost in translation as it isn’t exactly “fluffy”.

Put one of these savoury treats into your mouth and it disintegrates almost immediately. It’s similar to the sensation you get with fairy floss but ends with the mouth feel akin to a real crumbly short bread.

Richard’s contribution is a loquat jelly brought back from a trip to Japan. Having never tasted loquat, this too was interesting in its own way. The taste is something similar to a combination of apricot and peach.

What the…

For your convenience, there are toilet facilities at the gallery. Just don’t get caught taking a photo of a person leaving the toilet like I almost did!

See The Red Balloon.

As indicated above, the exhibition will be open until 27th June. Please note that the gallery will not be open on Monday 22nd June.

If you’re unable to make it to the gallery for whatever reason (or excuse), at least tune in to 2SCR 89.1FM this Monday 22 June from 11am. Billy will be on the radio talking about his exhibition.

The Red Balloon (website)
The Depot Gallery II, 2 Danks St Waterloo
Tues to Sat: 11am – 6pm, Sun: 10:30am – 3pm

It was chocolatesuze’s birthday recently and she decided to gather a group of Sydney bloggers together to celebrate. Now, being one of the more popular and well connected food bloggers in Sydney, this turned out to be one hell of a gathering!

Alright. You may be thinking to yourself:

“What gives, dude? Why the lame photo with only five desserts and a couple of people?”.

“Didn’t you just say that she was one of the more popular and well connected food bloggers in Sydney?”.

“Seriously of all places, why choose the one that has cheap looking IKEA knock-off tables that are such an obvious, heavy handed attempt to incite hunger and appetite by bombarding the senses with colours such as yellows and reds?”

Or perhaps not…

chocolatesuze is unique. Really unique. She’s the kind of unique that’ll break your train of thought and make you think “Wow, she’s unique”. The kind of unique that would have dessert for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. On the same day, no less! I kid you not.

In honour of this rather unique person and the celebration of her birthday, the post-party dessert post will come before the dinner party one (Part 2).

Menu front cover. See? Hungry colours…

LNC Dessert House is a dessert cafe located on Sussex St, Sydney. I would presume by its decor that it’s aimed at the young Asian market, with its bright colours and anime-style mascot character. Appropriate, considering its close proximity to Chinatown.

The store is open late throughout the week (2am for a Friday evening). This makes it not a bad place to move onto if you’ve left one of Sydney’s largest gathering of food bloggers at a masquerade-themed birthday party, and are looking to satisfy a lingering hunger after a decent but ultimately unfulfilling Japanese meal.

You know, just as an example.

Though we were more than eager to go with a light meal to complement the food at the party, our party of five generally stuck to desserts due to a lack of variety of hot foods.

In the words of the person who had this dessert, it was “um number 40… mango gelato.. mango something… lychee something… sticky ball things”.

Can you guess who this might be?

Red bean soup with sticky rice balls. Served warm if memory serves me well, but you can have it chilled as well.

Black sesame ice slush with macha (green tea) gelato and red beans. This was not a bad dessert, all things considered. Wasn’t happy with the texture of the gelato, as it had the gelatinous, vegetable gum mouth feel to it that cheap ice creams tend to have (something I’m not a fan of). However, the flavour combination worked well and was quite refreshing.

Curry fish balls (foreground), and Papaya with white fungus and lotus seed dessert. The curry fish balls were one of only a few hot, savoury dishes that was available on the menu at the time. The only other one I can recall are the chicken wings.

For me, the curry balls had an off-putting spicy, fishy smell that kept me from trying them out. The others didn’t seem to complain when they had it so I imagine that it was ok. It just wasn’t for me.

An off-the-menu dessert of Chocolate and coffee gelatos served with longon fruits.

LNC Dessert House
Shop 12, 335 Sussex St, Sydney.
Prices for the desserts average around the $5 – $8 mark.