A meeting of (blog) minds

What do you say to an invitation to join over 30 food lovers for night of eating, drinking, conversation and masked fun? "Yes, I'd love to."

I'm at my first ever meeting of food bloggers, coinciding with a birthday, at Wagaya across from the Entertainment Centre in Chinatown. Thanks so much to Suze of chocolatesuze for the invite and organising the event (and happy birthday!), and special thanks for securing the private room so that we camera-wielding food freaks wouldn't frighten the hell out of all the other patrons along with the staff.

In a flurry of shoes, people, masks, cameras, introductions and touch screen ordering, a parade of food arrives over my shoulder by staff who are probably a little bewildered but trying their best not to show it. Lighting effects that would qualify for a rave ensue before the task of eating while talking to those next to, two people down, across the table and right at the other corner.

Edamame beans and sushi roulette from
Wagaya, Harbour Street, Haymarket

Sushi roulette for 30 odd people is sadistically amusing; eating and watching the random spark around the table go off like a firework. The lump of wasabi hidden in one of the salmon nigiri sushi is substantial, tear-worthy, and luckily, not on my plate.

Fried lotus root chips

The holey lotus root chips are moreish and much more impressive than a potato chip. Super crunchy with just an inkling of flavour beyond straight starchiness - another ideal movie snack.

Tempura combination

The tempura is a pile of golden crunch; vegetables, prawn and a piece of fish roe for something different.

Rice...

Several massive, hot stone bowls were delivered with their crunchy-bottomed but rather uninteresting rice contents; an unusual sight to see it used directly as an eating vessel.

Fried pork rib and chicken pizza? ( background)

More deep-fried, meaty morsels in the pork rib and the odd-looking pizza styled dish, of which I didn't sample. Sometimes I feel fusion just pushes too far.

Deep fried cheese

A definite favourite was the deep fried cheese, not tofu as it first resembled. It's almost as if everything can be improved through a battering and deep fry process. This is so good, yet probably unhealthy, as always seems to be the case. You win some, you lose some.

Suze with a sashimi platter

The massive sashimi platters were impressive and popular with a huge variety of seafood, nigiri sushi and rolls. The blue-green raw prawns with heads looked dubious but were said to taste like a less creamy raw scampi.

In what seems like hours of constant food and drink delivery (oh, hang on - it was), it was fun and, in a way, astounding to meet and see so many people of a very specific niche all in the one private room. Never has discussion of ingredients, menus, chefs, restaurants, food fairs, food careers and MasterChef been so easy and free-flowing.

Suze with her sheep birthday cake

Thanks to Trisha of Sugarlace for her sweet and chocolately gesture: chocolate and sprinkle covered cake pops with a sensationally moist ball of cake inside. It was lovely to meet, if not chat, to everyone. I loved putting (masked) faces to blogs and look forward to seeing you around on- and offline.

Cake pop from Trisha of Sugarlace