Bloggermeet - Henley Regatta July 2005.  Add/Read Comments

Henley Regatta Picnic

It didn't rain. People turned up. We ate and we drank. The Henley Regatta Food Bloggers Picnic; I had a marvellous time. A couple couldn't make it on the day but Christina (Thorngrove Table), Anne (Anne's Table) flew in from Sweden, Johanna (The Passionate Cook) and Jeanne (Cooksister) and numerous friends and family occupied a swathe of the river bank and put on a truly impressive picnic. I dished out various bellini cocktails made from Funkin Purees and Deakin Estate Brut NV, an Australian sparkling (Oddbins £7.49) before we moved onto copious amounts of Pimms.

I forget who exactly brought which dish - although Anne opened a tin of pickled herrings (I think they were herring) a dish always eaten on mid-summers day in Sweden apparently. They were sweet initially before ending in a really fishy burst of flavour. Interesting. There was a mackerel pate, pecorino and peppadew muffins, fig and pama ham muffuletta, bacon and asparagus quiche, salmon roly-polis and chocolate chilli cremes. Oh and Jaegerwecken - a delicious smoked ham, cheese, gherkin, cream cheese Austrian speciality. I brought some Seggiano Olivastra Olives.

Elvis Lives! Six of Them.

We had plenty of envious looks from passersby. I think the others are posting details on their respective bloggs on the food. More photos available over on Flickr. A great day was had by all. I ate extremely well, enjoyed the rowing, laughed at the guys playing golf on a raft, got fascinated by a Mediaeval cook book brought down by Christina and got perplexed over a lost bread-knife (which, despite turning all my bags inside out, miraculously reappeared in one the next day). No one fell in the river but next year they want to hire a boat; sp maybe next time!