With the year coming to an end, Christmas parties have started to pop up. Last Thursday the firm I worked for had their Christmas party. Usually, we have awesome days out with a great lunch, but this year was different. It was our 25th year as a practice and the Christmas party was to be combined with our anniversary party. At first I felt a ripped off, as our Christmas parties were awesome and something to look forward to, however I warmed up to the idea of the anniversary/Christmas party when I found out what was happening.
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| The Chicken Patty Thing, Held by my drinking partner in crime |
The company had hired the old ‘6 pack’ silos down at Wynyard Quarter and cleaned them up for the night. In addition, there was a marquee put up beside them to house the 300 guests that were apparently invited. There was going to be some great catering and an ample amount of wine and beer.
Of course, because all out clients and consultants were also invited it meant that we had to be on good behaviour (well at least until they all left).
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| Mini Bruschetta |
It was a good day on Thursday, it was sunny and warm and the sea breeze helped keep the place fresh. Upon arrival we were greeted with waiters handing out cocktails. The ‘Silo-tini” (the cocktail of the event) was a martini with a hit of lemon juice. It was pretty strong and to me very sour. I needed to down that quickly and move on to the other drinks available.
I kept to wine and beer for the rest of the night, drinking the Pinot Gris, until that ran out then moving to Heinekens. The food on offer was pretty top notch. The first dish that came around was a mini bagel with cream cheese and salami. It was ok, but sort of too big to have in one mouthful and quite hard to bite in half. Next were a few different variations of mini Yorkshire puddings with either rare beef on top or a grilled mushroom. These were (especially the mushroom ones) delicious. And due to their size you could really chow down on them.
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| Prawn Skewer, wrapped in basil, Silo-Tini in the background |
After mingling a bit with some of my office colleagues and some randoms I had never seen before in my life, I had to go around and take photos of the event, something that was tasked to me…meaning I could not get totally inebriated or I would probably lose or break my camera. I did this for a bit before another round of canapé goodness.
Next on the menu were mini summer rolls, mini versions of the fresh spring rolls you can order at Vietnamese restaurants. They were ok, but if your been to a Vietnamese restaurant more than once your would have already had your fair share of these. After these mini rolls came mini bruschetta with a caramelized cherry tomato on the top. This was quite tasty and the tangy tomato mixed with a savoury paste which I couldn’t figure out what was made of was a great combination.
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| Mini Summer Roll |
It was now well in the night and the sun had set, meaning it started to get cold. We all huddled into the marquee and continued to drink away. Feeling the beer kick in, I had to look for more food. I found a tray of little chicken patties with some sort of noodle thing on top. I assume they were pretty good, from what they looked like, but at this point my taste buds had almost decided to call it quits due to too much drinking.
By the end of the night, I was quite satisfied with the food and drink. There was plenty to go around and it was all pretty tasty (well at least the stuff I ate at the beginning of the night). The venue was done up very nicely as well.
