“Dressing up is encouraged” I read. I bite my lip. I was destined to attend an Alice in Wonderland themed event and I looked at my Alice costume hanging up, bought on ebay a few weeks before. It barely skimmed my buttocks as most of the costumes available here seem to be of the cleavage baring and derriere showing variety. I had decided not to wear it for this Halloween as I thought that I really didn’t need to moon my guests. But inspiration struck, well actually a pair of white stockings struck-items I had no recollection of ever buying (does that ever happen to you?) and suddenly I had a very plausible, non butt baring Alice in Wonderland outfit.
I’m all for dress ups but with strangers, sometimes there’s the very real chance of you being the only one dressed up. And I told this to Studio Neon’s owner Matt Lee who has hosted these pop up dinners during October’s Crave food festival. He tells us of a time that he turned up at a dress up party wearing a nappy and he was the only one-surely a cue for one to turn around and high tail their nappy wrapped bottom out of there. Looking around me I see various Mad Hatters, Alices, Tweedledees and Tweedledums and rabbits. It’s not so bad.
Beetroot and wasabi macarons
Tonight’s dinner is one of Studio Neon’s themed dinner for Crave (the previous one we attended was A Viking Feast) but this time they’ve really brought the theme to the fore which I am ecstatic about. At each of our settings is a pretty china tea cup, a sign saying “Eat Me” and a perfectly textured and intriguingly flavoured beetroot and wasabi macaron.
Bec Chippington
Chef Bec Chippington is behind the pass in their purpose built kitchen and bubbles are flowing. An Alice gets chased around by a man in a bunny outfit. We are running late and there are only two seats left. I take the velvet “Queen’s chair” and sink down a few centimetres shorter than everyone else and feel just like Alice. Things are getting quite trippy indeed!
“Eat Me” sandwiches
I got a bit excited about the “Eat Me” sandwiches. Long time readers may know of my slight obsession with Swedish sandwich cakes. They’re the perfect idea for an Alice in Wonderland party or dinner because they look like they belong at a tea party but they’re savoury. Filled with white bread and slatherings of a creme fraiche filling, dill, capsicum and smoked trout they’re soft and very creamy I like the ocean trout in particular. They’re a bit difficult to cut with the cake cutter being that the bottom layers are made up of the bread ends but once a knife is given, it is easy to divide.
“Drink me” Hare tea
Next a rabbit consomme is offered in a silver teapot. Bec explains later that it was extraordinarily difficult to get rabbit carcasses to make the consomme with and so a little is poured in our tea cups to whet the appetite for the next course.
Dutch carrot, zucchini flower, candied walnut and buckwheat salad
Looking like a spring plate garnished with flowers I like the sweetness and gnarled beauty of the roasted heirloom carrots and zucchini flowers that sit on a bed of sweet crunchy candied walnuts and buckwheat.
Wild mushroom salad
Served in a cast iron skillet there’s about four or five different varieties of mushrooms in this wild mushroom salad. I would have loved a bit more seasoning in this.
Confit duck with shaved aniseed, wine poached beets and micro herbs
The main course arrives and everyone has been eagerly anticipating the duck. It comes out on a long plate with one duck leg per person with one or two extra for good measure. The duck is soft and comes off the bone easily although it is slightly colder than I would have liked but I suppose that is a result from serving so many people. It sits on a bed of cinnamoney wine poached beetroot slices.
Goats curd and fresh peaches with smoked ham
A favourite at the table were some lovely fresh yellow peaches slices with a stirred through rich goat’s curd and a smoked ham. This gives the sweet peaches a nice contrast with the salty, smokey ham and light creaminess of the goat’s curd.
Fennel panna cotta with chocolate soil
Now this was a really interesting item. When they sat it down we figured that it had to be the fennel panna cotta by default and we wonder what the brown powder is (it wasn’t mentioned on the menu). I dab a pinkie finger into the powder and it tastes like chocolate although there it is not dry like chocolate-it’s actually 100% dark chocolate shaved and mixed with goat’s curd. And the subtle fennel panna cotta has a wobbly creaminess that really makes sense and allows you to forget thinking that perhaps fennel panna cotta is unusual. And the chocolate on it is another surprise, it’s not bad and even the self proclaimed unadventurous eaters at our end of the table like it.
Queen of Hearts chilli chocolate creams with strawberry sauce
Holy heck this was spicy! And even for a spice lover like me I was gulping water hard. The chocolate cream is light and moussey and it was blanketed with a generous serve of berry sauce on top giving the spicy chocolate a slight tartness.
As with dress ups, the night descends into fun as people play out their roles.
As Studio Neon is a photography studio everyone takes the chance to take photos. It’s a slightly surreal night where rabbits chase heroines, we see mirror images of the Mad Hatter and Tweedledum and Tweedledee have a mock fight. As you do in Alice land.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like dress ups? And if so, who do you like to dress up as or what was your favourite costume? And do you ever buy things and then forget that you bought them?
NQN and Mr NQN dined as a guest of Destination NSW and Studio Neon
Alice in Culinary Land
Level 2, 136 Raglan Street, Waterloo, NSW
Tel: 0404 555 098
http://www.studioneon.com.au/restaurant-bookings/
Tickets to Alice in Culinary Land were $145 per person
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60 Comments | Add your own
This all looks absolutely fabulous! I love all things Alice in Wonderland
Wow!!! It looks so pretty! I like the chairs and the peach cheese and ham dish makes me want to try it at home…though I am rather sure I would fail;)
I like dress ups:) I used to dress up as a fairy and walk around the city with a friend, also dressed as a fairy just for fun:) In Berlin I also dressed as a rabbit in a white wig and people laughed at me:)
Eat me, drink me, interesting sense of humour. Maybe you could have written ‘read me’ at the start of the blog, but I read it anyway!
This is the kind of theme party that everyone will want to go to. The costumes are right on! And so is the food. Good thing you found those stockings.
Lorraine, what a beautiful party…love the pictures! You sure made my day happier
Everything looks delicious…beetroot and wasabi? Amazing!
Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for this fun post!
I LOVE dress ups and as a librarian I get to bust out a costume every year! My favourite is definitely Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz – you can’t go past red sparkly shoes!!
Looks like a lovely evening, besides you have to use a custome.
I used to like to use a costume, but not anymore, I don’t know why. Maybe because my husband doesn’t like…
what a fun event!
Only political correctness prevents me from saying you looked delicious.
What an experience?! It would have been very surreal. The food looks amazing. How fab it must be to attend such events. I am so glad you share these experiences with us. Thank you.
EVerything looks so interesting. Fennel Panna Cotta????? Chocolate Soil? Love it. Looks like a fun evening.
When I lived in British communities in London and the Middle East, it seems like fancy dress parties were the norm. I am happy to say they no longer are
What a fabulous looking party. Beetroot and wasabi macarons are very Heston Blumenthal. What an intriguing idea. GG
This looks really interesting!
What a fun looking night, and the sandwich cake is definitely intriguing. Love the dress up shots.
Hi Lorraine, great post! Dress up parties terrify me – not sure why…..yes I always discover new things that I have stashed in my wardrobe, sometimes new and still in their packaging!:)
Oh wow this looks amazing!!
I’m not big on dress ups but this looks like fun!
Clearly I don’t shop enough, because I’ve never bought something and not remembered doing it!
I’ll have to remedy that!
Wow – great costume efforts!
How can you write about your bum-skimming outfit and not include a photo? And I reckon one exists!
I do like to dress up – it’s like having permission to be somebody else for the night. I went to a party as Tina Turner once, that was fun.
I absolutely LOVE dress ups and theme parties! I really wanted to see a pic of you in your Alice costume Lorraine!Did I miss it? I love the attention to detail with this themed event. By the way I once attended a black and white 40th birthday party at a beautiful home in Sydney’s northern eastern suburbs…hubby and I got carried away with the black and white theme and dressed up in gangster and moll costumes complete with guns, vests and hats and fishnets plus a tiny micro miniskirt for me….imagine the scene as we entered the home and found all the other guests in very elegant black on black (with an occasional tasteful white touch)…I felt silly for about 10 minutes till the gorgeous caterer/waiter said to me “honey, you’re the best looking couple here!”…then I let my hair down and hit the dance floor and had a great night! Gotta love a theme
This looks like the most amazing night!
Im a little bit boring, im not really a fan of dressing up…
What an imaginative evening and what a lot of fun – great photo’s, too.
Well, a dress-up gal I have never been altho’ I have given my share of ‘themed’ dinners with food from various parts of the world. This tho’ looks like having been real ‘fun do’ – and I am partial to anyhing to do with the quirkyness of ‘Alice’
! The food and drink look very imaginative: love the use of flowers and the fennel pannacotta with chocolate ‘soil’ is inspired fun!! Sure you had a great time, would not have minded sitting on your shoulder again 
!
What a great night. I just love fun things like this. I also like the well thought about fine tuned menu, very interesting, shame about the choc mousse
Wow, amazing!
Looks like a fun time was had by all!
Guess you can look forward ro dressing up like Cindarella at the ball?
What can be bad about themed food and fun?
All is in the planning and sharing, how it’s done!
Dressing up always adds to the atmosphere!
Entertain ALOT at home re theme parties that people simply dress to…throughout the year!
I once went to a circus themed dress-up party. I squeezed into this giant, butt-baring neon-pink and white tutu. When I was still doing ballet at 14, it was meant to be a parody of a little girl’s ballerina fantasy. At 20, it was also pretty cleavage revealing, and I couldn’t get through a door without tilting the tutu. I was The Only One In Costume. The host had emailed us to tell us about the theme, but being a flake, forgot to tell anyone else! I actually had a great night. Noone seemed to think it was especially peculiar that there was a ballerina shaking her booty in the living room. And around midnight a lion and a lion-tamer showed up to keep me company.
What a fabulous theme! I would SO rather be in culinary land than wonderland
No pics of you?? 
ps I have dressed up as Barney (as in big purple dude) once. Am going to a NYC themed new years party though and am thinking about dressing up as a lobster roll lol 
Wow! What an amazing night you had! I love the look of every dish here, especially the ‘eat me’ sandwiches!
Dress-ups make me nervous. I’m always worried I’m going to end up in a situation similar to that scene in Bridget Jones Diary.
Awesome! I sooo looove themes, and this one really carried through. My friend had a Wonderland party, and I went as one of the Flamingoes- the only trouble was that I was covered in pink feathers in December!
Where is the pic of you?
I love love love dress ups! I’m glad that Halloween is becoming bigger here. I’ve got a Snow White costume which has a very short skirt too. I wear a red underskirt with it so that I don’t expose bits that the world doesn’t really want to see.
oooh what fun! The food looks spectacular, I heart the Eat Me sandwiches … so pretty!
If someone served me a meal this glorious, I’d be afraid my time was soon up and no one was telling me.
I love dress ups. It’s so much more fun than dressing in regular clothes.
I once went to a Barbie party dressed as Ken. As we were all 11yo girls I was the only Ken there. Lucky man!
I tend to do that a lot with food items. I buy them to try then forget about them.
Oh, what a fun and tasty night! I’m definitely enamoured with teh fennel pannacotta idea
I often forget things in my pantry adn my cupboard. In fact, my mum just reminded me that I have two lovely dresses hanging in my old room at home. I thought I had more than I could find in my own wardrobe…
I’m dying to see a photo of you in your costume Lorraine! Please post it up! I love a good Alice
Looks like a fun night! I dressed up or “down” once as John Lennon – combed down frills, round sunnies, tight black jeans and a tshirt declaring “peace”
Beautiful!!!!!
This is really such a beautiful post.
What a pretty party, absolutely enchanting.
Eat me…
Drink me…
This post is screaming,
Love me………
Everything looks so beautiful and the guests look so cute! I’ve never been to anything fancy dress (not brave enough to!)
What a fantastic night out! I love themed dinners and dress ups, especially when the food is delicious
What a scrumptiously whimsical meal! It’s things like these that make me wish our local restaurants had a more creative slant .
How much fun was that? I am amazed at the detail and the opportunity…Gorgeous!
Nice to see the Swedish sandwich cake making an appearence!
And it looks like a great night out!
This is why I love you.
I thought I would be able to see you in that dress…!! I am pretty disappointed now
. Anyway, I am generally too shy for dress ups, but I think I would give it a shot one day!
Wow! Not only we can enjoy dress up but also you get to eat these amazing meals. How fun!!! I have to say everything looks gorgeous and it seems like it’s a story in a movie.
Ah, lovely! And those roasted carrots, yummy!
Fabulous photos and a great night. I like that they pushed the boat out with the food. The chocolate chilli cream was too hot for me too although the guys near me seemed to have enjoyed it. Was nice to go to something a bit different for a change.
I love the look of the peaches, goats cheese and ham – sounds delicious. The Swedish sandwich cakes look adorable, but I am wary of what they would taste like. I am not much for dressups, although I love “dressing up”.
Ok let’s start a petition…who else wants to see a pic of Lorraine in her Alice costume?;-)
Love this, and love to dress up. It’s inspired me to be more creative with dinner parties from now on
Haha love it! This looks like so much fun
I do like dress ups but prefer it if its a theme so I have some kind of guidance lol
awwww this is awesome!!! I love Alice in Wonderland!
this has inspired me to do some funner things with food in the kitchen! looks amazing!
My gosh, this sounds like an interesting dinner (and I love the fancy dress theme). It reminds me of a similarly adventurous 10-course dinner I just had in New York at the Culinary Council (if you’re ever in New York, you simply must get in touch with them – they have the most exotic dinner cooked by visiting international chefs).
And I particularly love the sound of that peach and goats curd salad – will have to try that myself!
Briony xx
what a fun idea! looks like a good time was had by all–love the costumes and the grub! i suddenly have a craving for peaches…woe is me.
I would’ve loved to dress up! I usually do Cosplay, so that’s nothing. Haha. Awesome degustation, love the Eat Me/Drink Me for decorations most!
Dress up parties are always so much fun and there’s always a talking point for meeting new people. I haven’t been to one in years though
Some interesting dishes here – very mad hatter indeed!!
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