Wellington Girl Geek Dinner

On Monday a colleague asked me if I wanted to go to last night's Girl Geek Dinner. I definitely did - I had seen the promo stuff but not until after it had already sold out, so figured it was a no-go for me. However, my colleague had had something else come up and so I got lucky!

The dinner was held at the Skyline Restaurant, which is at the top of the cable car and has an amazing view over the city. Sadly the glass meant I wasn't able to get any photos that weren't full of reflection and horrendous - but take my word for it, or go there and see for yourself! ;-)

The idea of these dinners are to encourage women who work in ICT, and give us an opportunity to experience being the majority gender (something that's pretty rare at my work!). They have speakers each time - the main speaker last night was Isa Notermans from Google - prizes, and, of course, food. A perfect opportunity for me to reveal my geeky blogging hobby without being judged (much)!

The food was served banquet-styles, and the worst part was waiting for our turn to eat!

Famished ladies loading up their plates!

The first platters were salads and antipasto - the antipasto was fantastic, especially the beautiful feta. The tomato, basil and mozzarella salad (on the left) was also lovely, with perfectly seasoned tomato - though I wouldn't have minded more mozzarella! ;-)

Then there was the veg - steamed veges, and crispy and delicious mini roast potatoes with garlic and parley butter.

This penne pasta bake with spinach, feta and olives was delicious - my favourite hot dish.

The fish dish - described as "Baked Cook Strait catch of the day in a lemon buerre blanc" was also very tasty - the fish was wonderfully tender.

The roast lamb was served in a rosemary and thyme gravy which was pretty tasty - though I only had a tiny bit of this since I had already loaded up my plate with fish, pasta, potatoes, antipasto... Such a hardship!

And then, as if that wasn't troublesome enough, there was dessert:

Chocolate mousse (apparently chocolate orange mousse, though I couldn't taste the orange at all) - this was fluffy and rich - really good (and a favourite with my whole table).

The tiramisu was also beautiful - deliciously creamy (though I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach because it was a battle getting through it - but it was worth it!). It had a nice balance of coffee and creaminess and now I've had a day to recover from all I ate last night it's making my mouth water just looking at it.

I took a terrible photo of the apple crumble - but actually, it doesn't deserve better. It was actually quite bad - the Masterchef judges wouldn't have given this one a second chance! The topping was bland and floury, and undercooked. The filling was bland and appley, and undercooked... Everything else was great, and sorry Skyline, but this just wasn't a good dish. All the bowls on my table had the chocolate mousse and tiramisu eaten to the end but the apple crumble was left - says it all, really!

And then we got these cute goodie bags - a stunning necklace from Super Very, some cute magnets from Boocraft, some fragrance samples and some vouchers. The whole evening, including food, was just $25 (thanks to the generous sponsors), and was pretty fun - I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next one!

Geek Girl Dinners are an opportunity for women to talk about technology over food and drinks. The first one was held in London in 2005 and now they are held all over the world. The NZ website is http://www.ggd.gadgets.geek.nz/, or check out http://girlgeekdinners.com/ for an international view.