Review: The Real Food Festival 2011, London

But sometimes, I need some real food.

Readers of our blog may have noticed that we enjoy attending food and drink events. There are several reasons why.  Firstly, there are extraordinary foods which are struggling to attract attention, which you will not find in your local supermarket. Secondly, we are firm believers in buying local produce to support local businesses and economies. Thirdly, we love how these events can stimulate your mind as well as your taste buds.  To add to all of that, there are obvious perks of meeting new people, trying new foods and learning a fact or three through cooking demonstrations.

The main downside tends to be the crowds or if the event falls into the commercial trap. The Real Food Festival was all of the pros with none of the cons.

We began our afternoon at 12:30pm by visiting “My Daddy Cooks” father and son duo Nick and Archie Coffer, who were demonstrating their Mexican lasagne and salmon and cream cheese pasta dish. Endearing Archie charmed the audience with his own take on the recipes; ripped tortilla with chocolate and salmon and cream cheese, also with chocolate.

After the demonstration, we ambulated through the aisles grazing and nibbling our way around. We stoped at various workshops one of which was a talk on parmesan and wine from the Douro region in Portugal. Christina Pickard resident wine-expert on the Good Food channel’s “Market Kitchen” was the presenter. Her engaging style and interesting subject matter had the audience enthralled. There was a light hearted competition at the end to win cheese and a recipe book.  It was probably unfair of us to have entered given we are wine and food bloggers, but all is fair in food and freebies! We stopped answering the questions eventually and allowed others to have a go.

We have to say there were some amazing independent Food producers.  Favourites, which caught are eyes were as follows:

The Cornish Crisp Company for crunchy, non-greasy crisps packed with authentic flavours. The spicy chili would be perfect laden with humus. We were also pleased that the company donate to local charities with every packet bought. Yet another reason why it was an obvious winner. 

Naturally, we visited the Bordeaux wine stall and tasted a charming Pomerol 2007 and fruity Merlot 2009. There was no pressure to buy, but an opportunity to enjoy and learn.

Not only do Original Beans produce high quality, premium chocolate, but the founder Philip Kauffman is dedicated and passionate about conservation. We can not wait to get cooking with our chocolate or indulge in a cheeky intensely rich slab or two. A 70g bar is about £4.50, so it is not cheap, but the quality more than compensates.

Street food is en vogue at the moment, and we felt Zayti is on to a winning formula with their middle east meets west sweet and savoury delights. We tried a melt in the mouth Turkish chocolate brownie, which was exquisite. Rich dark chocolate melted into the fruity Turkish delight. We wish them every success, as we will need to have a second helping of the brownie in the future.

Arancini Brothers brought fabulous, crispy coated risotto balls of fun to the festival. They were just about the best “snacks” we have tasted for a while. Move over falafel and enter stage right risotto balls served in a wrap and lathered with home made chili salsa and garlic mayonnaise.

Other than gin, which is a favourite in the Wennie household, St Germain (elderflower liqueur) is hugely popular. If you do not have a bottle for your summer barbecue Champagne aperitif cocktails, you must get one. Delicious. Refreshing. Inspiring.

Out of all the food events we have attended, this was rather good fun and we returned home with sore shoulders from carrying our spoils. We would have probably appreciated the opportunity to sit down and enjoy a glass of wine from an independent English wine company; perhaps from a sparkling wine bar. Most of the wine stalls were standing only and it would have been good to take a load off for half an hour to soak in the atmosphere.  We want to say not to go next year in order to protect one of the downsides we mention above, but then we just won’t be fulfilling our blog’s aim. If you did not make it this year, pencil in this weather-proof food event for next year. Fantastic fun!

Review: Ideal Home Show (March 11th - 27th 2011)

Oh won't you please take me home

We have been to the Ideal Homes fifteen times, which is quite a number of visits for two thirty something year olds. We started going to the Exhibition as teenagers who knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and share a home. The exhibition follows a similar format to recent years, that is splitting the event into several aspects of your home life from food, to decorating, gardening, home improvement to name a few.  In recent years, we have noticed the show shrinking in terms of stalls, but there is still plenty there to keep you and your family busy.  Despite the fact that we are in the middle of a major renovation project ourselves, we mainly concentrated on the food aspects, although we did a complete lap of the venue.

We began our journey in the food gadget section.  The wide display of titanium pans, hot plates, electric blenders were impressive.  It never fails to surprise us that people purchase such gadgets and then proceed to cart them around for the whole day. I guess if I were mugged on the way home I would prefer to be armed with a ten inch steel pan than a mop with innovative micro fibre technology.  Nonetheless there were still the usual hoards of people brandishing mops and in charge of knives sets, which would otherwise make ordinary citizens nervous.

We had caught Paul Rankin at the Ideal Celebrity Chef Theatre. We love that man's potato cakes. They could possibly be the best invention ever brought to the breakfast table. He expertly chopped and stirred his way through a wholesome pasta dish plus starter and dessert. What a legend. A show pleaser was Master Chef 2010 Champion Dhruv Baker's session on Sunday roast. The audience love this man! He prepared an eclectic Sunday spicy rack of lamb roast with beetroot. If he had offered to feed the audience, he would have had no problems sharing his wears as they were eating out of his hands! In fact a slightly inebriated lady to the left of me (with plastic pint of lager to match) was being restrained by her husband, so that she did not rush the stage. Luckily, she was too intoxicated to notice.  

There are so many food stalls in the ideal homes. It is worth taking the opportunity to navigate yourself through the mire and seek out the best food, not just scoffing an ordinary burger and chips.  A stall which caught our eye was Aromas Catering, based in Park Royale, who have been running their catering business for two years. We tried a spicy chicken, onion, capsicum dish of medium heat served with naan bread–  Lovely authentic food, and not run of the mill.

We love good healthy foods and Munchy Seeds had quite a selection of guilt free crunchy snacks (available in Waitrose, Tesco and Lakelands).  A couple of teaspoons and you can at least pretend you made an attempt at healthy living before you turn to the macaroon stall.   

http://www.munchyseeds.co.uk/ 

There are several options to try wines, spirits and beers, so if you are a oenophile, you can have a time out from the crowds and treat yourself. 

When it is snack time, we would also recommend Med Food Ltd, who displayed a mouthwatering selection of authentic foods, including cashew chili and sea salt, an impressive array of olives, sun dried tomatoes, baklava and more.

An interesting lunch option if you favour buying British as we do often is The Bath Pig, who specialise in free trade cured meats.  Their chorizo, made from british pork, are gluten free.  Flavours range from original, spicy paprika, garlic & herb and were seriously good. Ciabatta sandwiches with chorizo, peppers, rocket were available throughout the day.  Perfect if you were nursing a hang-over. 

http://www.thebathpig.com/

Chocolate and Love were probably the friendliest of all the chocolatiers. As we nibbled on a taster, the lady demonstrating the product advised us to suck not chew (he said). We are fans of dark fair trade, organic chocolate.  Chocolate and Love also run chocolate tasting classes and have a great piece on their website on how to extract the most from your chocolate. 

http://www.chocolateandlove.com/

Lastly, no Ideal Home Show visit is complete without a pie.  Flavour of the day were the Crusty Pie based in Halifax, who were established over twenty years ago.  Their pies keep for 5 days refrigerated and are freezable. We picked a Gloucestershire Old Spock pie to go and warmed it in our oven that evening for dinner.

http://www.crustypie.co.uk/shop/

Our one moment of food unhappiness was the afternoon tea with Champagne.  We are afternoon tea enthusiasts, so we have high standards. The staging of the tea was set in the centre of the show and looked impressive from the first floor mezzanine.  I enquired with the waitress what was on offer (incidentally she looked exhausted) and she muttered something about cakes, scones and Moet.  We persevered and were advised that we had to go to a counter to order.  Yes, it was all rather bizarre.  The final straw was the dirty, plastic table cloths.  Aghast, we walked out. 

The Ideal Homes Show has so many unusual food lovers opportunities.  The aforementioned places were stalls that caught our eye, but we could not try everything. If you want to settle for a simple burger and chips that is fine, but one can also indulge in Ostrich burgers, authentic spicy curries, and flavours from around the globe.  You can bring another dimension to your home and in years gone by, we have been sourced amazing tantilising, finds; Canadian maple syrup, herbs galore and spicy nuts to name a few.  Be bold with your choices and enjoy the event.

Opening Times
10am-6pm daily
Late Night Thursdays open until 9pm

Ticket Prices
	Door	Advance
Weekday Adult	£16	£11
Weekend Adult	£18	£13
Weekday Concession (Over 60's)	£12	£10
Weekend Concession (Over 60's)	£14	£12
Children Under 15	Free	Free
Late Night Thursday Open until 9pm	£5 after 5pm	£5 after 5pm

Review: London Art Fair 2011 at the Business Design Centre, Islington (19 - 23 Jan)

Isn't nature wonderful, but is this art?

I would love it if the committee who organises this event re-named the London Art Fair as Pimp My Artist.  Would be punters cruise through a labyrinth of art adorned walls appraising, gawking, commenting at Art.  I love it.  The London Art fair at the Islington Business Design Centre is in its 23^rd year.  We had been to this exhibition many years ago but due to work pressures had not had the opportunity to attend since.  On that occasion we had merely been window shoppers.  I had felt like a child in Hamleys, knowing that I could be amongst all these toys, but having the sneaking suspicion that I stood zero chance of convincing my parents to buy me anything.  Although we had not openly discussed it this year, Keith and I were cruising for art.  

Pimping their wears are over 120 premier art galleries.  On display are not just paintings but sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs and video art.  In the Arts Projects section on the first floor mezzanine, you can find solo shows and curated groups.  Whilst Photo50 is a showcase for contemporary photos, handpicked by a distinguished panel. 

There are a few aspects that we enjoy about this exhibition:

Firstly you do not need to be an art critic to visit (as with all art!).  If you do not “get art” that's ok.  As much of the work is so contemporary you do not need to become a slave to the miniscule placard by the piece which has managed to squeeze on one hundred words.  It is simply possible to walk around, soak in the ambience and absorb yourself in the wonderful pieces being showcased.

It is also an excellent opportunity to sample some of the UKs premier contemporary artists especially in the Arts projects, where many were being showcased.  We did take a few photos of works which spoke to us.  We found Marcus Rees Roberts's Catalunya series spine tingly haunting.  His artwork drew us into a cold and empty world.  Andrew Gadd's morose, burdensome painting felt both bleak but hopeful.   Sarah Myerscough's fun, frivolous and cheeky time spanning artworks kept us hooked for quite some time as we debated and analysed.

Lastly, it is possible to pick up a bargain.  We have been looking at various avenues to source affordable art for some time.  Our favourite purveyors of fine art, Spencer Coleman (St Katherine's Docks) were not present at the Fair unfortunately.  However, being at the show was almost as if we were in the shopping mall equivalent.  There were obviously dearer pieces, which would stretch the budget.  For example, we wished we had forty-five thousand pounds spare to purchase a 3m by 2m Untitled canvas by John Monks.  In the end we settled for a beautiful bonze statue by Carol Peace, which we are very pleased with.  Isn't she beautiful? 

The London Art Fair is on at the Business Design Centre from Wednesday 19^th to Sunday 23^rd January.  Entry to the Fair is £11 in advance or £15 on the door.

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Masterchef Live And The Wine Show - The Winners

Here I am, I'm the master of your spaghetti, ha haa

Today we went to Masterchef Live and the Wine Show at Olympia.  Let’s not try and kid ourselves, these mass food events are rarely aimed at Foodies, but at people who like to eat food.  You can be sure that most visitors will subconsciously be aiming to eat their weight in cheese and drink their blood volume of some sickly liqueur which reminds them of being a teenager downing a spirit resembling diesel in a park somewhere.

However, there are diamonds in the rough in this mire of stalls, and we were determined to whittle them out.  Rather than critique the event, we decided to pick our highlights and bring to you the first of many Wennie Awards.  As a world exclusive, here are the Wennie Masterchef and Wine Show Awards… (Cue operatic music)

Best Organic & Ethical Product:

Seeds of Change

Darkly delicious and tantalisingly, Seeds of Change have more than a range of chocolate produce.  These chocolates are naughty on the waste line, but angelic in so many other aspects, we forgive them.  We loved the fig and orange choccie.  It was like a chocolate orange gone right (sorry Terry’s fans).

Stockists: To place an order call 0247 658 8350.

Best Natural Product:

Fever-Tree, Premium Natural Mixers

Wow, a top quality product drinkable solo, or as a mixer.  We love Fentimans, but we do feel that this is the haute-couture of mixers.  Fever-Tree are proud that El Bulli and The Fat Duck stock their products. Oh and check out the cute, pretty bottles.

Stockists: Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Majestic, Oddbins and Ocado.

Best Cheese and Charcuterie Suppliers:

British Fine Foods

Genuine, friendly and knowledgeable ladies were on hand to answer questions about their produce and provide samples.  By the way, they supply a range of fantastic quality foods available for home deliver, but we can only talk to the Lancashire bomb and venison salami (chilling in our fridge).  They have won awards for their home delivery service, again we can not substantiate as we have not ordered from them.

Best of British:

Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard

The oldest English family owned vineyard near Hastings produces this refreshing sparkling Cuvee Brut.  British wines are becoming increasingly popular and the natural method applied around the wine-making techniques, pay dividends in terms of flavour.

Stockists: Via independent web-sites.

Best of the Rest of the World:

Crosta&Mollica

Based in the UK, but made in Italy, this bakery has a range of products, many of which would make great hors d’ouvres snacks.  We particularly enjoyed the torcetti al burro, which is similar to churros, but biscuity and thinner. An excellent cappuccino accompaniment.

Stockists:  Limited, available in Waitrose from today

Best Indulgent Product:

Simply Ice Cream

Wonderfully creamy and bursting with flavour, Simply Ice Cream is a silky and original treat.

Stockists:  Waitrose

Most Adventurous Product:

Seed & Bean

They describe themselves as creative and ethical chocolatiers.   The real selling point is the innovative and ingenuous chocolate experience they offer.  Flavours include Chilli & Lime, Coconut & Raspberry, Pumpkin Seeds and Hemp Oil, Cornish Sea Salt, Lemon & Poppy Seeds Creamy White Chocolate and Lavender.  Pure gastronomic innovation:
Stockists:  Very early days for these guys

Best Spirit / Liqueur:

St~Germain Elderflower Liqueur

A sophisticated and elegant French liqueur.   Mixed with Champagne this would be a wonderful seasonal aperitif.
Stockists:  Various online stockists.  These guys are easy to find on the internet.

Best Wine:

O:TU Premium New Zealand Wines

We have bought wine from this range before, but we tried a delightful pinot noir which was palatable on its own or with a steak or lamb. It had a beautiful ruby red hue, like Valentine day roses.

Stockist: Not available in shops.  Internet stockists include: Smithfieldwines, ampsfinewines, thesampler, henningswine and chapelplacewines 

Best Sparkling Wine:

Jansz

Toasted almonds and noughat upderpins this sparkling premium Australian wine.  It has a similar disposition to a Lanson.
Stockists:  Oddbins

Best Foodie Education Idea:

Tastetour

This fun group of epicureans organise award winning gastro events for foodies and wine drinkers around London.  Their 2011 agenda includes amongst others “Undiscovered wines speed-tasting” and “10 course dinner with homemade fruit vodka pairing”.  We will definitely be in touch to take part in their taste-tastic experience
Contact directly

We did not sample every last bit of balsamic, olive oil and cake tasters, but we did dedicate a significant amount of energy in this pursuit.  We still could not have covered all the stalls there.  If you were at Masterchef Live and could impartially recommend a product let us know!