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Monday, 13 August 2012

Chocolate, Churros, Chilli and Cider at Foodies Festival

That got your attention, didn't it? More about the chocolate and churros later, but this post is about the Edinburgh Foodies Festival which I went to with my blogging friends Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes and Claire of A Kiss of Cookies.
The Foodie Festival was held in Inverleith Park near the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.  It was very busy with several rows of tented stalls, live music and the smell of barbequed meat hanging in the air.

This is what it looked like from outside in the park.

We started at one end and worked our way up and down the aisles of tents, tasting samples of cheese, spicy Thai Fish cakes made with angustura bitters, a little chocolate whisky cream and picking up samples of coffee and little Bon Maman madeleines.  Eventually we decided that we had better buy something more substantial.

I was drawn inexorably toward the Arbroath Smokie stall.  I just love the fragrant smoked haddock, it reminds me of my childhood, when we probably had them once a week, just split dotted with butter and warmed under the grill.  Where I live now, they don't sell them and if I've ever got one it has been dry and not worth bothering with.  So I often ask  my Mum to get smokies when I go to visit.

Here are the pairs of haddock on the racks for smoking, you can see the smoky fire too.  I still smelled like a kipper when I got home!


The smokies were split, deboned and wrapped in paper ready for sale.

I was not disappointed, totally delicious and still warm. 

Claire went for a bacon roll and Jacqueline found some noodles and suchi (no pictures, sorry).
Then it was time for some dessert, Claire had had her eye on the churros earlier on and made our way back to the stall.

Jac had to try some too.

 
As well as sampling some vintage, peasant cider.  We all had a taste and it was really good although it was a strange colour, like orangeade.

 Sorry about the squinting, the sun was in my eyes!

We had a great time and the sun shone which was a bonus, but there were so many ways that the festival would have been better for me: 

Getting there
 There was very little signage so actually finding Inverleith Park was a challenge. There were no directions on the website, no information about buses or parking opportunities, so if you didn't know the area, you had to do a lot of extra research to find your way.  The only sign we saw was on the gate to the park and by that time we were already there.  I know the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe were on, but a few signs round about Stockbridge and perhaps on Ferry Road would have made all the difference.

 Who and Where
There was no programme or plan of who was exhibiting and where they were located in the fenced off festival area.  Okay, I can understand they might not have been able to publish it on the website if there were late entries, but a list with numbers and aisles would have been very welcome, even if I'd had to buy it!  I've visited the Pot Fest in the Park near Penrith which is a pottery fair and they manage to provide this.  I had been tweeting The Elephant Juice Soup Company earlier in the day, but I never did find their stall. Planning who you want to see and looking back afterwards is, for me, part of the pleasure of an event like this.

The Chef's Theatre
I was really looking forward to seeing  a demonstration, but the people who took the tickets did not  give any indication about booking and the booth was placed just inside the entry almost behind the tent where people were buying tickets.  Now maybe if you bought a ticket on the day you would be told to book, but we didn't get that information, so everything was booked up.  Again, it would have been good to pre-book online, but if not then some information at the gate would have been equally useful.

Range of Exhibitors
Maybe I missed some exhibitors because of the lack of a programme (can you tell that I'm a bit narked by that?) but it seemed that there were a lot of  stalls for chocolate, spicy rubs/oils/flavourings/dips and booze!  It was very meat heavy too, not that I minded, but other than the noodle stall 'The Scottish Vegetarian' was rather challenged to find lunch, there may have been more, but we didn't know where they were.

Did I have a good time - YES!  Would I go back - probably not unless the organisation is better.

I was not sponsored by anyone to write this post, these views are my own and cannot be attributed to the friends who visited the festival with me.  


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posted by Janice @ 21:53 13 Comments