Well having won tickets from the Sunday Brunch Club I was very much looking forward to the Foodies Festival, my Dutch friend Lou agreed to accompany me in my search for some good nibbles and hopefully some nice produce to take home.
My first stop was upstairs at the chef demos, having eaten in his restaurant many times was nice to see Mark Greenaway cooking live, the truffles looked amazing and happily I now have the recipe from the festival guide so will be trying them out myself soon. The wait to find out where his new restaurant will be goes on however as he was giving nothing away.
On entering the hall it was clear to see the this was going to be a tough day, the EICC is not the biggest of halls and it has to be said we were all pretty crammed in. Having been to the BBC Good Food Show in October was nice to see some of the same producers again as well as some of my farmers market favourites. Lou and I were both agreed on our favourite stall however, that being the Caledonian Oyster Company fronted by @Oyster_Lady, the large oysters were stunning and relatively cheap at £2 each.
With my initial hangover having subsided I was now on the look out for some nourishment so was happy to find El Gaucho the Brazilian BBQ specialists, cue a ribeye steak roll and I was a happy camper. Tender steak, paprika dressing it really hit the spot perfectly
All in all I did enjoy the festival but can't help but think they would have benefited from a bigger venue, after a little over an hour we were both ready to get out of there and I have spoken to a number of people who looked in and left soon after as they didn't want to fight the crowds. Given the lack of ticket inspection I did suspect there may have been some walk ins as otherwise they were really pushing capacity close to the limit.
