I am still on the train on my way to The Good Food and Wine Show out at Olympic Park. This is why I hate attending events in Sydney - we still don't have an exhibition centre in the city therefore a large amount of events are out at Olympic Park Homebush Bay. It takes at least an hour and a half to get there with a train transfer at Lidcombe formally called the Olympic Sprint from the 2000 Sydney Olympics now renamed Platform Zero. I left home around 9.30 am and I think I won't arrive until around noon at the rate I'm travelling. It is a Sunday so public transport isn't as regular as on weekdays. I am studying my Cyber Security course online on my train trip out to Lidcombe. Hopefully when I arrive I won't have to queue just flash my Citibank card to get into The Good Food and Wine Show.
Finally inside the food and wine show - in the Citibank priority queue and straight to the information booth to collect my free wine glass for tastings, a glass of wine in the Grazing Garden, magazine and map. Can't believe I was asked for ID ! First time ever!!!
The many dining perks of being a Citibank customer - mainly priority entry to The Food and Wine Show, free wine tasting glass ( which I now have accumulated a number of and will never have to buy wine glasses again!), free alcohol , entry into grazing garden seated area and priority seating at the celebrity theatre.
First thing I do and I'm unsure what to do, is walk around. I pass the Korean Cultural Centre stand and there was a queue to grab some rice of some sort served in a litle bamboo boat so I go staight to "dessert" across from this stand there is a Swiss biscuit stand giving out samples of these cute mini plain heart shaped biscuits and mini creme filled biscuits of some sort - I just asked for the "whatever they are" biscuits - not bad and another lady asked for the same thing - by the time I arrived there wasn't much choice left. Later I found out when I returned to this stand to get another biscuit sample that these biscuits are actually unavailable in Australia. Bummer!
I then headed for the Procal stand giving out full single serve tubs of Greek yoghart claiming they were "the best Greek yoghart" - not bad however not far from that stand was a cake stand giving out portions of different flavoured cupcakes so I grabed a sample of chocolate and a sample of orange poppy seed and mixed it with my Greek yoghart - good combination. Finished it off now time to sit down blog and plan the next 3 - 4 hours of my day at the show.
I had a quick look at the celebrity threatre Matt Moran Gary Meagan Matt Moran Gary Meagan - Matt Moran was on stage demontrating the same dish he did at The Good Food and Wine Show in Melbourne I had attended previously - a little boring so I'll give the celebrity theatre a miss this time round
Onto the first cheese stop of the day - Beemster Cheese - samples of the same cheese aged from 1 month to 18 months. 4, 6 and 10 months aged cheese were my favourites. Being lactose intolerant this is good as the 1 month is the only cheese that contained lactose. Unfortunately ran out of time to go back and buy some. Bummer!
Speaking of being lactose intolerant - I wish I wasn't I love the concept of unpasteurized milk products. Everytime I go to The Good Food and Wine Show I buy a block of my favouite raw milk cheese from Bruny Island Cheese Company called C2. This time round I decided not to however there is now a new raw milk product on the Australian market producing cold pressed raw milk in bottles - again like Bruny Island Cheeese Company the only organisation licensed to produce it in Australia. I really wanted to sample this but did not want to risk feeling really sick at the show - my stomach was already feeling ikky from all the hard smelly cheese tastings I had. I took some photos for my blog to show what milk should look like out of a bottle - if you are old enough to remember the milkman delivering fresh milk in glass bottles and opening the lid to find a rich creamy top you will appreciate the photos attached - don't you just want to lick the cream from the top of the milk bottle?
Onto some cider - how I love my alcoholic ciders especially exotic ones - Two ELK Cider - just tasted the pear sample absolutely delicious. Did not taste the apple one as everyone is producing apple cider! I ran out of time to buy some of this too at the end of the day - I thought I could come back as they were too heavy to carry around.
Australian Almonds - you get a free tin of almonds if you like them on Facebook. Liked! I was automatically handed the heart shaped tin. What if I liked the muscle man tin? Let's not get sexist!
Onto some tea - one of my favourite teas is Celestial teas - the apple and cinnamon tea is to die for. I think I've tried almost every fruit flavoured tea they carry except this one. Another one to add to my collection! Returned at the end of the day and my favourite apple and cinnamon tea was already sold out.Bummer again!
Onto something different - ecoganic bananas and papayas (red tipped) - free banana to sample. I have eaten these before - they are meant to grow slower amd taste different eg creamier. This is one for all you vegetarians and vegans out there. Farmed responsibly! Carbon tested every 6 months no pesticides or chemicals to quick ripen fruit. The banana sample I have was not quite ready to eat but will be in a few days I was informed. The banana should not go brown like a conventional banana but if it does the inside should be still nice and creamy. Will keep you posted...bananas on my shopping list but not for sale at stand today unfortunately. Should have returned for a 3rd free banana - they were sure keeping an eye on the papayas! I wonder if they were giving those out for free at the end of the day?! Still plenty of red tipped bananas left to give away at the end of the day!
Onto Sun World seedless grapes - my favourite the midnight beauties but today they are selling another more sweeter type of grape the sable grape which I forgot about . After sampling both I made my first purchase of the day at the show 3 punnets for $10. I purchased these first as they look like the first fruit product to run out off before the end of today. See later in my blog - I was spot on! They ran out before the day ended.
Second purchase of the day and on my shopping list Blush tomatos - do the survey and get a free punnet of tomatos of your choice - in this case I got 2 punnets and purchased another 2 varieties for $5 - bargain 4 different varieties of tomatos in punnets for $5 and so convenient too - stand right next door to the grapes! I didn't have to go searching for the stand this year! I was right about this too - they too ran out of tomatos before the end of the day!
Next was a free full pot of Jalna coconut yoghart. I popped this staight into my cooler bag - my stomach is telling me it's not quite over the Procal yoghart I had earlier!
1.15 pm - time for a lunch break - very close by was the Friends of Meat stand - here I grabbed a small tasting of chicken thigh with chimi churi (oops spelling) for $5 which needed some bread to accompany it - fortunately close by was the Nonnas bread stand with free samples therefore I grabbed a few samples of cut up bread and popped it in with my chicken thigh chimi churi. Yum! The Nudie Juices stand was close by and had some tables and chairs set up. I purchased a large bottle of green nudie juice which was on my shopping list to buy for $5 at the Nudie Juice stand and they put it in a calico Nudie bag and I also got a free bottle of Nudie water with a splash of orange and lemon (flavour chosen for me as I couldn't decide),which I had with my lunch.
After lunch I stopped off at the Yuzu stand - no sachets this year of yuzu juice so I purchased an $8 bottle of yuzu juice. I didn't want the yuzu pepper or yuzu syrup which they had plenty of.
I just sampled a piece of macadamia toffee it was yummy and for a bit of fun Country Corn had a "spin the wheel" competition - I wanted to win some free cups of corn like the last 2 ladies did but I won a rainbow hat instead - typical bad luck I've had all my life! It will never change. The corn was good too! and they are not selling it in the supermarkets yet.
Almost booked myself into a kimchi making class at 3.30 pm but decided against it when I found out it would cost $10. I attended the same cooking school to make kraut in Melbourne and it was free.
Stopped off at Babuskas Bagels and sample 2 flavoured bagels - hot and spicy and rosemary - purchased one of each to take home and freeze another $5 spent. I liked these very much although these bagels were a little smaller then usual. I recommended they sell them at the new deli which just opened in St Ives called Deli Hub. They have an appointment with the owner of Deli Hub already so look out for them there hopefully in the future!
Back to the cheeses - not stinky cheeses yet but smellycheeeseclub.com. Another purchase which was sort of on my shopping list -Merlot cheese! $10 a slice. After sampling this as well as coffee cheese, Gruyere and other hard smelly cheeses - I like! Coffee cheese was not bad too. Maybe I should go back and swap?!
Onto something different the $5000 peeler and the billion dollar spiral cutter ( an imitation version of the German Betty Bossie) by Starmax Platinum - unconvinced about the peeler so asked for a demo. Why is it worth $5000? It's a peeler double ended for left and right handed people $15 - giving it a miss.
Visited the Korean Cultural Centre stand and Korean Food Asociation stand again - yum Korean kimchi fried rice - had to go back for seconds! So delicious! The fish cakes or whatever they were not so delicious but a Korean woman was told off for stacking her toothpick full of them. They must be expensive as very small round samples were cut up into quarters to taste.
Went past a few stands again. Ecorganic - grabbed another free banana still not ripe enough to eat. Blush Tomatos and Sun Wirld seedless grapes both stands sold out of produce already therefore both stands closed by 3 pm as I predicted earlier! Also sampled Panna Chocolates- at $6 a small bar unsure if it is worth purchasing - I could try and make my own raw chocolate! Also went past Sippa straws - free bottles of milk to go with the flavoured sipper straws but being lactose intolerant just took 2 samples of the sipper straws - chocolate and mango - random selection could not be bothered going through all of the flavours which were listed on the back wall!
Visited the Grazing Garden - not really hungry as my stomach is still feeling upset from all cheeses I tasted and from that Procal Greek yoghart I had at the beginning of my show visit. Everyone is eating Bobcastle pies - yes I love them but how will my stomach feel if I ate them? Everyone around me is eating them. They smell so good!
Trying to think what else is on my shopping list -
Nudie juice check
Cheese check
Grapes check
Tomatos check
3.45 pm - having a rest and blogging - a few more rounds before I head home around closing time - might as well make the most of today as I have to work tomorrow.
May go back and get some more crackers and cheese. I think I missed the cheese alley and there are heaps of crackers. How about some sweets as well but not the cinnamon buns. I don't think I could handle that!
There are heaps of processed meats and jerkys as well but will give them all a miss.
Time to take some photos!
I ended up purchasing another block of flavoured cheese lemon myrtle and herbs $6 from the cheese alley. I also purchased 4 boxes of mixed lavosh from Kurrjong Kitchen $12, a loaf of casa pana $4 from Nonnas Bread and a rather large brisket from Friends of Meat $10.
Hanging around until the very end ie 5 pm show closing time I also managed to pick up 2 more free boxes of waterthins garlic with poppy seed bagelettes from a help yourself table just outside the celebrity theatre whilst taking photos from a distance of Gary Meagan's last cooking session.
Final stop of the day - I picked up some samples of Lactis - a "Cultured Lactobacillus Extract" made from fermented soybean extract- after eating what I ate all day at the show how very appropriate! My upset tummy hopefully will become a happy tummy - available in Australia from Root Health online.
Mass exit of the crowds with some hanging around until the very end or as long as they can beyond 5 pm. Anouncement after anouncement is made for people to make their way to the exits.
My very final stop before exiting was to enter the competition to win $5000. No chance. I never win anything with my bad luck.
So in summary which state did The Good Food and Wine Show better in 2016 - Melbourne or Sydney ? I'd have to say Sydney this year - sorry Melbourne but I think you did a better job over Sydney last year!
I am going to give this show a rating of 7/10 - let downs were location and the fermenting class fee.
Thank you so much for purchasing Yuzu Juice at a show. From Noriko, Okabayashi Yuzu farm
ReplyDelete