Saturday 23 June 2018

Sunday 24th June 2018 - Good Food & Wine Show Sydney 2018 @ ICC Darling Harbour

Advance posting Saturday night but will not reveal which event I am off to on Sunday yet in case I over sleep and forget to go. I hope not as it is the last day of this 3 day event and I've paid for it in advance.

OK so Im here at The Good Food & Wine Show 2018 once again in Sydney blogging live from the show @ the ICC Darling Harbour.

I can tell you it is very different to the Good Food & Wine Show in Melbourne.

No free Kitchenaid cooking class tickets given out this time round and no signage as to which course is at what time for the Heston by Everdure stand.

There are some different stalls ( especially beverages eg alcholic pops are prohibited in NSW therefore they could not have a stall at the Good Food & Wine Show in Sydney due to licensing laws)  and a different menu @ Heston by Everdure.

It's only 11.45 am and already Kathryn ( she just wanted my wine glass!) has ditched me to wonder off on her own and I am already feeling a little tired having eaten enough shellfish cheese and alcohol to make me feel sick later on. We started the day off with a free glass of champagne and a croissant together then I went off to see Solidteknics and then lined up to sample Heston by Everdure's first course of the day Prawn Panzanella.

I had a quick look at Matt & Maggie cooking together at the Princess Cruises Theatre although did not stay for the entire show as well a watch Miguel  "crazy bull" in a later session ( I didn't  stay to watch him cook as the theatre  was full with standing room only)

photos below

breakfast ! only way to photograph this was to stick the cone in one of the wired chairs.  The glass did have some bubbly in it but I rinsed it out as I am not a fan of bubbly.

The Vurjuice Queen herself Maggie Beer cooking with :

Matt Moran the Meat King @ The Princess Cruises Theatre


Really feeling tired and it is now 12.45 pm. My re entry stamp has already faded.   May take a break and come back in later for last hour or so. 

I think I am becoming bored already. Maybe I will just visit the Melbourne show next year.

Too much hype. Found a great viewing point from above outside the exhibition halls. Got my re entry stamp restamped and had a rest and walk outside for a while. Darling Harbour is so touristy.


photos below - sorry once again having trouble uploading photos.






Great view from above!

Stuff it can't be bothered uploading photos here is my facebook link :

https://www.facebook.com/1244668633/posts/10217567894649601/

Damn it! Did I miss the chicken slovaki from Heston by Everdure again? The line was very long for his next course - when I found out it was just his steak sandwich again I decided to leave the queue. When I returned it was 3.22 pm and damn it I missed his apple tartan! - the very last course of the very last day and my favourite from the Melbourne show.

Went to buy some Tuckers chocolate crackers ( which would have gone nicely with I have to say Maggie Beers chocolate deserts rasberry or fig) but damn it they were sold out yet again at the show. They had plenty of berry crackers left which would have paired perfectly with the creamy rasberry panacotta I had (finally I tried a pancotta!) - so no purchase at this stand.

So what have I purchased so far?
  • 4 packets of freeze dried Harvarti and Cheddar  Amaze balls and a block of in conversion cheese from Ashgrove cheeses 
  • a packet of Fresh As freeze dried plum panacotta and plum slices 
  • a block of Sprout & Kernel tree nut cheese 
  • a jar of Ding the recipe paste 
  • a packet of vanilla latte peanuts, 
  • a large round of unsalted Peppe Saya butter
  • a large packet of cracked wheat.

And what freebies did I manage to obtain from this year's Sydney show?

  • a sachet of Yuzu syrup as they only sell the bottles ( I still have a bottle at home)
  • 2 x sample packets of prunes from Australian Prunes
  • 2 x individual bite sized Cadbury chocolates
  • a few recipe cards
  • an empty cooler bag with gel pack from Vics Meats because they were completely sold out of meat before 3.30 pm so could only give away cooler bags with gel packs (must go an visit their store down at the Sydney Fish Markets one day)
  • 2 x chilli garlic chutneys
  • an Envy apple
  • 3 x cans of fizzy drink (in exchange for my wine glass - see below)

Favourite tastings and samples included :

  • Maggie Beer chocolate desserts - which I tasted both the rasberry and fig. I don't really like a lot of  her products and found out that she no longer produces them herself and that her products are now contracted out to be made . I used to like her pates especially her mushroom pate but after a while stopped buying it as it wasn't the same or I had trouble finding it in supeemarkets. I liked this frozen chocolate dessert and it is either the only product she doesn't  use vurjuice in or does she? She uses vurjuice in everything hence I call her the Vurjuice Queen (although she does explain to the audience this morning how vurjuice has been around for centuries and therefore it is not hers ) in her cooking session with Matt Moran.
  • Rasberry panacotta by Fresh As a NZ freeze dried fruit company - finally I taste my first pannacotta
  • Sprout & Kernel Herbed tree nut cheese with herbs - great a non lactose cheese my tummy is happy!
  • Korean peach flavoured sake - oh my God you could drink whole glasses of this but you would be tanked - it was so nice to drink until I found out it was apparently 20% alcohol! I could taste and feel the warming effect of the alcohol! I found the water fountain diluted it down and drank a little more of it. ( by the way there were 2 water drinking stations but only one was operational - should have byoed more water!)

Oh shoot I forgot to go back to Wine Selectors who were having trouble bringing up their catalogue earlier this morning.

Rating 7/10. not as good as previous years or Melbourne show. Although nice to see a few new products , it was too much of same same and becoming even more the Good Wine Show rather then the Good Food &  Wine Show. 80 percent wine 20 percent food whereas it used to be 50/50.

4 pm and I stayed almost to the end to watch Miguel cook again in the very last session at the Princess Cruises Theatre. Refer my very short video on You Tube of how he selects members in the audience to assist him on stage. He really is crazy!

4.51 pm beginnings of a mass exit,  traded in my wine glass for 3 cans of soft drink. That's new! Mine was free anyway and I have so many of them I don't mind. I overheard a guy say "I'm not trading in my $5 wine glass !"

Unfortunately no free mushrooms this time round which is so disappointing as another lady wanted some as well  - excuse being people have touched them and you could get sick from them. I took them from the end of Melbourne show ( asking first before taking any)  and ate them and am still alive a month later!

I will try and upload some more photos again.

End of another Good Food & Wine  in Sydney for 2018.

No comments:

Post a Comment