Edinburgh Foodies Festival

On Sunday we nursed our hangovers in a rather novel way. We went to a Foodies Festival in the rain! The atmosphere on the train through to Edinburgh was not very upbeat and I was starting to worry how we’d all get through the day. But it turns out that it was the perfect cure for us – food, fresh air and whisky samples.

We had checked the weather beforehand and it was rain and more rain so wellies and trainers were dug out. I felt like I was back at Rockness using the portaloos in my wellies. Except that they were posh portaloos that flushed and I had actually showered that morning.

Typically Scottish weather!

Our plan formulated on the train was to walk around the whole thing and then we would start eating and buying things. We stuck to the plan for all of ten minutes after reading the menu at Mark Greenaway’s Bistro Moderne – the tempura soft shell crab had to be mine. It was hands down the best cooking that I have ever had at an outside venue and it has made me want to go to Bistro Moderne – success for both sides.

We visited the Top Out Brewery stall and found that beer and soft shell crab actually taste good together. An edinburgh company, they have only been brewing for a little over a year but are growing all the time. Expect to see their beers in shops more and more over the next year.

After catching a bit of Stephen K Amos from Celebrity Masterchef at the chefs theatre we wandered from stall to stall. There was a big selection of mainly Scottish producers and produce varied from oils to seafood, whisky to peanut butter marshmallows. Safe to say we were enjoying ourselves.

As we were walking round we were taken in by the smell of meat from The Pantry so we stopped to share a roll. Not any roll, this was a Thistly Cross cider braised pork shoulder, red turnip slaw, apple & thyme sauce with a whisky & barbeque sauce roll… drooling as I write about it.

Back to the chefs theatre because I wanted to see Adam Handling from Masterchef. Clearly passionate about his food, a great guy to watch and I would love to dine in his restaurant.

There was a champagne tent so we had a couple of Strawberry Bellini’s whilst chatting to the folk at the Discover The Origin tent. Discover the Origin are trying to raise awareness of five key European products: Bourgogne wines, Parma ham, Douro wines, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and port. I’m a believer that you can tell the difference when it comes to cured meat and this Parma ham was delicious. I also loved that they were serving the Parmigiano out of the shell and letting you compare the flavours of different maturities. They don’t even charge you as it is a big campaign to raise awareness.

Moreover, because there was four of us on the day, we could buy one food item and share it so that we had the opportunity to taste more producers food. The gents were angling for more food and I honestly have never seen them as happy as when they spotted the Gaucho BBQ. Meat on the bone, barbequed and smoky – they were in dream land.

There were plenty of drinks companies to keep us entertained too. Lots of craft beer, gins, whisky, wine and cocktails. The Riot Bar provided much needed shelter from the downpour and there was also a sheltered eating area but I’d love if they made this bigger for next year.

The live entertainment stage provided some tunes to bob your head along to whilst munching and shopping.

I have to mention my personal favourite stall of the day – Goya 23. Iberico ham on the bone coupled with quality red wine, all served by a friendly and knowledgeable gentleman. After listening to much chat from us self-confessed pork obsessives, he even gave us some free samples of the other meats he had.

Shopping wise I seemed to have an oil obsession on the day because I came home with three oil themed items. Summer Harvest is a company based in Perthshire that turns the bright yellow fields into gorgeous rapeseed oil products. We first came across them at the foodie day at Hamilton Races and now I keep an eye out for their stuff. This time I bought a garlic mayonnaise (proper yellow fresh mayo to eat asap… yes I’ve started) and a chilli & red pepper salad dressing to liven up our Autumn meals. Then I saw the Supernature stall, which is also rapeseed oils and Scottish. Based in the Lothians, they are all about coldpressing rapeseed oil so I got a bottle of the garlic one after extensive tasting on the day of every flavour.

As you can probably tell, we had a grand old time. Mr S even said to me that he wishes they would have this every month – he was extremely impressed. It is a yearly event so we will be getting tickets for next year without a doubt. I think that this sort of event would really work in Glasgow too, and I would love to see it there next year with some of my favourite local producers and food-to-go places from the West coast.

3 sisters bake

fresh coconut water

Foodies Festival sent us complimentary tickets for the event so that I could be an official blogger for them. As usual, all opinions are my own and honest.

Street Feastival Pops Up Glasgow Gems

Sometimes there are so many things going on in Glasgow that I feel frustrated that I have to work because it means missing out on them. It can be pop up shops, pop up foodie places, SECC delights, George Square tent events… you name it and I’ll want to go. I have managed two out of my top four December events so far (the St Enoch Christmas market and Street Feastival) so that is just leaving Street Food Cartel, that unfortunately I won’t make it to this time, and ice-skating on George Square. It was my first time at Glasgow Street Feastival – a pop up weekend mini-festival that is a celebration of good food, drink and music – but it won’t be my last.

 

 

This time the feastival was being held at The Barras Art & Design Centre which is not far from the city centre. I have been to the Barras for gigs before and to the market but had no idea where the art & design centre was. It turned out we weren’t the only ones as we met a couple looking for the same event. Trusty google maps pointed us in the right direction – a block behind The Barrowland Ballrooms and near the ice-cream shop – so we did not walk around for too long. There was a £2 entry fee at the door and they give your hand a stamp so you can go in and out as you please. The venue was a kind of indoors/outdoors mesh with no door and a high roof so it was chilly but inside enough to protect us from any rain. The pink light hue and funky music was enough to transport your mind to being in the middle of a field with a night of camping ahead!

 

 

The first thing we did was visit the bar because I had heard through social media that they had mulled wine and, being December, it was freezing. They had run out of mulled wine by the time we arrived at 7pm on the Saturday (sob) so I went for hot cider instead but it was sickly sweet and I ended up discarding it and having a cold wine. Mr S enjoyed a couple of pints of Heverlee beer and we walked around all of the food vendors to see what was on offer. So La Ti Dough had a mobile pizza oven and were churning out some cracking looking pizzas then the cheesesteak & pomegranate lamb caught my eye at Roast. Habibi Kitchen had veggie stew & lamb kofta on offer as well as some sweet things. Then there was Fino Rotunda, who had a massive pan of paella as well as chorizo & tortilla espanola. Next to this Dear Green coffee roasters were keeping everyone warm and Nucoco Chocolate had chocolate fondue with marshmallows & salted crisps among other things. Breaking Bad had more lamb and falafel & Smokey & The Bandit were serving pulled pork rolls.  Harajuku Kitchen were supposed to be at the feastival with some Japanese treats but we never saw them so I’m not sure if they had already left or if we were just too focused on all the lamb. I had a look on their Twitter feed and there was no mention of it so I am going with the already left or were never there option. Finally, Smoak was dishing out chipotle beef burritos, having run out of pig cheek burritos, with chocolate pretzel for afters.

 

We decided to get a pizza to share from So Ti La Dough and then see how we got on. The carnivores choice was salami and italian sausage topped with rocket and it was a tasty pizza. I have never had such a crispy well-cooked pizza outside of a restaurant and would have loved this back in my Rockness camping days. The toppings were tasty and it was a great start to our night.

 

 

I have been wanting to try Smoak for a long time now so this was our next stop. I had seen the menu on Twitter and decided on pig cheek burrito but they had run out so we went for the chipotle beef burrito instead. This was no normal burrito – the Aberdeen Angus slow cooked beef was incredibly tasty with lots of pico de gallo, green rice, black beans, sour cream aioli and monterey jack cheese to complete the wrap. Mr S was pleased to say the least.

 

£6 (photo is of half of the burrito)

 

Finally I wanted to try Roast’s slow roasted pomegranate pulled lamb with mint yoghurt & pomegranate seeds because I am always drawn to pomegranate flavoured food. The lamb was so richly flavoured with the refreshing yoghurt complementing it & the homemade flatbread held it all without breaking up. The pomegranate seeds gave a nice juicy crunch almost – if Roast sell this every day then I’ll soon be a regular.

 

£5

 

We had planned to share a dessert  but Mr S is allergic to nuts & most of the desserts contained nuts. There were a couple without nuts but none of them appealed to me so we decided to leave the eating at that.

 

 

My only negatives were that they ran out of mulled wine & that a few of the dishes sounded quite similar (lots of lamb and nuts) so there would have been a better selection if it had been co-ordinated between sellers. The event had a great vibe with everyone enjoying themselves and tapping their feet to the music. I thought the Street Feastival was terrific and I’d love to go back with a group of friends. Now just to get someone to take me ice-skating and my December is complete.