Monday, June 23, 2008

Sydney Good Food and Drink Show


And here's the star! I was at Friday's show with a friend from school (How crazy can life be when you move to the other side of the world and still go out with girls from school?) We managed to get tickets to see Gordon Ramsay in action and even though we were pretty well at the back, thanks to the big screens, we still had a good view. The theatre seated 2500 and there wasn't a seat to spare! He, and his assistant made a 3 course dinner comprising of a chorizo and butter bean soup, pan fried lamb with a green bean salad and pain perdue. Nothing too complicated so he had plenty of time to chat!
As to the rest of the show, there were loads of stands with lots of goodies to sample and as we had our glass (free on entry) to hand there was plenty to drink too! I did manage to pace myself as I went to both the day session and the After Dark one so didn't leave until 9pm!
What I really enjoyed was talking to the local producers who were there and can thoroughly recommend this raspberry wine vinegar. I happily drank the sample that I was
given as it just tasted so wonderfully raspberryish! I can't wait to try it made into a vinaigrette with some rocket. I was also given an ideas sheet which included using it with olive oil to pan fry salmon steaks and to pour it over vanilla ice cream as a pudding! Yum! And the lovely thing is that it is produced locally (well certainly by Australian distances!) and that it is available at a deli in a nearby suburb.





No show is complete without a gadget and here's mine! It claims to peel and devein prawns in one go and certainly it seemed to work in the hands of the guy demonstrating it. You take off the head with the safe blade at the base and then push the pointy end down the back of the prawn. This separates the prawn from its shell and loosens the vein so all you need to do is pull your pan ready prawn away! With a bit more practise you can shell your prawn and still leave the head and tail on....and there is a bottle opener too!! I just had to add the quince paste bargain that I picked up too....$1 each!

Other treats included a bagful of these wonderful chilli products. The mild chilli dressing is my wonderful way of getting the Little One to eat salad and I was so happy to see that there was a stand full of the stuff. I've only ever seen it available at the market at The Rocks before. The sate sauce is great for adding to noodles for lunch boxes, the green chilli sauce is a great Thai curry standby and the chilli jam is good anytime!

And finally I just have to track these guys down again as their chocolates are absolutely wonderful. We got a show bag which had a box of their wonderful chocolates, a couple of bars of dark chocolate but the absolute best find was their orange sticks. I'd sort of expected a Matchmaker moment but these are lovely candied sticks of peel with the most lovely dark chocolate over them. What a way to eat fruit!!
And a quick thanks to the guys on Hilliers stand who put loads of chocolate mints into my bag too!!
All I can say is roll on next years show!!

9 comments:

Thinking About Food said...

Looks like you had a really great time Jilly, lots of yummy goodies there too!

Sally said...

Wow J. You certainly sound as those you had the best of times. And all those free samples. Amazing. Shame about the book signing, but a que a mile long would put me off too. That raspberry dressing sounds soooooo good.
Love Sal.x x x x

EmmCee said...

JillyB what a great day and night you had!!

There sure seems to have been loads of samples and also goodies to buy and it is terrific the providores have time to speak with about their products!

hungryandfrozen said...

Wow sounds like you had a fab time. That's cool that it goes into the night! Wish it wasn't a whole year before the next food show :( LOL. That raspberry vinegar sounds awesome.

JillyB said...

Linda, there were loads of goodies to be had and I really liked the fact that they had a 'Local Produce' area. Our local award winning sausage butcher was there.
Gail, the raspberry vinegar is produced in Mittagong and is really something else!
Sal, I see in todays paper that Gordon nearly overdid it in Sydney and nearly lost his voice!
Laura, I think it's the first time that there's been an evening slot but I really enjoyed it although some stands were empty. I hope it's done again next year as it gave OH the chance to come down after work.(LOL!!!)

Kelly-Jane said...

Sounds fabulous!

I use raspberry vinegar in my pavlovas, it gives them a faint raspberry flavour, which is fab!

Squishy said...

Wow it must have been awesome seeing Gordon live in the flesh. I am so jealous. We were suppose to get down there but to no avail work commitments prevailed. I am looking forward to your tag. I am getting back into the swing of things. Your blog looks great. Keep up the good work :)

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous day you had. Looks like a great event.

JillyB said...

Hi Amelita! Nice to see you back in action again! Thanks for your kind words!
George, it was great fun and I'm already planning for next year!!