Food ‘n Drink

The Good Food Show started today for a 3 day show in London. We arrived just before 11am and the hall was already half full. However there were plenty of stalls there for everyone. We took a wander around the ground floor, watched a few demos and then had some lunch. Then wandered around the food stalls up on the gallery and then went back to the ground floor to do some shopping!

So what’s there? There were a selection of stalls selling gadgets and equipment. The best buy has to be the Chamy cloths for sale. The guy demoing these showed just how much water these cloths soaked up without even trying. Not just on smooth surfaces but off a piece of carpet too. Each pack came with two large cloths and a smaller window cloth for £10 and it was buy one get one free. There were other various equipment for sale. Knives for sale (although one sales pitch was for a knife for £20 which looks and sounds identical to the one that is being advertised on TV at present for £3.99 from Woolworths!), kitchen pots and pans, a nice look Magimix stall (I do fancy one of those!!) and also a stall selling the air free vacuum boxes. I bought a two set of these boxes which can be divided in up to 4 compartments each, for just £10. For anyone who doesn’t know what these boxes are they are simply storage boxes but you pump the air out by using a little handle, and then it seals the box and prolongs the shelf life of the food by at least double the usual amount of time. I figured that being able to keep fresh food fresher for longer would be very handy, especially come next summer with growing and picking our own. My parents have similar boxes and have been very impressed.

There were plenty of stalls for taste testing, also several stalls cooking and selling food such as turkey rolls, bacon rolls, sausages, burgers and more. There were also a fair few wine stalls and a few spirits stalls too. During the day I’ve tried chocolate covered sesame seeds (like smarties!), chilli jam (set my tongue on fire), organic roast chicken, chocolate dipped in a cherry balsamic vinegar, fresh danish pastry, a Baileys type drink (I forget the name now!), various wines and sausages. I bought Dave a bottle of the hottest chilli sauce I could find (I had to take the stall owner’s word for it as I wasn’t prepared to try it!) and we bought my Dad some Olives stuffed with anchovies (he liked them so that was good!). There was plenty more that I could have bought but until I have my own kitchen I’d just rather eye up a lot of stuff and plan my future haven!

I was a bit unhappy that I didn’t get to find either of the things I’m after. A stainless steel drum food grater for use with small items such as garlic and it’s especially good for parmesan cheese - we used to eat lunch in Bella Pasta now and then in Cardiff and they used one of these for the parmesan. Much safer on the fingers and it looks good too! The other item I’m after is a chef’s white jacket, short sleeved. I have a long sleeved one however it’s a little big and baggy for me now. I’d hoped to have perhaps found a stall selling aprons and perhaps a couple of jackets as I’m constantly ruining clothes when cooking with oil or tomato (the usual culprits). I know I could probably find one online however I’d rather be able to try it on first as I don’t have the easiest shape to fit (I’m a woman afterall ;)). However, I’ll continue looking for these out in town. I’m due for a shopping trip in Liverpool at the end of this month with a friend so I’m sure we’ll have a look around and see if we can find anything there.

So all in all a good day. The only downside is that it was quite busy probably due to it only being 3 days long (and it being the first day of the show too). Also a lot of the food for sale was quite expensive - £3 for a bacon roll. Probably needs to be to cover the cost of space at the show. If you’re off there this weekend I recommend the Chamy cloth bloke and the air tight vacuum boxes. Oh and of course, have fun

Forgot to mention, I also bought some Fennel herb seeds so I’ll be seeing if I can grow these indoors over the winter ready for moving outside in the spring