Sydney Food and Wine Fair
Approaching Hyde Park this blustery Saturday morning, the air was thick with the scent of sizzling sausages, stirfried noodles or maybe one of those popular mushroom and chicken burgers being cooked on the hotplate. Every empty stomach in Sydney would have felt compelled to converge to this point, where the Sydney Food and Wine Fair was just starting. Besides, the weather was so good that there wasn’t any reason for us not to be outside, soaking up some sun and calories. First thing B and I did when we reached the park was to join the long queues at one of the ticket booths where we ended up buying $80 worth of coupons – a bit gluttonous of us, but proceeds do go towards a worthwhile cause (the AIDS trust of Australia), so why not! Sadly, this was the only event we managed to make it to, during Good Food Month, but what an event it is!
The one stall we always visit every year, is Sean’s Panaroma, because they do the best nougat – usually white chocolate, with bits of candied peel and chopped pistachios. At Brasserie Bread, we picked up a loaf of Iranian sour cherry bread and one of Brasserie’s award winning sourdough rounds. The Delicious stall had showbags containing the November issue of Delicious as well as a dessert cookbook (I’ve had a browse through it and already see a few things I want to try), two bags of lollies, Barilla pasta, bottled water and some tea. Getting the magazine and cookbook alone was worth the $5.
The dishes I enjoyed most from what we sampled, were the banana leaf parcels of curried fish from Spice I Am, the vanilla pannacotta with caramelised bananas and coffee wafers from Kables Restaurant, and the pork and prawn pie with pickles (how’s that for alliteration!) from The Boathouse. Quirkiest item of the day would have to go to Marque : I’m not sure many people were enticed by the toasted marshmallow and strawberry skewers they were offering, as they seemed to be trying to give it away rather than sell it.
Helen said,
November 1, 2006 @ 3:37 pm
It was a great day out indeed. The pork pies did look tasty, and I agree, those marque marshmallows did look good but i noticed that they didn’t seem to be very popular with the crowds.
don’t you love eating for charity? 🙂
Y said,
November 1, 2006 @ 9:09 pm
Yes, I think I ate a little too much for charity that day though 🙂 We walked it off by going to the Art Gallery to check out the Shoot the Chef exhibition – which wasn’t as big as I’d expected!