Displaying items by tag: restaurant show

We have been going to this for years, but have never tried cold pressed coffee although it was last years hot new thing, until we met a nice young man from Hey Bermondsey Coffee Co who gave us a taste at this years event. We also found the meat mince pies for our Christmas cafe and as usual, enough pens to last the year at sf hq.

Well we think it has got a bit tired really - the magazine is thin, the 'street food corner' announcing the commercialisation of street food - uninspiring, sold out of brand new H vans by bored staff, pricey, using weird ingredients (when was Sangria ever made with sherry and sugar-free lemonade?) The sales pitches out of touch (with the exception of the coffee machine suppliers who gave us a great coffee and the best, most relevant and interesting information) and the stands with just a jar of sweets...well...is your budget REALLY that bad? And what happened to wine tasting?!

But I did get a years supply of quite nice pens, spoke to a few genuinely well informed and passionate foodie suppliers (mostly the ones who we already know who actually make what they sell like the cheeses, the bread, the juices and the ice cream) and we found just one brilliant and inspiring brand new idea - from Croatia - that we really want to keep to ourselves but will feature as Dish of the Day when we get back in touch with them.

• New cheeses from Butlers
• Breckland Orchards award winning juices
• a great summer equals lots of great ice cream makers
• our lunch starter
• our lunch main course
• One of the better Street Food menus
•  

Off we go again to sample the delights of the Restaurant Show trade fair at Earls Court. Our first mission - to get the best coffee we can find, as fast as possible, and free. Inspector X won. Then to lunch at the the disappointing street food area (this years theme) where I had the worst 'street food' I have had all year, I should have realised - there was no queue! Then off to taste Orange wines. Here are some of the pics - starting with Tuddenham Mill chef Paul Foster doing a demo.

A great day out of free tastings and sous-vide immersion into the world of culinary arts. There were olives, ice creams, huge parmesans, coffee, pastries, salami and of course plenty of wine and we tried it all.  I correctly matched a Pinot Noir to Jimi Hendrix in the completely mad music-with-wine tasting by Mickey Narea - the sommelier at Launceston Place, and afterwards went to eat at beautiful Benares for their early supper at £25 for three courses. Not much Suffolk in this show though.