This year I fancied a look at the Foodies Festival at Tatton Park. Having visited the BBC Good Food Show at
the NEC in Birmingham, where I managed to cook with the likes of Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver (who I still call ‘my mate Jamie’ when I see him on TV… I wish!), I had high expectations. So what did I think?
First impressions: £9 for 2 tickets on Groupon? Win!
Second, we hit the jackpot with the weather, which I deemed a small miracle after the torrential downpours we’d had during the week – it is rainy Manchester after all! It was a good job, as I hadn’t realised it would be outdoors, and giggled with a colleague about how she’d be the only one wearing wellies. Well, I should have taken her advice. I looked like a willy, not wearing wellies! The boots I wore are still caked in mud, due to weeks’ worth of rain the ground had taken, screaming at me to clean them, and my boyfriend’s new trainers were unrecognisable. But, it just isn’t a festival without a bit of mud!
We arrived around 11:30, had to walk what seemed like miles, and as soon as we’d arrived, hit the Mojito stand. There was a choice of original, passion fruit and strawberry, and they were delicious, and loaded with booze (which went straight to our heads as we’d skipped brekkie thinking we’d get something there).
We tipsily continued on our quest for food, and stumbled across a delicious hog roast and exotic meat van “Wild Gathering”. Dave (the boyfriend) played it safe and stuck with the pork, while I tried kangaroo steak, with cheese and chilli jam. I was completely fine with my decision until an old couple walked past, and the woman said to her man “Ooh love, do you fancy a Skippy burger?” To be honest the TV show just annoyed me as a kid, so I didn’t feel too guilty. And as I took my first bite, sitting at the manmade beach, all guilt disappeared. It was tasty. REALLY TASTY. I would go as far as to say it might possibly have been the tastiest meat I’ve ever eaten! AND, you can order kangaroo, ostrich, wild boar and springbok to be delivered to your home – for the dinner party that everyone would remember! Remind me of this if I ever appear on Come Dine With Me!
We sampled different products, mainly cheese, jams, salamis and hams, chocolate and booze – some of my favourite things! There were cocktails made out of coconuts, and other fruits, a champagne tent or two, and foods from all around the world –traditional Spanish churros, “Backyard” Jerk chicken, paella, the biggest piece of parmesan I’ve ever seen, homemade honey (they’d actually brought the bees with them), curry, Chinese, beautiful cupcakes, BIG cakes too.
And I finally found the raw cacao chocolate I’ve been searching for, and met a lovely chocolatier who let me sample lots of chocolate to help me choose the right bar, and taste the differences between bars with different percentages of cocoa solids. His chocolate (even the 85% cocoa content) didn’t taste as bitter as dark chocolate can taste. It was moreish, still sweet, rich, and melted in your mouth the way chocolate is supposed to! Result!
You were free to wander about Tatton Park and it’s buildings (although you had to pay extra for the farm… Boo!) and we saw lots of bambis running around – I’ve never seen so many all in one place, it was so tempting to try and run among them, but luckily Dave held me back or I might have caused a stampede!
It was a great day, enjoyed by us both. You don’t have to be a self-confessed foodie to go, there were people of all ages, races and gender, and Dave, who doesn’t quite have the same obsession as I do about food, had a fab time too.
I was definitely inspired as a foodie, by what I’d seen at the event, and would love to have a stall there next year. I need to get my ass in gear and do some work though first!
