Saturday, October 29, 2005

Sydney Food and Wine Fair 2005

I love Good Food Month; because there is nothing I love more than gourmet food. So where else would I rather be on a sunny Saturday than at Hyde Park enjoying the Sydney Food and Wine Fair. There were over 100 stalls boasting names like Rockpool, Wildfire, Bill’s, CafĂ© Sydney and Ocean Room to name a few. The fair exceeded all my expectations and I was able to sample some of the restaurants signature dishes paying a fraction of the price, with all proceeds going to the AIDS Trust of Australia.
Armed with our Vouchers we decided to get something to eat - only problem, what to try first!

After being drawn to the delicious smell coming from the Australian Mushroom Growers stand - I just had to try their beef and mushroom burgers. For the record I am not a burger person, but this burger tasted sensational! It was really good quality beef and the dressing...if only I could replicate this at home.

Lanni on the other hand decided to try some seafood noodles prepared by the Shangri-La Hotel, after making friends with the chef they gave us another for free! That's the luck of being female sometimes - free food and drink everywhere we go.


Above: Two for the price of one, Lisa with her burger and us sitting by the fountain
After round one finished came round two, this proved to be a bit of a challenge as our stomachs were slowly getting full but there was still so much to try. Lanni had a Satay chicken Thai Salad from Eat in Thai (I'm sure there was a more fancy name for the dish, but I forgot)
I finally settled on the Seared Tuna Taco from Ocean Room - Yum Yum Yum Yum!! And Lisa had the Squid Salad by Mantra, everything was just so fresh!
With the last of our Vouchers in hand we moved onto dessert, unfortunately we were newbies to this game and didn't purchase the really nice desserts when we first saw them. By the time we went back for them they were all sold out! Boooo!! Sweet Berry tart from The Bathers Pavilion we just weren't meant to be.

We settled for the above instead: Berry waffles with honey cream, Blood Orange jelly with panacotta, Orange chocolate cup cake with choclate (something) & banana cupcake with orange frosting - Don't ask me who they were by, I was in my own happy little world by this stage.

-------------------------------

I’m definitely coming again next year and I’m going to bring Jacky and my family. I’m exhausted but I’m off to another birthday tonight.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone and eat well!

*edit* I love visiting this (Grab your fork) website check out their review of the Good Food and Wine festival.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

YUM! now your making me hungry..

PiCkLeS said...

makes me hungry reading back, I'm all sunburnt.

Anonymous said...

May I ask where did you get the vounchers? Did you get them right before you enter the food and wine fair?

How did you find out about this? I'm pretty much outdated with everything concerning leisure, good lifestyle, social life, etc.

I will greatly appreciate it if you can provide me with more information. Thanks.

Sunburnt? Put some Vaseline on.

PiCkLeS said...

somedude: October is Good Food Month and during this month there are many different events ranging from noodle markets, wine tasting and many more!! The highlight of this month is usually the Good Food and Wine festival - where the whole of Hyde Park is filled with food stalls and entertainment (jazz performances and celebrity guest apperances). I usually hear about the events via my friends as we usually plan to go together, however if you are interested in keeping up to date with whats on visit the 'city of sydney what's on site'

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/WhatsOn/html/custom/2199-sydney-event-calendar.asp

The Vouchers you line up to buy on the day of the event, rather than pay cash for the event you just swap vouchers for food. The food starts selling at 12 but you would want to be there earlier to see where all the good stuff is as the park gets very packed and it become hard to navigate around all the people.

It's excellent and you don't know what you have been missing till you go!

Anonymous said...

I am still so full...anyone want to rub my belly? =)

Anonymous said...

Dang it!
cant believe we missed out on the berry tarts, even our combined female powers couldnt get us one :(

Great day thought, good food, good friends, good perve

Dianna said...

awww, darn it i wish i went!!!!!! *roars with grief*
*sigh*
I was certain I was gonna go, but then last minute muckups and blahblahblah, rarrrrr
*louder roar*

Student154 said...

Y-to-the-ummo...

PiCkLeS said...

Betty: you didn't even eat as much! But thanks for the lift! was an excellent day - I really needed it!

Lisa: I think i'm going to be thinking about that Berry tart for the rest of this year. It was totally our fault for not buying it when we first got there ...live and learn aye! alternatively we can go to The Bather's Pavilion oneday to have a nice dinner or lunch (I think Riss recommended this place to me once) - looks like a beautiful area.

http://www.batherspavilion.com.au/

Di: don't worry Di! there's always next yr! just make sure that you get there early and wear loose jeans.

Bosco: Makes me hungry every time I think back!

Matty: it was different...tasted a bit like grapefruit? but the girls said that's what blood orange is suppose to taste like. Once you smothered the Jelly with the cream I thought the combination was quite nice (but then again i seriously eat anything!)

Anonymous said...

Hi Emily,

I've arrived to you blog via Augustus Gloop's blog! As you can see from her review, we had a tough time deciding what buy with our coupons - making sure we had enough for a taste test and dessert! Looks like you had luck as well :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for all the information you have given me in your comment. I do hope that one day I will be able to go and sample on what they have to offer.

Anonymous said...

What curls?

PiCkLeS said...

Hi Saffron, love your site!

Joel: nah my sister's sony camera because it was too big to carry if i had to walk around all day.

I don't really know how to angle close up shots without the subject looking a bit 'too close', i always thought people just cropped the picture. Thanks so much for the website! any advice is greatly appreciated.

haha curls are very hard to look after!!

Shangrila Seafood buffet - how much per head? I've been wanting to take mum for a while but I couldn't remember if it was the Shangrila or the Swiss hotel.

Betty: From Chrissie's engagement!

Anonymous said...

Yeah Saturday was a great day !
Great food, friends, entertainment. It felt like walking down Oxford St at the Mardi Gra's with food. hehehehe

I've been there for the last 4 yrs or as long as i can remember and its grown larger and larger each passing year. We sat infront of the stage and watch the 3 sexy ladies singing Diva's songs from the 80's.....they were funny and entertaing and had a great voice to go with it...now if I could only remember their names...The Super Supremes ?!

Usually the good stalls are all out in about 45mins to 1hr. I bought $40 of vouchers and they disappeared in 20mins while i was there ! So i ended up having a Prawn Salad at Royal Grill & Bar, Missed out on "Oh Calcutta", Salmon Salad on Rye bread (with a healthy serving of Caviar), Hugo's Lounge Signature dish (Prawn with Avocado) oh....wish the weekend didnt go so quickly !!!!

The trick is research the restuarants you would like to try first, then get there early and always get the guided map so you know where all the stalls are located, then start scrabbling to get those food that you want ! Its like going to a post Christmas Sale every year, its a war out there. Leave no prisoners ! hehehehe

Wish I remembered to bring a camera that day as well, but 2 bottles of Red did the trick to ease the pain. kakakaka. ^_^

Anyone have a time machine ?

DJ Ho said...

Looks like you had loads to eat! I went to the Night Noodle markets that was awesome - if you ever go, check out the Japanese stall that sells these meat/fish ball things. That are the best!!

Also, i think you mentioned it above, but the Sugar Hit thing is also pretty good. For $15 you get a desert wine and desert. NOt bad as its mainly at pretty swish joints, only problem is that its only after 9pm. At the 4 seasons you get a De Bortoli Noble One Desert wine. It's very nice and sweet, its their house wine in fact. And the desert is ok - caramel tart, creme brouille thingy.

That's my 2 cents.

PiCkLeS said...

anon: yeah sat was excellent! can't wait till next yr!

dj ho: my friends all went to the night noodle markets, but beast I don't work in the city - by the time i got out there it would be too late. This post makes me hungry everytime i think back.