 |
| Adam Liaw |
 |
| Bobby at the show |
 |
| Idea of the crowds |
 |
| My pretty pathetic collection of stuff |
Before I go on I want to apologise for the quality and quantity of the photos I have posted. I am having major trouble with blogger in that it won't let me upload photos, (which for this blog is essential). Although I have done extensive internet searches to remedy the problem, all I can find is that other people have the same issue and there really doesn't seem to be a solution to fix it. Therefore you may well be redirected to a new blog site as I am thinking about changing to Wordpress as it isn't much fun trying to negotiate around how to get a few of my photos uploaded onto blogger. To get these (and even then it isn't all of them), I had to go roundabout onto Picasa and then upload from that and even then it played up and wouldn't do all of them. Very, very frustrating!!!
Anyway back to the post's topic of the Food Show. This year was my first in about 3-4 years as it seems to always fall on a working day for me. This year the Thursday was the only day I could do as it is Don's birthday on Sunday and we have family coming over on Saturday. The preview day cost a whopping $38 (or $40 if you paid on the day). As you can see by the photos above, the extra cost (and probably the school holidays too), meant that the crowds were very manageable. It can get ridiculously busy on the Friday and Saturday and apparently Sunday afternoon is the time to go if you want to get the bargains. I went with my step-father Bobby and I have to say we had a blast. We went with military precision up and down the aisles determined to see everything. From my past experience there seemed to be less stalls and less to see, BUT it was still plenty enough for us to be interested and feel like we got our moneys worth...although I think the more manageable crowds made it worth the extra cost of the preview day.
We got to sample quite a few things I would see in the supermarket and not buy in case it tasted terrible. I like to make things from scratch and am very wary of anything pre-made like soups, sauces etc. While my wariness was proved correct in some cases, sometimes I was proven wrong and a particular product ended up tasting delicious.
The problem Bobby and I had was that at the start we decided to go back to certain stalls to buy what we wanted so as to avoid having to carry anything too heavy, cold and perishable right through the whole show. However true to form for me, I either forgot what it was that I wanted to buy, or else could not find it again. Lesson learned...next time a) take my lovely red Rhubarb trolley; b) take a chiller bag, c) buy at the time and throw caution to the wind, or d) write down the stall number. As you can see I ended up with hardly anything...some lovely creme brulee fudge (from Heavenly fudge); a great goodie bag and deal for renewing my subscription to the Dish magazine; some dried blueberries (yum yum); some delicious Jamaican Hot and Spicy Jerk seasoning paste; some free Cafe L'affare coffee beans for signing up to free trade with them; and finally 3 bags of NZ made corn chips for only $5. I guess it's just as well I forgot the other things as I would have come home totally broke instead of only a little bit broke.
We made it to one only one cooking demonstration which was the Adam Liaw one. He only got to make a couple of things which was a pity but the chicken curry looked lovely and very easy to make as did the coconut rice. Apparently he had only got off a plane and there were some ingredients he needed which they hadn't got so some of his recipes were unable to be made. However he did talk quite a bit so it was probably just as well he had the ingredient excuse as I really don't think he would have had the time anyway. It was really good to see him though as I really liked him on Masterchef last year and I think he had the same kind of energy that came across on that. Now I just have to source some fresh tumeric and galangal so if anyone knows where I might get some of that from please let me know.
Oh if anyone also has blogger and has had issues with uploading photos could you also let me know. Thanks.
I've had huge problems with Blogger and photos - I have found that it seems to be something to do with my browser, but haven't quite managed to solve it completely. Using my browser in safe mode or using a different browser (Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, which is what I normally use). Even using a different PC seems to work. It's very odd. I asked for help on the Blogger forum but never got a response so like you am still searching. Try clearing your cookies and history and see if that helps. :-)
ReplyDelete