The BBC Good Food Show
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend The BBC Good Food Show! It was held at The NEC, which I had just been to for comic con! This, however, was much bigger than comic con was, and took up far more rooms in the massive building.
It was so overwhelming that it became chaotic in my mind. There was just so much to see and smell (and taste) that I was just running around like a chicken without a head! After the frantic rushing around I eventually realized two things: there was a lot of cheese, and there was a lot of liquor. I had to have had at least five or six little shots of different whiskey, vodka and who knows what else! Pictured below was a marshmallow flavored vodka that was fairly delicious. The chocolate wine that was being sampled at the same booth, however, was pretty disgusting.
I am not much of a fan of cheese, so I eventually got tired of trying all of that. Outside of that there were a few stands there that were just so delightful!
Garlic world, for example. An entire stand packed with garlic and garlic products. I tasted some garlic jam from here that cleared up my sinuses instantly, let me tell you! It was also pretty delicious. I put garlic on just about everything I cook, so I really loved just standing there breathing it in.
There were some stranger things as well, such as an entire rack of smoking fish. I am not a fish lover, so I found this fairly disgusting, especially the smell, but if you like that sort of thing I imagine that would be wonderful.
Another thing that seemed to be very popular and had many vendors for was rapeseed oil. It has a seriously sketchy name, and I had never heard of it before, but it was everywhere. I have since looked it up and it is apparently a substitute for saturated fats and the main ingredient of many vegetable oils!
Because of all the free samples I got away with only buying cheap Indian dumplings for lunch and not being hungry for the rest of the day. Oh my goodness they were spicy! And I did not have any water! They were delicious though and eventually the burn in my mouth went away.
Chocolate Tree
This chocolate company sells organic artisan chocolate with a wide variety of unique flavors! I tasted the rose white chocolate flavor, which I was dubious about but it was actually quite delicious! The company, which is based in Edinburgh, produces their chocolate straight from the bean. I love chocolate so their free samples made me really happy. If you have some extra money floating around and you want to indulge yourself, their chocolate might be the way to go!
So before moving to England I had never had chutney before, and have not had much of it since I got here, so I don't really have a basis or comparison. However I know what my tongue tells me, and this stuff was delicious! I tried the mango and the papaya chutney flavors. They were so delicious and spicy, but not in a way that burned your mouth! This chutney was really the only thing of the day I was tempted to buy. If chutney is your thing, and you like spicy, then I would definitely say give this a go!
Praana tea is actually the first thing I had, before I even got into the show room! They were doing free samples of it in the press room, so I had some there! I had the rose flavor (I might have a fixation with rose...) and it was very good. It was more subtle than other rose teas I have had in the past. I grabbed a bunch of free samples of the other flavors as well, and have enjoyed them all. The company uses tradition (organic) Indian herbs to make the tea, and it is a relatively new company that promotes well being and self care.
Aloe juice is apparently the latest craze in health food drinks. My first reaction to this was shared by many who first hear of aloe juice, "You can drink aloe?" Yea, apparently you can! Straight aloe juice is fairly disgusting from what I understand, but when properly mixed with other juice it is not only good for you, it is also delicious! As one would expect from something made of aloe, it is very good for your skin. It also detoxifies your body.
Simplee Aloe is a fantastic, young company that has taken care to use only ethically farmed aloe leaves and other fruits to make their juice. It is also organic, and can be found it many stores around the UK, including Sainsbury's! (Which is exciting to me because that is the closest store to where I live)
So yea, those are the products I really enjoyed! The entire food show was a great experience and I had a fantastic time! I also managed to procure a oven mit for my house! This is a big deal because we have not had one since we moved in 2 months ago, and Andrea and I use the oven A LOT. All in all a successful day!
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