Food Festivals @Not Quite Nigella

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Food Festivals

Primo Italiano Festival 2009, East Sydney

Start them early!

Cheese, cheese and more cheese!

We had grand, slightly tentative plans for this years Primo Italiano Festival mainly due to me thinking that it was on last week and getting up early only to discover that I was a week early. Then the weather forecast for the weekend was foreboding and warned of occasional showers which meant that Plan B’s were set in place until we awoke on a gorgeous Sunday morning to find a sky blue and the sun strong and beaming.

Sweet goodies at Bertoni Casalinga

Primo Italiano is an event which is part of the Sydney Italian Festival where everyone is invited to participate in an Italian wedding from the proposal, the ceremony, the reception to the farewell. And in true Italian fashion, food features prominently which is another lure for us.

The Rose Fountain

Housed along three intersecting streets in East Sydney (Stanley, Yurong and Riley) and dubbed “Little Italy”, the main focus and the place where everyone wants their photo taken is the Rose Fountain. You can toss coins and make wishes and all coins are to be donated to charity. We take care of all matters culinary first and scope out what is best on offer. There are red and white checkered tablecloth covered tables but most people are sitting on the kerb and eating or standing and doing so. Securing a coveted table is left to Teena with her pram whilst Gina, Mr NQN and I track down the food and stand in some very long but thankfully moving queues. We try a range of dishes and sit down to try our meals.

Beppi’s Octopus $5

The Beppis Octopus in a tomato based sauce with polenta square is delicious and cooked beautifully tender. It’s a small serve but also a small and reasonable price.

Proscuitto Pizza $9

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32 comments | May 25, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

NQN’s adventure at the Sydney Royal Easter Show

Moo!

Egg judging

I was looking forward our visit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show with great anticipation. The last time I went was when I purchased a Wonder Woman showbag which gives you an indication of just how many years ago that was. I remember the showbag clearly and the headband, name tag, bracelet and other assorted goodies that made me my own pint sized version of Wonder Woman. This was of course when it was still housed at Moore Park. I haven’t been since it moved to Olympic Park.

Although I love traveling by the comfort of car, venturing out there by train is easy and it’s fairly straightforward and relatively quick. Before long we’re standing in front of this enormous swell of people and contemplating our first move like seasoned chess players. Volunteers are handing out copies of maps with some vouchers on the back so we make sure to get one of those so that we can get our bearings. Food of course is priority, but then again so is the many other things that I’ve scheduled courtesy of the show planner on the Easter Show website. Sure some of the things are lower on the priority list (chook washing I could probably give a miss) but some things are too iconic (woodchopping and the ingestion of Dagwood Dogs) or too adorable (the many farm animals) to miss.

Wood chopping

Our first stop is the Woolworths Fresh Food dome. It’s huge, about the size of the Good Food and Wine Show and full of exhibitors peddling their goods. Samples are a little rarer than at other events but most things are available for purchase and most things are discounted from the retail price.

The Chili Factory’s range of chili from mild to frighteningly scary

We try some ferociously hot chili – if you dare, try the 10 out of 10 heat one although a word of warning, try it very sparingly!

My Little Cupcake’s stand

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42 comments | April 14, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Taste of Sydney Festival, Centennial Park

Years and years ago I’d be excited at meeting a pop star or a rock star. For when I was a teenager I realised every teenage girl’s (at the time) dream and met the Norwegian band A-ha when they visited Sydney-please tell me that you remember them. I even managed to get an autograph and a photo but for reasons of 80’s hair and fashion crime, I shall refrain from posting it here. Nowadays the sighting of a chef excites me. And tonight when we’re visiting the Taste of Sydney festival, I’m feeling a culinary version of A-ha-mania.

The Taste of Sydney festival was an event we’d been looking forward to for a while, not only spurred on because of the preview that we got of the fabulous food we’d be having. Held at Centennial Park it was billed as a bit of a food market a la Castle Hill’s Food Affare and a bit of a food festival a la the SMH Good Food Fair. We were being joined by Christie and her husband Dillon tonight and trying to fill our hungry tummies with some of the best food Sydney’s chefs had to offer.

Who do we see carrying his wobbly booby pannacotta but George Francisco of Jonah’s. We talk to him about enjoying it at the launch and introduce ourselves. It seems that his friends from the US have found his wobbly sensation on our blogs and emailed him about it. He was talking to the PR company The Mint Partners and they had told him that one of the best things they had done was inviting bloggers to the event and preview. We love that attitude! We also bump into Suze, Helen and Billy.

George Francisco of Jonah’s

Onto the food. While Dillon and Mr NQN menacingly guard the tables (the faux menacing purely as a buffer to the people who wanted our table and a warning, tables are in short supply), Christie and I tag-teamed it to the stalls to buy the food. Forget cavemen bringing home the goods, we modern cavewomen were armed with “crowns”, the currency of choice for the festival. $1 buys you 1 crown with each course being 8-14 crowns each and to eat 3 courses you would want to have about $30 or so crowns and it’s Crowns only at the restaurant stalls. We start with a selection of dishes, different to what we had at the launch so that we could try as much as possible.

Civic Dining: Moussaka of Eggplant, sea scallop and Taramasalata 10 crowns/$10

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46 comments | March 13, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Taste of Sydney Media Launch (and a giveaway!)

Centennial Parklands Dining – Beetroot Macaroon with foie gras Chef: Mark Best. These were a surprise in both taste and texture and one of my favourites of the night, the macaron was surprisingly spongy and light, the foie gras mousse delicate and creamy.

I was rather chuffed to receive an invitation to the Taste of Sydney Media Launch from Prue from the Mint Partners, for not only was the invitation itself exciting, but I love it when PR firms start to take bloggers seriously as part of the media space which is always a good sign indicating progress (thanks too to Christie for arranging our tickets!). The invitation also kindly let us bring partners so my hungry husband is tagging along tonight. And before I forget, I’ve got a surprise for 3 lucky readers, so read on and all will be revealed!

Sailor’s Thai – Prawn Miang served with peanuts and lime on betel leaf. Chef: Ty Bellingham. This was a delicious tangy combination with plump prawns and a favourite amongst many here.

Berowra Waters – A Soignee Truffle Risotto with Mozzarella and a Spinach/ Fennel Rockerfella Sauce. Chef: Dietmar Sawyere. Photo by ChocolateSuze. A delicious Arancini ball of risotto with a mild dipping sauce.

Tonight, we’re gathered at the recently refurbished Centennial Parklands restaurant to sample some of the goodies from the chefs. And it seems like we have the creme de la creme of chefs with food from a list of Sydney’s best chefs.

Longrain – Spicy pork sausage betel leaves & pickled ginger Chef: Martin Boetz. Another betel leaf canape, this time with a slice of spicy pork sausage, strong with pickled ginger.

Ottoman Cuisine – Etli Borek – crisp home made filo rolls filled with braised veal shank, currants & pine-nuts, served with pomegranate and yoghurt sauce. Chef: Serif Kaya. Delicious and slightly crisp, these were salty and slightly sweet with bursts of currants, pomegranate and yogurt.

Flying Fish – Yellow fin tuna with ruby grapefruit and sweet pork crackling Chef: Peter Kuruvita. A little more than a mouthful, the spoon proved a bit of a challenge for one bite eating and required a few bites but was well worth it with a nice pairing of the tuna, grapefuit and unmistakable flavour and texture of pork crackling.

The chefs:

Dietmar Sawyere, Berowra Waters Inn
Justin North, Bécasse & Etch
George Francisco, Jonah’s at Whale Beach
Giovanni Pilu, Pilu at Freshwater
Martin Boetz, Longrain Restaurant & Bar
Ty Bellingham, Sailors Thai
Matthew Kemp, Restaurant Balzac
Jared Ingersoll, Danks Street Depot
Peter Kuruvita, Flying Fish
Warren Turnbull, Restaurant Assiette
Peter Conistis, Civic Dining
Alex Herbert, Bird Cow Fish
Serif Kaya, Ottoman Cuisine
Paul McGrath, Bistro Ortolan
Armando Percuoco, Buon Ricordo

The lineup of chefs

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31 comments | February 7, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Good Food Affare, Castle Hill

This past weekend, Castle Hill hosted the huge Good Food Affare (sic). It was, what seemed to me to be an outdoor version of the Darling Harbour Good Food and Wine show (without the emphasis on International celebrity chefs), where growers, wholesalers and retailers met the public at a place that was merchandised to within an inch of itself.

Miellerie Unheated honey-with a lovely thick texture

Held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, by all reports it was well worth a visit. It looked to be a fairly big production with a long line of cars snaking down Carrington Road going into the grounds. There were several large sheds as well as three very long tents set up according to type of produce. I see a whole lot of new stalls, some of which I’ve never seen before.