Tasting Australia

[foodie52]

We attended Tasting Australia in 2005 , in Adelaide. I can't believe it's been two years. Is it on this October? And if so, what's fun and fascinating in this year's edition?

[emmaelizabeth]

It is on this year - from this weekend onwards. I don't have a program on me, but there's a bunch of chef's making the trip from Melbourne/Sydney, as well as Rick Stein and a few others

[Tae.Lee]

Went for a walk down to Elder Park this morning for the opening of the Festival, got in early to secure a table under umbrellas [luckily as it got pretty packed later and was quite warm].

Lots of good stalls and things happening throught out the day, demonstrations, bands..

this is pretty early on:

Being South Australian, there was of course a good representation from the regional centres, plus a few out of staters..

I've missed it every other time so I can't really compare but it had a very nice family vibe, there was a special tent for kids to try cooking things, with chefs showing them how to cut safely with knives and such activities.

I had to leave earlier than I would have liked [young son gets cranky after a few hours with no sleep and too much stimulation].. so I didn't hit the wine stalls

The food looked top notch from most places, a major step up from the average food/wine festival, I guess stallholders know the sort of people who will attend as well as competing with each other.. plus there wasn't the drunken 'yobbo' element which seems to turn up at some of the other regional events about halfway through.. [though I left early, you never know]

A couple of places had locally grown wagyu beef, as at the stall where I got my main lunch, though I chose the lamb plate, they had a beautiful duck as well.

Washed down by a India Pale Ale from the micro breweries tent.

Heehee I could have eaten all day..

http://www.tasting-australia.com.au/

I'm not really going to be able to partake of much else of the festival, but there's some interesting sounding events happening all over the place. I was particularly interested in the yakitori degustation [sold out!] and Cheong Liew's degustation..

I also heard that it was going to become an annual event, which would be great, i'll have to prepare better next time..

I'm also sorry I didn't take more and better pictures [and none of the actual food I just realised!] but it was kind of the last thing on my mind [or my stomach] at the time.

Edited October 14, 2007 by Tae.Lee (log)

[helenjp]

Tae.lee that was great, made me wish I were there to actually check out those stalls!

Do you have any idea how many people went through the event?

[Tae.Lee]

My in-laws stayed on and said you couldn't move later.

According to the news that night, apparently they had 35,000 people go through..

I'm glad I went earlier now..

[helenjp]

My golly gosh! Adelaide has a population of around 1 million right?

The photos you show look like a comfortable crowd.

Anyway, as for yakitori degustation, it's just too easy to make your own, so stick your nose in the Japan Forum.