Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Taste of London

offcentre
 Share

Recommended Posts

Andy Lynes

Andy Lynes

Posted
Posted

I'm sure we've had reports on this event in the past but I can't seem to find them. I'm going on the first night so will report back then.

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted

:smile: well got my ticket.

hope its worth it!! £45 not cheap

I could have a (cheapo) dinner at nobu for that :raz:

btw the ticket booking website seems a little flakey

it crashed without confirmation when I went to pay for m ticket.

anyway if you are going to this say hi!

I be the chinaman in black with a camera. :smile:

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted (edited)

thats why I hope its worth it.

although I do get a glass of bubbly and £18 of food vouchers

and its for charrity.

Hopefully the gala night will allow me to indulge my other passion photography :smile:

Edited by origamicrane (log)

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

PoppySeedBagel

PoppySeedBagel

Posted
Posted

I find the pricing very confusing - if you pay £15, you get a 'free' copy of Olive, entry to the exhibition - and what else? £15 looks a bit pricy for entry to a commercial operation - though you do get the opportunity for sampling, which appeals.

I may pop along on the Friday evening - it looks like fun.

  • 2 weeks later...
origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted (edited)

so i went, i saw, i ate BURP!!! :laugh:

I thought it was quite good but wasn't worth the £45 ticket

but looking at the tickets option the best choice would be the £30 ticket as you get £18 worth of food vouchers

most of the dishes were £3 or £4 ( or 6-8 crown vouchers).

There wasn't that many restaurant/ food stands really as 50% of the stall were booze another 25% were cutlery, crockery, furniture?, cloths? and car stalls.

anyway definitely worth going if you want to eat :laugh:

heck i'm posting on egullet of course you want to eat!!

one little irritation was you can only by food vouchers in £10 denominations

and they ran out of vouchers at one of the vending stalls after i had queued for 10 minutes! ho hum

all in all you eat your moneies worth.

also big up the martini stand as they were serving free drinks all night!!

anyway you want to see food !!!

gallery_18280_1379_28976.jpg

crispy squid with lime and green chilli

gallery_18280_1379_9518.jpg

tiramisu

gallery_18280_1379_866.jpg

lamb cutlets

gallery_18280_1379_10062.jpg

paella

gallery_18280_1379_9273.jpg

black glutinoous rice with caramelised coconut

gallery_18280_1379_45939.jpg

butterflied leg of lamb in ciabatta

gallery_18280_1379_12663.jpg

tuna tataki

gallery_18280_1379_31567.jpg

sear scallops with yuzu mayo, wasabi schimi and shiro cress

all of it was really good and nothing was more then a fiver

althought the butteflied leg of lamb was a bad idea as the bap was really filling.

I would have eaten more but after that little lot i was pretty stuffed.

and to see more click here Taste of London 2005 photos

Edited by origamicrane (log)

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

Andy Lynes

Andy Lynes

Posted
Posted

Tommy out of Ground Force, Linda Barker from the DFS ads, Loyd Grossman, Ken Hom and the big bloke that got ejected from Hell's Kitchen for dissing JC - yes, it was quite a star studded event.

Although my expereince of Taste of London is skewed by not having to pay to get in and being able to guzzle free champagne, I have to say I was quite impressed. The pigeon pie from Le Gavroche and fish curry with noodles from Nahm that I tried were both quite excellent and if I hadn't had such a big lunch I would have been eager to try a lot more dishes. If the rest of the stands were up to the quality of those two (and from Ori's excellent snaps it at least looks as though they were) and the weather holds, I'd say it would be worth forgoing a dinner, and stuffing yourself with 9 or 10 plates in Regents Park.

Most of the named chefs were manning their stalls last night (Marco did not turn out for Frankie's and Gagnaire was absent from Sketch), but I don't know if they will be around every day. The photographers and camera crews were out in force last night which is bound to attact the likes of AWT, JC, Gary Rhodes, Giorgio Locatelli et al. I would have thought Shane Osbourne of Pied a Terre would be there as he doesn't have a restaurant to go back to at the moment and he was actually plating up rather than just hanging out.

As well as the food and wine stalls, there are chef demos, wine tastings and two book stalls The Cook Book Shop of Harrogate and Cooking:The Books.

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted (edited)

yes definitely worth going, everything i tried was spot on.

favourite dish of the night was Roka's lamb cutlets

followed closely by zuma's crispy squid.

skip the tiramisu and the lamb ciabatta.

Wish i had space to eat more but 8 plates was my limit.

The portions are starter size so definitely skip the bready things.

This weekend going to be hot and that means its going to be packed

lets see if others have the same experience.

Just wanted to add the chef demo theatre was poorly designed

Went to watch Zilli give a demo but the pot and pans are below the counter area so you cannot see anything!!

and they don't have any mirrors or any monitors to show whats he's doing. :sad:

its like listening to an audio cookbook.

Edited by origamicrane (log)

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

CarolineLD

CarolineLD

Posted
Posted

I'm going on Sunday, but having bought my ticket I've just won a ticket for 2 for the same session (Sunday 11-2.30). So if anyone would like the ticket for 2 (no crowns included, sadly!) PM me.

Caroline

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted

actually on reflection

The restaurant food there were really good.

but i would have like to have seen some more new and unusual food stuff.

There was a stand called Ariba that was selling smoked duck and smoked lamb and cans of pestos i had a few samples of each and they were really good

and also a stand called AVA with some really lovely strawberries, really sweet, juicy and big!

I would really like to see more of those type of things next year

Or maybe i should just stick to the commercial food fairs :raz:

hmmm... i wonder how much and how to get a stand there?

or is it invite only?

if its not ridiculous I could get a stand next year might be worth a laugh :smile:

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

Matthew Grant

Matthew Grant

Posted
Posted (edited)
I would really like to see more of those type of things next year

Or maybe i should just stick to the commercial food fairs :raz:

For those of us wanting to join Origamicrane's fantastic elite world of commercial food fairs there is no difficulty in getting a ticket. If you see one advertised, ring up for a ticket, in my experience they are happy to send you a ticket. If not turn up on the day and you can normally pay to get in.

Edited by Matthew Grant (log)

"Why would we want Children? What do they know about food?"

Sackville

Sackville

Posted
Posted

Here are my pictures from Friday night's session. Not as professional as OrigamiCrane's but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless:

We started with crispy duck:

crispyduck.jpg

Then we went to Gary Rhodes stand and I wanted to try Pork Belly as I have some to cook. This was okay (pork and applesauce in a bun) but definiately not the "wow" experience I expected given Rhodes' reputation and expensive compared to the other dishes.

rhodespork.jpg

We then did a wine tasting on Tempranillo wines:

wine.jpg

Samosas, one filled with goats cheese and cashew and the other with a mushroom filling:

cheesesamosas.jpg

Sushi from Moshi Moshi:

moshisushi.jpg

Potato Cakes from Mela, with a spicy green sauce and a more mild yogurty one:

melapotatocakes.jpg

Crispy Fried Squid -- my favourite of the show. Spicy and salty!

crispysquid.jpg

Back to Mela for a Kebab. I think this was the best value: filling, full of different flavours and only 6 crowns:

melakebab.jpg

We ended with some tiramisu and some ice cream (which I did not photograph):

tiramisu.jpg

PassionateChefsDie

PassionateChefsDie

Posted
Posted

I just finished a night with one of the guys sorting some of the food for The Taste of London. We just did a function for 600 if the standard is upto what we sent tonight, I dont think anyone should be to dissapointed(One off the main guys been on the phone all day sorting stuff, what a logistic nightmare, he's in Manchester).

But they seem to do this day in day out, I ate several bits we sent and had I paid for it I'd of been happy as long as it wasn't overpriced.

Not really sure for who and as I dont know I'm not going to say who I thought it was, it a big umbrella.

Perfection cant be reached, but it can be strived for!
origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted

:smile: sackville great pictures

that crispy squid is really good isn't it!!!

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

Sackville

Sackville

Posted
Posted
:smile: sackville great pictures

that crispy squid is really good isn't it!!!

Thanks :)

Yes that squid is amazing! How do you think they made it?

I was thinking maybe they tossed the squid in a bit of oil, then added the seasonings and fried in a very hot wok?

It didn't seem deep fried, even though it was crispy.

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted

It's tempura :wink:

Tempura batter

1 large egg yolk

1 cup ice cold water

1 cup tempura flour (or plain)

1/4 cup potato flour

1 teaspoon ground sea salt

Sift the dry ingredients together

whisk the egg yolk and water together then mix with the dry ingredients.

Clean the squid and pat dry, coat each squid in flour then the batter and deep fry in very hot oil (200C).

garnish, green chilli and lime

give it a go it :wink:

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

Sackville

Sackville

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the recipe but do you really think it was tempura? I am ashamed to say I don't remember which restaurant it came from. It just didn't have the quantity of batter on it that I associate with tempura. In fact, I was not sure there was batter at all or if there was it was very slight.

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the recipe but do you really think it was tempura? I am ashamed to say I don't remember which restaurant it came from. It just didn't have the quantity of batter on it that I associate with tempura. In fact, I was not sure there was batter at all or if there was it was very slight.

the squid was from zuma :wink:

yeah pretty sure it was a tempura batter just a very good and very light one. :smile:

although can't be completely sure if it was potato flour or arrow root flour in the mix. :unsure:

hmmm.. seriously considering going down again tomorrow

just to eat eveything else. :laugh:

so wanted to have one of those rasberry macroon cakes from sketch

just had no space left. :raz:

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

origamicrane

origamicrane

Posted
Posted
If you do want to go again, I still have those spare tickets...

really??

thought they would have been snapped up

gimme!! gimme!! gimme!! :laugh:

please :smile:

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

sandra

sandra

Posted
Posted

Went yesterday afternoon session, so much better than last year!

We did not take pictures, but that CRISPY SQUID!!!! I don't even like squid and I could have had 5-6-7 plates of it....

We had the scallops from Roka also, rigatoni from Refettorio with a fab bolognese and a big smile from Locatelli, sashimi from Moshi Moshi, some dorset crab on toast, some arancini, beef tataki and spicy tuna roll from Zuma also, the lobster bisque from Le Gavroche, served by Roux himself, and lots, lots, of other things....

Another highlight was the guy making dark and stormies with actual Gosling's rum and some of the ginger beer they were selling, I forget the name, but the GOSLINGS... and the pink Cava which we forgot to get a bottle of on the way out...

The park is so much a better venue for it, not the cramped Sommerset House form last year - and even though it was TOO hot yesterday afternoon, I would definitely go again...

Crispy Squid.....

www.nutropical.com

~Borojo~

 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...