Adelaide Food and Wine Festival

I am a self-confessed food nerd. I love all thing food, wine and anything in between. So when I heard about the Adelaide Food and Wine festival coming to Adelaide, there was no stopping me. As soon as you arrive you are immediately met by smiles and a strange woman giving out coopers stratchies! FYI Coopers, thanks for the four free key rings and the two stubbie holders!

I had to immediately get my bearings, its a big venue, filled with many different components, from the giant celebrity venue to the wine and beer education lounge and the stalls upon stalls of lovely food and wine. Every stall that I went to I was utterly impressed with. The quality of food that Adelaide produces astounds me.

There were a few stand outs that I feel the need to point out. These stalls have not paid me in any way and this is my own personal opinion. I may be over dramatic with my description but that's the food nerd in me.

PANGKARRA

There website can be found here.

I love pasta, what I don't love is the increasing butt size. I was extremely fortunate to be able to taste a sampler of their wholegrain pasta, note the whole grain, not wholemeal factor. This pasta is extremely nutty. It should be the hero of this dish, so please for the love of god do not smother this beautiful, delicate pasta with a carbonara sauce. The ladies at the stall simply served it with garlic, oil and broccolini. Simple, delicious and I might of bought a packet. Whole grains I wanna kiss your butt friendly goodness.

HONEY LADY

Do you guys ever eat nutella out of a jar, you know that feeling of OMG this the sweet goodness I need. Well Honey lady and her honey's do that to me, it's liquid gold! I was so happy to see her at the show, she is a regular stall holder at the Adelaide showground markets and the Willunga markets, immediately upon seeing me she got out her cinnamon honey (Yep, she's my own personal Santa Claus) and gave me a tasting. I would like to say that  I have had many, many tastings of her honey's.

However, it's her cup gum honey that gets me. A honey that isn't sickly sweet, melts in your mouth with out leaving any residual bitterness that I personally find with raw honey. I bought the 700gram cup gum honey and have been looking up recipes to truly make this honey shine (secret recipe coming soon). Or, you can just make my wholemeal banana bread, because banana and honey are two best friends. Her facebook page can be located here. I implore you to go visit her at one of the markets though for generous tastings.

GELISTA

A day would not be complete without gelati. I love mango gelati, in the dead of winter it reminds me that summer is near and I can gorge myself on the beautiful summer fruits. Gelati makes me insanely happy, I tend to not really taste it but gulf it down. This beautiful stall had some wonderful passionate ladies who were just wanting to show their product through free samples. Hey, if they want to give me a free sample of gelati I will never say no. Oh, the gelati itself was creamy, it had that mango flavour punch and was extremely edible.

Other notable stores was Beerenburg, they had a fantastic 3 for $10 dollar sale on their products. The hardest part was choosing which ones to buy but we settled on the Blueberry jam,  Coopers Ale BBQ sauce and the Sticky Rib sauce. 

Mountain Fresh Juices, I am a big fan of their juices, I was lucky to try the apple and lemon juice that they are currently trying out. I can imagine this with some vodka and soda water. The perfect summer cocktail

LIQUEURS

I was surprised with the amount of liqueurs they had on offer at the show. Yes, I tasted them all, No, I cannot remember what half of them tasted like... I had a nice little buzz though. From memory, the flavours were:

St. Germaine- Elderflower, extremely good in a summer cocktail.

Pama- An amazing pomegranate liqueur that did not have that sickly red cordial taste.

Hypnotiq- I have to say I can't remember what this liqueur was, it was my last liqueur I tried. 

Also, the Coopers beer appreciation class was fantastic, for someone like me who has no clue about beers, I learnt a lot and really enjoyed the beers. Oh, the fact that there were six or seven coopers beers including there vintage ale kind of helped- Did I mention that was free.

The Vintage Ale was the best, although, I have know realised I love malt beer.

The coopers Bar was also a nice place to get away 

from all the hustle and bustle of the show. A mellow band was playing and you go to enjoy the wonderful beer, wine and food outside. Just a note on the food- this is what take-away should be. Healthy, fresh and one of the best burgers I ever had. The meat was juicy and succulent, the tomato and lettuce, was extremely crisp. They also had oysters on offer, but I was that full I had to split the burger.

This show was amazing, if you are going , Saturday 8th or Sunday 9th. Please visit the celebrity chefs, from what I heard they were funny and endearing. Manu will be there for you ladies, so just soak in his French accent.