The Foodies Festival

We had managed to get hold of VIP tickets to the Foodie Festival (www.foodiesfestival.com) in Battersea Park for this Sunday. So it was with excitement that we headed out to Battersea on the promise of a glass of fizz, a taster meal and a goody bag, plus all day access to the VIP bar.

When we arrived, the VIP bar was quaint and bijous, with not a single VIP in sight. There seemed to be other civilians like ourselves who had been duped into buying this better package for the festival, where I will admit the primary advantages were no queuing for the five select food stalls that were included in our package and access to seating in the tent.

Regardless, we went around excitedly, our single glass of fizz in hand to check out all the stalls. There was an array of stalls, with the usual restaurants represented. There were fewer produce suppliers. This included local ales and ciders and some fancy gins and vodkas.

 

 

There were actually less (traditional) street food stalls than I was expecting. For obvious reasons, I felt that Indian street food was unrepresented, considering how many different types of delicacy and providers there are in the UK. In fact the Southbank has an annual festival as part of its (free) food market, celebrating the food of India. Basically, there wasn’t as much variety for vegetarians as I had hope for.

 

 

However, with our inclusive voucher, Gipsy Spread and I headed to the food stall for the 'wandering chef' where he had a sea bream ceviche (see below) which looked fabulous. I opted for the chilli spiced chips.

 

Later he went on to have a fois gras burger with a truffle mayonnaise, whilst I opted for a vegetarian (cheese and bean) quesadilla from Whole Foods. Mine was perfectly pleasant, however I prefer my own refried beans (here: http://www.gipsytoast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/refried-beans.html) for their kick.

 

There were also many bars, a rum bar, the ubiquitous Champagne bar and a tequila bar. We stayed away from these and went for our nation’s traditional ale (for him) and cider (for me).

 

There were also a few demonstrations which were quite interesting, although they had pretty much all been booked up by the time we got there. The one that we did watch a little bit of below, seemed to be winging it quite a bit.

I did have an enjoyable day though. Although, I’m not sure that I got much more out of it than heading to the Southbank real food market (http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/market). I also went to the Big Feastival a couple of years ago and that did have the added bonus of celebrity chefs (I got a photo with Levi Roots) and a good line up in terms of music (Athlete).

It wasn’t disappointing as such, but I have been to better examples of that ilk. I did though come away with a truckle of pickle cheddar and some prosecco so it was worth it.