Food & Wine Christmas Show: Review

I was hoping to head along to the Food & Wine Magazine Christmas Show this weekend but some last-minute work prevented me from going. So I asked my lovely friend and previous Cheapeats contributor Ruth to go along and send us her thoughts on the event.  Here’s what she had to say:

‘I’ll be an hour or two’. I shouted merrily as I left the house this morning, leaving two tiny terrors behind with a happy father. How long could the Food & Wine Christmas Show take? About 5 o’clock I slinked guiltily back in bearing wellington squares as peace offerings, and trying to refrain from boasting about the lamb curry from Ananda and the smoked salmon from the Waterloo Bar, and mulled apple juice which I thought could make me tipsy if I drank enough of it.

This is essentially a lot of shops and mini restaurants in the one spot. Most of the plates and glasses are plastic, you end up eating tastes of baklava, clonakilty black pudding, Spanish sweets and thai dip all in the one mouthful almost. I don’t know why I found it such fun really. I think it was because of the atmosphere, people enjoying themselves in a straightforward, uncomplicated way. My 4 year old was sona sásta. She visited Santa, checked out a vintage toy shop and ate hot dogs and desserts.

Normally when I go to things that I like and talk to other boring adults, she’s dragging at my arm, asking to leave; she never once did here. We arrived early enough which meant that we had a relaxed experience, but I think if you were to arrive later in the day, you might be harrumphing into your mince pies about the crush, especially if you had a belly like Santa.

Are there good deals? Well, at €20 per person for the face value tickets, you’ll need to do some work to get it back. But if you book online at Ticketmaster, the code pigsback11 will give you a two for one deal, and there’s apparently a Food & Wine magazine deal for €10. At that price, you’re doing okay. Kids get in free (we brought 3) and they can visit Santa (for free) – and get a grand little present (recorder, harmonica, the third was too cool for Santa) and a photo. We caught two demonstrations and went to a masterclass. We stuffed ourselves with tastes, and bought stuff, but I didn’t think all prices on food for sale were that keen (1 ltr apple juice €3.50, the mulled variety €6 –  that’s an extra €2.50 for just some sugar and spices!).

There is some good value to be had: Clonakilty had a rashers, sausages and pudding package for €5. Marks and Spencer had half price mince pies (€1.49) and chocolates, and I had a cracking lamb curry for a fiver. There were cheesemakers and others there, but the artisan zone felt a little thin. The rack rate of €1800 for a stand might have put the very small producers off. If you want to head down today [Sunday], I suspect that if you hang around until near the end, you might pick up some excellent value from traders unwilling to bring anything home.

We caught the tail end of Catherine Fulvio in the morning, and when we were leaving Donal Skehan had just been introduced on the main stage. He was charming and fun, and although he was making muffins, something simple that many in the audience would have made, his skill at involving everyone was greater than many twice his age. (He’s 23.) He taught me to break an egg on a flat surface, not on the side of the bowl, to make a cleaner break and never get shell in my mix. My four year old took this in very seriously, that’s her job when we bake.

I went to a masterclass on foraging and tasted sorrel for the first time. The presenter, Mary, had made sweets that she called ‘elderflower delight’ which had that sophisticated familiar flavour. She also asked us to guess the flavour of a liquor. We made a stab at it, shouting ‘plum’ and ‘peach’, but it was beech leaves. And the best thing I learned? That my foraging should start in my own garden. As I said it was late when I got home, so I’ll have to wait to the morning to go hunting for chickweed (with roasted goat’s cheese and honey) and sorrel (pesto) and nettle tips (stir fried in butter). I’ll be checking out http://wildfoodmary.wordpress.com/ when it’s up and running.

So there you have it – Ruth’s account makes it sound very appealing to me and her tip to head along late today to see about cutting deals with traders is a good one.