World Foodie Guide

Since Thursday, food lovers have been converging on Earl’s Court, London for the four day long Real Food Festival, billed as the largest farmers market in the UK. According to the festival’s website, it was inspired by the Slow Food Movement, and focuses on ’sustainability, provenance, biodiversity and fairness to farmers and rural communities’.

As responsible consumers, it’s important to be aware of the environmental impact of food production and to learn about what we put in our stomachs. I had an incredible dinner at Konstam a few nights ago, which prides itself on sourcing over 85% of its produce inside Greater London (review coming soon). So I was in the perfect frame of mind to meet 500 small food and drink producers from around the country, and sample their produce…

It was an overwhelming foodie experience, with cookery demonstrations from top chefs (including Jun Tanaka from Pearl and Raymond Blanc from Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons), workshops (British Ice Cream, The Potato Farm – Tyrell’s and A Week In The Life Of The Sustainable Kitchen, to name but a few) and countless food and drink stalls. My head is still spinning and my stomach literally churning from the onslaught of food.

The big boys were all there with their enormous stands – Daylesford Organic, Grana Padano, Whole Foods, but I was more interested in the small producers, particularly the ones whose attendance my entrance ticket had subsidised. Everyone was so friendly and more than willing to explain how their food was produced. It was hard to resist.

I over-indulged on gigantic oysters from Mersea Island (near Essex) provided by fisherman Richard Haward, and from Rossmore Oysters in Scotland (I preferred these, as they were a bit more subtle). They were so fresh that not even a squeeze of lemon was needed. These were followed by samplings of organic chicken and roast beef; haslet (a kind of pork meatloaf from Lincolnshire); organic pork and ginger sausage;

Jabugo ham from Brindisa; Boasty’s Best lime curd; R-Oil organic rapeseed oil; endless fresh juices and cordials; organic strawberries and raspberries; Rachel’s Organic rice pudding; Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora (my favourite dessert wine of all time); Whole Foods cherry tomato; Go-Chai spiced tea; Bhajiman’s onion bhaji and vegetable pakora; Tyrell’s crisps and various Chinese teas.

I left feeling inspired, virtuous and determined to eat more food produced using sustainable and responsible methods! Then I came home to eat some La Tua fresh pumpkin ravioli that I had bought – heavenly.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Tags: English, food, London, organic, Real Food Festival, traveleating