Real Food Festival 2009 – London, England
May 11th, 2009 by admin
After spending a wonderful day at last year’s Real Food Festival at Earl’s Court in London, I was looking forward to replicating the experience. With nearly 500 small food and drink producers attending the three day event, as well as cookery workshops, chef demonstrations and tasting sessions, it seemed as if this year would be even better than last year. I love visiting farmers’ markets and tasting and buying produce that I can’t find in my local supermarket, so going to this gigantic version of a farmers’ market filled me with excitement.
Before the venue filled up with people, I had a pleasant time wandering around chatting to various producers about their products. I learnt from the kind gentleman manning Auntie Vals stall, selling homemade traditional marmalades, chutneys, jams and preserves that these products in general don’t need to be placed in the fridge after being opened, despite what it says on the label. Simply wipe the rim and the lid and store the jars in a cool cupboard. I always find that jam never quite tastes the same when it comes out of the fridge! Auntie Vals’ rhubarb and ginger jam and the damson jam are both recommended.
I met my favourite award-winning baker Jim from De Gustibus, who remembered me from last year when I took a photo of him posing with a loaf of his artisan bread. I managed to take another photo of him and promised to stop by for another visit next year!
The longest stop at any stall must have been at Speciality Farm Foods, which launched about six months ago. I’m a sucker for beautiful packaging, but the products were also very unusual and I had a difficult time deciding what to buy. Examples include rare teas from Nepal and China, Tibetan rock salt that you grate with a small grater (which I’ve had before in Beijing) and Indonesian long peppercorns. All their ingredients, whether sugar, spices, seasonings or tea, are sourced from small farmers and artisans around the world. I also fell in love with the Indonesian riverstone pestle and mortar, which was a very reasonable £25, except that it was so heavy I wouldn’t have made it home with it. In the end, I left with a box of Indonesian Handmade Coconut Palm Sugar, which is made from the nectar of the coconut flower and tastes heavenly (and is incidentally not produced from the same palm species that is used to make palm oil). I also bought the Bali Beach Sea Salt Crystals, which are bizarrely pyramid-shaped.
The other stall that I spent a lot of time at was Solaris Botanicals, a Irish-based tea company run by two qualified medical herbalists. There were many many tea stalls at the festival, but I liked Solaris for their philosophy, packaging and helpful salesperson. I was so impressed with their Organic Jasmine Dragon Pearls (hand-rolled, special grade, first flush) – so smooth and silky on the tongue – that I bought a tin. The other product that tempted me was the bamboo box containing nine different types of organic, 1st flush, whole leaf teas in biodegradable silken teabags (£35.00). Now I regret not having bought it! Incidentally, Solaris also do personalised blends (I’ve always wanted to recreate a splendid tea blend I had in Madeira a few years ago).
What else? I tried the organic muesli from Rude Health, made with 23 different ingredients and no added sugar, the award-winning wild boar salami from The Real Boar Company, and some strong Lebanese olive oil made by monks in the Qadisha Valley. I also loved the display of meze, desserts and spices by The Arabica Food & Spice Company, although they were inundated with people sampling their food and were too busy to talk to me at length. The products I most wanted to buy were the pomegranate molasses, orange blossom water and rosewater.
And a special mention goes to Watkins, which has been producing natural and organic spices and seasonings for the last 140 years. The company was based in Birmingham, but after the factory was bombed in 1941, it was bought by Americans and moved to the States until last year when it was bought back. Watkins is now based in Milton Keynes.
As Oliver Rowe (owner/chef from Konstam) annoyed me the other week with his incredibly slow service, I decided not to stay for his chef’s theatre demonstration, although I did catch a little of Thomasina Miers’ (co-owner of Mexican eaterie Wahaca).
By lunchtime, I could barely walk down some of the aisles, let alone reach the stalls, so decided it was time to head home. I’m glad I returned this year, although I was disappointed that I couldn’t locate any oyster stalls (ate far too many last year). I also think I enjoyed myself more last year. But I do look forward to using my ingredients and drinking my tea!
The entire set of Real Food Festival photos can be viewed here.
It was great this year, wasn’t it? So much good food. Lovely photos, Helen.
It took us ages to find the oyster stalls, but when we did, it was happy days – 50p each! I particularly liked the Cafe Spice Namaste stall and a couple of the real ale stalls. The Hazledene farm stall had some excellent bacon too. In general I found it pretty uninspiring though – there was nothing that really jumped out at me and I found it all a bit samey (damn cupcakes and rapeseed oil everywhere!)
I have learnt, however, that when people tell you their chilli sauce is hot, it is hot. I had 2 separate burning mouth experiences!
Oh the BURN! We really, really felt the burn from that chilli sauce. I need to get down to the mammoth task of sorting through my photos now. I bought some of those long peppers last year and I’m not sure I like them. I’m not even sure what to do with them to be honest.
Lizzie – I so agree about the chilli. Last year I had such embarrassing times with the chilli stalls, I used to be hardcore so always think I can take it, now I flush bright red and get hiccups in seconds.
It looks like you had a good time Helen. I was gutted I couldn’t come this year to stock up on stuff (weddings spoil all my fun). The tea sounds wonderful! Might have to have a cheeky online shop.
Sounds like you had a lovely day Helen – I went on the Friday night which meant I missed a lot of the crowds but was probably lacking in atmosphere compared to the Saturday and Sunday by the sounds of it.
It sounds wonderful. I had hoped to go this year but it was my husband’s last weekend in London before he moves to San Francisco so I wanted to spend time with him (it could be a month before I can join him). I could have talked him into it but he was more keen to go and see some exhibitions and revisit his favourite museums and galleries. So we did that on Saturday and on Sunday we had a farewell picnic with friends in Kensington Gardens and that was all good. At least I can experience it vicariously by reading your blog post!
If I’d gone, I would almost certainly have been tempted to buy stuff and I really don’t need to do that right now. I’m trying to get rid of stuff!
How marvelous it must have been! I’m overwhelmed just from the photos and descriptions – it might have been total sensory overload if I’d been there in person. But I wouldn’t mind that kind of madness.
It was nice to see your mention of Watkins – I knew they operated from Winona, MN (about 3 hours from us) but never knew they originated in England!
Lovely photos! Shame you missed out on oysters, though I only saw one stall selling them (next to the crab guy). It was my first visit and I’m certainly glad I went, though I think Taste has more of a buzz about it. Roll on June!
I ate the chilli sauce and regretted it too. The mezze stall looked great but it was too busy to get a proper look at it. The Watkins guys were cool, and I liked their packaging, but they were ridiculously pricy I thought.
I still feel full from all the thousands of free samples!
I am so annoyed I couldn’t make it to the RRF. I loved it last year. Solaris botanicals sounds particularly fun.
Ollie – looking forward to reading your post!
Lizzie – glad you had oysters, though I wasn’t sure even if I had found them whether I would have had any as my recent bout of food poisoning might have put me off them for life. I think I saw that chilli stall where you tried the chilli sauce!
Helen – A Life(Time) of Cooking sent me two links about the long peppers – http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Pipe_lon.html and http://www.alandiashram.org/html/profiles/pippali.html
Jess – online shop away! Quite tempted to do more shopping and buy all the things I didn’t have time to go back for or have the energy to lug home…
Gourmet Chick – I’m not sure which day I would have preferred, possibly a quieter day in order to chat to producers, rather than a busy day when everyone was pushing and shoving!
Caitlin – god, you need to move with as little as possible, then stock up in San Francisco!
Tangled Noodle – I was fascinated by the story of Watkins’ history! They were most passionate about telling it to me as well…
Kate – you’re already thinking ahead to Taste!
Jenny – it is a great opportunity to try things before buying. I just had too much tea mixed with rapeseed oil, olive oil, jam and chutney, followed by strawberry vinegar and wild boar salami!
Jonathan – shame you couldn’t make it, but I think you had a pretty good weekend anyway!
Helen Yuet Ling
That photo of cheese really made me hungry.
Back when I was living in London for a few months, there was a shop across the street that had “Real Food” on its awning…turned out it was a plant shop (not the edible kind).
Hi Helen,
I love the pic of the smiley guy at De Gustibus! As for seafood, I managed to track down some oysters but then they tried to rip me off anyway
I find it really weird that I’ve read loads of reviews of the weekend I don’t think I went to any of the same stalls that anyone else did. I guess Earls Court is massive
My write-up’s here if you’re interested http://meemalee.blogspot.com/2009/05/real-food-festival-2009-on-probation.html
Chinamatt – you would have loved the festival. Come to London next year it’s on…
meemalee – I agree, I think we must have been at a different Real Food Festival. I was getting very tired after two hours of tasting and talking, so there were definitely some sections I didn’t cover.
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi Helen,
Great photos and round up of the event. I was there on a Saturday and the highlight for me was the Riverfood food stall with freshly grilled asparagus with an olive and lemon tapenade, juicy and flavoursome lamb meatballs with cous cous, and to finish, a rather sublime rhubarb crumble. It’s a large venue and rather impersonal, but once the crowds dissipate there was a chance to talk to the stall holders.
misstreat – ooh, that sounds lovely! The venue’s not great, I agree, but I am glad I made the effort in the end…
Helen Yuet Ling