Birmingham Foodies Festival

Laura and I were lucky enough to visit the Birmingham Foodies Festival in Cannon Hill Park. It was a lovely day which is probably why there was such a good turn out! Every midlands based food blogger seemed to be there. Why wouldn't they be? There was some exceptional food on offer for reasonable prices. On entry there was a band playing an acoustic set with lots of people chilling with a drink sat on the grass. Laura and I had a very quick walk around to check out what was available before we decided on our first snack of the day!  There was lots of choice including Goneburger, Piggie Smalls and  Exotic Tagine to name a few. There were also several demonstrations and tasting session with the likes of Glyn Purnell and Dhruv Baker.  Being unable to resist the urge for Asian food I decided to start my glutinous day by ordering the Lamb Teriyaki from Wing Wah. I love watching the Tepenyaki chefs preparing the food on a hot plate. After waiting for roughly 10 minutes I was given a generous portion of delicious spicy noodles with succulent lamb and peppers. It was a great start to the day and the spice on my tongue forced me to get my first drink of the day!

I followed the advice of several other midlands bloggers and hunted down the Two Towers Brewery and ordered a pint of 'Complete Muppetry' which I have reviewed in my Beer Review Page

We then were drawn in by the smoky aromas of the Goneburger stand. Some very appealing sounding burgers on the menu made for a tough choice of what to have. We settled on 'The 5.0'  Organic Pulled Pork with Whiskey Smoked BBQ Sauce and Chilli Coleslaw in a Bun.  The staff were very welcoming and looked like they were enjoying themselves throughout the day.  

 The burger itself was fantastic, it came with a good pile of meat which had a deep smokey flavour. The slightly spiced coleslaw was also delicious

Next for me was an artisan sausage roll from 'Pig In The Middle' just to top me up. I went for the Jack Daniels BBQ Pork. It was a well flavoured and well filled sausage roll with buttery flaky pastry. Laura also bought a sweet chilli scotch egg to keep for later on.

We had a stroll around the stalls and sampled lots of food and drink and were even given free bottles of marinade from Tabasco which we are yet to use. We sat and listened to some of the live music whilst I enjoyed a pint of scrumpy and Laura took out a new mortgage and had a pint of Pimms.

Unsurprisingly I was soon after some more spice! I was drawn to Exotic Tagine due to the rising steam and vibrant colours coming from the food in the large iron pans. I went for a mix of all the food on offer in order to try everything. The mixture included 2 Tagines, one chicken and one lamb, a lentil dish and finally a chickpea dish, finished off nicely with a side of cous cous and a large dollop of chilli sauce.

All of the food was excellent, well spiced and packed with flavour. The Lamb was a bit tough and fatty in places but I still finished off every last morsel.

We had lots of tasters throughout the day, far too many to tell you about. We also were lucky enough to watch demonstrations from Glyn Purnell and also Jackie Kearny of The Hungry Geko. Jackie Kearny specialises in Asian Street Food and mainly cooks vegan dishes. We were lucky enough to be able to try some of the Khmer Style Yellow Cambodian Curry that she demonstrated in the Chef Theatre. It really took me back to my time travelling Cambodia. It was a very authentic dish with a huge smack of lemongrass, chilli and lime, and a dish that I will definitely be recreating at home.

It really was a great day out and an event I will be looking out for in the future. 

Facebook / Twitter