The Foodies Festival, Syon Park, is a chance to sample an array of foods, to buy interesting items for the kitchen larder, and to attend talks from top chefs on culinary tips should you so choose.
The sun was shining in London, and everyone was basking in the hot glory, gin and tonic in hand. Grass pathways became sunbathing spots in which to scoff the latest foodie find, and to listen to the up-tempo live music on offer. Looking around, the pleasure was apparent. There was an air of simple happiness amongst the crowds. Sun, food, drink, music – simple elements that naturally appeal to the human senses to achieve a pure contentedness.
The festival was set up as expected. Rows of stalls displaying their offerings, and a central tent filled with long tables covered in red checked tablecloths for punters to pull up a chair and eat with family and friends.
We arrived at the festival hungry. ‘iCalamari’ grabbed our attention immediately, as we watched others walk by with overflowing trays of crisp, golden calamri. After purchasing two portions we smothered them in sharp lemon juice and sticky sweet chilli sauce. The ringlets were thick making them a real pleasure to bite in to, and the batter was perfectly crisp. We scoffed the calamari in moments, licking the syrupy sauce from our fingertips. The squid was certainly delicious, but if anything, just got the appetite craving more.
It was then that we found the Dum Dum doughnnuts stall and were presented with beautiful rows of doughnuts and cronuts from crème brulee flavour to banoffee, to strawberry and cream. Spoilt for choice and after much debate, we opted for the almond pistachio cronut. Soft, light, and filled with almond cream, these truly were a little piece of heaven. The texture was very much that of a doughnut, but with the buttery layers and flaky exterior you might expect from French pastries. The soft amaretto-esque cream which oozed from the centre was rich but not too overpowering. It was beautifully thick and so stayed firmly in its place, avoiding the sticky spillages some doughnuts create. On top, beautiful pistachio pieces adorned the cake, interspersed with grains of sugar which sparkled in the sun. The crunch of the nuts paired with the fluffy dough, and creamy interior was an absolute delight which had clearly been thought through by the baker.
When walking around the Foodies Festival, it would have been difficult to miss the gorgeous mint green VW camper van with pineapples in the windows. The food van belonged to Coco Labelle, and presented a truly exciting menu. The food itself is influenced by the two owners’ backgrounds of Mauritius, Sicily and Jamaica. This unorthodox combination in the food world was certainly a joy for the taste buds. We were served up a plate of homemade flatbread topped with white fish which had been dribbled in hot and tangy escovitch sauce, bejewelled with sweet bursts of pomegranate and pineapple, and finally cooled with a mild chunky tomato and coriander salsa. This mixture of salty, spicy, sweet and fresh hit every part of your tongue with a bang. It was certainly a refreshing change to standard street food and there was nothing else like it at the festival.
In between the food sampling, we of course needed to refresh with a cocktail. We headed to the “Rum and Gin Shack”- a stall that was blaring classics from The Doors and resembled a wooden beach hut you might find in Jamaica. A ginger mojito was mixed up for us made with their very own ‘Red Leg Rum’, dark rum infused with Jamaican vanilla, ginger and spices. The mojito was delicious – smooth, spicy, sweet. To create the cocktail the rum was mixed with crushed mint leaves and topped with ginger beer. The mint lifted the flavours from a sweet and dark, almost rich place to much fresher realms which sat well in the late May sun.
Leave a Reply