25 June 2012

Good Food & Wine Show 2012, Darling Harbour (24 June 2012)

Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
Darling Drive, Darling Harbour NSW 2000


Wining and dining the masses

Thanks to the team at Chobani for sending me a couple of complimentary tickets to the Good Food & Wine Show. I visited on sunday afternoon and learnt it's a good time to find the best bargains from the stands as they're generally wanting to clear their stocks. I think trade show stands that are generous with their samples tend to see the value in the potential after sales and interest that can be created from such an event and Chobani were  happily giving out their Greek yogurts for free to the masses. The City Tattersalls Club were full of energy and had a generous menu of treats including some excellent Crisp Sumac Spiced Prawns. Best pit stops for a free chocolate fix were Perugina and Ritter Sport while Conscious Chocolate were sadly chopping up their chocolate blocks into tiny little pieces that then had to be eaten with a toothpick, seriously what's the point. My tasting plate ($15) at Salumi Australia had two cuts of cured meat and some cheese which were nice and left me wanting more. Vege Chips are always generous with their range of delicious chips with Sour Cream & Chives being their latest addition. For fans of ALDI they were serving up lots of product samples. I think you could have easily had your lunch for free just standing around their stand. The temptation of Kurrajong Kitchen Cheese Alley was strong until I saw how popular it was — maybe I'll try and find the patience next year to visit. I liked the cute idea of the Weight Watchers sushi train. The Scone with Jam and Cream was actually quite nice. ZenQ Desserts were happy to dish out heaps of Taiwanese dessert samples including an interesting shaved ice cream. My award for the most unrelated stands goes to Sydney Sunscreens and Free Instant Eyelift — they seem to be there every year for what reason I'll never quite understand.

Other visits to the Good Food & Wine Show:
24 June 2012 - Sydney Show
3 July 2011 - Sydney Show
17 July 2010 - Sydney Show

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Lots of free tastings and show bag bargains to be had, Celebrity chef spotting, Interesting new products to discover
CONS: Very crowded and especially hard to get around with a pram, No free street parking nearby
MUST TRY: City Tattersalls Club, Vege Chips, Perugina chocolate, Ritter Sport chocolate, Finding out where they sell Salumi Australia
VERDICT: If you love food and wine and have the patience for crowds then you'll probably enjoy and find value in this event
Merchandise for the punters


City Tattersalls Club team — you guys rock!

Crisp Sumac Spiced prawns with tomato & capsicum relish
SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Confit Pork Belly with celeriac Remoulade — nice flavours

Midori Splice Foam with champagne & orange pearls — didn't get to try

White Chocolate Martini — no shortage of alcohol in this one

Lots of free Chobani samples



Perugina chocolate from European Foods


Salumi Australia using 100% Australia Pork



Tasting plate ($15)

Vege chips — very hard to stop at one



Harney & Sons Master Tea Blenders — thanks for the samples, the Chocolate Mint tea is something different that seems to surprisingly work well

Chef Luca Ciano spreading the Barilla love


ALDI providing heaps of product samples

Ritter Sport chocolate — lots of different flavours to try

Cheese Alley way too popular for me to attempt visiting

Weight Watchers sushi train — nice idea

Scone with jam and cream with less guilt

The Collective Dairy — NZ makes their presence known



Conscious Chocolate — big stand, tiny samples


Macro wholefood market — it's organic for Woolworths



SBS Feast cooking demonstrations

Sammy and Bella cooking demonstrations at The Chopping Block

ZenQ Desserts — Taiwanese style desserts



Three Threes serving up three types of pickled onions

Sweet William chocolate with no added sugar naturally sweetened with Stevia

Anathoth Jams & Pickles

Anathoth Zucchini Pickle — was quite nice and would work as a chutney with maybe smoked ham in a sandwich

Porters Produce — lots of awards at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show


Kim Chi free samples

Be Natural

Itha's Homemade Christmas Puddings — it's never too early for pudding

Johnson's Quality Maid Lollies — not the best things for your teeth unless you love fillings


Clayridge Honey Crunchy Honey Popcorn — you had me at popcorn

The Cake Pop Queen

Nespresso coffee making class

Wine Selectors

Free samples of Organic Aqua Essence — sounds like something Zoolander would advertise as a merman

Sydney Sunscreens — how am I supposed to eat that?

Free instant eyelift — all this food and wine is making my eyes saggy

George Calombaris book signing — a very popular chap



OzHarvest — doing a great job feeding the hungry
The Kids' Cancer Project team — cute beers for a good cause

Dan Murphy's — accordions rock!

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9 comments:

irene said...

Hi Simon, great review! I sadly missed Ritter Sport and Chopping Block when I was there on Sat. Would love to see Sammy and Bella as well! :)

gaby @ lateraleating said...

Booo... I missed it this year :(
Would have loved to take home a dozen kimchi samples.

Sandra said...

Thanks for the great review and photos. Sorry couldn't stop to talk to you when you visited our stand, we were so busy! You can buy all Salumi Australia products online
http://shop.icnussa.com.au

Saz Ronmark said...

Was lovely bumping in to you :) The crowds were a killer for me. Has been a few years since I last went and I think may be a few more before I go again.

My highlight was stocking up on cut price careme pastry - such a bargain!

Porters Produce said...

Hi Simon
Sorry we missed you at the Good Food and Wine Show my wife and I were taking a break and our son and his partner were manning the stand. Thank you for posting the wonderful photos.
Did you get to try our sauces and if you did what did you think?
Hope to catch you at another show soon.
Craig and Trish
Porters Produce
www.portersproduce.com.au/blog
portersproduce@portersproduce.com.au

Simon Leong said...

hi irene, hopefully next time you'll get to try the ritter sport. i'm sure i missed heaps of things too. so much to see.

hi gaby, i reckon they would have given you a dozen samples as well

hi sandra, was great to try a couple of the products but you guys were so popular was hard to sample but that's great for you guys.

hi saz, i know what you mean. how i wished it was less busy so i could sample more things and talk to the stand owners. oh well, that's the nature of the beast with these trade shows.

hi porters produce, actually didn't get to try any of your products but i'm sure they're wonderful with all those awards you have. well done.

Porters Produce said...

Hi Simon
As you didn't get a chance to taste our sauces would you be interested in some samples to taste and review?
Craig
Porters Produce

Simon Leong said...

hi Porters Produce, i'm pretty stretched for time at the moment for reviews but happy to taste your products and give you feedback. send me and email and we can discuss further :-)

Anonymous said...

Great memories there and so much great info, I remember that water in the funny plastic bags tasting so salty and horrible and water in a plastic bag would have to be the worst idea seriously.

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