16 – 18 July 2010
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
Darling Drive, Darling Harbourhttp://www.goodfoodshow.com.au
Food & Wine on mass
I spy with my little eye something beginning with free!
This is the first time I've visited this show and after paying $28.50 for an adult ticket (minus $5 for Entertainment Book holders) there was one thing on my mind — where's all the freebies. After spending 4 hours I found there to be quite a bit of food tastings to be found, some more generous than others, and after dodging through the large crowd with their Good Food Show trolleys, prams and show bag purchases I found the event quite enjoyable although quite tiring. One end was devoted to the majority of thirst quenching wine stands while on the other side the Celebrity Theatre was for the hard core devotees of celebrity chefs. In the middle was a mixture of food stands, wine stands, cooking demonstrations and informercial style product promotions.
In terms of the food offerings I preferred the freebie tastings at Taste of Sydney which were much more creative and gourmet. This event seemed to focus more on supermarket products with thankfully some boutique gourmet suppliers thrown in the mix. Seeing informercial products like the Super Shammy was a little weird but entertaining. The most out of place stand being the Free Instant Eyelift — what the hell has that got to do with food and wine? and the Shin Bio health packs — although these heat packs seemed pretty amazing. The most eye-catching stand for me was the Playboy energy drink — I'd try anything served by Playboy bunnies — yes I know, I'm such a boy.
My favourite highlights of the day were:
• Baileys Coffee sample
• Friendly WeightWatchers staff serving up generous tasty samples
• Free show bag of goodies from Simply Great Meals
• Delicious Birch & Waite egg mayonnaise tastings
• Generous chocolate tastings from Ritter Sport
• Free bottle samples of Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkling
• Free tastings of all Ajitas Vege Chips varieties
• Challenging my taste buds to The Chilli Factory's hottest product of Devil's Delirium (Naga Jolokia Paste)
• Interesting sausage tastings of camel, venison and crocodile by Market Town Family Meats
• and of course visiting the visually appealing Playboy Energy Drink
Other food blog reviews:
• StarLoz
SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Free samples of food products and wine, Discounted products in show bags, Cooking demonstrations, Undercover
CONS: Crowded, Have to pay to get in, People acting like seagulls around free food
MUST TRY: Everything that's free
—
Welcome (to the crowds)
Baileys Coffee
'Best Something for Nothing'
The lineup was worth the free showbag, just have to sign up to newsletter. Tasting of gnocchi while waiting.
'Friendly staff and Generous Tastings'
Award for
'Most interesting sausage ingredients'
Camel sausage
Other stand visits
Tefal ActiFry — 1 tablespoon of oil cooks 1 kg of potato chips in 35 minutes
Gabriel Gaté cooking up his blu Gourmet Pearl Couscous
Toby's Estate 'Woolloomooloo' coffee sample
Fehlbergs pickled onions and marinated garlic gloves
Pizza making station
Rochester Ginger
Gloria Jean's Coffees 'Nicaraguan' coffee tasting
Creative Gourmet strawberry milkshake
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Riviana Foods 'Always Fresh' — Beetroot jam and Chilli jam
Urban Thirst Mango Daiquiri
Bondi Chai — Vanilla Honey and Club Cinnamon
Casa De Sabor — Portuguese mousse — Yummy!
Jack Link's Beef Snacks
Sangria Mar & Sol
Australian Almonds — I preferred the Dry Roasted version
Lime Grove — refreshing cordial
Fresita — Sparkling Strawberry and Peach
Omni Sparkling — rebranded and lots of choices to try, I liked the Citrus flavour
Sence Rose Nectar — Nice packaging, looks like a perfume bottle
Tempus Two — nice designed wine bar
Calbee SnowPea crisps and Prawn Crackers
Grand Ridge Brewery 100% Pure Beer — they were too busy to try any samples but they looked very interesting
Infomercial time
Super Shammy — Not one but two for $20!
Ezy-Aussie Prawn Peeler — 1 for $10, 2 for $15, 3 for $20
Lyndey Milan The Brilliant Cut Knife — made with diamonds. Dexter watch out!
Shin Bio — you can't eat or drink it but it's quite an amazing product that heats up chemically
Gao's Chinese Acupuncture and Massage — It wouldn't be a show without a massage stand now would it
Taste.com.au cooking demonstration
People spotting
Maria from Scandi Foodie and Me
The crowds of people you'd just love to hate but have to deal with
Shopping trolleys available ($30) or BYO
24 comments:
But amazingly no poffertje or gozlema stands! I thought I was pretty thorough on Friday but it seems a few stands didn't turn up till the weekend as I'm sure I didn't see the veggie chip guys and a few others, very thorough work Simon!
I missed the diamond knives, a bit of bling for the kitchen.
wow plus WOW and then WOW AGAIN then OH WOW!
Great post. I'm amazed you managed to get around to so many stalls and demonstrations. I spent too much time in the wine section, which resulted in my pics being a train wreck.
Haha I love your awards! I think you did a lot more tasting than we did, but I didn't really want to keep count on how much cakes and chocolate I was sampling... ;-)
Great overview.
I wasn't able to make the show this weekend, even though I live next door! From reading reviews I don't think I missed too much though.
How, seriously how?
I cant believe this was one day. Great job, incredible
I went on Friday and it was already quite crowded.
Did you see the Skyy Vodka stand: free samples of their mixed drinks and they were also having a flair bartending competition in the afternoon, which was exceedingly good entertainment.
Also the Barilla pasta guys were pretty generous with their free samples - and did you get your free antipasto from the Always Fresh guys?
wow, i missed so many things..haha
but my most favourite is Birch & Waite egg mayonnaise too.. I tried about 5 crackers full of mayonnaise... super YUMMY !!!
Lots of great shots, Simon.
I can't believe it is your first visit. I got to do the Lindt choc masterclass and that was great. Got a good goodies bag filled with yummy chocolate
Oh yeah, I thought the same about the Free eyelift stand.. Like that does that have to do with food? And also the massage stand.. I guess if the organisers get their money then it should be a problem.
Great round-up, as always..!
I didn't see Super sahmmy, but I did buy Mircale Shammy! lol
Yeah, I think it's a very different event to Taste - and I much prefer Taste.
Yaya - I was there on Friday too, and the Veggie Chip guys were definitely there. Also did the Lindt Masterclass. Made the mistake of going to Bill's for breakfast first - great food but I was too stuffed from brekky to enjoy the tastings at the show! Oh, what a waste!!!
Simon - did you see George and Gary's show in the Celebrity Theatre? In a previous post you were talking about the amount of butter they were using on MC - you should have seen Gary adding oil to everything in the Celebrity Thetare show on Friday - George would put a bit of oil in a dish, then Gary would keeping adding more LOL. While I love my hi cal food, I think a real challenge for them would be to make something healthy and taste - you can make shoe leather taste good with enough oil/butter!
wozer! That's a whole lotta food!
Where would I start...egg mayo or sausages...hmmm...
Nice write up yo!
What a detailed write up, feels like I was there! ;)
I was there on Saturday aswell, after walking around and around we thought we had covered everything, obviously missed out on some stuff that you picked up. Very detailed review.
You always prove in your blog that the world of food is endless. Always detailed and complete when you make your reviews! :)
Great right up Simon, really enjoyed looking at the photos, some of that food looks delish! I agree with Jen it felt like you were there!
hi yaya, hehe that's so right very funny. although i think they would have made a great trade. that's a shame some of the stands aren't there on friday. i guess that's why they have the 2 for 1 deal on friday as well. was it less busy?
hi sara, there's a lot of bling in those knives. i'd be scared some of it feel in the ingredients though.
hi doggybloggy, thanks heaps. i'm glad you found the WOW factor :-)
hi christine, actually i think i could have seen a lot more but i was with a few other friends so we walked around quite casually. when i'm by myself i speed around like a mad man.
hi maria, it's best not to keep count of the samplings. but at least you walk around a lot as well to counteract it.
hi richard, i preferred Taste of Sydney although it was interesting to go along and check it out.
hi laura, did it all in 4 hours although i did miss a lot of the free cooking shows which would have been good to watch.
hi BGDino, i noticed the Skyy Vodka stand. looked pretty cool. i didn't get any mixed drinks though. was so crowded when i visited. i think i missed the Barilla guys although i did end up trying some of the Always Fresh stuff — i like that brand in the supermarket.
hi bean sprout's cafe, as long as you had a good time that's the main thing. oh yeah, Birch & Waite was very yummy.
hi j bar, thanks mate.
hi phuoc, i tend to avoid paid events but prefer the free entry events because i never know if i'm going to be disappointed for paying. i think these sort of events should be free entry anyway because people are going to buy the products. it's like charging to go into a supermarket.
hi tina, Taste rules hehe and has more interesting food i think.
hi linainoz, i didn't get to go to any celebrity theatre events because i bought my ticket at the door and i think you have to buy online to go? would have loved to see gary george show. they definitely use TOO MUCH butter :-)
hi adrian, how about egg mayo and sausages together ;-)
hi jen, i try and review so it's like you're there so that's good to hear.
hi angie, i try and walk around systematically. it seems to help cover most of the area.
hi joanie, thanks for your kind comment. so much food and so little time :-)
hi motel in albury, thanks for popping by. hope you get to try some of the yummy food.
This is awsome...
Play boy energy drinks ha ha that is gold!
hi Dining, what will they think of next :-)
Hello, Marcel here the owner of the Chilli Factory.
Can you please change your link to our website to the following:
www.thechillifactory.com the current link is to one of our distributors...
Thanks for the nice writeup and photos and keep up the good work!! Much appreciated,
Marcel de Wit
Hot Director 1
www.thechillifactory.com
hi marcel, thanks for the updated link. much appreciated. have updated now :-)
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