World Square Shopping Centre: Chinese New Year Free Food Fair, CBD Sydney (23 Jan 2012)

World Square Shopping Centre, 644 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.worldsquare.com.au

Foodless Food Fair

Thanks to Keri Kitay from Niche Marketing Group for giving me a heads up about the Free Food Fair happening at World Square to celebrate Chinese New Year. Unfortunately it seemed most of the stalls actually ran out of food within the first hour or less of the two hour lunch session (12–2 pm) making it a bit of a foodless food fair for many. The first rule of Food Club is you must provide food. There were plenty of people queuing up to sample the food although the queue was very slow moving and there didn't seem to be anyone managing the line allowing cut ins to certain stalls. I think I now know what it's like to line up at a soup kitchen. Noodles Your Way served up a pretty nice tasting Braised Beef Noodle Soup. Sea Square failed to keep up with demand so resorted to handing out $5 vouchers for a fish and chips instead. Chatime served up a refreshingly sweet Lychee Black Tea which I didn't mind and a Blue Mountain Green Tea I favoured less.

Fuku Sake & Wine Bar ran out of food just before I got there but thankfully a fresh load of Crispy Pork Belly canapes arrived while waiting in the queue which was snapped up by the crowd like seagulls in a frenzy. These were actually very good but sadly undercatered for the large crowd. Taste of Shanghai provided the largest tasting sample of 4 items. The top up of freshly cooked dumplings that just arrived when I got to the stall were pretty good. Nuts Galore resorted to serving nuts in your hand due to running out of serving cups which was a bit unfortunate but I guess saved the environment of plastic waste. Other stall fails of the day were Mirchi Indian, Pie Face and Taste Baguette that all seemed to run out of food within the hour and there was no sign of Mother's Crepe and New Malaya as advertised. Apart from the Crispy Pork Belly canapes the Jin Wu Koon's stilt jumping Lion Dance Troupe was the highlight of the day. I fondly remember them performing last year. It was generous of World Square Shopping Centre to provide a free food fair but hopefully if they try it again next year they'll actually make sure the stalls know how to cater properly and efficiently.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Free food samples were available, Lion Dance entertainment

CONS: Some stalls unfortunately ran out of food very quickly, Queuing was long, slow and a little disorganised, Bins weren't freely available to discard your used cutlery and plates (should have been placed next to each stall perhaps), Perhaps serving containers could have been more environmentally sound

MUST TRY: Perhaps checking out Fuku Sake & Wine Bar

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It's time to queue for food that really wasn't all there. Nice idea but I think could have been done better.

Hosts Claudia Chan Shaw, Fashion Designer and Wendell Sailor, St George Illawarra Dragons Ambassador

Noodles Your Way - Braised Beef Noodle Soup. Actually quite nice and they seemed to keep up with demand.

#fail - Sea Square. Thanks for the $5 voucher although I was expecting a free sample instead

Chatime — I didn't mind the Lychee Black Tea

Fuku Sake & Wine Bar - Crispy Pork Belly but was very lucky to get one

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Taste of Shanghai — It probably would have been better to just serve up dumplings to keep it simple and quick

Nuts Galore - nothing special

#fail - Mirchi Indian

#fail - Pie Face

#fail - Taste Baguette

Time for the Lion Dance

Whoopsy daisy — one of the performers fell off the stilts but thankfully was OK

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