World Square Shopping Centre, 644 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
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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5 comments:
The night session was slightly better but the only ones which provided constant flow of food was Taste of Shanghai and Chatime.
Mother Crepe, Nando's, Sea Square and Fuku Sake & Wine Bar were there at night but same story ran out of food relatively quickly.
The one thing that shock me was there was full tray of food which was at the Nando's stand which was taken back by the staff? It seems they didn't want offer free samples out? Did anyone esle witness this? Correct me if I was wrong.
I had a walk by during my lunch break. One look and I headed straight back to work....
The braised beef noodle soup looked good and how awesome was the jumping, acrobatic lion? They must have been the fittest lion dancers I've ever seen!
I love the first rule of Food Club!
hi UGenie, looks like the same guys knew how to cater at night. Sounds a bit weird about the tray of food by Nando's. Perhaps there was something wrong with it like not being cooked enough at the time?
hi tina, it was a pretty devastatingly long line that's for sure. I don't blame you.
hi madam wu, they're the most theatrical and energetic lion dancers I've ever seen that's for sure.
hi joey, glad you like the first rule of Food Club hehe I wonder if I'm the first to blog that?
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