Maybe it's the magical xmas decorations, maybe it's the cold,crisp sunny weather, maybe it's the vast array of mulled alcoholic drinks or the smell of spice in the air. The venue is perfect as it already has permanent shop sections which you can wander in and out of and then a lower ground floor with numerous alcoves and archway cellars which can house even more pop up bars. With less restaurants than it's summer cousin, it's easier to work your way around the festival menu and try nearly all of them.
With the foodie love of my life in tow, we circled what we definitely had to try and headed off to complete our mission. Here are the highlights:
Chicken Schnitzel Sub with Red Pepper Relish & Truffle Mac n Cheese from Tom's Kitchen
Being keenos we were in through the doors at 11am and we set up camp on a long dining bench in front of 3 of the restaurants. As Tom's Kitchen was one of the only ones serving food at this time, this was our breakfast washed down with a fantastic Bloody Mary made with gin, beef consomme and healthy crudites for a garnish.
Gorgeous red pepper relish on the sub with soft crispy chicken and a touch more truffle needed (as always) in the macaroni but a solid start.
The next restaurant along was Mexican and these dishes stood out so we ordered both to sample.
The pork belly was indeed crispy which was delightful yet it made the whole taco slightly dry so a little sweet, spicy sauce was very much needed to help it go down. The Short Rib was rich and packed into the empanada so it was a generous sample but again a little sauce on the side would have cut through the meat and completed the dish.
When we casually went to get our next dish there was Marcus Wareing plugging his new book and hanging out with his sexy beard so naturally i had a hug with him then bought some of the food just so i didn't come across as a total chef stalker.
We chose extremely well. Large strips of rare beef with the most mouth watering puree, it was divine. For our Twitter followers you will already know that we voted this dish of the weekend. We would have eaten the puree in bucketfuls all on it's own!
The cod cheeks were really up there aswell, perfect chunks of fish in a dry batter with the spicy kimchee and a softening buttermilk to fight the chilli fire worked really well.
Venturing out into the crisp air we found some of the outside restaurants that had their own Big Green Egg BBQs grilling up a storm. Pork belly on any menu has got to be tried and the octopus donuts piqued our interest.
The pork was superb, it looked like the fat hadn't been rendered down enough but the fact that it was barbecued meant that it had a gorgeous smoky pork flavour and the spicy, crunchy peanut sauce spooned on top was perfect.
The octopus donuts didn't disappoint either. Big, thick, soft chunks of the octopus in very light batter with a punchy mayo to smear them in, very unique and we'd have them again.
The final restaurant that we had to try had the other truffle dish on it and it was a perfect winters dish with the comforting truffle flavours and warming, comforting risotto with xmas chestnut flavours. If we had room we would have ordered another.
The prawns were only partially wrapped in their blankets and one was completely sans blanket which was a bit cheeky in more ways than one! But a nice smoky flavour and salty hit from the proscuitto with a fresh mayo was a nice ending to the day.
© Ali Twidale. All Rights Reserved on Text and Images.
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