Sydney Good Food & Wine Show 2010, Darling Harbour (17 July 2010)

16 – 18 July 2010

Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre

Darling Drive, Darling Harbour
http://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

• Plenty of olive tastings from Spanish Olive stand

• 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:

• Yaya's Yum Yums

• Scandi Foodie

• StarLoz

• Big Green Dinosaur

• No Red Meat

• Food, booze and shoes

• Tasted by two

• Sharon Wee Creations

• Give Peas a Chance

• Gobble Me That!

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)

Award for

'Favourite liqueur tasting'

Baileys Coffee

Award for

'Best Something for Nothing'

The lineup was worth the free showbag, just have to sign up to newsletter. Tasting of gnocchi while waiting.

Award for

'Friendly staff and Generous Tastings'

Award for

'Most visually appealing'

Playboy Energy Drink — that kid has the best job!

Award for

'Most generous olive tastings'

Award for

'Most delicious egg mayonnaise'

Birch & Waite egg mayonnaise

Award for

'Generous Chocoholic tastings'

Award for

'Best dressed cakes'

Sharon Wee from Sharon Wee Creations

Award for

'Best free bottle of water'

Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkling

Award for

'Best free chip tastings'

Ajitas Vege Chips

Award for

'Hottest taste bud challenge'

The Chilli Factory — Devil's Delirium (hottest product)

Award for

'Most interesting sausage ingredients'

Camel sausage

Market Town Family Meats sausages of Camel, Rabbit, Venison, Crocodile. Emu also available.

Award for

'Most out of place stand'

Award for

'Loudest hair style'

Saucilicious

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

Riviana Foods 'Always Fresh' — Beetroot jam and Chilli jam

Urban Thirst Mango Daiquiri

Bondi Chai — Vanilla Honey and Club Cinnamon

Chef's Armoury

Casa De Sabor — Portuguese mousse — Yummy!

Jack Link's Beef Snacks

Bud Naked

Sangria Mar & Sol

Australian Almonds — I preferred the Dry Roasted version

Cattleman's Reserve Premium Wagyu

Lime Grove — refreshing cordial

Fresita — Sparkling Strawberry and Peach

Omni Sparkling — rebranded and lots of choices to try, I liked the Citrus flavour

Italiquore: Keglevich Vodka flavours and Pallini Limoncello

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

Bellini vegetable slicer — Chop Chop!!

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

Where would we be without Tupperware — probably with more cupboard space

By Pure Pleasure candles — not really edible but smelt very nice

Gao's Chinese Acupuncture and Massage — It wouldn't be a show without a massage stand now would it

Demonstrations

Kylie Kwong cooking demonstration

Margaret Fulton (right)

Sunbeam — Home Barista Skills

Taste.com.au cooking demonstration

People spotting

Maria from Scandi Foodie and Me

Gabriel Gaté and Me

The crowds of people you'd just love to hate but have to deal with

Shopping trolleys available ($30) or BYO

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