Lair of Flying Green Song Rabbits

The Good Food & Wine Show was held in July this year from 16-18th. This would be my first time attending because every year I don't hear about it until AFTER, which sucks!!

I managed to get tickets, but not for any of the classes like wine tasting or cheese tasting. Those classes fill up really fast...

I went with N and was shocked at how much wine there was. I mean, it's good FOOD, THEN wine. Nevertheless, I might have gotten a bit happy-chappy from all the wine tasting hahaha.

AND I HAD THE WORLD'S BEST PANNACOTTA. See below for more details.




I did manage to score seats at the Gary and George show, so I saw the judges from Masterchef in real life! A little exciting and a little star struck, I must admit.

Unfortunately, this guy:



Kept talking on and on and on and I was like, hurry up and show Gary and George!!

Then they showed a short video clip summing up their beliefs, values and ideas on cooking and food.





It was a while before the actual hosts came out to much applause and the MC trying to get crowd to cheer. You know, "Everybody on the left, GARY!!!" "GARYYY!!!" "Everybody on the right, GEORGE!" "GEEEOOOORRRRGGGGEEEEE!!!"

Yeah.

I think they took it a little far there. I just want to see the food.

Gary and George posing.






The show overall was just okay. The food was simple (short timeframe after all), I didn't get chosen to sit and try it though :(

I was so close to winning a frying pan too! I knew the answer but in that moment blanked out. I was so upset :(((

After the show we wandered around more, tasting wines, eating tea and salsa samples before we decided that those nibblets weren't very satisfying and that we should actually buy something to eat.

Some of the chefs putting on shows for the duration of the event had set up stands selling their dishes. They're not really their, it's just other people prepping their recipes. We decided to try some of George and Gary's stuff as we'd just come from their show; gotta see for ourselves what the hype is about.



Gary's vanilla bean pannacotta with honeyed roasted apricots, $6

This is the best pannacotta I've ever had, though admittedly I've only have a couple. I guess it pays to use actual gelatin rather than powdered?

The pannacotta was rich and creamy, but not sickeningly so. It was milky, definitely taste the vanilla and just SUPER SUPER CREAMY OMG SO HEAVENLY. I ended up eating most of it and not giving Mr. N much at all ohoho. The apricots were alright, I thought it would be fresh apricots marinated in honey but they were actually dry. Not what I was expecting, but the pannacotta saved it.



George's braised chicken with celeriac.

I don't remember much of this dish except that it was crap. Really crap. George, I thought better of you. This dish was so bad and wasn't even very warm that I had to buy another dish to put this one out of my mind. That was how bad it was.

The chicken was flavourless, the celeriac limp with hardly any crunch (like cooked lettuce, I HATE cooked lettuce). A tiny sprig of dill didn't do much to flavour it.

The most disappointing thing I ever ate at $24 a pop. All dishes come with either a wine or French beer, however.

I ran back out to buy another, more satisfying main (all mains are $24).



Tobie Puttock's gnocchi with marjoram, prosciutto and tallegio cheese, $24.

Sorry, kinda dug into it coz we were so hungry by then (and disappointed in George, who is N's favourite judge).

This was a little better. The gnocchi was quite soft, very buttery and the prosciutto added good saltiness. And with cheese, it was just what I needed to wash away the disaster before it.




Wtf N is so greedy, his hand keeps coming up in pictures, the idiot.

We chose white and red wine. I'm no wine connoisseur (yet!) but I didn't like the reds. There was too much acidity (and possibly tannins that I'm tasting in there) coming through.

Abrupt end!