The (not so) Good Food and Wine Show

I realise this blog is a little bit after the fact but between one thing and another its been a hectic two weeks for the Two Pea's and a Potato Team. Our Potato dog somehow managed to swallow a piece of cow hoof the size of a Pringle chip which lodged itself well and truly in his gut. Needless to say, our silly Potato ended up having surgery and a lengthy (not to mention expensive) hospital stay. The good news is the little guy is now home and rather enjoying the fact he now gets four home cooked meals a day as opposed to his usual kibble. 

But I digress. Last weekend we visited the Joburg edition of the Good Food and Wine Show ("GFWS"). We were excited. Between the promise of great food, wine tasting and celebrity chefs such as, Adriano Zimbo, John Torode and Brent Owens it looked to be a good day out. I had heard mixed reviews in the past of this show but also that it has improved greatly. 

We had decided to Uber to the venue but after waiting 1.5 hours for the surge pricing to drop and then having a driver cancel our trip hoping to take advantage of the again increased surge pricing, we decided the only way we were going to get to the venue was by our own steam. Walking in the doors, a little bit grumpy it must be said, we opted to go do some wine tasting to calm our shattered nerves. This was not a good idea. There were about 10 wine estates present and it seemed like every person in the venue was trying to taste them all at once. The GFWS system is that you are required to purchase a tasting glass and tasting tickets. Each taste costs you a ticket. This means that even if you could get to the front of the lines you would not be able to taste many of the estates. It must be said most of the estates, to their credit were not enforcing this rule strictly. After all you can hardly hope to sell a case of wine to somebody who has not be able to taste it. After battling the lines for about 10 minutes we gave up and opted to rather have a draft from the guys at The Craft Beer Project. With many familiar craft brew names, we were soon watered and on our way to explore the rest of the show. 

The beer that saved us....

One of the first stops was to the Incredible India stand. The stand had a large display of all manner of spices which the stand staff diligently took us through explaining the flavour and uses. It was fascinating, though it was a pity that  we were unable to sample the spices, rather than just look and smell the small display pots. Wandering around we manged to taste a few things here and there before stumbling upon the charming husband and wife team from Stanley's Snails where we learnt about the intricacies of snail husbandry. We also loved the Disaronno Ammeretto Sour jars which keep us from going dry and left us with a set of cute jam jars. The food on sale in general was underwhelming and especially the burrito/soft shelled taco I had from a food truck in the venue whose name I cannot recall.

Learning about spices at Incredible India

Stanley and his charming snails

An underwhelming meal

Our favorite exhibitor of the day, hidden away in a far corner of the show, was the guys from Smoked Flavours. Smoked Flavours produce something they refer to as 'liquid smoke' which allows you to add a smoked flavor to almost any dish using a few drops of the liquid. The liquid is made by distilling the smoke flavour from actual smoke into a concentrated liquid which comes in a variety of wood options, each suited for different dishes or ingredients. The bottles were well priced at R35 each and we have used them a number of times since the show always to great effect. Our smoked ricotta ravioli was particularly delicious. 

Kyle learning about Smoked Flavours Liquid Smoke

There were a number of demo's going on at various paces throughout the venue but it was hard to tell what was being demonstrated where and at what times. We only, by chance, stumbled on the highlight of our day a demonstration at the Slow Food stage by Trevor Bannatynes from Bannatyne's Artisan Pork and Charcuterie which will be the subject of our next blog. Our penultimate stop of the day was to a cooking demonstration by Brent Owens in the chefs theater which we will also discuss in more detail in the next blog. 

Trevor Bannatyne showing off his dry cured bacon

Finally at 7.30pm as the crowds began to thin we decided to try the wine section again. We manged to taste some lovely wines from Alvi's Drift and purchased some of their ADS Chardonnay; which is well wooded and deliciously complex. We were just about to move on when the show organisers announced that the wine exhibitors had to stop all tastings in preparation of the show closing. This was at 7.45pm and the published close of the show was 8pm. This was less than ideal as we had planned our day around coming back to the wines after the cooking demo's and had based this on the fact the show only closed at 8pm. 

Brent Owens Cooking Demo

All in all we had a good time but I probably would not go again. At R155 per person with tasting tickets and R200 for chefs theater tickets (45 minute demo) it was an expensive day out that felt more like attending a trade show than a festival of good food and wine.