good food show 2010: the verdict

We came, we saw, we drank, we laughed, we somehow made it home.

The Good Food Show 2010 was a success. We complied with all the rules except three: we didn’t need a trolley this year because our freebie-accepting days are over, I am pretty sure we all tried more than one wine per stall most of the time (possibly our downfall) and – in a 21st century update – I took photos of the wine labels I liked  the most instead of writing anything down.

We started with lunch in the celebrity chef enclosure – however, the dishes I selected were from a celebrity chef I’d not heard of before so I don’t remember his name… nonetheless, his cheese tortellini with vine tomatoes and wilted spinach were divine washed down with a cheeky glass of Nottage Hill shiraz (now when is the last time I drank Nottage Hill?).

The food stalls seemed fewer and the aisles wider. There were lots more areas for activities you paid extra for – the cheese-tasting class, the Riedel wine-tasting class, a couple of cooking classes, “The Coffee Experience”. So in all, less food stalls to trawl through. We managed to stock up on King Crisps and proper Chipsticks from the UK shop, and that’s about all we bought.

The wine stalls were dotted all over the show rather than corralled in one place, which meant the food stall touring was more like a cocktail party: get your glass topped up, wander, try some Peking Duck or some smoked salmon on a cracker, sip your wine, get your glass topped up at the next place, and so on.

I photographed Eileen and Kelvin looking serious and studious at the Riedel tasting class, while we sat under a bay tree “in the shade” as Mena said, having a little rest and sharing a packet of King.

We all got tattooed at another stall, well, all except me. The guy tried three times to get the transfer to stick on my inner arm and finally gave up because my skin was too smooth and it kept sliding off! But this is how my branded companions looked:

 In the end, we left before 6pm and I went for dinner with Eileen and Kelvin while Mena and Amy headed off before their train turned into a temporary bus service. Now, that sentence sounds very civilised until you realise Kelvin had to “help” me down Southbank to the noodle bar, holding me straight while I repeated things like “I really really love you Kelvin…. I am really glad Eileen married you… you’re great….” (you get the picture).

Dumplings, Peking duck and a bowl of char kway teow later I was escorted to my bus stop and I headed home to Orlando, our fine tradition upheld for yet another year. And this morning my head is not in any way as bad as it should be. Maybe I drank more water than I realised last night. Sadly, I don’t remember.