Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Dartmouth Food Festival

Last weekend was the Dartmouth food festival!
I was lucky enough to visit the picturesque town thanks to my good friend Jonathan whose cousin and her husband own a b&b there and were lovely enough to let me stay!

I had a great time and ate many delicious things including the best brownies I've ever had which were lovely and gooey with cranberries and pecans...yum!
I also had my first oyster which was wonderful and saw some great chefs doing live demonstrations and got lots of free tasters.

The food markets were fun to walk around and south Devon chilli farm had a stall and being a fan of theirs already, I bought some spiced chocolate and a bottle of sweet chilli sauce.
I also tried raclette for the first time and it was cheese heaven, seriously incredible! Even the preparation was an experience to watch as the chef grilled the top of the cheese til golden and bubbling then scraped off a load onto some new potatoes and garnished with baby gherkins and pickled onions...delish.

On the Sunday we went crabbing! That was a whole new experience for me, basically you get a tiny string bag which you place bacon in then that's attached to a line which you throw over the side of the bank into the river below and wait for a bit before pulling up your line and see if any crabs are attached. It was so much fun! You count up your crabs at the end and then put them back in the sea. We caught 19 in total!

Dartmouth is a beautiful place. Everyone knows everyone and you can't stand outside a pub without seeing another one. There is lovely little shops and galleries, great live music and even a castle! Amazing!