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!

Jabu Fondue and Dumpling House

Last night I went to Jabu in Sheffield and it was awesome, a totally different eating experience!

I arrived and the waitress asked me to choose from some dumplings to start, I chose lamb and coriander and they were delicious, I had it with a little bit too much of the chilli sauce and it was so spicy! After a few sips of my san miguel I was able to eat the rest of them. They are beautifully tender with good quality lamb and loads of juices which dribbled over my chin and down my chopsticks onto my fingers, I got very dirty hands here which is great if you don't mind getting stuck in.

Next we got given a little menu and ticked off the food that we wanted.
There was loads of different meats, seafood and vegetables and those were served with a huge bowl of your chosen stock. We chose satay and then chinese herbs, the bowl was split into two sections and placed on an induction hob and bubbled away ready for you to place your ingredients into.

We got some crispy pig skin as a side nibble (not to dip in the stock!), thinly sliced beef shin, whole crab, chinese lettuce, corn, beansprouts, wontons and noodles.
It was all very tasty and I loved the pig skin and the beef was very tender.
The crab was a bit of a challenge, and I struggled to crack into the claws for the tasty white meat, shell flying all over, much to the amusement of the chinese couple sat opposite me!

After stuffing our faces and making a total mess of the table and our faces and fingers we couldn't eat anymore. The place was great and I'd definitely come back. The only bad thing about it were the toilets which were the worst I've ever seen!

Oh and I got a new camera for christmas so all the photos are much better quality now, click for bigger pictures if you want.