Sharrow Vale Farmers Market

Today the residents of hunters bar plus visitors, came together to celebrate and enjoy food!
Sharrow vale road is already full of treasures for the adventurous foodie to discover and so it comes as no surprise that the local businesses clearly benefited from this quarterly event.
People were sat outside the greedy Greek, enjoying slovakis and falafel and cafe Ceres's and Fancie were rammed to the rafters with happy faces spectating the hustle and bustle, whilst simultaneously being stuffed with delicious goodies.

Most of the traders will be very familiar to those who frequent these kind of events, much like myself and others keen on the local Sheffield food scene. I've visited before and photographed those people so this time I did my best to take some snaps of a few new folk...

The rather suave Italian foccacia guy.

This lady is super friendly, has refreshing drinks and advised me where to visit in Mexico! Oaxaca apparently!

These fooled me for a second...they are bath products!

This is gorgeous pumpkin oil. I'd love to experiment with it in a cake...

Friendly and familiar mushroom stall.

Newcomers on the scene. A German bratwurst van.

Lastly, the famous cat that sleeps in the window of that shop..I always forget its name but this soporific feline always makes me smile.

Wasabisabi's 7th Birthday Party!

Last night I attended Wasabisabi's 7th birthday party, and what a great night it was!



I saw many familiar faces, and lots of new ones including Claire from the blog “Love to live to eat”.
It's always nice to meet fellow bloggers.

The place quickly filled up and I handed in my token for a free glass of wine which they filled nearly to the brim of a huge glass!

The décor of Wasabisabi is very typical of a sushi restaurant. It has a small water-lilly stream and waterfall in the corner, and nets with an abundance of paper fish dangling above our heads. This is topped off with a huge wooden boat, of which they also have smaller replicas on which they serve the sushi.
The dining area in Wasabisabi consists of a seating area down a couple of steps and a teppanyaki area up another few steps.

After another glass of wine I realised I needed to eat something soon as it was going straight to my head! Talk about cheap date!




I didn't have to worry about not getting enough food at all as the treats kept on coming and the next was huge tempura prawns that were spot on perfection.

I wandered up to the teppanyaki area and was told they would be starting in 10 minutes so I found a great spot and watched as the chefs did there stuff. They were very impressive with their juggling and knife skills. The prawns were the nicest prawns I have ever eaten in my life! I want to know what was in those metal canisters he was juggling about so much.




Next they cooked chicken and beef, and to be honest I was full - so I moved on to chat with some more people before leaving. I was shown a few tricks by my magician friend Ben who was there as well.

All in all it was a fantastic party! There was a really nice mix of people there which created a great atmosphere. Happy birthday Wasabisabi!

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!

Sharrow Chef Of The Year

Today was the Sharrow chef of the year competition!
I've been looking forward to this as I asked to be on the judging panel (not cheffing as I'm not in sharrow) and they said they'd love to have me.
I arrived and found the organiser who introduced me to the other judge, the third judged hadn't shown up but we found a guy who would be able to help judge part of it before he had to leave to go somewhere.

The first restaurant was East & West who are my favourite Indian restaurant in Sheffield so I was looking forward to watching them cook and tasting the delicious food. The second restaurant was La Terrazza, an Italian restaurant. The other two restaurants All Siam and Cool Runnings didn't turn up unfortunately.

East and West started and it was really entertaining to watch and the guy shared many tips as he was cooking some of which I'd never heard of including rubbing an onion (cut side) against a hot pan as it will stop whatever you are cooking which was in his case a pancake from sticking.

We had a sweet minty coconut drink to start which really helped to whet my appetite and was very refreshing.
Next was the pancake (dosa ) it was not as good as I've had in the restaurant but then they are having to make do with different equipment here so that could have been why. The filling was delicious though as was the next course - Kerala king fish curry, very nicely spiced with the meaty fish's own flavours still managing to shine through.

Me and the guy who couldn't stay long both agreed the flavours were superb, very fresh and aromatic. The third judge didn't rate the food as much though so while we gave him a 9 each, the third guy gave him 8. I managed to get a copy of the tasty recipes to try at home too.

The next chefs came on and they were pretty young, my age but the head chef had been cooking for 10 years because it was his dads place and he used to help out a lot. They brought out a cake they made with ricotta and decorated with physalis which was delicious and everyone loved it.

Polenta with salmon was their main course and it looked stunning on the plate, the chef brought out a bottle of wine for the judges to wash down the meal with which I could only have a sip of as I am on antibiotics but it did taste nice and complimented the meal well.

I gave another 9, it would have been a 10 but the polenta I felt was undercooked.
The other judges loved them and gave them 10 each which made la terrazza the winners of the huge Sharrow chef of the year trophey!

I had a great time, its a shame more people didn't turn up but I'll be going again next year definitely.