Taste of London – a delicious day out.

Last Sunday the teen and I hopped on the tube up to Regent’s Park. I have visited Taste previously but the teen? Never. As a food and drink enthusiast and armed with her ID, she was determined to find out all she could. Fortunately for us the sun shone a little and the rain stayed away. Whilst busy, the event didn’t seem overly crowded and the producers all had time to not only talk about their products but really discuss them. Neither of us felt there was any hard sell either which makes a change.

We ate at Shake Shack (I was with a teen remember) and as we have never managed to eat at the Covent Garden Shake Shack this was a great opportunity. The burgers were slider sized but with a generous addition of bacon and Oh My the cheese sauce…… The house lemonade was much needed as there was to be much tasting of gin (and other beverages) later.

The whole place smells amazing. From wafts of the most amazing dishes being prepared by the restaurants to perfume from the huge floral displays dotted around the park, the assault on the senses was enormous.

We ate, we were educated and we shopped, oh how we shopped.

The deals at the show meant we came back home laden with bags and bags of goodies.

I don’t usually do “shopping porn” posts but I thought I’d share what we bought, and a few things we intend to buy as well.

Shopping haul from Taste of London.

Popcorn features heavily. The flavours from the Portlebay Popcorn stand were fab, my personal favourite being wasabi and ginger. We had already bought a bag of Marmite popcorn from the masters of popcorn flavours Joe and Seph, caramel and marmite flavours at the same time. Personally I love it. A selection of coffee from Percol, we don’t do instant coffee in our house and Percol makes coffee that we enjoy in our French Press.The Clonakilty black pudding is a treat for me and came with a matching white pudding that is in my fridge and I forgot to add it to the haul. The sauces and bao bowl are for the teen to take away to Uni, but a bargain at 2 pounds.

Gin was everywhere. London gins, strawberry gins and ice lollies laced with gin. Good job I love gin. We watched a demonstration or several but my favourite was a talk from Sweetdram, the makers of Escubac, a modern liqueur. Not only was the rise and possible curtailing of the popularity of gin explained but we were introduced to Escubac. Trying it both neat and with tonic I was so sad to be driving home from the tube!

It is distilled using 14 aromatic botanicals, including caraway, cardamom, nutmeg and citrus. Then lightly sweetened with raisins, vanilla and a small amount of sugar. Finally it is coloured naturally with saffron. Developed over 18 months at the Sweetdram workshop in east London and made in France at Distillerie Combier, on antique copper stills. On my list of things to buy.

Taste returns to London in November, this time to Tobacco Dock, in all its festive finery. I hope the teen or the older one will come with me, if only to help carry the shopping!

AEG kindly gave me two free entry tickets, I was not asked to post about the event. I purchased all the products myself. All words and photographs are the author’s own.

 

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