Heh Ho were off to.....Edinburgh !

Well even in this age of modern technology where my mobile phone is able to tell me where I am at any given moment which is really important when I am little bit worse the wear on a night out ! it could not easily tell me the way from Edinburgh's Waverly station to the Meadows where the brilliant Taste of Edinburgh food festival was.

Instead I ended up in a part of Edinburgh that might have been a scene from The Warriors movie. You know your a long way from your destination when your having to get directions from one of Edinburgh's finest road sweepers and he tells you to " turn left at the strip club then straight on till your near the bargain booze shop ..." not good. So the 1.23 mile iPhone trip took a hour but me and my chef mate Alan got there. I would like to use the term excited when we got there but Edinburgh is apparently built on a volcano so knackered was more of the correct term. However the exercise did lead us around the wonderful castle so that was good and it did encourage my appetite although it doesn't usually need much encouraging.
When we arrived there was quite a queue but because we had a £40 VIP ticket we were able to wonder into the show without queuing waving our passes in an annoying Wayne's World way to anybody who got in our way while we headed to the VIP tent to grab our free glass of champagne.
The £40 tickets were good value I think because it also included a book worth £10 and £15 worth of crowns which was the main currency used to buy food and drink in the show. The tickets were supposed to give you priority seating in the demo arena but because it was busy it was impossible to get to the front.

The beautiful Rachel Allen having trouble with her cooker !

The theatres were good entertainment and it was nice to see  Rachel Allen even though she struggled with her cookers during her demo at the beginning and the end. However it was a major disappointment that Atul Kotcher could not make it as from a  chef point of view I was really looking forward to seeing a Michelin star chef. Gary Rhodes was the other main name Chef on show and you can imagine after all his years attending events like this he was very impressive and you could tell he loved these kind of events.

Top man Gary Rhodes.

One of the great things about the chefs was that they all seemed very approachable for photos, chats and autographs. There was no sign of heavy security or clip board holding PA girls whisking them away wearing there large sunglasses on top of there heads and a never ending ringing mobile phone by there sides.
Having drank the free champagne and having been told by Alan to not knock it back in one as this was a sophisticated drink two gulps would be fine we headed off into the stalls in search of food.
There were loads of small companies offering free samples from cheese to beers and other stalls showing kitchen kit to table cloths in fact anything associated with the word cook !
The cheeses were well represented and I sampled them all.(well it would have been rude not too !) The cheese I loved the most however was one of the Snowdonia cheese companies delights called the Black Bomber. It had amazing taste, strong and totally creamy and my taste buds still tingle when I remember trying it for the first time. I promptly brought three packs for a tenner and have decided its my favourite extra Mature cheddar. If you can not find a local supplier to you check out there web site where you can buy their great cheese online.
As you can imagine the smoke houses of Scotland were well represented and I purchased some interesting Venison Chorizo from the Dee side Smokehouse. Ive never seen it before and apparently it won an award from the Grampians Food Forum for innovation in 2011 which absolutely means nothing to me at all but I am betting it tastes great and will write a post on it when I make something from it.
Time for a beer I think so their was plenty of choice and the two I would like to mention are from Edinburghs Innis & Gunn company where I tried there Rum cask ale which was 7.4%. What makes it special is that its brewed in oak barrels which gives it a distinctive lovely mellow and deep flavour and is worth picking up a few bottles to try. It was strong and is not as my beer monster mate Alan said a "session beer ! "
The other beer was called Punk IPA and was brewed by a company called Punk Dog also from Edinburgh. I am embarrassed to say that I was drawn towards there stand mainly because of an initial shallow male attraction to a beautiful tattooed girl who was offering free samples of the companies  goods. A girl offering a man a free beer must truly have been sent down from heaven by the Gods and she knew loads about beer too so there was plenty of conversation on offer ! ha ha ! Just kidding she was a star. Again loads of flavour and I was surprised and glad to hear that it is widely available in the supermarkets too and I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with its great flavour while dreaming of tattoos ! ha ha !
After a few beers it was time for a top chef to cook for me. The show had areas which contained some of Scotland's finest restaurants serving some of their signature dishes. This made the event unique in my eyes as it compliment the fine array of producers on show.

This was a truly wonderful dish of Asian glazed pork cheek with sweet potato and bok choy from Tigerlilly.

Restaurant Cail Bruich served a lovely if slightly over seasoned offering of Ox Cheek cooked in Hay with a roasted lettuce sauce.

Restaurant Chez Roux at Greywalls in Edinburgh's offering of Ballotine of chicken, Buccleuch black pudding with a tarragon jus ! yum yum !

We also tried some Pan Roasted hake fillet with olive mash, crispy squid and wild wood sorrel from Mark Greenaways restaurant. The olive mash was a real surprise. Not too strong , very smooth and really very moreish.
For pudding it was Chez Roux's Lemon tart which was in a league of its own.

Our session lasted 4 hours which doesn't sound lots but its enough time to see everything and sample things like the theatre demonstration's or take part in the Waitrose or Martin Wilshart cookery schools. Unfortunately they were both fully booked so watching was the nearest thing we got to it but they did look fun.
Then after a  good look around the show we grabbed a few beers and sat and listened to the band and just watched and soaked up the atmosphere for our remaining time which was a very pleasant way of rounding off a great afternoon.
I loved this show and it certainly has given me the appetite to go to another similar event like the sister show in London or the BBC Good Food Show I might even go to both ! But one things for sure ll be back next year to the wonderful city of Edinburgh and once again taste what it has to offer.

Alan a top Culinary pen pusher who now has a degree in catering ! well done mate ! He works at the Ridge farm in Bedlington, Northumberland. 

While sitting in Edinburgh's oldest gastro pub called The Doric waiting for our train back to Morpeth I went on twitter and did something I rarely do which is tweet but because It was such a brilliant day I just wanted to tell everyone about the show so I posted  "Taste of Edinburgh face red, belly full, great food, little bit merry, happy days go now ! " I think that sums it up nicely.