On Saturday, March 5th – 2011 I was chuffed to be able to attend the SBS Food Journey Festival held at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens. I learned about it on TV, during an ad. break while watching ‘Zumbo’. I didn’t get to experience ‘Taste of Melbourne’ (another food festival) last year, despite buying tickets and ‘Crowns’ (festival currency) in advance, because I suddenly became very ill after an interstate trip. This particular festival co-incided with almost a similar fate – (different problem though). I was open to cancelling the day, but played it by ear. As it happens, I sacrificed seeing Adriano Zumbo (*sniffle*), so I could rest, take it easy and arrive later in the day. I haven’t been well and will be going to hospital for a few days on Friday. For anyone interested, my pesky gallbladder will be gone! I decided to go up on the train with my daughter and her friend. Tickets were $18 on the day for adults and $6 for children 16 and under. Unlike ‘Taste of Melbourne’ the event is spread from indoors to an ‘outdoor section’ where you’ll find live music, some exhibitors and quite a few food vendors. Many lunch offerings came in ‘fried form’.. and since I was on painkillers, I had to avoid most things that smelled really good. Like continental sausages, Indian samosa’s, cheesy pizza, creamy icecream and sorbets, tempura vegies and the standard $10 Turkish gozleme. An empty tummy in my condition doesn’t serve me well either.. so I was hungry and doing what seemed like countless laps (almost desperately) around the outdoor food court.. wanting to find lunch. Eventually I decided it’d 
have to be ‘Paella’. That may sound unenthusiastic, but I’ve never really been impressed with ‘street vendor style’ paella. I love seafood and saffron and rice.. but for some reason, paella has never ‘wowed’ me, not even in Spanish restaurants. Guryel, my radio segment colleague insists his family have a cracking paella recipe. And so who should I bump into in the paelle queue? None other than Guryel, who you’ll see alongside Maeve O’Mara (Food Safari & Food Lovers Guide To Australia) and myself in the title photo. We both settled on the paella and I don’t think either of us were too impressed. For me it was better than any ‘street vendor’ paella I’ve ever had..but it still wasn’t ‘WoW’.. or more-ish. I couldn’t finish mine or fob it off to my girl and her friend. They wanted to leave room in their tums for all the ‘taste test’ offerings. 
Backing up though.. we walked through part of Carlton Gardens to get to the festival.
This building now means ‘exciting foodie stuff’ to me. I’d prefer to get rid of the ill health connotations however. Maybe ‘Taste of Melbourne 2011′ (in August) will be the beginning of fresh memories & a celebration of improved health.
I only took a small handful of photo’s .. so please forgive me, this won’t be a comprehensive review of the festival & all its exhibitors (you can look those up online if you like), rather, it’s just my own little personal experience of it.
A ‘Bedouin’ treat for my girl. Fried dough with a rosewater syrup. It tasted stale! And wasn’t enjoyed.
Maeve O’Mara on the Feasting Stage. She MC’d a few cooking demo’s.
Upon entering the festival each ticket holder was given a sizey SBS carry bag, complete with ‘SBS pen’. Nice! I filled one of these up completely.. and partially filled the other. I was given a second bag when I purchased a book! I could have had Maeve or Gabriel Gate (for example) sign one of their cookbooks for me, but they were too expensive and I wanted to use my budget mostly on food products.
The orange fruit is an ‘Achacha’, typically from the Amazon, but now grown in Queensland. The darker fruit is a fresh fig (which will give you an idea of the Achacha’s size). I paid $2 for the Achacha and $1 for the fig. I was advised to freeze the Achacha at home because the pulp (the white part) would have the texture & taste of sorbet.
Here’s the frozen Achacha..(oops, sliced through the stone/pip too).. and indeed the pulp tasted like a mild, lemon sorbet, only slightly sweet. Quite pleasant indeed! But hardly any pulp! I’m not sure what the market price is for this fruit but at $2 each you’d need about $20 worth per person to enjoy a decent serving.
And lastly, my products. I have some Cajun spice mix, some citrus-infusion spice mix, some lemon myrtle and macadamia dukkah, 2 jars of Yackandandah lime curd, a Thai dressing and a Balsamic dressing, some absolutely gorgeous tasting ‘Fardoulis’ chocolates that I landed for half price at the end of the day.. an absolute steal. A coconut based cooking sauce that reminded me of a green curry, a green tomato pickle and a wild lime pickle. A fresh tomato pasta sauce & a couple of boxes of American organic crackers which really disappointed me. I had to throw out one of the cracker boxes at home because all of the crackers were burnt. The others (in the 2nd box) are bordering on over cooked.. which were not like the tasty samples I tried. Two boxes for $12, not cheap! They are wheat/gluten free.. and are filled with seeds of all kinds. They’re called ‘Mary’s Gone Crackers’. And lastly I was delighted to buy a 2011 Melbourne Coffee Guide which also rates each cafe’s food and venue too. They don’t produce the guides every year.. and this is a 3rd edition. Despite being medicated, I enjoyed the festival very much! It’s not as pricey as attending Taste of Melbourne.. but the two are quite different. I go to Taste of Melbourne so I can sample restaurant dishes I might otherwise never try. We did try three dishes at Taste 2010 before we had to suddenly leave.. and a couple of those were from ‘Izakaya Den’ .. a Melbourne Japanese influenced restaurant. Several months later we made a dinner booking at Izakaya based on the lovely sample-food we tried at ‘Taste’. But back to the SBS Food Journey Festival I wanted to say in closing that I was pleased to see ‘Free Drinking Water’ outside in the form of several taps for festival attendee’s. You can pay a lot of money for water when going out.. especially if you’re outdoors and if the sun is shining down. I filled my bottle up once and I appreciated not having to pay $4 or something for a top-up. P.S. I nearly forgot to mention.. my anti-vegie daughter tried a generous sample of icecream made in a thousand dollar ‘Vitamix’ blender (which also cooks soups). It was made with plenty of icecubes, milk powder, vanilla.. banana..and get this, cabbage, carrot and celery! Both her and her friend said it was delicious. The Vitamix people were showing the crowd how you can get your kids to eat their vegies in new and wonderful ways. If only I had a thousand dollars spare. Sorry.. the special price for festival goers was around $945.
