Hampton Court, Food Festival, Churros, Hot Dogs, Banh Mii, Duke of Delhi..

This post is quite a late one! Having visited the Foodies Festival in Hampton Court a couple of weeks ago, I figured to try out a change of scenery instead of heading to the Battersea location.

It is help on the green, which is not within the palace grounds (so you won’t expect to see it) and parking signs were generally pretty useless which had us to a 360 journey! But enough of the moaning this morning, I’ll get to the point.

There were lots of stalls in an enclosed space with chef theatre’s which you only realise you have to get tickets for after you have entered the place! But fear not you can still perch yourself outside the semi open theatre to get a look in..

Trawling around the stalls there were some highlights of the day, which I’m going to give you a head’s up about, you probably have heard of a few of these food traders, but some are new and I feel bring something exciting to the food scene.

Luckys… Oh my god these small cubes of chocolates with CAKE inside them are addictive! Varlhona chocolate covers these cakey fillings, ranging from sea salted caramel, nutty, raspberry.. we tried the 60% dark chocolate brownie with cranberries and raspberries, gooey and delicious.  Lucky’s here

Duke of Delhi’s- This lovely lad has a range of exciting and slightly unusual products inspired from authentic Indian flavours and ingredients with a Brit twist.  We tried his Chocolate Chunk Mix, inspired by the Indian street snack “chevdo” similar to a Bombay mix with surprising chunk of chocolate in it, works really well.

His packaging is vibrant and colourful, they should be on the shelves of Selfridges or alike. The Duke of Delhi also has a range of biscuits out made with semolina for that crunch and crumbly texture, we tried the chocolate biscuits, with real pieces of orange, crushed Indian red chilli and dark chocolate. I’m sure we shall be seeing more of the Duke of Delhi…

The Sausage Company gets some of their popular bangers on the barbeque, to feed the hoards of people queuing at the festival, including us.. we managed to make it to the front after a short while, to pick out banger and put in a hot dog ready to eat.

Pistachio & Rose- With their spiced chocolate ganache tarts and chocolate naan breads. We got their milk chocolate tart with nutmeg and chilli, spiced, creamy and rich!

Banh Mi- I’m a bit late on this one, but glad I finally tried their food! I had their Imperial BBQ: British pork, thinly sliced, marinated in caramel and lemongrass, grilled fresh served with chopped iceberg lettuce, carrot & daikon pickle, cucumber, coriander, peanuts and dried shallot. Flavours were there, mix of the veg, noodles, soft, sweet pork I really enjoyed it.

Now I do love Drink Me Chai, especially their Chai Spiced Latte, but do people drink this just with hot water? Personally I prefer making it with milk for a more creamy hot drink.

Churros Garcia was one of our last stops for dessert, I have always seen them at other markets and never tried them so finally we did.

Crisp, hot and fresh churros plus service with a smile! Melted hot chocolate to dip it in and a sprinkle of cinnamon, perfect. Plus they give you a lot for what you pay, result! And a chocolate/sugar high…

Finally.. we had some delish hot cider on a cold day..and wash down all that food!