Taste Tibet - Hay Book Festival [@NLi10] @TasteTibet

 I'm not really into Food TV, which is probably surprising as I spend so much time thinking and writing about it.  My partner watches Bake Off and that's about it.  Taste Tibet had all the 'featured on the food shows!' signs, but more importantly I'd never had Tibetan food (despite formerly owning a Tibetan Terrier).

We spotted this stand - went to our two talks - then came back in the break.

The menu is deep and exciting, contains momo buns and branded merchandise with Chai Tea in - and there is an option to basically have it all for £22.50 which in hindsight is a little expensive I guess.  But it's a day out so I went for it.

New Work Mug Unlocked!

The Chai was great - if not a little small to share as was the plan

The Momo is a beef dumpling thing and absolutely amazing.  For £2.50 this transformed the meal and added so much texture and depth.

I could have gone back for more of these - except the curry was rich, meaty and incredibly filling.  It was not as spicy as I'd have guessed - but with the dahl built in had a great warming effect.  I did not require pudding from the pudding stalls at all.  I couldn't even fit another Momo after our final talk.

Totally worth the extra to have something truly special, and I can be proud to show off the camping mug and wonder if I'll bump into these at future food shows too.

It was a bit damp so we didn't use the more traditional outside food section apart from for photos.

Asda Festive Pie (not that kind, or the other kind, a new one) [@NLi10]

 Ah - Festivus - the celebration of all things Festive.  Today Asda have provided us with a Festive Pie.

      No - not a mince pie.

            And no, not a Turkey & cranberry pie (although I wouldn't say no to one of these - maybe they are in another part of the store)

It does look good by my parents fire - and it wishes us a Magical Christmas.

This Festive Pie can be found on the floor above the Horror Emporium spooky green foods, and is only £1.50 for two which I thought was worth a risk - but what is it?

Oddly - it's gingerbread and winter (ish) fruits!

Spiced pear and date filling might not be everyones cup of eggnog, but I thought it sounded interesting and worth a try.  With the gingerbread too I found it just a little too spicy for my enjoyment, but then ginger isn't my go too Festive Flavour.  The pastry/gingerbread was spot on - but you'll want a plate.

They certainly look the part too, and for people that don't like Mince Pies (heresy!) like me they allow us to join in the fun.

If you have an older relative that likes strong flavours then give them this with a warm drink at night and they will probably go all misty eyed.

Perfect for leaving out for Santa too!

My mince-pie & ginger loving partner said she'd definitely have them again, so I suspect that I'll get to try them in colder weather too - if they are still around by then.

Porthleven Food Festival - Summer Berry Filled Churro & Brazilian Picana Sandwich [@NLi10]

 While in Cornwall for the week a local streamer gave me the top tip of visiting the Porthleven Food Festival.  We tend to avoid these things locally as it's usually the same people each time (much as I love the Fuffle Man), but here it's a whole new selection of Indy food makers!

Having been to Porthleven before I knew the layout and that there are lots of cool arty shops anyway, so we popped over.

There was music and drinking for the locals too!

I chose a Brazilian Picana Steak Sandwich for my lunch.  

Lovely and crispy with deep flavours and filled with lots of excitement.  This ordinarily would have been a highlight of the day.

My partner had a Buddha bowl which I'd almost been tempted by too - great variety here too - hard to make things like this at home without having loads of left-overs.

I'd already spotted this on lap one - the recon - and decided it was to be my pudding of choice.  And I went for the Summer Berry Filled Churro

Turns out I was the first to order this new item - and the guy behind me in the queue ordered the second!

It's a complicated mix of dried fruit and sugar on the outside, and a strawberry & vanilla creme on the inside - and it's amazing!

Like all filled Churro the second half is always a mess as it creeps out of the sides and the sugar starts to fall off and get everywhere. I managed to eat it all before the park & ride bus arrived to take us back to the car - so it wasn't too messy.

Overall a massive hit - and banana split style with ice-cream would easily be a restaurant grade pudding.

Well worth the trip out, and decent value for money too - I'd certainly go again.

Co-op's All Butter Pastry Winter Eve's Pudding Tarts (@NLi10)

 Well - with the announced restrictions I think everyone has basically decided to have Christmas whenever (the adults anyway).  So - lets crack out the Winter Eve's Pudding Tarts - wait what?!

I see Co-op have also decided to appease my wrath by offering a festive alternative to the mince pie.  So lets have a look at them!

They have a tiny bit of sultanas in them to add a kick to the apple bit - but we will forgive them this time - seeing as it's Christmas.

Flo decided that they were quite interesting, but not enough to have a nibble.  She didn't even steal any of the stars!

They are pretty presentable too - despite all the ones in our shop having been stored on their sides so the tops were sliding off (whoops) and the little stars mean these will appeal to everyone.

And they are surprisingly light too - the filling is hidden at the bottom and it's mostly fluffy sponge.  I will make sure to have these again become Christmas disappears in Feb.

They taste more like a mulled wine pie than a mince pie and I heartily approve!

Pringles Festival Edition Salt, Pepper & Herb Wedges Flavour (Asda) By @cinabar

New flavours of Pringles can be quite adventurous, and often quite spicy. These new Pringles have been brought out for Festival season and come in a bright coloured tube that is very eye catching. The flavour didn’t seem that exciting to me, it is titled Pringles Festival Edition Salt, Pepper and Herb Wedges Flavour, but essentially sounded like salt, pepper and herbs seasoning. What I’m trying to say ifs for such a bright and fun time of year and with the pretty packaging the actual flavour sounded like a bit of an anti-climax.
I don’t have any plans to attend festivals this year so had these with lunch, not quite the same as munching these in a tent on a muddy field with loud music, but I’m sure the setting doesn’t affect the flavour.
I gave one a try and realised immediately I had underestimated these new Pringles Festival Edition crisps, they were absolutely full of flavour. The seasoning was quite strong and I think I could pick up on Italian herbs and rosemary, there was nice twist of onion too and the salt and pepper enhanced all these flavours. The taste was quite strong, but in a good way. I had my first one and the Pringles moreish magic kicked in and I couldn’t stop munching. I may have underestimated these crisps, as these are a special edition I will miss them when they go, never mind festivals, these are the perfect tub to pack into any picnic basket, or just to share in front of the TV.

Monster Hydro - Red and Green (Beyond The Tracks, Birmingham) @bttfestival by @NLi10

Free stuff is just the best.  Walking into Birmingham's new Beyond The Tracks festival on the Sunday we were given four brightly coloured bottles of the new Monster Hydro Drink.  While I consider the hyper-calorific hyper-stimulant drinks to be a massive public health problem that is far more dangerous than alcohol, on a day out where I'm likely to need more stimulation and energy I think these are fair game.  

I mean its not like I'm going to be drinking these on a daily basis - even if these are the non-carbonated 'hydration' versions.  So what makes them special?

It's the next generation of refreshing energy drinks of course! Well, that's what the blurb says.  It's only lightly sweetened so it doesn't taste like organ failure anymore, which is nice, but there is still far too much artificial crap in here to be anything other than oily sugar-water.  Why bother triple filtering the water when you are adding 11% glucose syrup and coconut and rape seed oil?  There are a few token vitamins, but they don't add D for some reason - is that too helpful?

But that's not what these are here for, we aren't supposed to be enjoying the drink or getting nutritional benefits - these are basically legal highs and as an arthritic man at a festival I'm going to require all the stimulation possible to make it through to the main event.

The flavours are "Melon Bacardi Breezer" and "nondescript green" and are both forgettable.  Yes - you get a slight initial caffeine buzz like you left the teabag in for too long.  Yes - after a while the body metabolises the other caffeine derivatives and the fatigue appears to be gone.  I stood at the front (as in right by the barrier) for Wild Beasts and had a good time.  There was not much dancing (it's a festival, you always seem to be surrounded by people essentially waiting for the later bands), or knowing of the songs by most people near me, but I had a little sing and recorded some 4K video for later remembering purposes.  Thing is, i never once got any pleasure from drinking these. Poccari Sweat is a joy to drink, and even the ones that thought they reduced stress and acted as brain training had interesting flavours.  The job of these is to make you not notice that you finished them and to then just crack open the next one and keep gaming (i mean partying with the cool kids - honest).

It's worth mentioning at this point that the festival itself was really well organised and a pleasure to attend.  The food on site was cheap for a festival, and even the drinks were good value.  I found a little yellow van selling pizza.

£7 for a pizza with real ingredients on it that was freshly cooked and took a lot less time than expected was pretty good.  This would have been £10 at Latitude!

Yes - they didn't slice it effectively enough (despite me asking) so it was a faff to eat with my malfunctioning hands in a field but the flavour (club sandwich - chicken AND Bacon) and ingredients were spot on. No complaints.  I recommended it so throughly that my partner had one (veggie) before the main event.

Editors are always good live, and while I don't get the same nostalgia hit from the new material they did talk about the old days in Kings Heath and the Flapper so I felt appreciated too. As you can tell from the barrier I'd flashed my wobbly person credentials at security by this point and moved my chair on to the accessibility platform (as there was a lot of space and by this point the Monster had worn off).

I think I drank about 1 1/2 of the Monster bottles and made it through about 4 hours of the festival before crashing which isn't actually all that long.  Maybe i'm just too tired, and maybe I needed the extra sugar that the cancer-can versions with all of the unnecessary calories provide.

We gave the other two bottles away to curious work colleagues and I have no intention of ever paying for this.  It just wasn't nice or that effective.  It's like a more grown-up version of Sunny Delight where there is a lot of things in there to make it a habit forming drink.  I'd probably not recommend it to anyone.

Unlike the festival - we should all go on the guitars day again next year - it was fab!

Festival Finds - Latitude 2016 (by @NLi10)

This week we have been at the ludicrously sunny Latitude festival. No mud, just grass and pink sheep!

First up we have some of the festival foods. This years big thing is wood fired pizza. Why? Because it cooks in two minutes and kills all the germs!

It's also pretty deluxe and at £10 a pizza must make a decent crust.

I'll forgive them for not using proscutio as advertised because it was nice and welcome. No brand loyalty needed here - every third stall is selling these!

Night time snacks are available too, here we have pofferjes - mini pancakes. At 10 for £5 they aren't cheep.

The guys running this stall were really chatty and nice and while the end result doesn't look like much in the twilight they are actually a really welcome snack.

I had the lemon and sugar but the butter version is apparently the traditional option. I'll have these again!

I got these Mike & Ike lemonade blends for my birthday. Just perky enough to make the shift for Oxfam speedier and they survive the hot weather well.

Breakfast has again been protein based milkshakes and these help give me the energy to get to the site to buy something more solid. 

And lastly some diet advice proving that Latitude is the height of middle class festival excellence.

Birmingham Wildlife Festival - snacks rundown (@NLi10)

A whole two weeks ago (although due to festivals it feels like a lot longer) we popped down the road to Birmingham Wildlife Festival and in between all the badgers, squirrels and reptiles there were lots of great snacks!

First up we have a lovely little stall with a frankly dizzying array of different treats.  They had the full range of the chips that you can find some of in Holland & Barrett , they had lots of Montezuma chocolates, (as bought and eaten at Glastonbury) and an assortment of other things I'd not seen before.

Frankly most of the new stuff we got from here got eaten at Glastonbury and certain items (such as the Inspiral Caco Kale Chips) did not survive the trip there particularly well!  Im sure I make an order or find these around again for a proper review but it was lovely to see such a well stocked and friendly stall.

They can be found online at www.ethical-treats.co.uk  

Here we see the wares from the Purely Vegan Store - they had a decent amount of vegan alternatives but as it was a nice day I gravitated towards the Karma Cola.  This was as expected - more of a cola bottle taste than the synthetic high-street versions. My tastebuds have been spoilt by Fentimans and this was a nice but unspectacular offering. The bottle and branding of all three of these are top notch though and would be a welcome addition to many cafes.

The Pulsing stand was positively buzzing with people taking advantage of the bulk buy special offers - I only had four bars and was the smallest transaction I saw.  I've reviewed the first half of the haul here and will save the final bar of mine for the Latitude roving festival reviews.

I wasn't expecting that much in the way of stalls here, but it seemed that everyone had great snacks (and a few tempting t-shirts that I resisted but got business cards for) and the fresh food was similarly good but I forgot to take pictures of that.  Maybe next year!

Glastonbury Snacks Pt 1. (By @NLi10)

Im at Glastonbury this week. It's Thursday and the main bands haven't started yet and I've been here since Tuesday.

There are lots of foods and snacks on offer. Some of them are ones that you pick up on site... 

Here we have a cream tea eaten off a backpack. It was £6 with a tea for three scones and actual clotted cream. We went freeform, bought two and an extra tea and had it between three. £4.50 each for something where the jam and scones felt home made was spot on.  Good tea too.

And there are some we carried to the site!

This is out of a Tribe box I got for a pound off a FaceBook advert which I'll write up properly next week.

Surprisingly textured and tasty with enough bits and seeds in there that I'm sure it filled the gap.

And here we have a king pot noodle - my favourite Beef and Tomato flavour. A nice lunch after a night shift and full of all the essential things that the body lacks after a few nights in a tent. Not the best option at home, but a mythical and welcome meal once under canvas. Oxfam supply the hot water so we brought plenty of these.