Wirral Food and Drink Festival 2010

Its been over a week since I last blogged and its because I have moved house! Therefore cooking and photo taking has been on the back burner whilst I try to settle into my new room.  I have had time however, this bank holiday weekend, to visit the Wirral Food and drink festival 2010 at Claremont Farm near Bebington.

The Wirral already has a good name for itself amongst foodies in the north west, providing brilliant suppliers and in possession of a Michelin starred restaurant: 'Fraiche'.  The food festival was really busy and had some great, newer stalls that I haven't seen in Lark Lane farmers markets or at the Conwy food feast and that was great to see because sometimes there is an abundance of the same type of stuff.  My purchases were fairly minimal as I have to watch the pennies at the moment, so i was frugal with myself as I could definitely get carried away, if allowed to.

I bought some lovely rye bread and a large piece of smoked pancetta, which the vendor assured me would be good for up to six months, which to be fair is not necessary in my case.  I think the first thing I will do with that is a risotto and use the pancetta in the onion and celery base. 

I also happened to see Aiden Byrne, who was demonstrating a white chocolate and white truffle risotto with pan fried scallops, and bought a copy of his new cook book, 'Made in Great Britain'. 

So all in all a good day, but we then continued to go out for an absolutely gorgeous meal at 'The London Carriage Works' on Hope street in Liverpool city centre and my main course tasted as delectable as it looks.  The great thing about the restaurant was that we could eat from the market menu, which was not only reasonably priced but had some great stuff on it.  Everything that the chef, Paul Askew, creates is done using locally sourced ingredients wherever possible.  The market menu focuses on the best that Merseyside has to offer and is produced using food sourced from a 25 mile radius of the restaurant itself. 

Aiden Byrne demonstrating his recipe in the glorious sunshine

Loin of Lakeland Saddleback pork
with cauliflower puree, radish, green beans and Parmentier potatoes

And again...

http://www.thelondoncarriageworks.co.uk/the-menu/default.phuse


The link for the restaurant is above.  I am extremely excited now about the Liverpool food festival starting on the 12th September in Sefton park which will no doubt celebrate more home grown food that the fabulous North West has to offer.