So, yesterday was the Hampton Food & Wine Festival, which I try to attend - almost religiously - every year with a few good friends (kids optional). Hampton is a small community about 25 min North of Toowoomba and to get there you have to drive through the beautiful lush, green, tree lined New England Highway.
Thankfully the sun was shining all day and so long as you stayed out of the shade it was reasonably warm for a windy Autumn day. We were able to try dozens of yummy wines from Queensland vineyards - mostly from the Stanthorpe area, including Ballandean Estate Wines (home of Opera & Jazz in the Vineyard, which I am yet to attend) - one bottle of which we managed to drink with lunch, plus some bottles to take home in the boot.
We ate delicious local food from restaurants & producers such as Kylies Hungarian langos (like a naan bread), Sudha's Indian butter chicken & Bindi Spots beef curry, Dutch poffertjes (like profiteroles), local fudge (mmm -from So Sweet), Jims Jerky, Rash Valley olive oil (processed just a week before - so smooth you could drink it), Avacado oil, the worlds best vinegars (LiraH), Gypsy Gourmet chutneys, Hampton Blue jams, Seatonfire Chilli chocolate, just to name a few.
We also watched some wonderful celebrity chefs cook up a storm of Grilled Murray Grey Beef with a pistachio crust - so tender cooked by Alastair McLeod and an Italian Style Breakfast Torte - by Dominique Rizzo, and listened to a local wood fired baker talk of his passion for feeding the community, the owner of LiraH who makes the best Verjuice and Vinegars I have ever tasted , as well as personal friends Daz & Kylie from Homegrown Health who produce organic food sold weekly at the Toowoomba PCYC market.
Probably the best bit, was soaking up the sun, enjoying the company of great friends, eating fine food & drinking bubbly sparkling shiraz, having a whole day without kids (yeah!) and getting our photo taken by the girls at TDD Photo Booths.
Happy days...
