Crail Food Festival 2013

Crail Food Festival – weekend 2013

Back in February, I heard about the Crail Food Festival and decided I wanted to attend but did not want to drive back and forth from Edinburgh, so I booked the Honeypot Bed and Breakfast –http://www.honeypotcrail.co.uk – which is owned by one of the organisers of the event.

On Friday, a friend and I packed up my car and headed over the bridge to Fife,  and on arrival in Crail, we were warmly welcomed by Graham and Edna of the Honeypot.

We had heard great things about a new restaurant in St Andrews – Forgans – http://www.forgans.co.uk – and so we booked dinner there on Friday night.

I started with haggis, neeps and tatties but there were at least three starters that I would have liked to try.  For my main, I had crispy chicken with the most wonderful dauphinoise potatoes and green beans.  We were full  after our two courses and so opted for irish coffees to finish.  I would highly recommend visiting Forgans if you are in St Andrews pop in for lunch or dinner and I will definitely be back there.

On Saturday we woke to a glorious sunny morning after breakfast and I headed out for a walk-  Crail is a delightfully picturesque east neuk village and it was lovely to spend some time there.

The Village in Bloom committee arrange for displays of flowering tubs and hanging baskets and these give a real wow factor to the village.

 

The main advantage to staying in Crail was that we were able to walk to the venue.  Saturday kicked off at 10.30am with an indoor food market, with lots of local producers displaying their goods- and most producers offered tasters.

In another hall, there were various cookery and food and drink related demonstrations.  I must congratulate the organisers of the demonstrations — the chefs were on a raised platform with a television showing what the chefs were doing, so even if you were at the back of the hall, you could see what was happening.  At the end of each demo, you were able to taste what the Chef had made.

 

The demonstrations started with Jenny Thomson from Courses for Cooks – http://www.coursesforcooks.com –  taking on Breakfast with a twist.

Then we attended a demonstration by Edinburgh Gins – http://www.spencerfieldspirit.com – whisky and Gin nosing.  I can highly recommend the Elderflower gin.

After  a walk round the market and some purchases made, we headed back to our B&B and then made the decision on where to eat lunch — most of the cafes, bar and restaurants in Crail were offering specials for the event, and after a walk through the village, we settled on the Golf Hotel, where the special was a sea-food plate.

I headed back to the market after lunch, it was very busy now so I headed straight for the demo hall.  Nichola Fletcher was cooking up a storm with game.

 

The final demo of the day was Craig Millar from 16 Westend – http://www.16westend.com

 

An impressive 1300 people came through the doors of the Saturday event.

The festival continued in the evening with a dinner and music back at the venue that had hosted the food market during the day.

 

I forgot to take a photo of the main course, which was lamb stew topped with a rosemary scone.

Pudding was beautifully presented carrot cake with a white chocolate sauce and a chocolate covered strawberry.

 

We awoke to a perfect summers morning on Sunday, so ensuring we had our bottle of water and our sun screen on, we headed for the harbour where todays events where taking place.

 

Some of the food stalls– decisions, decisions on what to have for lunch.

 

 

We had signed up for the Fife diets – http://www.fifediet.co.uk – foraging walk led by Mark William from Mark wild foods – http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com

We were also joined by Paul Wedgwood, chef from Wedgwood in the Cannon gate in Edinburgh who uses foraged food in his recipes – http://www.wedgwoodtherestaurant.co.uk

 

We found lots of things to forage…

 

We then headed back to the harbour for lunch– things had got very busy and I heard nearly 3000 people visited the event on Sunday.

Some of what I brought home to share with my family.

 

Thank you to all the organisers and suppliers, we had a great foodie weekend.  Looking forward to booking up for next year once the dates are announced.