Ever so slightly late to the party (fourteen years to be exact), last year Mr. O and I discovered the wonder that is the Abergavenny Food Festival. As a couple who take their eating (slightly too) seriously, this annual event was pretty much Disneyland for us, so to say that we were raring to go for this year's event would be a slight understatement.
Every year, the festival (now one of the UK's leading food events - seriously, how had I missed this!?) takes over the entirety of Abergavenny's town centre, playing host to stalls from over 200 local producers and to talks and demonstrations from the likes of Magnus Nilsson, Bryn Williams and Valentine Warner. Have I whetted your appetite yet!?
This isn't just any old farmers market - Abergavenny's festival really is something very special. Not only is the town itself quite charming, it's the quality of food and creativity of presentation that makes this feel like a really immersive event. Wandering from the Victorian Market Hall through the streets to the castle this weekend, we stumbled across themed art installations, impromptu tastings of food from around the world, cows resting in pastures, science experiments and chilled out music performances. Between us we sampled thai noodles, burgers and pasta, sitting and eating them on the castle lawns before picking our way through a tray of poffertjes and sipping cocktails from Chase Distillery's stand.
We tried Moroccan M'Hencha, Welsh honey, Spanish ham (from Brindisa) and the most amazing Italian sauces and pestos from Peperoncino (seriously, seriously good). A very special mention must also go to the lovely team from Flavours of Monmouth - what these guys don't know about British cheese just isn't worth knowing, I can tell you!
After a few hours of wandering and grazing, food panic set in at around 4pm, when I realised that my eyes were far bigger than my stomach and there was no way I was going to be able to sample everything I wanted to. We did, however, sneak away with a couple of pies (sadly, I've forgotten who we bought them from) and a couple of mini cheesecakes from La Creme Patisserie. La Creme made our wedding desserts and these badboys brought back some delicious memories.
If you fancy planning a trip to Abergavenny, the good news is that you don't have to wait as long as next September - the team behind the main event also run a (slightly smaller) Christmas market in December. If you fancy picking up some goodies ahead of the big day, listening to Christmas carols whilst enjoying steaming mugs of mulled wine, put Sunday 8th December in your calendars NOW!
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