Every year towns around the country hold food festivals where restaurants, fast food vendors and mobile food vans showcase their menu.
This past weekend, 7th – 9th of June Sunderland food festival took place and as I was stopping at my sisters (it was a child free weekend!) we decided to venture into town. Vendors lined 3 areas of Sunderland town centre so there was no missing the action!
We started out with corndogs and chipistix, this is a spiral potato which is then deep fried, from Chimney Cake Island. The corndog was completely different to ones I have had in the States as this was more pastry covered than pancake. I much prefer the pancake so I finished off the potato while Lisa finished the corndog!
Next up was freshly baked macaroons (which we think was from a stall simply called Macaroons!) Now, these weren’t the ones you might think, those little French sandwich ones. Nope, they were the giant coconut haystack style that mum would make when we were little. All toasty on the outside and soft on the inside! Yum! We took these home with us to have later that night.
Walking through all of the stalls we saw some bits that we picked to take home. Olives and cannoli’s from Walnut Foods. These are always so expensive and I always fall foul of the trap. You pay by weight so £13 later for a handful of olives and 3 cannoli’s I thought these best be delicious…they were!
When I saw Super Bao Street Kitchen I just knew that this was a definite purchase. They come in packs of 2 and you can mix and match the flavours you want. I chose one sticky chicken and one teriyaki beef, with a side of Furikake fries. I love furikake and always have a container in the house to use on sushi etc. Having it on fries was new and most certainly something I will be recreating at home. The bao buns were soft and tasty, probably the best ones I have tried so far to be honest.
Lisa isn’t keen on bao so opted for a chicken burrito from Burritos2Go and wow they were perfection. First up, no coriander to be seen! The ingredients all looked amazing, so fresh and so much packed into the wrap. I was drooling over the steak but just knew I couldn’t manage one after everything else we had. They are never the same when you warm them up later too!
We picked up 2 cherry, 2 lemon and 2 plain Pastel De Nata. It was 6 for £10 so on par with the likes of Lidl or supermarket but so much more flavourful! We had these for dessert after dinner that night and for breakfast the following morning!
Overall I would highly recommend hitting up a food festival if you see a local one advertised. Not only is it a great way to try new foods but I didn’t see one grumpy person all day – how can you be grumpy with delicious food everywhere!
