hungri-ness: Good Food Show Summer 2012

The Good Food Show Summer is half the size of the Good Food Show Winter. However, all my favourites from the winter show were there as well as a few newbies.

There’s not a chance in hell that I could leave a Good Food Show without buying a few goodies. I took along James, my brother, this time.

Our Purchases:

The Cheshire Cheese Company and Lymn Bank Farm - There are so many stands selling cheese. However, I really like the Cheshire Cheese Company. We ended up buying five cheeses from their stand which were; Taste of the Raj, Smokey Redwood, Caramelised Onion and Rioja Cheddar, Wince Ale and Mustard Medium Cheddar and Oak Roasted Cherry Tomato and Garlic Cheddar Cheese (the garlic coming from The Garlic Farm). Those I’ve highlighted were my favourites. We also bought one from Lymn Bank Farm which was a horseradish cheese, something I hadn’t tasted before. The Cheshire Cheese Company produce cheeses with a bit of a difference. Other cheeses that they sell are; Sticky Toffee Heaven, Jamaican Jerk Sauce Cheddar and Strawberries and Cream with Champagne.

Macarons and More – I have developed a little bit of an obsession with macaroons. Therefore, I just HAD to buy some of Tim Kinnaird’s macaroons. I discovered them at the winter show and they are just to die for. After hunting down the Macarons and More stand I was lucky enough to be served my macaroons by Tim Kinnaird himself. I went for four; salt caramel, passion fruit and milk chocolate, violet and blackcurrant and gingerbread and chocolate. My favourite still remains the salt caramel. The gingerbread and chocolate comes a close second.

Gower Cottage Brownie – The Gower Cottage Brownie stand was right next door to Macarons and More. How convenient! Gower Cottage’s awarding winning brownies are made in Wales and have become the most talked about brownies. Now that I have tasted one I can understand why that is. I stupidly only bought one. I’m most definitely stocking up at the winter show. I tweeted Kate Jenkins to tell her that her brownies are just simply ‘brownielicious’. They are rich, gooey and oh so chocolaty. All you could ever want from a brownie. Heaven!

Egg’cetera - Egg'cetera is a stand that I hadn’t come across before. After reading about them on the Good Food Show Summer website I made damn sure I found them. They are a Worcester based company that sell 40 different flavours of Scotch egg. HELLO! I could hardly contain my excitement what with me being such a Scotch egg addict. We opted for four as they were quite large. However, I could have bought a lot more. We chose BlackWatch, Tickled Pink, Brunch and Aztec. The BlackWatch came under their 'Classics' collection - rich Black pudding and free-range pork combined for a sensational flavour. This was my favourite. The Tickled Pink – a sneaky imposter with cream cheese and smoke salmon replacing the egg and Brunch – free-range pork with chunks of fresh apple and crumbled Stilton Cheese came under their 'Artisan Recipes' collection. We were really disappointed with the Brunch one as we couldn’t taste the apple or the Stilton. The final one, Aztec, came under their ‘Touch of Spice' collection – free-range pork, fresh green and red chilies and smoked paprika mellowed with dark chocolate chips. Their collections also include Celtic Roots, Smokehouse and Mediterranean as well as vegetarian alternatives and a wheat free choice.

The Chilli Jam Man – I think I first had chilli jam at The Horse and Groom in Bourton on the Hill, one of my favourite places to eat. Ever since, I’ve been a big fan of the stuff. We bought a jar of The Chilli Jam Man's ‘Smoky’ – smoked garlic and chipotle chilli jam. I also really liked his ‘Jamonnaise’ but regrettably didn’t purchase any.

The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight – We could have bought so much from The Garlic Farm but we restrained ourselves. Their garlic mayonnaise is something to write home about. However, it was their garlic butter with oak smoked tomatoes and tarragon that we fell in love with. Perfect with steak, chicken or salmon, spread on a jacket potato or ran through new potatoes or melted over fresh asparagus.

As well as huge numbers of food stands there are large numbers of stands selling every type of alcohol you could ever wish to consume. At the winter show I bought toffee vodka. However, something that really tickled my fancy this time was Ron Aguere's Caramel Rum. It made a great shot but could be hugely versatile. It could be used in cocktails, rum punch and desserts. It’s available to buy from Harvey Nichols and La Tasca.

There are also a lot of stands selling cooking equipment. You name it there’s a stand for it. Something we thought that was a great idea for summer was Andrew James' Rustic Stone Raclette Grill. It’s a circular granite hot stone that’s perfect for cooking tapas style food with friends indoors or outdoors.

My highlights from the show:

Watching James Martin and Tom Kitchin on the Summer Kitchen doing Saturday Kitchen Live: