Those of you who know me or follow my blog or Instagram will know that I'm very much a food lover and a regular at the Taste of London Food and Restaurant festival, which my gorgeous friend Shalina helps organise. My friend and blog photographer Gerrod an I headed down to the festival at London's Regent's Park last Saturday and despite getting very much caught in the rain, we had such a fun time at Taste and oh my did we eat a lot of delicious food!
First stop was Sushi Samba and Duck and Waffle. Gerrod sampled the Duck and Waffle signature dish and it was definitely a huge thumbs up from him as he loved the dish. Meanwhile I tucked into a tempura prawn and quinoa wrap from Sushi Samba and it was so tasty, it was gone in seconds.
We headed over to the award winning Roka where I enjoyed these amazing sea food gyoza. I was very excited to have a chance to sample food from Roka as I'd been dying to try it for ages! The gyoza contained black cod, prawn and crab and didn't disappoint in the least, I only wish there had been more! Roka have opened a new restaurant in Aldwych to mark the 10th year anniversary of the flagship restaurant in Charlotte Street and I really can't wait to head to one of the Roka restaurant's to try more of the lovely Japanese food.
Recently Chef Lloyd from the Spice Market London followed me in Instagram and to say I was excited would be an understatement, so of course I made a beeline for the Spice Market stand to taste Chef Lloyd's delicious creations such as this black pepper prawn with sundried pinepapple, the spicy and flavoursome pepper sauce went so well with the pineapple which was the perfect balance of sweet and tangy! Such an amazing dish and it was an added bonus to see the Chef himself.
It was lovely to see chef Monica Galetti again, this time at the Flint & Flame stand as she's a brand ambassador and was promoting her new range of knives. I know she seems quite scary on Masterchef sometimes, but in person she is so sweet. I bought a Flint & Flame knife at Taste of London Winter last year and I feel even more of a pro now I know they're Monica Galetti knife brand of choice.
There were some impressive cocktails on the menu at the VIP lounge not to mention lots of Laurent Perrier champagne and I loved that the lovely bartender made me up this gorgeous alcohol free cocktail. Very peachy and refreshing, just what I needed and a very glam way in which to seek shelter from the rain!
Whilst sheltering from the rain in the VIP lounge, Gerrod an I stumbled across the Ketel One Vodka Bloody Mary experience, which we loved. We got to concoct our own Bloody Mary blend with spices, herbs, a touch of horseradish and a citrus and carrot juice which all tasted pretty good I have to say. Gerrod then added some Ketel One Vodka and enjoyed the finished Bloody Mary.
This prawn burger from the Michelin starred Club Gascon was so yummy and the sweet brioche bun just bought it all together just what I needed after getting caught in the rain again. One of my favourite things about the Taste experience is that you get the chance to sample so many beautiful dishes from Michelin starred restaurants at just a fraction of the price, the hard part is choosing what to eat.
We made friends with the sweet guy from Deliveroo, who had a tray of lovely mini cupcakes. I'd had way too much sugar by this point and we both had the giggles!
The highlight for me at this year's Taste was the AEG Let's Taste Live Cooking theatre especially as I got to attend a session by School of Wok's Jeremy Pang and Nev Leaning. Gerrod and I were so happy to be a part of the live cooking, we got to try our hands at tired fried Sichuan chicken and steamed scallop siu mai as well as picking up some wok tips and getting to play with the award winning AEG induction hob (I want one of these when I have my own place).
School of Wok is a fantastic cookery school based in London's Covent Garden and I was very lucky to be invited along for a South East Asian cookery class last year which you can read more about here. I really recommend School of Wok as I had such a fantastic day on the cookery class, so it was brilliant to be able to cook with them again and we even got a bottle of sweet soy sauce to take home with us, so I'm looking forward to cooking up some South Asian dishes again in my kitchen. Jeremy Pang has a new cookbook out; Chinese Unchopped which I really wanted to get but Gerrod reminded me that I'm on a cookbook ban as I have far too many home......sigh....
Sadly with my vegetarian/pescatarian ways I wasn't able to try the Sichuan Chicken stir fry, but Gerrod said it was amazing and he was also impressed with my wok skills, so I was very pleased.
All in all I had such a fun day at Taste, there was so much to see, eat and do at the event and Gerrod an I met so many lovely people, it didn't even matter about the rain and I'm already looking forward to Big Festival later on in the Summer!
Did you go to Taste this year?
What were your highlights?
Jx
*Photos by Gerrod Charles and Jasmin M
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