The Foodie Weekend

It's no wonder I can never lose any weight when we have days like this!

Yesterday was the Northwest Fine Foods Festival at Tatton Park and after a general tidy round so the house was in a decent state for later(see below) we set off for Tatton around 12.30. Unlike Blenheim, this event was housed in a single massive marquee, which we were grateful for as it was threatening rain when we arrived and followed through on the threat with a fine drizzle as we were leaving. In between we stayed (relatively) warm and dry and comprehensively boggled by the array of foods and drink on display.

As we meandered a figure-of-eight around the islands of stalls we passed a wonderful variety cheeses, pickled garlic, massive pickled olives, handmade chocolates (some of the most original shown here on the right), original liqueurs, sloe/ blackberry/ raspberry gin/vodka, cakes, Christmas cake, the lightest Christmas pudding I've ever tasted (virtually every stall offered samples), hand-reared pork, beef and goat (yuk! the only thing I tasted all day that I didn't like), organic vegetables by the trug-load, sweets, licorice, and many more delights to satisfy the most selective gourmet palate.

I was surprised, when we left, to find we'd spent less than two hours there, but it was two hours packed with ever more amazed expressions of delight as taste after taste exploded on our tongues. We were loaded down with bags containing small samples (my favourite of which was the highland whisky and orange liqueur) and with stomachs that, although they'd only enjoyed small samples at each stall were nevertheless strangely full!


Back home we had just enough time for everyone to shower and change before we set off on the first leg of the Mexican night organised by our neighbours on the street. The starting point was the house around the corner whose garden backs on to ours. Over the years by virtue of having held over-the-fence conversations with many of the neighbours on our side of the road they've become "honorary members" of the street scene. Here we enjoyed tequila shots and dips before moving on back around the corner to the first of the street stops where our neighbours had prepared fritatas with marinated shrimps and Mexican wine.

Next stop was our place. In her inimitable way, Nikki had researched some fabulous Mexican food online and cooked up a brilliant Mexican vegetable pasta bake together with a seven-layer dip, while I did the honours making Tequila sunrises for everyone (or San Miguel for those of a non-cocktail bent). We'd worked out we needed to stick to a schedule of around 45 minutes per house to get around everybody, but as the tequila, beer and wine flowed the schedule gradually slipped unnoticed out of the window.

Then it was on to number 19 where the boys had prepared some delicious enchiladas (both meat and non-meat varieties) and pitchers of Caipirinha (strictly speaking a Brazilian drink, but at least they were on the right continent!).

Across the road next and as we were becoming somewhat stuffed by this time we were grateful that only small portions of a delicious spicy Mexican rice dish were on offer here, together with more beer and wine. Finally we ended up at the house directly opposite us, site of the famous summer street party and where the Mexican drink theme landed on familiar territory with Margaritas (even if our hostess did have a rather unique way of making them - chuck whole limes in a blender and bung in a bottle of tequila. The result, although somewhat lumpy with chunks of pith, was extremely limey!) and large bowls of fruit salad.

At this point the hectic pace of the evening slowed down. We watched a DVD of the summer barbeque, chatted, drank some more, and finally came home around 2.30am which, with the benefit of the changing clocks, suddenly became 1.30!