you'll remember a few months back i attended jamie oliver's feastival on alex james' farm in the beautiful cotswolds. hosted by electrolux, it was an amazing day of food, sunshine and music, which just happen to be a few of my favourite things. so when the lovely emma from the electrolux press office asked if i'd be interested in coming along to this year's taste of christmas, held at the iconic tobacco dock, well... only a fool would say no!
warned to bundle up warm for a chilly night out, boyfriend and i headed over straight from work last friday, picked up our press passes on the gate, and set about finding our way through the hundreds and hundreds of organic, homegrown and slightly bizarre food stalls. along the way were the taste tests we were hoping for; toffee vodka, turkey sausages, hot coffee, popcorn and more, and we indulged in every single free thing that we could. my favourites were the welsh fudges and sweeties, while boyfriend was pretty much partaking in any and all alcohol or meat based tester.
just before 7 we headed to the chefs' secret kitchen, where we to be cooking with the legendary (if not by name alone) chef tom kitchen... not even a joke. in a room full of 40 odd wannabe chefs, we were to impress chef kitchen with our basic monkey cooking skills on a quest to make the perfect poached egg with the help of electrolux's clever induction hobs.
i think we did a pretty good job. we didn't win, sadly, but winning to me is a full belly of deliciously eggy bread and perfectly seasoned and cooked wild mushrooms. so... you tell me who really won that round. i maintain it was us. neither of us had ever poached the perfect egg before, so we definitely picked up a few skills from the kitchen (both chef and event) that night.
once that was over and done with, and with many, many (read : many) bags of goodies in tow, we set about trying to track down boyfriend's latest crush; gizzi erskine. she had been tweeting a lot that she was at the event, but try as we might, we could never lock her whereabouts down. poor fella... he spent the rest of his night eating directly from the jar of (absurd but delicious) biscuit butter we'd picked up earlier on. think peanut butter, but made out of crushed caramel flavoured biscuits. on a spoon. you're welcome.
on the way out it was impossible to not be floored by the beauty of our surroundings. is there really anything more beautiful than london by night? if there is then i haven't seen it. she really is an impressive city, and when she's lit up to the nines and twinkling in all her glory, i literally can't think of anywhere in the world i'd rather be. sometimes i get down, and sometimes i take this place for granted, but when i am struck by things so simple as a ridiculous piece of architecture looming out of the skyline like a stupid shard of glass, i take stock of my luck to be living here. three years in, and being able to see and attend the things and events that i do, whenever i do, well... i count my blessings.
thank you electrolux for the chance to come and play with you at taste christmas this year!
