Gloucester, oysters and juicy beef

Today, I went to Gloucester food festival! The sun was shining, the food was cooking and my mouth was watering.....


Now, this is not to say I don't love chutneys, oils and vinegar's, but it just seems that every other stall is one of the above! You do spot something a bit unusual, which is nice, but when you've had one garlic oil and made the right noises to the stall holder "mmmm, how nice" and "oh yes, this would go lovely in a bit of mash potato" you've pretty much had them all. Although, sometimes you do discover an unusual gem like blueberry and vanilla balsamic vinegar, which was really nice and would totally go with some strawberries.


There was some fantastic beef cooking on a grill (kinda South American styleeee) which was sliced and put in a bun - melt in the mouth, with a really cowy, juicy, smokey flavour! YUM! (my boyfriend did actually have to rip the bun out of my mouth as it was actually his, but I just couldn't help having a bit of a gnaw).


I had a couple of oysters which were delicious! I compared and contrasted a Jersey Rock Oyster and a West Mersea Rock Oyster. The first was slightly more plump and seemed to be slightly sweeter. It was hard to concentrate my oyster eating comparing though, as eating an oyster seemed to cause some commotion! A lady came over and was making sick like noises and others were wincing around me. I did find it quite rude and I felt very sorry for the guy on the stall. I seemed to be one of his few customers, but I'm not surprised when people react like they did around me today. For years I didn't like them, but that was when I swallowed them down without actually tasting them. I think if they were slightly better looking, this whole "oysters are minging" attitude wouldn't exist!


I purchased some macaroons - chocolate and mint, tiraimisu, cherry and almond, pistachio and passion fruit. Hopefully eating these will help me improve my macaroon making! I think I am due my next attempt at making them - I'll keep you posted! 


All in all, a good days eating and a good day of discovering! Best, most unusual stuff I saw: Green, fresh coconuts being served with rum, jerk chicken bbq, the oysters and unusually for Gloucester, very few chavs!