Perth Good Food and Wine Show

Hubby and I went to the Good Food and Wine Show in Perth yesterday. I was sooooooo excited - the kids were with my folks (again! - two dates with hubby in one week!), Hubby had agreed to go with me and, after our couple of years in Red Dirt Central I could finally go to one of my favourite food events. You know how sometimes you look forward to something so much that when it rolls around it's kind of anti-climactic? Yeah...

I was fairly disappointed. I thought the entry price was somwhat steep and, while there were lots of free samples to be had (mostly olive oil or wine) and some free info sessions/demonstrations, I'm not sure you actually got a whole lot of bang for your buck. But rather than dwell on what it wasn't, I'm going to tell you about the stuff we really enjoyed.

We started the day with a session on understanding wine. I'd class myself as a regular wine drinker but that doesn't mean I know a whole lot about it. I know what I like and I tend to stick with those varieties and/or labels and, being the cautious creature I am, don't tend to venture outside my comfort zone. The session was great in that it was geared towards people like me - not complete novices but not a whole lot of knowledge either. I found out why I like the wines I do like and why I don't like some of the others. And I found a new wine I like.

I managed to get the very last ticket to see Gary and George from Masterchef. Hubby occupied himself with some beer tasting and I settled in to watch the demo and hopefully pick up an extra tip or two. It was a fun show and Kate, one of the WA entrants on Masterchef, was their surprise helper.

There was an on-site restaurant serving dishes by the guest chefs. I have to guess that since those chefs were all presenting shows and signing cookbooks they weren't actually cooking the food themselves but we jumped at the chance to try it out. There were set prices for entrees, mains and desserts and each was served with a glass of wine from WA winery Fifth Leg (incidentally, one of my favourite wine labels). Hubby and I opted to share an entree and main and then worked to narrow it down from there. We finally settled on Antipasto, from Alistair McLeod, of Marinated Gympie farm goats cheese topped with pickled beetroot, Field mushroom bruschetta and Seared Haloumi with salsa rossa. It was delicious! The different flavours were spectacular and it was a refreshing change from the tired old sundried tomato, olive and salami antipasto plate. I forgot to take a photo straight away so here's one when we were halfway through!

We had decided to try Gary Mehigan's main but so had just about everyone else in the place and the queue was huge so I jumped ship and chose Tobie Puttock's Veal Osso Bucco. Again, delicious! It was melt-in-your-mouth tender and served on a soft, buttery polenta. The photo is rubbish but you get the idea. I picked up the recipe for this and have already added it to this week's menu plan.

My very favourite find came almost at the end of the day. Kool Cookie Cutters is run by a lovely lady called Mandy who has the most amazing range of cookie cutters you can imagine. That's her on the left.

She stocks about 250 cutters and has access to over 1000 unique designs. Go check out the website here and tell me you don't see something you love. I've picked about 20 that I must have so far! Details of how to order are on the website.