The Essential Taste Festival Guide

‘The Six Tastes’ according to the Science of Life (Ayurveda) are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Every taste has a balancing ability and they all work together to stimulate your taste buds! So, where is the best place for a party in your mouth? A Taste festival is the unequivocal answer.

Taste festivals happen in 12 cities Worldwide- Amsterdam, Auckland, Birmingham, Cape Town, Dubai, Dublin, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, Milan and Sydney with the unique Taste of Christmas also taking place in London. Each of the city’s top restaurants and chefs gather in a venue and visitors use the festival currency of Crowns to purchase taster portions of their signature dishes.

The size of the festival depends on the host city and Taste of London in particular is the capital’s largest food and drink event. I attended Taste of Christmas in 2008 and by comparison, Taste of London is much larger with an abundance of things to do and see.

Each year there is a specific theme within the Taste of London; in 2009 there was Taste of Thailand and this year was Taste of Malaysia. To celebrate the chosen country and its cuisine, there is a specific area in the event where you can experience various elements of their culture. For instance, the 2009 Taste of Thailand section of the festival integrated London’s most popular Thai restaurants with live demonstrations from Thai master chefs, a bar serving specially created Thai cocktails, cultural Thai dance shows and even The Tourism Thailand team for any travel advice in visiting Thailand!

Typically, each day the Taste of London festival runs is split into two sessions; lunch (12.00 -16.00) and dinner (17.30-21.30). Having visited Taste of London at Regent’s Park in 2009 and this year, I realised that although four hours sounds a lot, if you want to make the most out of the festival (and leave blissfully glutted!) you should plan your time. So here is my personal guide to organising your visit:

On arrival, you will receive the Taste Menu Card, essentially a small brochure that provides timetables (for all live demonstrations, master classes and musical entertainment), the list of restaurants with menus and a map of the event.

1. Select the Sessions you wish to Attend

Firstly, since each timetable conflicts with each other, you will have to be very selective about what sessions you want to go and see. I recommend focusing on the Taste Theatre where the Michelin starred chefs give live demonstrations. However, if you are more interested in tasting food, choose no more than 2 sessions from all the timetables as they can last up to 40 minutes each (which cuts into your eating time!).

Once you have decided on the sessions you will attend, mark the times on your map and remember to arrive early to ensure a seat.

2. Choose the Dishes you want to Taste

A table of all the dishes that are being provided by the restaurants (with their prices in Crowns) can also be found in the Taste Menu Card. Since it is impossible to taste every dish on offer, you will again have to be selective! I usually select mainly appetizers and main dishes with a few desserts to help with the sweet-savoury battle.

In previous years, most dishes have cost between 6 and 12 Crowns , bar a few icon dishes that can cost up to 40 Crowns (where 1 Crown = 50p). I find that to maximise the range of dishes you taste, the best tactic is to pool your Crowns with a few friends (ideally so there is 3 of you) and share each dish that you purchase. Even though you will have less of each dish, the range of dishes you try will be greater- and you can always repeat the dishes you loved!

3. Use the Event Map to Create a Route

I don’t mean this in a ‘sat nav’ way, but it is quite handy to mark on your map where you will get the dishes you selected. This way, you can pick up dishes en route to the sessions you attend and having food is a saviour when the live demonstrations make your mouth water!

Hopefully, with this guide in mind you can make the most out of any Taste Festival.

The next Taste of London event is set for 16th to 19th June 2011. However, if you can't wait, Taste of Christmas is running from 3rd to 5th December 2010 and is a great taster of what to expect from a Taste Festival.

Hot Teriyaki Tuna Steaks

Not many people cook tuna that isn't from a tin and on a recent food shop I came across some fresh tuna steaks and decided to cook something new. Here is a recipe for chilli hot teriyaki tuna steaks:

Ingredients:
2 Tuna Steaks
Spring Onions to garnish

For marinade:
3 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Rice Wine
1 tbsp Caster Sugar
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Red Bird's-eye Chilli
A small piece of Ginger Root

1. Prepare the ingredients by thinly chopping the spring onions, crushing the cloves of garlic, finely chopping the ginger root and slicing the chilli.

2. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine and caster sugar in a bowl large enough to fit the tuna steaks and add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Mix together to ensure the garlic, ginger and chilli infuse in the liquid part of the marinade. 

3. Place the tuna steaks in the marinade and use a spoon or even better your hands to ensure every surface is covered in the marinade. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.

4.Grill the tuna steaks on a baking tray for 3-4 minutes each side, basting with the remaining marinade. Sprinkle with spring onions and serve immediately.

Ideal accompaniments for this recipe are cous cous, basmati rice, risotto, green beans, asparagus, roasted vegetables or even a simple green salad.

Top 10 Dim Sum Orders

The Chinese culture is notorious for its cuisine and eating is a significant social activity!

A custom that originated in Chinese Teahouses was Dim Sum, established in recent times as “small snack” or “little eats” (although, the literal translation is “to touch your heart”). It is essentially the Chinese version of tapas with a wide variety of steamed, fried or baked dishes; predominantly savoury with a few sweet. Dim Sum is typically eaten as brunch, being served from breakfast time into late afternoon; however increasing popularity has meant that some restaurants will serve all-day dim sum, which is good for us!

Our beloved China Town on Gerrard Street is an ideal place to go for Dim Sum, with most restaurants having ‘All You Can Eat’ offers (again- good for us, but don’t snack before you go!) I recently went to a place I would recommend, the Golden Harvest to indulge in some Dim Sum and I started thinking about my top dishes. So here we go… my Top 10 Dim Sum Orders:

1. Shanghai Steamed Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) – possibly the greatest Dim Sum dish. They are known as ‘small basket dumplings’ that contain mince pork (or variations such as prawn or crab meat mixed with mince pork) wrapped in a dough skin. However, the best part of this dish is the superior soup inside the dough case, which is indescribably good. A way to eat these dumplings is to firstly bite a small hole in the base and pour out the soup into a spoon to drink, and then eat the rest. Delicious!

2.Taro dumplings/ Stuffed Yam Croquettes (Wu Gok) – these are great to start off a Dim Sum sitting. They are made from yams that form a croquette with a filling of pork, dried shrimp and Chinese dried mushrooms.

3. Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go) – made from Mooli (a Chinese turnip) and rice flour with dried shrimp and Chinese pork sausage bits. This dish is steamed, cut into slices and pan fried for added texture.

4. Steamed Barbecue Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao) – this is probably the most popular dish. They are fluffy white buns that contain a Cantonese barbecued pork filling. The bun and barbecue sauce are both slightly sweet, which contrast perfectly with the savoury pork.

5. Prawn and Mango Roll – not a traditional dim sum dish, but nonetheless still scrumptious! Whole King prawns and thin slices of fresh mango are wrapped in a thin pastry similar to the shape of a spring roll, which is then coated in sesame seeds and fried.

6. Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow) – this is another famous steamed Dim Sum dish, easily identified by their translucent and pleated wrapper. Inside, the filling contains a shrimp and bamboo shoot combination.

7. Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf (Lo Mai Gai) – sticky rice filled with chicken, Chinese mushrooms, Chinese sausage, bamboo shoots, spring onions and sometimes dried shrimp. They are cooked in unique way, being wrapped into parcels using dried lotus leaves and steamed, but don’t eat the leaves!

8. Pork and Shrimp Dumplings (Siu Mai) – this is a very distinctive steamed dish shaped like a basket with a shrimp and pork filling topped with a sprinkling of crab or fish roe.

9. Rice Noodle Rolls (Cheung fun) – sheets of rice noodle stuffed with which ever filling you fancy: prawn, beef, pork or even scallops.

10. Sesame Seed Balls (Jin Dui) – this dish is ideal for dessert. Balls of glutinous rice flour and brown sugar are filled with a sweet red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds and deep-fried.

Lastly, don’t forget your tea or “yum cha”! The most popular Chinese teas are Chrysanthemum, Green and Oolong.