good food & wine show 2008

I've been going to the Good Food & Wine Show for the past 2 years and I must say, it's always something to look forward to when the month of June rolls around. It seems like this year the show got even more publicity with Gordon Ramsay being one of the guests in the Celebrity Theatre. Stupid me should have bought tickets earlier (given I did get the email from Ticketmaster letting me know that tickets were on sale the next day/and from memory they were also pre-sale tickets...boo hoo...by the time I got round to getting tickets, they'd already added a $15 premium to his shows!!!) Anyway, some snapshots from the day...

Seems to be a growing obsession of mine - getting photoed with some person dressed in a costume (this one was of a Lock & Lock container). The little kid at the front seems to be looking at me curiously.

The closest I got to Gordon Ramsay - he was signing away for a queue that was way too long (I can't imagine how long people would've been in that queue for!)Here we are in the Celebrity Theatre (which sat 2500 this year) for a cooking demonstration with Matt Moran (who's good mates with Gordon Ramsay). I haven't been watching the Chopping Block but after watching the show, I'm keen to try out Moran's restaurant, ARIA which according to Moran himself 'is bloody expensive'.Show attendees: The Drunk 1 and The Drunk 2. These boys disappeared for most of the show and squatted somewhere in the vicinity of the wine/beer stalls.Mandy and I with our loot. This year mum and I decided to bring our trolley (purchased at last year's show) - it turned out to be the best idea ever. It was very quickly filled up and you can see the 2 red bags and the good taste bag which we had to carry separately.Back at home, mum and I unpack our loot and somehow manage to cover the entire dining table. You may call me bias but thumbs up to the best biscotti and shortbread maker that I know (Suze from The Biscuit Tree) for her biscotti and shortbread (which I stocked up on at the show. Suze - the macadamia biscotti I'm eating right now is delicious!!!)

In summary, mum and I definitely bought a lot more than we did last year, we spent much more time at the show (squeezing in between the crowds of mammoth proportions!), I did have to convince mum out of buying another trolley (she started thinking that we needed two), Justin appeared to be happily drinking away, Ka joined Justin and seemed jolly, Mandy rocked up just as equipped as mum and I were with her trolley bag, and thankfully the skies held up (so we weren't running back to the carpark with all our bags and trolleys), can't wait till next year!