Jasmine from last weeks post told me about the Enys Food Jam when I went to visit her so I went along to see if her tips on things to do were as good as her cooking (they were).
I only recently found out about Enys gardens and I have been meaning to go up and have a look around so this was the perfect opportunity.
When a food event starts at the end of a drive like this you know it’s going to be something special. I loved how they signposted the event with hand drawn blackboards like the one below – it gave a hand crafted and caring feeling to the event before you even saw a food stall.
As you can see from the photo there weren’t that many stalls. Normally I’d be pretty disappointed with only having a few stalls (I’ve been spoilt by Porthleven) but here it seemed like the perfect amount and made the afternoon very relaxing! Sometimes busy food festivals, though great fun, can be blimin’ exhausting. Here there was a relaxed vibe and I found myself wishing I’d come with a big group of friends so we could relax on the lawn or explore the gardens.
I’d even broken one of my food festival rules (which you can find here) and forgotten to invite my food festival buddy – I’m so sorry Steven. Luckily for me, and one of my favourite things about the jam, the organisers had asked each of the food stalls to create a food trail dish, a small sample of what they normally sell. In my opinion this needs to be standard across all food festivals!
My first trail dish was a grilled sardine with mixed leaves and topped with mojo verde from Thyme & Tide. It’s always so interesting to see your food being cooked for you before your eyes, especially here where it isn’t crazily busy – I took the time to chat to Lee about his business and to swap stories about working in restaurants. I really enjoyed this dish and that sauce make a great sardine even better. I especially liked the added kick to the salad, which I’m really surprised about because I am a self-confessed spice baby.
My second (and last, thanks to being food festival buddyless) dish was from The Shellfish Pig. You might remember mine and Stevens disappointment when we went to see them at the Porthleven Food Festival and they’d already sold out of scallops. Well let me tell you, it was so worth the wait. They were the biggest, juiciest scallops I’d ever seen, perfectly balanced with hunks of chorizo. I wolfed it down in pretty much no time, not caring about the juice dripping onto my leg. Even writing this now is making me sad I don’t have one here now.
There weren’t just food vans here, there were a couple of drinks vans too, including Cecil on Ice, who specialise in frozen cocktails. I’ve seen them online for a while now and was very excited to see the newly-restored van in the the flesh! I tried a mango & passionfruit Lassi, made with mango & passionfruit sorbet, milk, crushed ice and cardamon as I was driving so couldn’t have anything stronger! I wasn’t sure about having spices in a milkshake but it actually worked really well, countering the sweetness of the rest of the drink – it reminded me of a pinocolada done right. I hope I bump into these guys again when I don’t have to drive so I can sample their cocktails!
Inside the beautifully stripped back house itself there were more stalls but I was too full to try anything else, so I’ll just leave you with the pictures…
Cornish Food Baby 