Sydney Good Food and Wine Christmas Market

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Sun 17 Dec 2023 - Tue 19 Dec 2023

What a great way to get into the Christmas spirit early, stock up on your Christmas gifts for your loved ones and yourself (got to stock up our cellar/ pantry for the Christmas celebrations, right?) and just generally have an overall fabulous time sampling good food and wine and watching celebrity chefs cook up their favourite festive fare, sip their favourite festive tipples and generally share their handy food and wine tips.

As a long-time fan of the Good Food and Wine Market, I was not sure what to expect with the Christmas version. More Christmas-themed stalls and a more Christmas-themed program, for sure. But otherwise, would it be pretty much the same?


The answer, in my view, was yes. This is a good thing, because I love the Good Food and Wine Show, and something new that was overly skewed towards Christmas kitsch and totally over the top Christmas themed stuff would have detracted from the things that stand out for me with the Good Food and Wine Show - which is a panoply of excellent produce providers to meet and chat with, enough samples to keep even the greediest foodie satisfied, and an interesting array of food and wine demonstrations to duck into when you started to feel overloaded with choice from the huge number of stalls offering every delicious drop you could ever desire, and want to take a break to consider your choices.

To be clear, there are still plenty of opportunities to stock up on your weight in Christmas puddings and gingerbread if you are coming to the Fair with that serious Christmas intent. However, if you are just a foodie out for a good food and wine market, this will still satisfy perfectly.



I decided to pace myself this time and limit myself to one demonstration on the program. (Previous Good Food and Wine Fairs I had intentions to see 4 demos. That approach is fine if food and wine demos are our priority, but be aware that this will leave you far less time to review all that is on offer in the stalls. The FOMO is real).

My one demonstration that I attended was a demonstration by Cheat Meats on how to prepare a Christmas porchetta. The secret to the crispy crackling is loads more salt than you probably are comfortable with if you care about your health, and plenty of time left for the meat to rest - both before and after cooking. Flavoured with cinnamon, fennel and cloves, the spice combination was surprising, but delicious and definitely Christmassy. (Yes, the audience had the opportunity to try a bit. But also yes, you needed to be quick and fight off the hordes to get some).



I did feel like the proportion of wine and beverage producers represented was way higher than food producers compared to other fairs. However, the Fair is not just about wine. There was rum, gin, iced tea, gingerbread cordial, liqueurs and beer also on offer - all kinds of cocktail mixes and tipples you could possibly think of.

Other things worth noting. There was a huge array of chilli sauces and other spicy condiments available. I bought one variety pack of tobasco sauces which I was delighted with only to be confronted by 6 more chilli sauce providers further on, each with delicious products that I didn’t feel I could now stock up on because I had blown my condiment budget straight out of the starting gate. So shop smart and audit what’s on offer before you blow your budget on stuff early on.

The writer was invited as a guest.

%wnsydney

#family_friendly
#markets