Manly Food and Wine Festival 2006

This weekend H and I went to the annual Manly Food and Wine Festival. We had seen it advertised a couple of weeks ago and were really looking forward to it as wine tasting is a lot of fun. So after the surf on Saturday we headed of towards The Corso (passing some of the England Rugby Team on the way - they are playing Australia on Sunday). There were quite a few stalls dotted around the place and most of the them were from wineries around NSW, in particular the Hunter Valley. You had to buy a glass, and a rather fetching holder (which H refused to use, as you can see below) for a whopping $5. Each glass of wine (well, 60ml and some of the stalls were more generous than others) cost $2.

It was a pretty cold and windy day (well Winter has just started) so it kept the numbers down but H and I had a great time checking out the wine. We stuck to the white wine on the Saturday. There were also a number of food places around and I opted for the curry stall, and.....wait for it......H tried some. Oh yes. We had a positive response from the mass produced Rogan Josh (I am sure it will be cooked a lot better in the restaurant the stall was advertsing) but progress has been made. I had recently set H a challenge to come to a curry house and try a few different dishes, just on the off chance that there is something there that she likes, which would then open up a whole new dining experience for us. She is still to do it but I have a very good feeling about it.











































Will and Vans came over on Sunday for the second day of the festival. Will and I started the day with a surf which definitely built up the thirst. This time H and I decided to spend the afternoon drinking red wine. H still refused to use the glass holder.















The wine went down very well and soon thoughts turned to cheese, as the perfect accompaniment for the plonk. The cheese platter that was on offer didn't look like it could satisfy the craving, especially as there was more dried fruit on it than cheese, but we were directed towards a deli. For Will and Vans, discovering the 'Fromage Room' (with it's very own 'Cheese News') was a real highlight of the day. It smelt like France (but without the dog shite).