BBC Good Food Show

Last week I attended the BBC Good Food Show in the NEC in Birmingham. I went with other members of the 'Brum Dine With Me' society at my university. It was such a great day and really interesting to see all of the producers selling their produce and goods.

I had an afternoon ticket so arrived at about 1 o'clock. It was quite busy and myself and two friends made our way around the stalls, amazed at how much was there and sampling anything on offer. Even though I had quite a few samples I was still desperate for some lunch as my small breakfast seemed very long ago. I decided to get a pork roll from the Traditional Meat Carvery Co.

I can't remember exactly what I paid for it, all I know was that it was quite expensive, but as I got a fairly large, soft white roll filled with deliciously juicy and tender pulled pork it was worth parting with my cash. I often find pork from a carvery or a hog roast to be quite dry so I was pleased that this pork wasn't dry in the slightest.

Always in the mood for something sweet, and seeing as it was a beautiful and warm day, I was craving some ice cream and decided to get a couple of scoops from Salcombe Dairy. I went for one scoop of salted honeycomb and one of vanilla.

The ice cream was amazing, really full of flavour with a wonderful creamy texture. I especially liked the salted honeycomb, not too salty but enough to distract from the sweetness of the honeycomb. From their website it seems they sell mainly to businesses but they also appear at events and food festivals. If they are in your area I highly recommend tracking them down to trying some of their ice cream. Check out their website here.

After our wander around looking at the producer's offerings we headed over to the Super Theatre to see Mary Berry. I can remember helping my mum to cook or make cakes when I was little using a giant cook book written by Mary Berry and her appearances on television over the last few years have been very welcome by me. I really like her style of cooking; comforting and simple. Often simple dishes with few ingredients executed perfectly can be just as impressive as those made up of lots of fancy ingredients and complex cooking methods. I was excited to see her in real life, which might sound a bit sad really for a 19 year old student, but she put on a very good show.

Mary seemed very nice and just as pleasant as she comes across on TV. She made a salmon en croute and a lime and mascarpone dessert which both looked easy and delicious and I will be sure to hunt down the recipes for both over the summer.

All in all I had a really lovely day. The other members of the society enjoyed it too and its great to be part of a group that appreciates and shares a love of good food.

I think we are planning on running another trip to the BBC Good Food Show next winter so I will very much look forward to that and will save up to make the most of the great deals the sellers make on their goods. I wasn't prepared for how much there would be to buy (and how difficult it would be to decide what to get!) but I did make a couple of purchases which I will post my reviews of in the next couple of days.