TASTE OF MELBOURNE FESTIVAL

PART 2 - THE FOOD EXHIBITORS
www.tastefestivals.com.au/australia/

Look how cute the mini cakes are!

From left: chocolate ganache, lemon, apple and cinamon and strawberry mini cupcakes ($2.50 each)

Part 2 of the Taste of Melbourne Festival experience. Before going through the restaurant stalls, my friend and I stuffed our faces on samples of cheese, wine, biscuits, cakes and lots of chocolate at the exhibitors' stalls.

The Babycakes (http://www.babycakesbydesign.com.au/) stall was probably one of the most sought after sweets stall. My friend and I could not resist the tiny cakes with intricately crafted frosting. They just looked so cute! We bought a dozen of them among ourselves.

I brought mine home for the husby - he loved them.

We were also drawn to Chocovic's (http://www.chocovic.es/) stall. Chocovic is a Spanish chocolate manufacturer. They source cocoa from all over the world to create various origin-specific chocolates. They are distributed in Australia through Cocoa Alliance (http://www.cocoaalliance.com/).

I loved the variety of milk, dark and white chocolates they had on offer. My friend couldn't resist and bought a 1kg couverture white chocolate bag to make hot chocolate. Yum!

Chocovic assorted chocolates

Another stall that surprised me was Pama (http://www.pamaliqueur.com.au/), makers of pomegranate liqueur. Initially I thought alcohol and pomegranate would not go well together, but the liqueur was really good! My friend and I ended up trying their pomegranate mojito, made with fresh mint, lime juice and cachaca - a traditioal Brazilian spirit - delicious!

Pomegranate liqueur and cachaca mojitos ($10 each)

There were some wineries exhibiting as well (but not as many as in the Good Food and Wine
show) and I was glad to see one of my favorite sparking wine makers - Hanging Rock (http://www.hangingrock.com.au/). They make a beautiful sparkling rose. It's light and crisp and the perfect drink to have as a starter to a dinner party or as accompaniment to some nibbles.

Their Brut Cuvee follows the French champagne fermentation method and is a bit more buttery than your traditional Australian Pinot Noir sparkling.

Hanging Rock sparkling wines

Another stall that I liked was the christmas cakes and puddings - Puddings on the Ritz (http://www.puddingsontheritz.com/). Again, good variety of cakes and flavours to choose from and really moist puddings. And the ladies working there were very nice too - which always help to sell a product.

Christmas puddings by Puddings on the Ritz

There were so many exhibitors that it would take me days to write about all. I have to say I was particularly attracted to the chocolate stalls. I tasted A LOT of chocolate. Not wonder I felt a bit ill the following morning.

Oh well, I can't really complain :)