Great Day Out – The Great Dorset Chilli Festival 2012
This years Great Dorset Chilli Festival, provided a great day out at the, last years was very enjoyable, but this years are grown up, with much more to taste, there must have been double the number of chilli stalls and a much larger range of food vendors. We went on the Sunday and the weather could not have been better.
The festival was hosted at St Giles House, which was undergoing a little bit of restoration, but otherwise made an excellent host venue, parking was simple and my GPS took us straight there ( we ofter seem to end up near but not exactly in the right place with some of these venue sites).
There was a wandering Mariachi band, while at one end of the Festival there was a stage, this later hosted the Chilli Eating Competition, but otherwise was host to some excellent music.
We found a few new products to review including a Cider with Chillies from the Upton Cheyney Chilli Company and a new Mayo from Mr Vikki’s, It was also great to meet a few new vendors who’s products we have tasted but had not yet been able to put a face to a name I do recommend you hunt down Velsi’s Kitchen and taste and buy their Fiery Mixed Chilli Chutney
One stall that never changes is David’s Chilli Oil, I think David must have just about got the recipe perfect, and it is good to see he is winning some more awards with his Hot and Medium Oils winning Gold at the Taste of the West Awards 2012 and the Hot Oil also won a Great Taste Gold Award 2012.
Unfortunately we missed some of the Talks and Cooking Demonstration, but we where told they were well attended with talks and cooking demos from the likes of Vivien Lloyd, Alex Duck, Jim Wilson and Joy Michaud to name but a few.
The catering options this year had grown like the event, I think I would have had to have been there for both days to stand a chance of trying all that was on offer, one vender stall was a real eye opener being a very large red bus that hosted The Big Enchilada Company. It must have been very hot in there, but they kept turning out the tacos and the queue never seemed to dwindle.
At the end of the day our own Darth Naga hosted the Chilli Eating contest and a good crowd stayed to the end to watch as the competitors munched from mild to wild in the world of chillies.
Cannot wait now for next year…
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