Hampton Court Palace May 25 – 27th

Another 3 day weekend in May? If you’ve been overworked say amen. 30 minutes from Waterloo was all it took to escape the city and end up in the countryside for a day. With the backdrop of beautiful Hampton Court Palace, we arrived at Foodies Festival on the bank holiday Monday and was blessed to have beautiful weather enough for shin bearing, live entertainment and endless rounds of nibbles.

Starting from 11am, we slowly grazed our way through roughly 30 stalls, stopping only to stretch out on the grass with a few tequila shots courtesy of Shaf at the Chairman’s Reserve. Happy hour is only a round of tequila away.

We got a chance to have a chat with the lovely guys working at Street Kitchen and another food combo is in the works along the lines of The Burger Dog, or a Hot Bog for short, remember where you heard it first. Make this the first stall on your way in, and get there fast! Their burgers have been known to be sold out by 2PM.

It was such a shame we didn’t get the name for this stall as it was the most generous portion of pulled pork we’ve ever seen.

Another amazing burger we tried was the Ostrich Burger from Tucker’s Exotic Meats (£4). Don’t be deterred by how small the burger may seem against the giant bap, ostrich is expensive stuff and it was 100% meat and lean, so it’s a quality burger for £4. Other exotic burgers not pictured included Zebra, Kangaroo, Buffalo and Wild Boar (all £6).

The Chairman’s Reserve

The Exotic Tagine

Cupcake-a-licious (£2)

Distilling Inc

The number of independent food companies emerging into the market has never been more exciting.

As the sample crawl came to an end, we tried really hard to narrow down our list to some of the best for your viewing pleasure only… the next Foodie next event in Clapham Common June 7-9th, but obviously try them all if you happen to stay for the whole day!

Best for drinks: Chairman’s Reserve Rum and Grouse ginger beer

Best for food: Street Kitchen

Best for snack: Popcorn Kitchen

Best for cakes: Cupcake-a-licious

Best new comer: Aduna Baobab and Distilling Inc

Click here for a list of other food festivals coming up this summer.