Brighton Food Festival

I can't think of a better way of spending my Good Friday than to stroll along Hove Lawns with a huge spread of street food stalls to choose from. Brighton Food Festival is one of the UK's biggest food and drink festivals and I had been counting down the weeks to go (I wish I was joking).

Jordan and I put on our sunglasses, clambered into our jackets and drove along the seaside in his classic Mini with our excited faces on.

This is our excited face.

Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival included the Big Sussex Market, Live Food Show, Sussex and the World Market and the Children's Food Festival (why didn't anyone take me there when I was a kid?) - we were spoilt for choice and walking around three times didn't help us decide any quicker.

Pulled pork with homemade apple sauce? Lamb tagine? Thai street food?

We spotted a freshly baked tomato, olives and cheese loaf for £1.50, declared it ours and tucked in with our eyes tightly shut pretending that we were back in Rome. We weren't but it was still delicious. Carbs, y u so good?




Is it a little chilli here or is just me?

(psst... the chilli stalls didn't escape. I naturally gravitated towards the mango chilli jar - I want to bathe in it)



I spotted this stir fry vegetable stand and it was a little embarrassing how excited I got over it. Huge catering pans brimming with vegetables, spicy bean sauce and cumin for £5? I hit the jackpot. It was seasoned beautifully, ridiculously healthy and satisfied me ol' stomach.

I topped my generous portion with roasted onions, wild garlic and chilli pickles.



Jordan went for a surf 'n' turf wrap filled with grilled buffalo meat and seared king prawns. I took one a few bites and it was gooood. The meat was tender and wasn't overcooked in the slightest.

I also stopped by The Protein Bakery after following them on Twitter the day before. They had a selection of walnut brownies, blondies and cinnamon cookies all filled with protein and after sampling a few, I was sold. I bought the Starter Pack (a walnut brownie and four cookies) for £5 and squealed 'you don't know how excited I am about these!' before running off in search for more food. After checking the ingredients list, they're not the cleanest protein products on the market so it's definitely a treat but it's much better than your generic cookie.



To nurse our full stomachs, we walked along the beach and headed towards the North Laines where I was set loose in Infinity Foods. Word of warning, never go to a health food store (Wholefoods, Holland & Barretts and Planet Organic - I'm looking at you) if you don't have an hour or two to spare. I was running around excitedly grabbing everything and at times, you could catch the odd exclaims of 'raw cacao', 'buckwheat' and 'ooh, chia seeds!!!' dancing around the shop.



 I filmed another 'healthy food haul' which will be going live in the next few days as I spent a bit too much (never too much) and was feeling too giddy to not share it with you. We celebrated with some iced tea at recently opened Bluebird Tea & Co after sniffing all their chai tea leaves.

I opted for an iced matcha latte (10x the benefits of green tea!) and Jordan chose a chai tea latte.

Cheers!

 

I can't think of a better way to end the day... except that we made healthy peanut butter buckwheat/spelt doughnuts when we got back! Recipe coming soon!

If you live nearby or planning a weekend trip to Brighton soon, it's worth checking out the Food Festival website to see if there are any events running! I hear it's the Foodie Festival on Saturday... you'll know where to find me ;)