Today I attended a foodie event at South Bank in Brisbane called South Bank Regional Flavours - Wine + Produce + Experience. It featured more than 80 stall holders from around the Granite Belt, South Burnett, Scenic Rim, Gold Coast and Darling Downs regions of Queensland. I am originally from the Darling Downs, so I felt very chuffed to see such fine produce from "home".
It was just a perfect day for this outdoor event - warm, sunny and gorgeous:
One of my best buys of the day was a delicious freshly made waffle with berry compote and vanilla icecream, a bargain at $5.50 from the Bramble Patch stall, all the way from Stanthorpe:
I also came home with quite a haul of things, starting with these delicious chocolates from Mayfield Chocolates, based in Spring Hill in Brisbane:
The flavours in my box (8 pieces for $14.50) include Mariner's Mirage (brandy and port ganache filling), Hinterland (ginger and leatherwood honey ganache filling), Bali Beauty (Eastern spice flavoured ganache)Wattle (wattle seed flavoured ganache) and Kakadu (plum jelly). The flavour sample I was given was the Hinterland, and it was certainly moorish.
Next is a Bunya Black cheese from Kingaroy Cheese (based in Kingaroy, Queensland, a region best known for peanuts and Sir Joh):
This is a brie-style cheese containing a layer of vine ash:
The colour is the ash layer - it is not mould, like a blue vein. I found this cheese to be smooth, creamy and delicious. This 180g round of cheese cost $9 - not cheap, but comparable in price to other artisan cheesemakers.
And of course, a trip to Kingaroy would not be complete without a visit to the famous Peanut Van, which thankfully had a stall:
I bought 4 x 100g bags of flavoured peanuts for $10 (you could have bought 2 x 375g bags for $15 - a lot of nuts for your dollar!). The flavours I selected were chilli and lime (I sampled these and they are yummy!!!), kurry, hickory smoke (I have had these before - they have a distinctive smoky, meaty taste) and mexican delight.
From the ladies at White Mischief at Mt Tyson, I bought this delicious slab of Rocky Road, a steal at $4:
It is fabulous old-fashioned Rocky Road, with chocolate, marshmallow, peanuts and soft jelly. I have already eaten half of it, so I have resolutely hidden the other half in the cupboard to give to my brother - I am dangerous around this stuff. The ladies also had an amazing selection of fudges on sale, including flavours such as strawberries and cream, lemon sherbert, caramel ripple and cherry ripe, for a mere $3.50 a slab.
From the Super Bee, located on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, I purchased these great squeeze pack honeys, one eucalyptus, the other floral blend, for $7 (375g each pack):
The floral blend is sweeter than the eucalyptus flavour, so various taste preferences are catered for.
Now, I know that I should not buy more jam, as my cupboard is bulging with it, and I mainly just cook with it. However, I could not resist these jams:
The three jars on the left (apricot and almond, lemon and ginger marmalade and fig and ginger jams) are from Mary Norman of Dalveen, half way between Warwick and Stanthorpe on the "fruit run". Mary appears to be a private maker who also makes a mean cauliflower pickle (which I also tasted). Her telephone contact details are available on the jars, which I can pass on if anyone wishes to contact her about her product. My jams were 3 for $10 (110g size), but larger sizes are available.
The other larger jar of jam has the fascinating name of Dragonberry Jam. There is no such thing as a dragonberry - rather, this jam is a blend of dragonfruit, lemon myrtle juice and apple. I am intrigued and can't wait to try it. This jam is by Red Fox Pitayas at Nanango, and cost $7.
This is a brie-style cheese containing a layer of vine ash:
The colour is the ash layer - it is not mould, like a blue vein. I found this cheese to be smooth, creamy and delicious. This 180g round of cheese cost $9 - not cheap, but comparable in price to other artisan cheesemakers.
And of course, a trip to Kingaroy would not be complete without a visit to the famous Peanut Van, which thankfully had a stall:
I bought 4 x 100g bags of flavoured peanuts for $10 (you could have bought 2 x 375g bags for $15 - a lot of nuts for your dollar!). The flavours I selected were chilli and lime (I sampled these and they are yummy!!!), kurry, hickory smoke (I have had these before - they have a distinctive smoky, meaty taste) and mexican delight.
From the ladies at White Mischief at Mt Tyson, I bought this delicious slab of Rocky Road, a steal at $4:
It is fabulous old-fashioned Rocky Road, with chocolate, marshmallow, peanuts and soft jelly. I have already eaten half of it, so I have resolutely hidden the other half in the cupboard to give to my brother - I am dangerous around this stuff. The ladies also had an amazing selection of fudges on sale, including flavours such as strawberries and cream, lemon sherbert, caramel ripple and cherry ripe, for a mere $3.50 a slab.
From the Super Bee, located on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, I purchased these great squeeze pack honeys, one eucalyptus, the other floral blend, for $7 (375g each pack):
The floral blend is sweeter than the eucalyptus flavour, so various taste preferences are catered for.
Now, I know that I should not buy more jam, as my cupboard is bulging with it, and I mainly just cook with it. However, I could not resist these jams:
The three jars on the left (apricot and almond, lemon and ginger marmalade and fig and ginger jams) are from Mary Norman of Dalveen, half way between Warwick and Stanthorpe on the "fruit run". Mary appears to be a private maker who also makes a mean cauliflower pickle (which I also tasted). Her telephone contact details are available on the jars, which I can pass on if anyone wishes to contact her about her product. My jams were 3 for $10 (110g size), but larger sizes are available.
The other larger jar of jam has the fascinating name of Dragonberry Jam. There is no such thing as a dragonberry - rather, this jam is a blend of dragonfruit, lemon myrtle juice and apple. I am intrigued and can't wait to try it. This jam is by Red Fox Pitayas at Nanango, and cost $7.
While I avoided most of the wine stands (I don't drink much and these are the stands that attract the free alcohol lovers, who stand for ages tasting everything), I did visit a couple of the winery stands with some unusual and interesting liqueurs on sale. I figure that I can use these to flavour my baked goods, if nothing else:
From Granite Belt Highlands Winery from Glen Aplin, I purchased the most devine bottle of Butterscotch Cream. It is smooth and sweet and scarily doesn't taste alcoholic at all, despite having a 10% alcohol content. I would have preferred to only buy a small bottle of it, but they had sold out (less than 2 hours into the event!), such was its popularity, so I decided on the extravagance of a full sized bottle (500ml at $20). I also bought a tiny bottle of raspberry liqueur for $5 for the sole purpose of flavouring baked goods.
Many of the suppliers that I have mentioned sell online, and will ship interstate (and in some cases, internationally).
For more information on the Granite Belt region, home of the majority of the produce in this post, visit the Granite Belt Wine Country website, where you can find a "Nude Food Trail" map of great places to eat, drink and buy on the Queensland Granite Belt, where it is coming up to peak tourist season because people can enjoy the country comfort and hospitality of the rolling farmlands combined with roaring fires.
On the right is a very pretty bottle of lavendar liqueur ($23 for 375ml) by Castle Glen at The Summit on the Granite Belt. As well as wines, Castle Glen make an incredible range of unusual liqueurs, with names like Dragons Crap (chilli, ginger, lime and chocolate creme), Maidens Dream Creme (whiskey creme) and Queensland Delight (rum, coffee and chocolate creme). I was initially attracted to the bright pink Jelly Bean liqueur (a blend of 14 different liqueurs) and Musk Stick (which is said to taste like the lollies of the same name), but after tasting the white chocolate creme, I settled on the lavendar liqueur. It is very strong (25% alcohol), and very sweet, but I think it would give a nice flavour to baked goods, and I could use to try and make a cocktail called the Aviation which I learned of at 1806 Cocktail Bar in Melbourne but never got to try because they ran out of Creme de Violette (it is now off the menu!). I figure that lavendar liqueur would be a fair enough substitute for the rare Creme de Violette.
From Granite Belt Highlands Winery from Glen Aplin, I purchased the most devine bottle of Butterscotch Cream. It is smooth and sweet and scarily doesn't taste alcoholic at all, despite having a 10% alcohol content. I would have preferred to only buy a small bottle of it, but they had sold out (less than 2 hours into the event!), such was its popularity, so I decided on the extravagance of a full sized bottle (500ml at $20). I also bought a tiny bottle of raspberry liqueur for $5 for the sole purpose of flavouring baked goods.
Many of the suppliers that I have mentioned sell online, and will ship interstate (and in some cases, internationally).
For more information on the Granite Belt region, home of the majority of the produce in this post, visit the Granite Belt Wine Country website, where you can find a "Nude Food Trail" map of great places to eat, drink and buy on the Queensland Granite Belt, where it is coming up to peak tourist season because people can enjoy the country comfort and hospitality of the rolling farmlands combined with roaring fires.
Looks like a great day and you got some great deals there!
ReplyDeleteHi Lorraine, it was interesting, and was a nice introduction into what is available on the Queensland food scene.
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd known it was on! Those chocolate flavours sound amazing
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, it was fun. I only knew about it because they promoted it on The Great South East and Saturday Extra.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a brilliant time Cakelaw :0)
ReplyDelete