World Food in Devizes; Thanks Food & Drink Festival!

Devizes Food & Drink Festival came to a close for this year with the most amazing World Food event at the Corn Exchange on Sunday…it was yummy on an international scale!

It’s an annual finale I’ve missed in previous years, but was persuaded to attend by Dora who was there with a sweet Hong Kong dish of tapioca and melon. And that’s the premise, any local with ethnic roots is invited to serve a taster dish from their country of origin. One raffle ticket equals one dish, a strip of five costs just £3, the event is free to attend.

This arrangement makes this event arguably the best one on the Food & Drink Festival program, if the others require a ticket and the opening food market, while diverse in choices of tucker, vendors are left to their own devices and tend to sell fuller dishes at fuller costs, therefore should you wish to try something different you’re committed to a single choice or two. Here you circulate the hall safe in the knowledge that if the dish was not to your liking, it’s only set you back sixty pee, and there’s lots more options priced the same. It is a reserved and courteous dash, being a first-come-first-served situation and only a set amount of dishes from each table; I arrived punctual, and peckish. Best advice I could give about this event is to try and arrive before me!

For this, those who know the score with this event are queuing as far as the old Natwest bank waiting for it to open as if it was an Oasis reunion gig! And they were right to, it was fantastic and gorged-aciously gorgeous, and I’d kick myself for not attending before if I wasn’t balancing three dishes of various national dishes!

If you know me well you’ll know I do love my grub, and I’ve eclectic tastes, save eggs! I’m in my element here, trekking the world like Jules Verne’s cutlery, without leaving the Devizes Corn Exchange. Though there’s less than eighty tables, it’s certainly plentiful. First stop, Zimbabwe for some tasty Sadza Balls, onto a lovely Romanian stew I’m not even going to attempt to spell, and then I’m back in Africa, for South African Chakalaka; loved the name, preferred the dish, it was probably my favourite if I was forced to pick one!

It is perhaps for the adventurous, this event, and unlike a more multicultural place, we’re restricted here to Italian, Chinese and Indian restaurants, therefore to explore the more unusual is key to experiencing the best of the occasion. With this ethos, the Western European tables aren’t attracting the same attention as the Eastern European, African or Asian ones. Nevertheless, I tried the Italian one as they had something I’d not seen before, Lenticchie De Capodana, a lentil stew which they told me is traditionally served at New Year and is therefore more of a household dish than something you’d find in restaurants. Herein is the interesting angle of the event as a whole, these are home cooked dishes and not pampered or adapted to an international palette, as meals in restaurants might well be.

There were a few tables I did not try, such as Scottish haggis, I didn’t so in favour of the more exotic ones, and prevention from over-indulging (of which I was close to the border already.) I mean, when do you get to try Rourou patties with Dalo from Fiji, in Devizes, huh?! This one was particularly unusual, and tasty, as equally as those from the Ukraine, a berry and cream pudding from Denmark, even some apple layered sponge cake from Guernsey; yes, they had puddings too, get in!

Though they didn’t have any drinks, so take a bottle of water with you next year. But do go, it was scrumptious, communal, and a grand finale to the Food & Drink Festival. An event I’m unusually tempted to summarise using science, yes science; step aside Heston Blumenthal!

So, forget about Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve, and the pun, and focus on Darren’s Remembering Curve! Eddinghaus’ curve is a hypothesis, his methodology is wrought with debatable flaws, especially by modern thinking. Affective Context Theory is the new bag, emphasising vehemence in memory retention, in other words, you cannot learn anything you’ve no interest in. My curve is the physical example, it’s my belly, and once filled so too is my retention to knowledge, because I’m interested in filling my gut. I learned a lot today about different world foods, and I’m likely to remember it because Darren’s Remembering Curve is particularly full now with new foods I’ve not tried before, see? Okay, don’t base your PHD on it, as long as you get the general gist!

Awl, here’s to another year, then, cheers, and thank you to all the organisers of the festival and everyone who provided a dish to try; I’m full!