~ Curious Charlie ~

Flavour Exchange - Spring Edition '15 @ Monday, October 05, 2015

Charlie & Co. attended as guests of Dig + Fish, though did purchase products.
Co. has decided not to contribute to this post after countless calls and will be repaying the cost of his ticket.

Friday 4th September

Tonight we went to the Flavour Exchange held four times a year, once per season at The Atrium at Fed Square. It's an event to showcase seasonal flavours from local Victorian producers, where you can meet all the producers, winemakers and growers. Hear their stories and why they love what they do.

How it works is you buy a ticket for $38 which includes a plastic wine glass, that looks just like glass!, perfect for those on the accident prone side if life; and 14 tasting tokens, which you can buy more of.

The tasting tokens are literally tokens! How exciting, this is the cloest you'll get to paying for stuff in dubloons. :P The prices of different tastings vary, those to the consumer think of it as being $1 a taste. Most samples are 1 token though things larger cost more.

While jas is not an expert, yet, mr jas loves wine and is teaching him all about it, while on my side we ~~hoard~~ collect all the wine I win, but never drink it. Hence jas will be completing the wine segment. - Edit: He is refusing to do his part of the review due to the fact that he is lazy, and this review is under my name and so it doesn't affect him if he messes up. He has been fired and will no longer be attending events.

Party Pies - 1 Token Each

At this point we should mention it was getting towards the end of the two day event, and so there might have been a price reduction. Like the party pies were 3 tokens each when we first sweep by, but 1 token each at the end of the night.

George's Gourmet Pies are known throughout the events world (or at least to me, I've seen him at countless events) serving up his delicious homemade style pies. He doesn't usually have parties pies, but they're the best way to try everything! Which is what we did, we skipped the vegetarian fillings though. The tandoori was hot and the classic had a jelly like sauce which I didn't like, but overall they were quite good.

In the corner (prime estate at expos), was the Vibe Hotel's Radius Bar & Grill from Marysville. A new hotel, which we're not sure if just appeared or was rebuilt. Showcasing their catering and beautiful location for weddings and perhaps a weekend getaway, they had pork & lamb sliders and pannacotta tubes, 3 for 5 tokens.

I love things that come in mini sizes, they're so cute!

Meanwhile jas drank his way across two rooms and bought a Classic Muscot from Auldstone. This is a big thing, throughout the years of events jas has never bought wine at an event before, and we go to a lot of events that have wine. Yes I do know that's the wrong picture, but I spent most of the night chasing him like a freaking toddler, to get pictures and I missed half.

Two Scoops - 4 Tokens

If you're ever going up to Healesville put Gelaperia Gelato on your list, they have gelato flavours that use local produce and ingredients from Italy. Like the pistachio which we both loved, and the classic 'Stracciatella' Fior di latte laced with 70% dark chocolate which the lady serving let me in on a secret: it's cookies & cream. ;) But it was all about the textures, light & cream. It was a cream ice cream with bits of chocolate. Yum!

By the door was 'Backyard Honey' the most local your honey will ever get. The flavours were different depending on where it came from and the flowers in the area, some were more flowery than others. One of the honeys we sampled was from Blackburn, though I went with a Red Gum Honey from Hattah Lales towards Mildura.

The Venue

Fudge!! I remember this brand as being one of my favourites, a rare acquisition only made during the annual school excursion to Healsville by le beau. This fudge comes from Healesville and can be bought in surrounding areas, Cliffton Hill is as closest as it gets to the city. This brand is significant to me, as the first kinda sponsored event I went to, was a company sponsored a picnic with produce from the Yarra Valley and surrounding areas. And they had Fudge by Rich on the picnic table.

The Flavour Exchange is your farmer's market but for wine and other produce like honey, fudge, pasta and all foods as gifts suitable for a quality gift hamper. A great event for those who want to know where their food comes from, with lots of samples.