The Flour Festival
There are so many events on this weekend that one hardly knows how to spend one’s time – the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, the Antipodes Festival, the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, the 12th FINA World Championships. As much as I love the latter two, I couldn’t go past the International Flour Festival that took place this weekend as part of the food festival.
The YUZU catering company does some really inventive and tasty food. We had the seafood okonomiyaki to kick off our afternoon and a side dish of sun balls (behind the prawns), which are like arancini with an asian kick – rice, shitakes, sesame seeds.
Next up, a ‘Paesan’ pizza from Pizza Farro who specialise in spelt pizza bases which are lighter in texture and great for wheat-intolerant pizza lovers.
I have never been a big fan of Mexican food but assumed that I hadn’t tried any authentic yet. Los Amates claims to be ‘the place where Mexicans come to eat’ however their Sopes didn’t do much to win me over. The handmade case is slightly sour in flavour and the refried bean, salsa and cheese topping tasteless. Is it just that my tastebuds are not tuned into Mexican food or is there a place someone can recommend me that would awaken them?
Alaysa Turkish Restaurant had a yummy looking stand filled with boreks and thick fluffy-based pizzas.
I had been craving naan and curry for some weeks now so it was fortuitous that Tandoori Den Camberwell was there. We shared a combination platter which had a scoop of each curry (butter chicken, dhall, vegetable, beef vindaloo), 2 samosas, rice and a piece of naan. Butter chicken is still my favourite but their beef vindaloo was up there too.
AMES had a stand that was selling curries and stews the like of which I had never come across. Unfortunately, we had had our fill and couldn’t try all these out 
It was a great day overall but I can’t understand why there was pretty much only one stall representing each cuisine when Melbourne has some of the most amazing restaurants around. If it’s okay to have several bread stalls, then why not two or three Japanese food stands or more than one stall making roti. Surely there would not be too much overlap? Maybe that’s something to consider for next year…
March 26th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Wow, that looks so interesting! I love food festivals and go to a whole bunch myself. But I’d never heard of one dedicated to flour before. I’ve been to seafood, beer, wine, fruits, vegetable and various ethnic fesivals. But never flour! Is flour a big export of Australia?
March 26th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Welcome back to Melbourne. I see you got right into it straight away and have begun to eat eat eat. I wanted to go to the flour festival too, but had some business to attend to. I agree that they have more stalls, the amount of choice is always the highlight of Melbourne food.
March 27th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Rachel: That’s a new one for this year and I think an attempt to try and incorporate different cuisines nuder one banner. I’m not sure that it really has to do with Australian exports as such!
Thanh: Well, one’s gotta eat, right? Hope that you managed to get to some events as well.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Yummy photos, and what a great idea too. Never seen a flour festival in Sydney *pouts*
Mmm… I’m craving gluten-rich products now
March 30th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
hehe… I was standing right next to you when you took that photo of the mexican lady making those little circular things on the hotplate! I thought you would be a blogger… and I was right! Nice pics!
March 31st, 2007 at 9:07 am
Try Viva Zapatas for great Mexican food.
March 31st, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Helen: And I’m normally the green-eyed monster, looking wistfully at the photos that you post of all those Sydney festivals!
Adski: Yes, I thought you might’ve been one too, with that Canon 400D camera
I hope that the fried bread roll that you tried was better than the Sopes – are you putting up pictures from the festival at some stage too? Say hello next time!
March 31st, 2007 at 2:35 pm
scientaestubique: Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve also heard that Blue Corn is pretty good – have you been there?
April 1st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Sorry Cin, never been there.
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I came across your blog while googling for Alaysa bakery (that’s the name I saw during the Flour festival, after reading your post I now know it’s in fact a restaurant
.
My friend from Sydney has been bugging me to show her photos on the food I saw that day, I’ve only taken a few… but now she can check out your post and see what she’s missed out! ;D Great photos!!!