A Taste Of Christmas: to go or not to go? - a review

FlyingDutchman

I thought I'd post a review of the exhibition here so people can make up their minds as to whether to go to this exhibition or not tomorrow, considering some have won tickets and some have obtained freebies. Feel free to move this if it should be in another forum.

Firstly I'd like to thank xsunnysuex for the free tickets for A Taste Of Christmas at the Excel centre. :beer:

Secondly I would like to say that I had a few reservations about going after reading some comments from members of this forum. Thankfully these were allayed when I arrived and started walking around the exhibition.

I'd only been there a few minutes and I'd sampled a number of different chocolates (a guilty pleasure of mine!) and was handed a Waitrose calendar which contained £15 worth of vouchers (inc. one for £5.00 off with NO minimum spend!). :j

Other stalls were offering free tastings of their wares: mayo dips; VERY hot chilli sauce; turkey and chirizo; a number of different wines, beers and cider. Oh, and more chocolates! This included WHOLE truffles and, wait for it....Green And Blacks were giving away miniature and medium bars of milk chocolate! Amazingly they still had some left as I was leaving!

The currency at the show, as some might be aware, were Crowns. These could be purchased to buy food and other goods at the show. I was a little short of funds so I decided not to so I can't comment on any of the hot food that was available there. What I did see of the portions though I thought they were particularly small.

I had a great time though and ended up judging a competition at the Cookery School Theatre and was rewarded with a box of truffles.

At the Taste Of France I then "prepared" a duck for cooking by trussing it up with string (rather haphazardly!) followed by icing some biscuits. Needless to say my efforts weren't rewarded here as I'm no Jamie Oliver!

Worth mentioning that at both these demonstrations both the public and the people taking part weren't allowed to taste what they'd made. Not sure why.

There were quite a few competitions to be entered but, as I'm teetotal, I missed out on the Shopping Trip To NY one at the Kasteel Cru lounge, so don't make the same mistake I did! The best of the ones I entered was at the Peugeot stand where you can win places on the Raymond Blanc Cookery School. All the online ones I have posted on the competitions forum. Another to look out for is the AEG competition: look out for the "Bring a Taste of Christmas home" leaflet or the Taste Theatre where they hand them out.

At the Taste Theatre they hand out Waitrose Christmas Cook Books to those that attend any of the demos by the chefs which has 64 receipes in it and is worth £1.

There was lots more to get involved in, including the Flower and Canape Workshop (get your name on the list fast though) and the Taste Cheese and Chocolate stands (not together though!).

So, aside from the transport, which is a little ropey as there are engineering works on the DLR (check out the shuttle buses that run from City Airport (Stop K, I think) and Canning Town DLR)) to the front of the Excel centre, a good day was had by me.

I hope this helps people to make up their minds. My advice: get involved at the cookery sessions as it's fun and you might win something!

brudie25

I went today and really enjoyed it :cheesy: Spent from 10am until 4.30 in there. We went with high hopes after having been to the summer one where we had VIP tickets - We ate and drank loads - yes portion sizes of the hot food are small but they are a sample from some of Londons top restaturants not a full meal - I on;y spent £20 on crowns and had 2 mains and 2 desserts as well as a couple of drinks. The samples are fab not stingy at all although I did spend a fair bit on luxury food stuffs - not something I'd usually do but we booked this ages ago and have been saving! brilliant day

Gosia

Me too - I also went today. Could only spend 3 hours there but needless to say I ensured that I entered all the comps, must have tasted at least 8 truffles and bought 10 pounds worth of Crowns which was more than enough to get a hot meal and then even bought some chocs and bread.

I would definitely go again. The free entry tickets were a nice bonus as I really wouldn't have paid 22 quid to go in.

Kimitatsu

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horlet

I just come from there and it is lovely! I went pretty early...around 11am and exited the place before it became crowded @ around 1pm

That way the interaction with the sellers is not disturbed and you can get a lot of freebies...However the purpose of those events is to discover new stuff; not to get freebies only....and I surely did!

Besides, the majority of the sellers were not big companies and some cannot offer samples with P&P included

All the one who've been can relate:

I purchased some easybean african flavour with chicken...very unik!
I also took 2 packs of teapigs (google them please!) teas : Yerba Mate and Chai, since you're askin' they have the finest teas and the range is awesome!

Also got some Japanese drinks...My favorites!

What about freebies? Well, I got all of the ones I wanted and that ranges from ice cream to easy bean passing from bread to relishes...etc
do I also need to mention chocolate?
The Belgian chocolate company (Galler) with the 4 element stuff!Pretty nice!

Of course, depending on your inclination, you could get a lot of liqueurs,champagne... as well besides everything I already mentioned!

There were even some competitions once there too!In addition , because it was the last day,people were willing to do almost anything to get your attention including lowering down their prices in order to sell.

Those who didn't go based on the amount of money they thought about having...or the lack of it, have missed one of the finest events in London!

Greatly recommended!


Will definitely go again next year...it was worth it!

ellarig

thanks for the review, after reading it, I decided to go yesterday (I wasnt sure about it due to a long journey), but it was really worth going, free shuttle buses were laid on to Excel from Canning Town underground station. Plenty of samples to try, choc, wine, coffee, cheese etc and also entered quite a few comps! Also cooking demos by top chefs.
By lunchtime it was very crowded and hot, but we had overeaten by then!
I wouldnt have paid £22 a ticket entry, but as the tix were free it was well worth it.