Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2015

In April we went to the Bishop Auckland Food Festival, but typical me I'm only just writing about it now.

Mr.R is much better at blogging than I am, he usually writes his blog posts as soon as he has anything to write about, but me, well, I think too much, and then that muddles my mind, and then I invariably decide not to write about whatever it was I was going to write about until tomorrow....... and as tomorrow never comes, neither do my blog posts.......

So, today I am determined to get stuck in, and write some blog posts, as I have millions in my head. Well, not millions, but a lot, definitely a lot.

Lovely smiley cheese people

Mmm, goats cheese

This lemon curd cheese was seriously nice

As I was saying, back in April of this year, 2015, we went with a friend to the Bishop Auckland Food Festival, and a very good day was had by us all.

9ct shimmering blood orange vodka with lemonade - we couldn't taste any vodka :(

Lamb dog treats - he doesn't look impressed does he? :o

The drive from our house to Bishop Auckland was wet, it was raining quite heavily, so we weren't expecting to stay long at the food festival, but by the time we'd arrived the rain had stopped and the sun had started to shine.

Biddies browsing bangers

Just one of the 3 different packs of sausages we purchased, 3 for £10 - these were lovely

Geordie Bangers, Venison sausages, and one with black pudding 

We parked just round the back of the main street where the festival was being held. Then we went straight into a Wetherspoon pub, The Stanley Jefferson, for breakfast. 

The pub is named after Stan Laurel, his birth name was Stanley Jefferson - and there endeth the history lesson.

Full English, and a pint of beer eagerly consumed, we headed out towards the food festival.

Directly outside the pub were several food vendors, but the main event was a little further up the road in the grounds of the college.

I'm sure there's some kind of irony; eating a Wetherspoon breakfast before a food festival -

we really went on for the real ale :)

I had a pint of Coffee Porter, seriously good, and seriously good value - that's why we frequent Wetherspoon pubs, they always have excellent beer 

We browsed the stalls, stopping to buy a few things as we wandered.
As it was in April, and I have a bad memory, and it's now the end of June, I can't remember exactly what we bought, when, or from which company, but my photos pretty much show everything.

Thankfully our friend was the designated driver for the day, so that's one of the reasons why Mr.R and me enjoyed a nice pint of real ale with our breakfast; no driving, and why we also had a few other drinks as we looked round at the market stalls.

As none of us are interested in celebrities, we didn't bother to watch any of the live cooking displays, and I have no idea who was there this year, although I did see a photo of the chef Simon Rimmer; you know the bloke who does all of the proper work on the Channel 4 programme Sunday Brunch - but I think that was the photo from his appearance last year.

I bought one cupcake, a Caramac one - nice but sickly sweet, half was more than enough

There were quite a few people at the food festival, and a good selection of tasty food and drink available.
We were pleased with all of our purchases, the Geordie bangers were particularly good, as was the lemon curd cheese, and most importantly the real ale, all of which was delicious.
I think we prefered the beer to the food, simply because Mr.R makes seriously good food, but as of yet we he hasn't brewed any real ales.......

Mr.R likes Pork Pies

He said this one with black pudding was nice

Anyway, apart from being told that we couldn't take our beer, which we'd purchased in one area of the food festival, into another by a jobs-worth security muppet, we all enjoyed the food festival.
At the time, I was irritated that we'd been forced to stay in one area to finish our beers, albeit a nice area with tables and chairs, and lush green grass, and sunshine, and I was even more pissed-off later when we were back at the house and Mr.R mentioned that the information he'd read about the food festival stated that you could take your drinks with you wherever you wanted.
I wish I'd known that when the muppet security bloke was asserting his power. 
I should have realised that he was incorrect, as before the beer, we'd had a nice fruity vodka, which we'd purchased in the area we were trying to walk back to with our beers.
Oh well, whatever!
I'm rambling about eejit security men, when this blog post was supposed to be about the food festival.

Busy beer tent - full of sensible people

So, yes, back on track, the Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2015 was worth a visit.
We enjoyed a few drinks while we were there, we purchased a few food items to bring home, and the atmosphere was pleasant.

I just realised I've 'borrowed' quite a lot of photos from Mr.R.
I should have just written 'We went to the Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2015 - if you want to read about here's a link to my husbands blog post'. Hahaha!
I could have saved myself a lot of time, and no doubt his blog post is better than this one, oh well.......
Have you been to the Bishop Auckland Food Festival?
What did you think of it?
Where you treated like a naughty school child by a muppet dressed as security personnel? 

Quayside Sunday Market, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Last Sunday we finally went to Quayside Sunday Market in Newcastle.
I say finally, because we've been saying we'd go for several weeks, but the weather had always stopped us - rain and open-air markets are never a good idea.

So, last Sunday the weather forecast was good, well, it wasn't predicting hot and sunny, but it was supposed to be rain-free, which we considered a good thing for our outdoor plans.
As it turned out, Sunday morning, the sky was dull, cloudy, and full of rain, which began to fall as we set off in the car for Newcastle.

Bessie Surtees House. 'From the above window on Nov 18th 1772 Bessy Surtees descended and eloped with John Scott later created 1st Earl of Eldon and Lord Chancellor of England. 

Thankfully by the time we arrived at the Quayside Market there was no rain, and we wasted no time in walking across the Tyne River, from where we'd parked right by the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, to start browsing the market stalls.

We were at the Quayside Sunday Market early, so it wasn't busy at all, in fact apart from Mr.R, me, Barley our Lurcher, and a friend of ours, there were only a few other people wandering along the stalls.

This was our first ever visit to the Quayside Sunday Market in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and our first visit to Newcastle itself, so we were interested to see what was there.

The market was a lot smaller than I'd imagined, but as I believe in quality not quantity, I hoped we'd still be able to buy some nice goodies.

Our friend purchased some sausages from the Geordie Banger stall, and so did we.
We all knew how tasty the sausages were because we'd bought some a few weeks ago at the Bishop Auckland Food Festival. We chose the Geordie Banger sausages that time, which are pork with leek and mushroom. Delicious!
Ah, that reminds me, I must write a blog post about that; I suppose I should have written about it before I wrote this blog post. Oh well, whatever!

Right, so back to sausages. Our friend bought a pack of the Venison, and the Geordie Banger sausages.
We wanted to try something other than the Geordie Banger flavour we'd bought last time, so Mr.R chose Venison, Broon Ale, and Black & White sausages.
We've since tried one of each of the sausages we bought, (the rest we put in the freezer), and although they were all nice, we both preferred the Black & White sausage, which is made using black pudding and white pepper.
But from all of the ones we've ever tasted, the Geordie Banger is most definitely our favourite.
And speaking of the Geordie Banager sausages, our friend just told us that they are now making a pulled-pork sausage - we'll definitely have to try that, it sounds good.

Apart from the sausages, they sell 3 packets for £10, we didn't buy much else apart from some cheese, a couple of tarts, and a dog treat.
I was hungry so I bought quite a few different cheeses. And I was cold; it may not have been raining, but it was very cold, so I didn't bother to ask any questions at the cheese stall, such as if they made all of the cheese they were selling themselves, or if they were just retailers, where the cheese came from etc.
The people working on the cheese stall were reasonably friendly, they offered us little samples of the cheese we were interested in, and even offered some to Barley - we tasted a couple, Barley politely declined.
Eventually we bought several different pieces of cheese - a cheese with charcoal; which is supposedly good for the digestion, a piece of Black Bomber from Snowdonia, a soft goats cheese, and a cheddar with chilli.
We have now tasted all of the cheese we bought, and they are all nice, the charcoal cheese in interesting; very rich and creamy but with a delicate flavour, the chilli cheddar we've had loads of times before, but it was probably my favourite of the four we purchased.

We also bought a couple of Pasteis de Natas, (Portuguese custard tart). They cost £1.50 each.
We ate them later in the evening with a cuppa.
They brought back good memories of our life in London, and of our travels in Portugal - obviously.
One of the places we used to live in London was known as 'Little Lisbon' because of its Portuguese population, and there were lots of Portuguese businesses, including several cafes. It was in one of these cafes that we'd enjoy a Pasteis de Natas with lovely bitter espresso.
The Pasteis de Natas we bought at Quayside Sunday Market were nice, but much too sweet for us. That's not a fault with the tarts, but more to do with us not eating much sugar, and we didn't eat them with an espresso, so the sweetness wasn't balanced by the bitter coffee. Still, they were a pleasant treat.

Lastly we bought a treat for the dog. Well, I bought a treat for him, Mr.R had wandered along the market stalls with our friend.
I'm not sure what Barley thinks of his treat, because I haven't remembered to give it to him yet. It's a good thing he doesn't know I bought it. Hehehe!
The dog treat is all natural, chicken and green tea bone shaped chew. Hopefully Barley will enjoy it, and I also hope it doesn't make him poop too much - he has a sensitive stomach. Too much information? Hahaha!

As the market nowhere near as big as any of us were expecting, it only took a few minutes to browse the stalls before we were ready to leave, but not wanting to return home just yet we had a brief wander away from the market stalls into the nearby streets.
As I said, the weather was dull, but we still shot a few photos, mainly of the buildings and the bridges that cross the Tyne River. I was so cold and hungry that I forgot to take any photos of the actual market, not that there was much worth photographing - hence this blog post lacking any typical market stall shots.

There was one other thing we wanted to buy, we even tried to buy - olives.
There was a stall selling various things, among which were green and black olives.
We asked the lady working on the stall for a pot of her lovely looking, large black olives. We were told to wait, to come back in 5 minutes.
Mad, but true. She obviously didn't want our money - so we walked off, olive-less - never to return.

Actually, it was the very unfriendly, and unprofessional manner of the lady working the Mediterranean food stall, that really emphasised the main difference between this market and every other market we've ever been to.
Apart from the Geordie Bangers stall, and the young lady working the pet stall (she gave Barley a tasty jerky treat) all of the stall holders were either rude, or completely indifferent to us and their other customers. There was none of the  chit-chat and friendly encouragement for customers to stop, browse, and buy the goods for sale. Very weird.
We've never experienced that in any market, and we've visited loads, both in London, and all over the World.
Hey-Ho, it didn't spoil our morning, but when we go there again, we will only spend our money on sausages. Hehe!

The dog seemed to enjoy his market visit; he's always happy to be out-and-about, and I'm glad we finally got to visit Quayside Sunday Market, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and we'll definitely return in the future to buy some more tasty sausages from the Geordie Bangers market stall.
Have you been to the Quayside Sunday Market, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne?
Have you tried any of the Geordie Bangers sausages?
What do you think about the market - or the sausages?