#navbar-iframe { display: none; }

« Home | Good Living Growers Markets » | Georges Bar & Grill, King Street Wharf Sydney » | Pasar Senggol Indonesian Street Festival » | Hung Cheung, Marrickville » | Recipe: Apple, rhubarb and ginger crumble » | Paddy Maguires, Haymarket » | Buddhist Multicultural Festival » | The Amazing Flickrace » | What's On in Sydney » | Sydney foodbloggers meetup »

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Campsie Food Festival 2006

Korean dishes

We headed straight from our monthly shop at the Good Living Growers Market in Pyrmont, to Campsie in Sydney's inner west for the Campsie Food Festival.

Campsie festival

As always for this event, Beamish Street was closed off to traffic, although the hungry hordes created plenty of traffic jams amidst the myriad of stalls.

Geoff Jansz
It's Geoff!

We arrived just as Geoff Jansz appeared on stage for his first cooking demonstration of the day. He explained the sponge-like nature of eggplants, did tricks with Vietnamese rice paper sheets, and had soon won the entire audience over with his cheeky charm.

The food stalls beckoned though, and here's a little of what we saw:

Korean pancakes
Korean pancakes
(to the left are pig trotters which were surprisingly tasty)

Korean sushi
Gimbap (Korean sushi)

Korean fried rice
Korean fried rice

Seafood skewers

Barbecue seafood skewers

Gozleme makers

Gozleme stall

Why is it that they only appear at food festivals in Sydney?

gozleme

Gozleme on the grill

Fried noodles

Fried noodles

Indonesian snacks
Indonesian appetisers

Spring rolls

Spring rolls

At four for $3, these spring rolls were too much of a lure for one of us to resist. The stall was frying these in tiny litle household pots so the queue took a while, but the smiling workers fried their little hearts out, and soon we had our bounty.

Spring roll innards

Spring roll innards

These were made with pork mince and cabbage in a thick viscous sauce. At first it was strange, but like most fried foods, these soon won me over. It was a cold day too, which warranted a trek back to the stall to get another order!

Korean rice cake
Tteokbokgi (Korean rice cake in chilli sauce)

After some deliberation, I finally opted for the tteokbokgi, an intriguing looking-dish which I figured I should try.

Korean rice cake in chilli sauce

The dish featured fat starchy rods of glutinous rice cake simmered with fish cake slices, cabbage and served with a whole boiled egg. The sauce (made with Korean kochujang sauce) was sweet, peppery and packed a fair bit of heat.

I love my starch so this went down a treat. It's stodginess and heat (both physical and chemical) made it perfect winter comfort food.

Back to the stage to watch a troupe of Korean performers, dressed in gorgeous vibrantly coloured traditional costume, perform a dance with fans...

Korean fan dancing

and then do a quick costume change and drum their little hearts out. I loved the drumming, which most Westerners tend to associate as being blokey and rock n' roll. This drumming was graceful, harmonic and almost hypnotic in its soothing rhythm. The girls at the back did some very funky moves too as they jumped, spun and rotated their torsos to strike all three drums in complex patterns.

Korean drummers

And then it was over.
Until next year, that is.
Korean costumes


Related GrabYourFork posts:
Campsie Food Festival 2005
Campsie Food Festival 2004
11 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (AugustusGloop) on 6/04/2006 11:58:00 pm


11 Comments:

  • At 6/05/2006 2:53 pm, Blogger Bex said…

    Hi Helen - I found a Gozleme stall at Birkenhead Point Factory Outlets in the food court - but I haven't tried it yet...was too busy shopping for bargains.

     
  • At 6/05/2006 6:48 pm, Blogger Su-Yin -Décorateur said…

    I've been quietly visitng your wonderful work a couple of weeks now. I just thought its time to give you the compliment you well deserve.
    Great photographs and great collection of recipes. I have you on my favourite's list btw. Hope its alright with you.

     
  • At 6/05/2006 11:42 pm, Blogger Cat said…

    there are so many food festivals in Sydney! im still considering immigration lol those Korean sushis are very pretty

     
  • At 6/06/2006 12:52 am, Blogger Swee San said…

    like honestly, i can't wait to go sydney this July and experience AALLLLLL the food events! *gasp*
    but for this month, i'll hang on to ur blog first =)

     
  • At 6/06/2006 1:23 am, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi Bex - I was just telling someone about that stall at Birkenhead. I saw it about a year ago, but it looked very temporary and makeshift. The next time I went it had gone. But now it's back. They must only sell on break from festivals =)

    Hi Suyin - Aww thanks. That's so nice of you to say, and you've really made my day =) I'm so glad you're enjoying the posts.

    Hi Catesa - lol. I never realised how many food festivals there were, but now I have, like, a responsiblity to cover them all (lol), I'm certainly realising how lucky we are.


    Hi Swee - lol. There are always festivals going on in Sydney. You will have a ball I'm sure!

     
  • At 6/06/2006 9:14 pm, Blogger bokbaksa said…

    Hello, Helen.
    I'm South Korean and live in Daegu.(the 3rd largest city in South Korea)
    Thank you for your exact explanation and kindness about korean food and culture.

     
  • At 6/07/2006 12:18 am, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi Bokbaksa - Thanks for your kind words. There is so much about Korean food and culture I have yet to learn!

     
  • At 6/07/2006 10:32 pm, Blogger cin said…

    there are a couple of shops that sell gozleme in Sydney rd in Melbourne. I don't think I've ever tried it tho' They look like those turkish thingys filled with spinach and ricotta.

     
  • At 6/08/2006 12:42 am, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi Cin - Oh gozleme is so delicious; crisp, thin and just plain yum. I first tried gozleme in Turkey--cruising around on our gulet, we'd often meet little vendor boats where the little old lady on-board would offer us this tasty snack. The dough would be rolled out fresh, topping of choice added, and then it'd be cooked to order on a tiny gas stove.

     
  • At 6/09/2006 3:56 pm, Blogger Veruca Salt said…

    Geoff is such a great presenter and you are correct, he is infact Sri Lankan.

     
  • At 6/11/2006 1:56 am, Blogger Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

    Hi Veruca - Geoff is always entertaining, and such a charmer too!

     

Post a Comment

<< Home


      << Read Older Posts       |       >> Read Newer Posts