Campsie Food Festival 2006

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.

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.

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

Gimbap (Korean sushi)

Korean fried rice

Barbecue seafood skewers

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

Gozleme on the grill

Fried noodles

Indonesian appetisers

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
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!

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.

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...

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.

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

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Campsie Food Festival 2005
Campsie Food Festival 2004
posted by Helen (AugustusGloop) on 6/04/2006 11:58:00 pm


11 Comments:
At 6/05/2006 2:53 pm,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
Helen (AugustusGloop) said…
Hi Veruca - Geoff is always entertaining, and such a charmer too!
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