SEAFOOD FESTIVAL COMES HOME!
Writing about a Seafood Festival I had just attended in some exotic location in the Far East or in South America would certainly grip you readers but would you be so excited if I was writing about such a festival in my hometown in the UK?
The swaying palm trees and sandy beaches of the Orient do add a certain something but then again my hometown has those things too!
What is a great event, is a great event, whether it be in West Indies or Weymouth.
Drinking Pommery champagne in style
However somehow writing about or getting excited about an event on your own doorstep seems a little bias but please let me be a little indulgent and judge for yourself whether this is worthy of writing about or not?
The two day food festival held around a 17th Century pretty fishing harbour is in my book a good place to set any maritime type event. Add to that over 70 stalls providing fresh fish, crabs and lobsters. Then cooking and serving them in any myriad of ways too. Through in some top class Pommery champagne, wines and country ciders and you have a recipe for a damn good event.
Fine seafood too
If the gods are kind, the sun shines and like this year, over 1,000 people arrived every hour by train for the festival, then not only is it popular and the place to be seen in but it’s a terrific day out. I for once only had to travel 4 miles for this wonderful experience and not half way around the world!
Luxury motor cruisers in Weymouth Harbour
The fishing port was awash with luxury motor cruisers, yachts and their crews and boat owners wanting very much to play their part too. Enjoying two days in this attractive English harbour with the colourful stalls lining the waterfront and just a few paces away as the tempting aromas drifted around the harbour luring them ashore rather like modern day press gangers
The horseshoe shaped harbour with the iconic lifting bridge at one end was a perfect aquatic Amphitheatre for such an excellent seafood festival.
The Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival
With top UK and internationally known chefs providing cooking demonstrations where you could sample not only the best of local seafood but high on the festival priorities is the fact that they encourage sustainability. Which means that those foods rather like the hand dived scallops on a stall called ‘Golden Scallops’ from Lyme Regis provide a food resource that will be there next year and in years to come!
Jack Stein son of seafood Chef Rick Stein.
In my case travelled just a few miles to be there, but this event is well worth much longer journeys as it has grown into probably the best seafood festival in the UK and was tipped by CNN as a top event for the whole of Europe as well !
Next year it will be held on July 9th/10th. I for one will be there as it’s a real treat on the eye plus and its a real treat for taste in both senses of its meaning!
