Today I want to share my guide to Taste of Christmas in London with you. This annual food festival in the UK capital is one of the many fun things to do in London in winter.
Taste of Christmas
Back in June my boyfriend and I had tickets for Taste of London. Set in Regent’s Park, the event featured top London restaurants offering small samples of their best dishes.
We looked forward to the event for quite some time, but unfortunately had to cancel last-minute when I randomly won a modeling competition at Royal Ascot. I live such a predictable life.
Fortunately, the enterprising organizers found another excuse to hold a foodie event in London. This time they called it Taste of Christmas, and due to the lovely winter chill, held the event at the ExCeL Centre out in east London.
Taste of Christmas Event
On Saturday my boyfriend and I trekked out to Taste of Christmas with two friends who were thankfully as enthusiastic as we were about eating the day away.
Upon arrival, we were met with a giant room full of booths selling every kind of Christmas food and drink imaginable. We started at the front and sampled our way through the entire labyrinth of holiday goodness.
We noshed on hemp oil and sunflower seed oil, Parma ham and thick salami, champagne truffles and Jack Daniel’s barbecue sauce, Gorgonzola cheese and creamy brie.
In the middle of our munching, a camera crew approached and asked if they could interview me for my views on the event.
Having just crammed a cheese-smothered toast point into my mouth, I spent most of the interview wondering how much food was plastered to my teeth. I doubt they’ll use any footage from that one.
We continued through the maze of market stalls, drinking gin and tonics, microbrewed ales, hot chocolate, double espressos, and—my favorite—California wines. There was a whole booth dedicated to the vineyards of my homeland!
In the middle of our grazing expedition, we took a break to visit the Taste of Christmas theater. The cooking show was put on by Gordon Ramsay, and was complete with parsnip soup, Brussels sprouts, and a flying sous-chef in a fairy costume. Ah, British humor.
We planned to hit the restaurant booths in the afternoon so we could sample dishes from the likes of The Narrow, York & Albany, Maze Grill, and others.
However, when we arrived at the ticket booth we were told that due to a food shortage they were no longer selling tickets. I’m not sure how an event dedicated to feeding a finite number of people runs out of food, but my friends and I were a bit disappointed.
We drowned our sorrows in another expedition through the jungle of Christmas booths, this time with a focus on the larger food items like falafel wraps and bratwurst.
It wasn’t quite the same as a tiny tasting menu from a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, but I suppose it was a more realistic view of what Taste of Christmas had to offer.
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