European Food Festival in Aberdeen (Sat, 2 Oct)

Hi again...here's an update on our last weekend.

One of the guys at Mase's work mentioned the European Food Festival was being held over the weekend and Mase wondered if we'd like to go...was I interested in a food festival?!

I've worked out that the best way for me to experience the culture of a new place/country is by eating their food. The problem is that I can't try everything, though I'm having my best shot at it.

I should say that we had a very relaxing Sat morning - a sleep in until after 8am, run before breakfast and play at park with kids and then off we went on serious business....food :)

Actually first we drove through Old Aberdeen - we saw some parts of the old city walls, the original cobbled roads and old homes from the earlier times. Mase also took us through this quaint little village that's retained it's originality despite the changing times around it.

Trying to help you imagine the scene - the Aberdeen Harbour is on the Dee River near where it enters the North Sea. At the point where the river and sea meet is where this little town is nestled - right on the beach front. It was obviously built to be close to the original harbour and the old Harbour Watch Tower is a quick walk from the village.

Walking thru the 'village' was like taking a step back in time - the houses were miniatures of some of the existing style of Aberdeen homes. Mainly granite but there were a few wooden shacks (adorned with buoys, ropes and other boating gear). It was built in a large square - the houses on the perimeter had common walls and the inner houses were detached.

The houses on the perimeter faced the inside houses with a 3 to 4 metre pathway between the front door of one house to the opposite house. No privacy here! The inner houses had gardens of various degrees of beauty - some flowered cottage gardens, some dumps and loaded with junk.

The other unusual thing was that many of the houses had entry doors that Mase and I would have to stoop to pass through...maybe they were shorter in those days or the men were used to bending low on their boats.

There were communal washing lines, a chapel right in the centre of the village and outside the village on the harbour side was a grassed area and a playground (new). I've included a few photos to try and give you an idea of the place.

You'll notice from the way we're dressed (Mase doesn't count) that it was a cold day - it was our first experience of the freezing wind that Aberdeen is well known for (added to this was the fact that to the south of Ab there were gale warnings and road alerts) - so it was a cold day - but the sky was blue and no rain - so we sallied forth.

If you aren't interested in food then don't read on!!

Now for a description of the food festival....it was in the centre of Aberdeen, they closed a side street off Union St (the main street) - so there wasn't a lot of room for masses of people to walk thru - but we squeezed into the crowd anyway.
The first stall we passed was Dutch - cooking a variety of the 'wurst' kind of sausages on a huge round plate over a fire. Smelled good but didn't appeal to me but the children were immediately pestering for a hot dog. However we wanted to see what was on offer before trying.

It was a sight for the eyes to see some of the stalls - eg Italian - bowls of all types of olives - stuffed, plain, marinated, black, green, seeded etc; or French - baskets of cookies - shortbread, chocolate, butter, tarts, then cakes, pastries, brioches, fruit tarts; or Italian - cheeses, chocolate, nougat, biscuits of all types; or German - containers of sweets - all colours, shapes, types, choc, fudge, jellied;

or Lebanese - dried fruits and other sweet treats, honey almond cakes, baklava; or French again - cheeses, pates, meats and salami.....oh, the temptation (but what I might do on my own or with

Mase can't be done with three children in tow - so I had to take photos instead).

We passed a Polish stall and they were cooking a huge bowl (wok style, but not a wok) of steaming cabbage and sausage which actually looked quite nice and also some soft, rubbery type pasties with different fillings - which we decided to try.

The options were meat, cheese and potato and broccoli and cabbage - we went for a couple of meat and 3 cheese/potato. I had the meat - it was pale and grey looking - it tasted as bland and awful as it looked. The cheese and potato one was much better....so that was Poland.

Then we wandered past a Spanish stall - again the huge bowls - four at this stall - serving chicken paella - two bowls of the yellow saffron rice and two with chicken and vegies - that smelt and looked great....definitely something to keep in mind....

Then on to the Alternative Burger - South African run stall - offering meats of the world - kangaroo, ostrich, springbok, wild boar and venison burgers - there was quite a line up for these.

The French were also serving a creamy potato and bacon - again in the huge bowl....Sam and Jo decided to have this for their lunch and enjoyed it but Jo found it too rich by the end.

The Italians were cooking baby mushrooms in a garlic, tomato and herb sauce - it looked and smelt the best of all we saw - but I couldn't handle eating a meal of mushrooms (tho' Mel would have easily managed it).

There was also an Oriental stall - serving noodles and some sort of stir fry meal...

There were a few other food stalls (crepes, coffee) but I can't recall them however we were also able to see homemade soaps, wood carving, leather work, jewellery, clothing, flowers etc. Actually there must have been a Dutch stall selling their goodies because Mase came home with three bags of salted licorice (one of which was doubbelzout - double salt). They also had the chocolate hail (as Mum Linden) has given the children back home and some fresh, hot, mini pancakes served with icing sugar and choc sauce..

So - what did we try? Mase and I both had the Spanish chicken paella and it was really flavoursome - with a hint of lemon, spice and bit of zing - a great choice.

Matt went for a 'wurst' sausage hot dog (Dutch) and Sam and Jo had the French creamy scalloped potato and bacon dish.

We also decided to get a few tasters of some of the other sweet treats (excuse being we had visitors the next day and we'd try the food with them)...so Mase indulged the children in a slice of Italian chocolate (cut like a piece of cake) - it was Cappuccino flavoured at Sam's request and some soft Italian nougat (again, cut like a piece of cake).

In true Schipper style I went for the French cakes/biscuits - a butter biscuit and mini raspberry tart, Matt chose a choc coated waffle, Jo - a cream cake and Sam picked a macaroon.

The mini raspberry tart (shared among 5 people) meant we got a taste - but it was very nice pastry and the berry filling was fruity but not too sweet - nice. Here's one very happy taster with a very grotty face!

The choc and nougat was saved for the next day (when we had visitors from Stirling Ecc for lunch). The choc was creamy and sweet - not something I'd choose to eat. The nougat was soft and sticky and very sweet - again not something I'd eat. However the rest of the family and visitors seemed to enjoy them and made quite a dent in the slices we bought.

That brings me to Sunday when we had Shaun Maher (Stirling Ecc) and two of his children (Luke - 10 and Zoe - 8) for lunch with two other older bre from Aberdeen Ecc. Shaun's wife (Linda) and two other children (Joel -13 and Joshua - 6) weren't able to make it as they were involved in play practice for their prizegiving. However we had a really good day with Shaun and family - got lots of tips for family friendly places to visit.

Sam and Jo got on really well with Luke and Zoe and are very keen to visit Stirling to see them again - Shaun offered to accommodate us for a night if we made it down - we hope to take him up on the offer God willing.

Stirling Ecc has about 60 members and about 25-30 children in the sunday school and a good size youth group.

Shaun's exhort was on temptation and how we need to prepare and strengthen ourselves for the inevitable temptations we will experience. He used the example of David in 11 Sam 12 and how he entertained the 'traveller' that visited him and asked the question of us - 'how do we treat temptation when it comes our way? welcome it in or send it on it's way.

He then went to the life of Christ to show how we should deal with temptation - using God's Word as the offensive weapon. He talked about the struggle Christ had in the garden, the mental agony he went through to overcome the temptation to do his own will (not God's) and his final triumph...

That sums up our weekend - we had an interesting taste of other cuisines and some great company which was fantastic.

This Fri/Sat we hope to head to Loch Ness and Inverness and see how the loch system works and keep an eye out for Nessie herself - we'll send you photos in due course :)

Love from all of us...