Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Rocks Aroma Festival


Sunday, July 25th, my favorite part of Sydney city, aka "The Rocks" area outdid itself and any farmers market/festival I have ever been too. On this very beautiful, special day commenced the "Rocks Aroma Festival" :
http://www.therocks.com/sydney-Things_To_Do-The_Rocks_Aroma_Festival.htm. Basically it was the biggest farmer's market I have ever been too, a festival of "coffee, teas, chocolates, olive oils, and spices, galore!" It was separated into different areas too: The Latin Quarter, The Oasis (this was the Turkish area with Camel Rides!! and baklava and golzemes), the Continent, the list goes on! Check out the different area and the different vendors that came here: http://www.therocks.com/sydney-Things_To_Do-The_Rocks_Aroma_Festival-Regions_of_Aroma.htm.
when we were taking pictures, official photographers from the event took pictures of us too! because they thought we looked fantastic with our "aroma bags" . look out for us on the cover next year!! ;) Edwin and I were the only ones that woke up to be there at the beginning of the festival at 10 am (it went until 5pm) and I was SO glad we got up early because later on towards lunch, it was extremely crowded, you couldn't even move!!! Luckily it was just Edwin and I because we honestly went up to EVERY stand! haha we sampled every single tea (they had the best chai tea lattes), chocolate, jams, spreads, nuts, olive oils, breads, you name it!
My favorite chai tea place was called "bondi chai": http://www.bondichai.com.au/ (check out the section for recipes... such great ideas!) I really like the vanilla honey bondi chai.
Another place I really like was a honey stand where they had this amazing honey popcorn and creamed honey.
Edwin and I squeezed in and grabbed every pamphlet and sample you could! haha I go so excited about every stand, and got so many great food ideas! I could have bought everything! no joke, but I wrote down my favorite places and I am going to travel to their stores to buy the "most unique Australia" items.
We tried a bunch of "dukkah:" http://www.oztukka.com.au/... this one was my favorite out of the billion haha... these stands were my favorite because you could dip the best white bread in every olive oil known to man! Dukkah is a mix of spices and nuts (the austrailans make it with macadamia nuts)... what you do is you dip a piece of bread in olive oil and then in the dukkah crumbs and voila! yumminess! I am going to buy some to come home with for sure! My FAV olive oil came from here: "Rainforest Macadamia Nut Oil" infused with lemon and ginger, sooooo fantastic!!!
I bought an amazzzinnggg tin of honeydew green tea! so excited for that! There were so many cupcake stands too :)! Also a place that put honeymustard dressing just on top of cream cheese, and voila the best little cracker accompaniment.
My all time favorite olive oil and balsamic vineagar place was this one: http://www.pukaraestate.com.au/... i was sooo soo close to buying like 5 balsamics (after literally tasting 20! hahah yesss) my favs were: 1. Blackcurrant balsamic, 2. vanilla and cinammon balsamic, 3. pomegranate balsamic, 4. truffle olive oil, 5. lemon olive oil, 6. white wine vinegar... and there were tons more!

Edwin was the perfect companion because we had to try EVERYTHING! haha and scopped out what we wanted to buy etc. They had a bunch of "hot chocolate" shots too ...and of course Edwin bought one.
We saw the coolest thing too: every year they make a huge art piece out of cups filled with coffee, milk, and darker coffee.. and this year they scuplted it into Marylin Monroe!! it was awesome!! We were there ALL morning haha and then it was maddness during lunch time! I got of course a Turkish Golzeme, my new fav thing! (layers of flat bread with pipping hot spinach and cheese inside, yum yum!) ...maddness during lunch:
the turkish ladies making TONS of golzemes at the speed of light, maddness!!and Edwin got a wagu burger. We then met up with some of the others who came a lot later, but we had already been there for hours!!
It was the BEST thing ever!!!!

2 comments:

  1. this festival sounds like HEAVEN!! i sooo wish i could have been there with you two to explore and taste at every stand! :)
    and those tea pictures are unreeeeal!! my mouth is like watering just looking at them ;)

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  2. you would have LOVED IT! and died! hahaha i bought you some tea ;) its honeydew green tea!! fabulousss! and i bought some honey and some of the oils! and dukkah! woop woop!

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