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| Heading into the crowd of festival-goers! |
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| Braving the crowd |
I went in the afternoon and the place, as expected from experience, was packed. There were many food stalls, but the queues were long - definitely not for the faint-hearted. My sister, who went separately with her friends, told me afterwards that they actually just picked one eatery and bought all the food they wanted to eat there and there only, as they all didn't have the patience to repeatedly wait in line. I don't like queues either, but I stall-hopped anyway, as I wanted to taste what all the various food outlets had to offer - afterall, isn't that the point of attending these type of events?
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| My fellow French school-goer getting into the spirit of the festival by purchasing a beret (I have a red one from last year) |
The food:
My first food stop was at The Truffle Man. They had me at the word, 'truffle'. I was very excited to find out that we actually have truffles grown in Australia. I have, for some reason, been under the impression that all restaurants sourced them from overseas. It was a cold day, so a serving of the potato and truffle soup seemed like a good choice. Can you see the whole black truffle sitting on the table in the picture below? The lady there was freshly grating it into a container, to sprinkle over the cups of soup, which we were told to mix in with a bread stick on serving. The soup itself was not hot enough and was a bit thick and starchy (overcooked, I think the case may be) but the truffle saved the day. I also bought the truffle cheddar.
The Truffle Man doesn't haven't a shop front, as it mainly serves as a distributor of both Australian-grown and overseas-imported (depending on the season) truffles to local restaurants. It does have an online shop though, which you can find at http://www.thetruffleman.com.au/.
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| Potato and truffle soup from The Truffle Man |
Next, I visited the French Sin stall to buy myself another bottle of duck rillette. I bought a bottle each of rabbit and duck rillette at last year's festival, but the duck one expired before I even got around to tasting it. Rillettes are, I suppose, a kind of meat-based condiment that is usually served by spreading on bread or toast, after allowing to come to room temperature. It has been likened to pâté but it is chunkier (or at least the ones made by this shop are anyway). Traditionally made with pork, it can also be made with other meats, like chicken, duck and rabbit. From what I understand, it is made by slow-cooking the salted/cured meat in its own fat until very tender, then it is shredded and formed into a paste with more fat. It all sounds very fatty and unhealthy, but sometimes, you just have to turn a blind eye to the nutritional panel, in order to satisfy your tastebuds. How can anyone resist duck meat in duck fat? Again, this company doesn't have a proper shop front, but I believe they run their stall at the Jan Power's Brisbane Powerhouse farmers market, which is held every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.
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| French Sin |
From the next stall, I bought chocolate-coated cocoa beans - that's right, cocoa beans, not coffee beans! - imported from France.
At France Gourmet, their selling point is that they're the only shop in Queensland that uses 100% French flour in their breads and croissants. For lunch, I wanted to buy their foie gras sandwich, but when I was lining up, I was spotted by an acquaintance, who proceeded to chat endlessly to me, until they were all sold out. Sadly, only plain croissants (made with French flour and French butter) were left, so I bought one of those instead, along with a packet of French flour (Francine) and a packet of brioche mix in the same brand. I'm not convinced that wheat flour made from wheat grown in France would be much different from flour made here, but supposedly the French flour creates a harder, crunchier crust on baguettes. My French teacher, who is actually French, also told me it's a good brand, when I bumped into her at the festival. I guess I'll just have to try it out and see for myself.
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| France Gourmet |
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| Croissant from France Gourmet |
An interesting stall I came across was called Franch Food. The name, I suppose, is a play on the words 'French' (in food preparation) and 'ranch' (the source of ingredients), so unsurprisingly, or not, the company makes ready-to-eat 'gourmet' canned food (I say gourmet here because of the price point) and pâté from the meat of Australian 'outback' animals, such as kangaroo and emu, as well as wild boar and crocodile. As curious as I am, when it comes to food, I was not game enough to try the unconventional, especially since it came in canned form. I have eaten crocodile meat before in restaurants (not by choice), but the thought of having crocodile liver pâté, or pâtés from any other animal besides game birds and pigs for that matter, makes my skin crawl. Kangaroo meat seems to be widely accepted as a common meat source now, and the kangaroo meat export industry is quite large from what I hear. Nevertheless, I have never tasted it before, and prefer to keep it that way until the day we run out of cattle. Call me narrow-minded, but I don't think we should be feeding on our national fauna, when there are plenty of iron and protein source alternatives readily available.
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| Gourmet canned food by Franch Food |
Of course if we're having soups at the BFF, we can't forget French onion soup!
...nor can we forget les macarons!
I have yet to find another place in Brisbane that sells macarons as good as the ones made by the pastry chef at Twist n Roll, a catering company that sells their macarons under the brand Monsieur Macaron at various farmers markets around Brisbane. You will also find these tasty macarons at some of the Copenhagen ice-creameries (although I've never bought them from there before, due to the uncertainty of freshness). My favourites of their flavours are pistachio and bubblegum. The name 'bubblegum' usually brings sweet, artificial flavours to mind, and the blue colour of the macaron shell with the pinky-purple filling probably up-plays this image, but this macaron is anything but your average bubblegum flavoured confectionery. Think banana; think blueberry jam. You have to trust me that it is the best fruit-flavoured macaron that they have on offer. It is a unique combination of fruit flavours that is absolutely delicious! http://www.twistnroll.com.au/
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| Large macaron sandwich filled with strawberries and fresh cream from Monsieur Macaron |
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| Another ever-popular stall that I never get around to buying food from :( |
The entertainment:
The festival featured performances all day long by various dancers, band and singers, who play/sing French or French-inspired music.
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| Paris Dreaming - an instrumental-only duo |
One of my favourite performances was by a group called Fox Lane, which plays gypsy jazz-style music. They describe their music - largely renditions of old songs - as the type of music that flows out of French cafés in the 1920s. I haven't been able to find much information about them on the internet, except for the fact that they accept bookings for functions.
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| Fox Lane |
And of course if they're having dance performances, they'd have to perform the Can Can!
Other things:
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| The roving costumed stilt-walker |
New to the festival was the Art and Artisans Pavilion. Here, painters, gilders, artist, sculptors, etc, showcase some of their (French-inspired) work, some of which were available for sale/auction.
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| The Art and Artisans Pavilion |
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| This bust is of an actual man who is still alive. What you see there took about 2 months, I think she said, to make. |
The artisan stand that really stood out for me was that of Libertine, a Brisbane-based parfumerie that sells perfumes from around the world, including artisan perfumes, the latter of which was strongly promoted at the BFF.
On display were the old world perfumes that were supposedly the same ones (in formula) created for, and used by, the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte and his family, Marie Antoinette and Grace Kelly.
The following fragrance, named "1270", was inspired by the scent of Cognac, and was named for the year the creators of the France, P Frapin and family, moved to the Cognac region of France.
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| "1270" by P Frapin & Cie |
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| Cognac-inspired perfume ingredients |
I had a lot of fun at the festival and will definitely continue to support this event in the future. I'm going to review the edible goods I bought at the BFF in my next blog post, so keep your eyes peeled! :)
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