Saturday 8 August 2009

Festival fooding



There was a time (I am told) when music festival attendance required trolloping about in mud with only the equivalent of the late night kebab van to sustain you. How times have changed. These days deciding what you're going to eat can be as tricky as deciding which bands to see.
Cambridge Folk Festival is possibly one of the most middle-class festivals going- you can frequently see people in the main tent surrounded by half the contents of Millets, reading the Daily Telegraph and looking slightly put out by those people on the stage making a racket- so getting hold of a skinny latte to go with your paper is not a problem. But for a very small site Cambridge does cram in a lot of food stalls. In addition to your regular burgers and baked potatoes, there are Indian, Chinese, Mexican and Jamaican options. It's just a shame that this variety wasn't reflected in the music this year.

I remembered the Blue Moon Cafe from previous years, and their veggie burgers and paprika fries were as good as I remembered. The male companion person went for the 'jerk mon' from the Jamaican stall (leading to a comedy ordering scenario), and declared himself to be very happy with the chicken and rice combo. Though if you'd like to sample any of this you're going to have head to a festival this summer too.



And of course there was this essential festival food component too....

8 comments:

theundergroundrestaurant said...

So true!
Festival food could improve a little though don't you think?

TheFastestIndian said...

Could definitely improve! Have not been to huge numbers of festivals but food can often be over-priced and not that appealing. Quite annoying when even chips are not cooked properly. I guess outside catering is quite tricky though- not least because of having read some of your festie cooking experiences!

Food Urchin said...

I can't comment on recent festivals but I remember living on mushy peas and mincemeat pies from this one stall for the entire duration of Glastonbury '95. I am talking about breakfast, lunch, dinner. There was a bet of some kind going on. I was sick to death of it by Sunday.

TheFastestIndian said...

Ho ho- I just read that as peas and mince pies! Thought that was an unusual combo.....

Unknown said...

I dont need a festival as an excuse to make a piggy of myself, but it helps ;).

TheFastestIndian said...

Indeed- for some reason I connect going to a festival to eating as many chips as I can fit in in order to 'keep me going'!

Shaheen said...

Hi there,
I've come via The English Can cook blog.
I've never been to a music festival as such, but recently I went to a Mela and the food there was also rather dissapointing, it was mainly chips, booze, burgers and the odd pakora thrown in for good measure. Still a long long way to go.

TheFastestIndian said...

Hello there and thanks for dropping by!

I think Cambridge is definitely unusual in the variety of food options. As I've said I do like my chips but it is annoying when that's basically the best veggie option available.
I would have hoped that a Mela would make a real effort to showcase some of the great snack/street food from the Indian sub-continent- it's disappointing if that's not the case.