I visited the Speciality and Fine Food Fair in the Olympia in London this week.  Somebody has to do the hard jobs! It was very impressive, showcasing the best in speciality food in the UK.  There was also a good Irish contingent there.  My daughter Emma (currently residing in London) came as my sidekick taster and we met two other mother and daughter teams from Ireland. 

Eilis and Sarah Gough from Mileeven were showing off their new packaging for their excellent fruit cakes, and the new labelling for their flavoured honeys.  Their website www.mileeven.com is the place to find out more about their products.   We stock most of their range.

We also met the well know Sally Barnes and her daughter   from Woodcock Smokery in West Cork.  Sally is a great supporter of the Slow Food movement, and produces wonderful smoked fish.  Woodstock only smoke wild fish at their best, and they have won many awards.  www.woodcocksmokery.com is the place to find out more.  Currently their wild smoked salmon is completely sold out.

Two of the Magnetti brothers from Galway were also showing at the fair. Their new packaging looks great and they were launching some new tortellini. Find out more at www.magnettibrothers.com.

We tasted some other interesting stuff, pork scratchings (which I must say I can't cope with) black garlic juice (much nicer than it sounds) and some seriously good chocolate including Lauden, Plush and Holdsworth. 

The winner of the best stand (see photo, sorry not the best) went to PTs Biscuits, who had a convertible mini full of their cookies.  They also had great bumper stickers including 'no hand signals, driver eating biscuits', and their cookies were very very tasty!