As one of our final day-trips from Exeter, Matt and I decided to head to Wales for the Cardiff International Food and Drink Festival 2018!
(Warning: this blogpost contains MANY sunshiny, pretty photos of the city and incredibly yummy street food. View wisely)
A couple of hours’ drive from Exeter and we were in another country. Cardiff, Wales.
Home of the wonderful Roald Dahl – but more importantly to foodies everywhere, home of the International Food and Drink festival 2018 for 3 days in July.
At Cardiff Bay, the festival stretched from Mermaid Quay to Roald Dahl Plass, filled with home-grown food stalls, street food and live bands.
Alongside the Cardiff Millenium Centre, alphabetical tents of foodie vendors lined the quay.
Buzzing with people, we made our way around the stalls, from welsh liqueurs, country farm cheeses, sweet treats and scrumptious cakes.
The busiest stalls were of course offering samples of their delicious produce – and where there’s interest, there’s sales. Some vendors, however, missed out on an obvious opportunity to get people interested.
Matt and I sampled some chilli-spiced cheeses, salamis and later, a raspberry and white chocolate macaron.
After perusing the many street food stalls frying up every cuisine possible, we went for a Greek Souvlaki stall with an open charcoal grill.
We joined a lengthy queue but the sight of passing souvlaki ensured we were in for a treat.
On fresh garlic and herb flatbread, cool tzatziki was generously slapped on alongside a full skewer of charcoal-grilled chicken (for me) and lamb (for Matt). These were topped with fresh sliced tomato and white onions and for a finishing touch, our souvlaki was sprinkled with oregano and course salt.
Hurrying with our prized street food, we found a spot to sit and ate with glee in food-focused silence.
But that’s not all. If we were going to make the most of this event, we may had to get dessert!
From the many ice-cream stalls, Science Cream caught our eye with their industrial-looking mixers and staff geared up in lab coats and eye goggles.(Brilliant branding!)
We shared the brownie delight – a chocoholic’s choice of chocolate ice-cream, chocolate sauce and two gooey chocolate brownies.
As only a day-trip to Wales, we had our fill of the festival and decided to head into the main city to see more of what Cardiff has to offer.
After browsing the St Davids shopping centre, we moseyed up the high street and discovered the High Street Arcades.
Feeling a secret hideaway from the bustling city, the arcades were full of quaint boutiques, art galleries and tea rooms.
We strolled through them all and came out to a beautiful view of the Cardiff Castle.
Desperate for respite from the intense heat, we stopped at Bill’s in the arcades for cooling drinks. Matt went for Bill’s very own pink lemonade and I, the watermelon and raspberry cooler (pictured here with bites out the watermelon slice, I couldn’t help myself!)
I’ve had this drink at another Bill’s before and it was dreadful – where this time the flavours balanced out beautifully – so it really does depend on the bartender’s skill at the time.
Along with our drink, we fancied a nibble and so shared the Devilled chicken skewers (£6.50 starter) – a generous portion of 3 skewers marinated in garlic and oregano, drizzled with a spiced BBQ sauce and spring onions to garnish.
To finish up our wonderful day in Cardiff, we spotted the cinema with the 4DX experience and, excited to try it out, went to see Jurassic World.
In a fantastic mash-up of cinema and theme-park rollercoasters, our seats shook, vibrated and moved along with the camera angles.
With wind fans and water sprays, 4DX made an otherwise mediocre film pretty amazing.
And with that, we headed back to Exeter – having arrived in Cardiff in blue skies, we left it in the pink of dusk on the Severn Bridge.
Cardiff’s International Food and Drink festival was an amazing foodie day out – and one I’d recommend to everyone!
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