The Taste of Garioch

 Today, Victoria and I went out to the Taste of Garioch event in Inverurie town centre.  Due to prior commitments, we were unable to leave until after 3PM, by which time you would think everyone was on the verge of packing up and heading hame. However, what we actually found when we arrived was a festival (what would you call it?) that was in full swing.  A lot of the local people who come to Inverurie's Farmers Market were there, including Cupa-Ti, Saffron Kitchen, Fresh Flower Market Preserves, and more.  As I've only visited the farmer's market once since moving here, I am not sure what is regular and what isn't.  That said we did have a look around some of the stalls.  I enjoyed talking to the people at Twice Buried Rum Co. and decided to treat myself to a bottle of the Twice Buried botanical rum, which is a Caribbean rum made Scottish strawberries, complemented with Aberdeenshire honey, salted caramel and a warmth of spices before being blended with Royal Deeside spring water.. I was able to have a taste, and it tasted a wee bit like a lowland whisky, with notes of Christmas cake.

I also was able to have a try of some Haroosh at the Lost Loch Spirits stall.  Haroosh is a whisky, honey and bramble mix that tastes mostly of honey.

After the Alcohol tasting, it was time to pay a call to a stall we'd first visited when the Garioch Pipe Band Championships were on at Kellands Park, Inverurie in May.  This store was Saffron Kitchen, and it is run by a very friendly Pakistani woman who had served us some delicious samosas back in Kellands Park.  Today, we had chicken rolls, and decided to take home some byriani.  Hopefully it works out this time because last time I did a very dopey thing and tried cooking it in the oven, IN the plastic tubs!  Oops!  This time I plan to microwave it in a dish instead.  After this, we had a look around more of the market and found a stall called Snochery Jock's that was selling shortbread and oatcakes.  Victoria and I partook of some different flavoured oat cakes, and some mint chocolate shortbread for Victoria. After looking at, and purchasing some of the flavoured tablet offered by Miss V Cooks (including a very refreshing whisky flavoured tablet), we went for a poke of chips apiece offered by one of the many catering trailers, we visited Cupa-Ti where I bought some Orange Pekoe Assam tea before we headed hame.

As well as the many stalls selling various foods, confectionery, baked goods and spirits, there were sideshows and rides for children, and even some local community organisation stalls.  I had a go at a bottle raffle at the Garioch Community Kitchen stall, before asking about their cooking classes.  While I didn't win any bottles, we were given some muffins to try.  Men in Mind were also there.

I will say this about Inverurie, they do tend to pull out the stops when it comes to community events.  It was great to see some our favourite stalls, but to also see some new ones there that I'd not known about. We even bumped into our cleaner as well, which was a nice surprise.

All in all, I think we had a very enjoyable afternoon at the Taste of Garioch event and I look forward to visiting the Farmer's Market again soon, and of course the next big event, which I think could be the Christmas Light Switch-On at the end of November.