8th of May

Anderson, the Brazilian I met in the train from Brighton, was working today at The Real Food Festival in Earl’s Court Exhibition Center. He was advertising a 6 month ham leg, Parmigiano Reggiano, Porto and a red wine from Burgundy.

This event was gathering plenty of farms, organic and fair-trade products, from honey to wines, towards teas and coffees. Anderson guided me between the stands to start my education about wines. From Champagne to St-Émilion, we tasted about twenty wines. I learned to spit in the spittoon and to inhale to intensify the flavours of the wine.

Since he had to return to his stand, he lent me an exhibitor bracelet so I could get better prices from the exhibitors. For about an hour, I tasted and tasted, questioning farmers until they would not know what to answer and then I had to hurry to complete my buying before the closure.

I bought honey that was warmed under the 44°corresponding to the maximum heath in the bee hive. Then I bought Hempseed butter from a Serbian – maybe was I bewitched by this very healthy dish because Serbia rimes with Ena. Though if you wonder what is Hemp seed, google it: it is very interesting! Anderson bargained the price of a Fair-trade Columbian coffee for me, which I paid £3.80 instead of £5.00.

I left the festival with a big bag, filled with Anderson’s gifts: a cooking book, a lot of Parmigiano Regianno, a chocolate cake, ham and a bottle of wine from Protugal.

We went to picnic in Brompton Cemetary with Anderson’s workmate and a Spanish lady, but we had no food and sparkling wine.

Anderson and I went for a snack in Camden, in the “Made in Brazil” restaurant which was hosting a samba musician this night. Dreaming of summers on the beach...