Kingston Kitchen was…

I took my little sis and my munchkin with me to Kingston Kitchen this past Sunday on what was touted to be a fabulous affair. I’ve been following the blog posts of the organisers and had a few chefs and delights I wanted to try out. Plus it was on the lawns of the Hope Botanical Gardens that’s really making a comeback to all my childhood glory. I’m so looking forward to when the zoo and maybe even the amusement park once again come alive. The gardens and lawns are absolutely gorgeous and I do hear that the zoo is undergoing renovation. No word on the theme park yet where I hold such dear childhood memories of nothing but thrilling fun! But I digress…

All intentions to get to the event at around 1pm were dashed when munchkin started yawning and fussing through our regular Sunday hair grooming. I put her down for a nap so she’d have her energy for the event and we got there a little after 3 instead. Oh, how I wish we’d gone earlier…

When we entered my one time bartender turned big chef Ike was the first stall we saw and I stopped to check out his food that he kept bragging about on twitter all weekend long.

Ike

I am new to the pork game as Mr. Irie insists on cooking pork chops all the time despite my objections (maybe because I love me some bacon, but that always gets a pass right?) so I can’t say if the pulled pork sandwich was good or great according to pork standards but the sandwich on a whole was excellent. Simply pork and slaw on a bun and it was really good. And the price was right making the Bickles booth my favourite stop.

Which brings me to a sore point I have with the booths. Like, Isiaah’s was one of them I really wanted to check out, because I still haven’t been to the restaurant and wanted to know if it was worth the hype. But I wasn’t about to spend $500 and $600 for a sample meal at the booth. Did they not see how many other booths were set out? When I spend $500 with them, how much would I have left to sample things from other booths? I’m on a budget and those with items over $300 simply wasn’t catering for me. At $250 for my pulled pork sandwich, $400 for my lobster roti, $100  for my Island 62 lemongrass flavoured water (which was good btw) and $100 for my Kingston Minicake I was already at $850 plus my $300 admission. If I had brought my blanket and my chair and spent the whole afternoon there as the organisers suggested, I could have easily racked up a $4000-$5000 bill sampling wines and food.

I almost stopped at this Indian booth but I’ve been spoiled by Pushpa Restaurant. I shan’t have another’s samosas! Plus I had some veggie samosas in BVI that were simply awful so yeah, I’ll stick with Pushpa

Isn’t this adorable??? Like someone commented under the pic, it’s the Jamaican Edible Arrangement! Only way prettier. I love the watermelon heart shape with a little of the green on the edge. Too cute! I’ve always thought the edible arrangements on TV were a waste of money when the fruit stall has all the same fruits, only fresher, but this is tres cute!

Chef Brian charming his audience as usual in the Best Dressed booth. I made his shrimp pasta recently and it was deelish.

I wonder if munchkin would have loved these or would have been scared… Unfortunately the rain started only about 30 or 45 mins after I arrived at the event and it wasn’t letting up so I left without visiting many of the other booths I really wanted to visit. Quite unfortunate as I had a nice big fluffy bantu knot out and I didn’t even get to take any pics before we got soaked to the bone.

She was looking fly though…natural hair rocks. I have a straw fedora that looks an awful lot like that one, good thing I didn’t wear it as much as I was considering!

Oh hey Nic! Didn’t even see you there, cute dress

I was looking forward to the lentil soup and the burrito from Oceans 21 but alas the rain. The emporium could use a little more space too. I look forward to the next staging and will ensure I am early this time around. Here’s to hoping the weather is nicer, or the organizers pay attention to the forecast a little more (some tents would have been nice since it had been raining all week) I think it is an absolutely wonderful idea, great family fun and had I gone earlier, would have probably enjoyed myself much more before the rains came. As long as there are more vendors offering affordable options as Bickles did I will keep going. Did you go? How was your experience?

Pictures were from the Skkan Media FB Page.

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