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Cracking Cheese, Gromit

Posted by pulley from Swansea - Published on 27/09/2011 at 16:10
4 comments » - Tagged as Food & Drink

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Last weekend saw the return to Cardiff Castle of The Great British Cheese Festival.

Now in its fourth year in Wales (it was previously held in Oxfordshire and Cheltenham), the festival is more than just a celebration of the yellow pongy stuff.

Live music, performance artists, non-cheesy food stalls and of course the opportunity to stroll around the castle grounds all contribute to the culinary experience.

There are also games in the form of cheese rolling skittles and cheese tossing ('welcome tossers' the sign at the games' zone stated).

We made the trip down from Swansea hoping for plenty of the promised free cheese samples, and we weren't disappointed. Once inside the castle there are a number of tents and marquees dotted about, but the one everyone heads for is at the back of the event.

The 'Britain's Biggest Cheese Market' tent was heaving with foodies armed with cocktail sticks, all elbowing their way to the crowded cheese counters to stab little sample cubes the sellers were frantically cutting up to keep up with demand.

Vintage stilton, mild cheddar, creamy cheeses with cranberries and loads more were on offer to both sample and buy. It was also quite amusing seeing which stall holders were tight with their cheeses (usually looking nervous as they cut only enough cheese for people to take now an again) and which ones were dishing them out with abandon (fair play to Tesco; big chunks piled high along the counter).

When we'd had our fill of yellow dream inducer we waddled outside and managed to share an organic minted lamb burger from one of the vendors before crashing on the grass to watch folk bouncing around to Cakehole Presley on the bandstand.

When our food had gone down we had a wander around (at one point getting free hugs from people dressed as trees) then grabbed a drink from The Cardiff Arms pub tent before heading home.

The Great British Cheese Festival is an awesome day out, albeit a bit on the expensive side at £8.50 entry, but once inside if you do your rounds thoroughly enough you can consume most of that back in food and drink samples.

There are also masterclasses available in cheese tasting / making / matching with wines etc, but you have to pay extra for those.

We'll certainly be back next year with our now experienced tasting wits and skills about us!

www.greatbritishcheesefestival.com

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IMAGE: Swamibu