Dank Street Festival 2008

Perfect skies, live music, good food and great company. The City of Sydney's Dank Street Festival was back again yesterday and attracted thousands of Sydneysiders. I was one of the many who took up on the free shuttle bus offer and trekked down to Dank Street in Waterloo for an afternoon of market shopping, queue lining and drooling.

There was a great turn out in Young Street with stalls of breads, oils, jams, marinades and trucks of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables.

We also wandered through a designers market where there were wall decals, hand-made jewellery, bags, bibs, retro furniture, fabric remnants, and plenty more.

And then there were roving entertainers including these Italian chefs of stilts and false security guards carrying giant plush dogs on a leash. Ha!

False security guard with plush toy dog

The gourmet food stalls was what I was really there for. Jones The Grocer were selling large blocks of rocky road, nougat and fudge. I treated myself to the rocky road in dark chocolate which was rich and satisfying. Fluffy marshmallows, glace cherries, dessicated coconut and peanuts were encased in thick chocolate. Mmmm...

At the Dank Street Depot stall this year was a mass production of BBQ pure bred Suffolk lamb rolls with pomegranate and mint salsa.

Dank Street Depot's stall

After eyeing this giant paella in the making, I had to have one for myself. I was a little disappointed the saffron rice wasn't well cooked through but it was still piping hot, moist and delicious.

Chef cooking huge paella

Also at the Seafood & Eat It stall were a stack of young coconuts for drinking and a scrumptious aroma of fresh BBQ seafood.

I've always been a little cautious with food prepared in high quantities but this mixed seafood platter which I shared with X was surprisingly tasty! Salt and pepper calamari, prawns and BBQ octopus were served with a nicely dressed gourmet salad on a cool bark plate.

Loren & Karen respectively had the spicy chorizo roll and smoked bratwurst served with sauerkraut from Eumundi's BBQ Blitz.

Some men are known to walk cute toy dogs to strike up conversations with women... this man took it to another level with 2 massive Huskies. They were gorgeous!

To cool ourselves down, we lastly indulged in gelato and snow cones.

Dank Street Festival
More info: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/artandabout/ExhibitionsEvents/DankStreet
Other upcoming events: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/WhatsOn