Fathers Day - Feast Festival at Waddesdon Manor and The Bell Inn at Beachampton

There are few days in the year that dads are afforded much in the way of freedom to dictate the activities of the family for a period of more than two hours, or is that just my family...? But Fathers day is one of those days and today I managed to direct Family P to drive down to Waddesdon Manor and experience their 'Feast Festival'. We've been to the Manor before so I thought I knew what to expect but I was first perturbed when it became clear just how many people had also decided to make use of the beautiful day and descend on Aylesbury like a plague of human sized locusts who live on artisan coffee and rare breed sausages.

Apologies for the dark photo, I'm not sure how that happened, the blackberry gods must have been reaching across the globe to close down the company one handset at a time. 

The event was so well supported by visitors that at one point I was wondering if we would be able to get round, out and back again for our lunch reservation. But I shouldn't have worried for despite the immense number of visitors, there wasn't actually that many stalls to look at. True, we spent some time looking at some very interesting charcuterie from Chiltern Charcuterie (I wish I had managed to take more of their air dried venison away), chatted to Auberge-du-Chocolat and got talked into some frankly awesome local chocolate and I'm always a sucker for some proper marshmallows so once I saw this sign I know I had to reach for my wallet:

Chocolate and vanilla in the bag here, I'd already eaten the raspberry and white chocolate and the mint.

Of course, arriving at lunch time did not help us as every single food vendor was heaving, with queues stretching over multiple stalls. We didn't get to try such interesting delights as Hix's Fish Dogs or the SYK Smoke Yard Kitchen, mainly due to a constant and nerve jangling whine from The Child which told us that lunch could be postponed no longer. Waiting 20 mins to get through a queue wasn't something I could handle and so walked on until we got to Flame by Passion For Food who had hooked up some kind of amazing transportable rotisserie and were churning out tasty chicken and chips for 5 quid a pop (Mrs P loved, loved, loved the home made aioli by the way):

View from the queue.

So while the final verdict on the Feast Festival is "good, with some great features", I think it's a work in progress and needs to be widened out a bit (two coffee vans? Were there really no other takers for the pitches?). I'll certainly get in there early next year to make sure I get to try a lot more of everything. On a non-food related note, the entertainment was excellent! Bands and other street performers made for a brilliant family atmosphere with everyone sitting on the lawns eating. So much so that I ended up with a bird on my head, which proved to be absolutely hilarious... for everyone else.

The Children's activity tent was also brill with treasure maps and a odd but fascinating mosaic related activity which I couldn't quite fathom.

Oh, and The Child made a gingerbread man that she claimed was me, or her, or possibly a ghost.

Either way, it's pretty damn scary I think you'll agree.

http://www.chiltern-charcuterie.co.uk/

http://aubergechocolat.co.uk/

http://www.hixrestaurants.co.uk/hixsfishdog/

http://www.smokeyardkitchen.com/

http://www.passion-for-food.co.uk/

http://mellomallo.co.uk/

After which fun and frolics, we went on to lunch at The Bell Inn, The pub itself is a lovely looking building in a beautiful village. They've recently had a new kitchen team brought in by the same guys who own The Old Thatched Inn in Adstock and so after hearing this news over a pint last week I eagerly signed up to host my dad.

The bar was great, the service was great even the toilets were great, but the food?

Well, the roast was pretty standard I'm afraid. Dad's haddock was, I'm told, 'really good' but this is a from a man who would eat a cardboard box if it was covered in tzatziki. Good big portions were present all round but the roast pork option came sans crackling which had to be ordered separately and with a significantly smaller proportion of porky goodness than the bloke's next to me, boo. The veg was good but not stella and the bakewell slice was particularly pleasant and provided a sweet finish without creating fireworks. 

One point of note was The Child's cheesy pasta, which was nice but came in such a leviathan-eske portion size that even she on her best cheese related day couldn't have taken down. 

Kudos to The Bell Inn for effort but I'm afraid we couldn't quite get to the bottom of the bowl.

In summary, The Bell Inn is local with great beer and I might be tempted to try the food again if I've had a few social beverages but it could certainly take some lessons from the Bell and Bear on how to work up a local menu.