I am a fan of street food and aware that some of the most amazing food experiences can be had from buying meals out of a van. However, I won’t lie to you. With this being my first overnight festival I had some concerns about doing exactly this over a five-day period. Dirty burgers and greasy chips three times a day was my initial thought (add ew or mmm depending on your outlook). But some festival going friends, who advised me that Glasto offered some of the best food around, immediately challenged my view. I was prepared for gloriousness. My expectations were high. I am pleased to say they were met. The food did not centre on dunking everything in grease and batter, as I first thought, and there were ample opportunities to squeeze in fruit and veg if so desired. Now don’t get me wrong. You’ll still be eating in a field, most likely on a wooden bench, standing (maybe simultaneously), or if lucky enough picnic style on the floor because it hasn’t rained. And why not. Tables and chairs are so last season. But if you’re looking for Michelin starred service and bone china plates you’ll be disappointed. Unless you pack some of course.
One of the best bits about the Glasto food experience was that there was no cooking and most importantly no washing up for five whole days. All meals were conveniently located near to wherever we happened to be, or at the very least a short walk away. Having said that an immediate coffee in the morning at the tent would have been very welcome.
The variety of cuisine for meat eaters and vegetarians from across the world was vast, with an array of options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, supper, pudding, dessert…however you want to label your meal there was an offering for it. So for me, bacon/egg rolls, berry fruit smoothies and tea with crumpets were my breakfasts of choice, but the option was there to have a burrito, curry or meatballs if so desired. In fact we even threw caution to the wind on a couple of occasions and rounded off breakfast with breakfast pudding – pancakes with lemon and sugar. Well, we were on holiday after all.
Here are some pics of some of the food and drinks we enjoyed…
Pulled pork burrito with guacamole, sour cream and fresh tomato salsa
Potato with spicy chorizo and Raclette cheese (from Le Rac Shack @LeRacShack)
Pimms
Lebanese mezze (Baba ghanoush, olives, flat bread, falafels, spicy beans and tabbouleh with lemon)
Salted caramel brownie with custard (From The Green Brownie @GreenBrownieBar)
Freshly squeezed lemonade with mint
Fresh fruit cake with spirulina
Butternut squash curry (From The Thali Cafe @thethalicafe)
Cakes and doughnuts
Fresh fruit
Some of the other food we sampled included a steak and Brie baguette (From Halls Dorset Smokery @FestivalSmokery), treacle tart with custard, a refreshing drink made from bay leaves, and a grilled salmon and halloumi ciabatta with mango and coriander chutney and red onion marmalade (From Ken’s Barbie).
Fear not though. If you want to spend five days eating burgers and chips for all of your meals you can. That’s the beauty of it. Your Glasto food experience can be whatever you want it to be.
Claire
iprefercakestopeople 