A day with the hog and 11 hours later my legs feel like they've been run over by a tarmac flattener - or maybe that's my food soul from such rotten supermarket dumping. Once a pretty vibrant food stop on the food market track - now a cesspit of oven pasties, battered cocktail sausages and microwavable burgers. The Belfast city council, could not this year bring us the taste festival without a "little help" - so thanks to Tesco’s - the Taste NI Festival was made possible this September. But not without a price.
Caoimhe Mannion, Marketing Manager with Tesco NI said "We are committed to supporting producers across Northern Ireland and this event, which celebrates the very best of the region’s food and drink, is testament to that.” Hardly, any small producer who was not a supplier to Tesco was pushed out to the back corner and not mentioned in the press release naming exhibitors Press release (insert names of retailers here). They also had to deal with unending food sluttery from Tesco's relentless sampling. These are the independent food retailers - the ones that have been here each year, providing a real sense of local and innovative food.
What the guts of the problem appeared to be was that the market goers, were plied with such an overload of free food (super uninteresting food btw) and drink on the part of Tesco suppliers that this led to serious magpie greed - the idea of paying for food's worth drowned outside along with the gardens - people seemed to resent money changing hands, which is so different to a proper food market - where your excited to hand the money over to make that delish something yours. In no way is this the fault of the retailers there today or those that were hired to work the stalls - it was the atmosphere created when a giant super market chain sets up base in a market place setting. So a headz up - avoid - unless of course, your heading straight to the Pheasant Hill Hog - the real gem in the pack - for some rare breed, free-range hog roast - alternatively, if you feel like pre packaged chicken wings on your cheek, this is the market for you. Whatever your taste is eh
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