Sizzle Street Recap - Barbados Food & Wine And Rum Festival 2012

Open air dining at Sizzle Street

The Barbados Food & Wine and Rum Festival is an exciting 4 days in tropical paradise featuring top chefs, sommeliers and mixologists from Barbados and around the world. It truly is an event not to be missed! Now in it's third year the festival has grown in popularity, and even added a new event. Sizzle Street is the newest addition to the festival, which sought to emphasize one of the biggest food trends around the world today - Street food.

Visitors & Locals lined up to try Cuz Fish Shack's Street Food

The event was held in Queen's Park, located in the capital city of Bridgetown. The Queen's Park playing field was transformed into a veritable foodie mecca, featuring some of Barbados' Top Street Food chefs and vendors like Cuz Fish Shack, Cou Cou Village, Lee's Bistro & Catering Services, and Chef Paul Norville of The Smoke Pit. Patrons were truly in for a treat as the food on offer included local, regional and international street food favorites like Fish Cakes (made with salted cod fish and some with breadfruit too!), Fish Cutters, Conkies, Pudding and Souse, BBQ Pig Tails, Ribs & Chicken, Fried Chicken, Hot dogs, Burgers, Macaroni Pie, Fried and Grilled Fish, Pulled Pork, Bacon Cakes, Pork Kebabs, Rotis, Cupcakes, Ice cream ... and the list goes on! My favorites at this event included the Blue Marlin Fish Cutter from Cuz Fish Shack (and I am not a fan of Blue Marlin fish but theirs was good!), Fish cakes, BBQ Chicken, and Pudding & Souse. (Of course I didn't try everything on offer - had to save room for the Ambrosia event later that day!)

Aspiring Chef Rico Bradshaw Adding Finishing Touches To His Dish

The highlight of the event for me though was the Eggonomics cooking & mixology demo with aspiring chef Rico Bradshaw (just 19 yrs old!) and Barbadian mixologist, Dameain Williams (from In Da Mix). First up was the cooking demo and I was up front and center, so to speak, as Chef Rico demonstrated how to make Bacon cakes, and Pork Kebabs with Mango Rum Sauce - Delish!! Ingredients for the bacon cakes included sauteed onions, bacon of course, flour, water, thyme and coconut panko crumbs... like I said, delish!

Barbadian Mixologist Dameain Williams with his creation "SorBas Cocktail"

If you don't already know, Mount Gay Rum is the rum that invented rum! So pretty much any cocktail made with this fine spirit is not only packed with flavor but tons of history as well. The cocktail for this demo was a new creation. The Mixologist toyed with the name SorBas - so that's what I'll run with. Ingredients included Mount Gay Eclipse Rum Original, Lime Juice, Sorrel Juice, Basil Leaves, Simple Syrup, Angostura Bitters and Ice. It was awesome! A well balanced cocktail.

Helping myself to Rico Bradshaw's Bacon Cakes! (Published in the Nation Newspaper's Sunday Sun)

Apart from the food and rum and other beverages on offer, Sizzle Street also featured live entertainment, healthy lifestyle checks, jumping tents for the kids and giveaways. All in all it was a fun outdoor event that would be perfect for the entire family and I think it's a great addition to the Barbados Food & Wine and Rum Festival. Hope to see it back again next year!

Did you attend Sizzle Street? What was your favorite part?

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