Expo Milano 2015 Part 2

This post originally appeared on La Lingua, one of our committee members' blogs. If you have any food-related posts you'd like to see on our blog, get in touch!

So onto Part 2 of my pictures from Expo "mini-series" (I'm assuming there will be more when we go again in the future... maybe?) and as promised, some tips on navigating its choppy waters!

1. Prepare yourself for a long day of walking and standing outsideEach year, as summer descends on Italy, I am afflicted with a strange case of elephantiasis of the feet. My most trusty ballerina pumps will suddenly turn into cruel heel-eating devils and my sandals will somehow create blisters on parts of my feet I wasn't even aware could blister! As such I wore some trusty Converse which happily carried me through many hours of wandering and queueing and queueing and queueing (although even they were chafing by the end of the day). Unfortunately I also wore my black skinny jeans which was a huge mistake as the sun was beating down on us like an evil witch. So please, make sure you check the weather forecast as well! A sunhat might be your best investment!
2. Go with an empty stomach and an open mind Lots of pavilions have restaurants or take-away areas for you to grab international goodies from. I was initially planning on having something from one of the South America pavilions (fajitas anyone?) but swiftly discovered that vegetarianism was not part of their vocabulary. We stumbled across an Afghan takeaway and had some delicious rice with vegetables (better than it sounds!) and this incredible samosa-type thing with a cool yogurt dip. The Israel pavilion had delicious food too such as eggs poached in a tomato and aubergine sauce with feta.
3. Take water supplies We ended up drinking loads. There are water points throughout the site but the queues can be quite long. Also, pay attention to whether you're filling up at a fizzy or still water point. I accidentally filled my bottles with my arch nemesis, fizzy water, and could have cried had I not been dehydrated to the point of lacking tears.
4. Plan your visit well Search the internet for advice on which pavilions are worth visiting. For the record, of the ones we visited, the following stood out particularly: Japan, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, UK, China, Slow Food and of course Italy. Then be strategic about when to visit. Some of them are packed out all day every day - we only attempted Brazil late in the evening just as it was closing as the queues had been phenomenally long all day. Switzerland is worth swinging by in the morning as you can pick up timed entrance tickets. Italy was busy right until when it closed at 8:30pm as was Japan, so some of them you will need to queue for no matter how sneaky you are (unless you're the first one in at opening and sprint to the one you want to see most!) The site was incredibly busy during the daytime but began to empty out at about 4pm. However we went before the school holidays began so that may have affected it too. If you can, get there at opening and don't leave until it closes! There are plenty of spots to chill out with a glass of wine if it all gets too much midday.
5. Be receptive to the concept The Swiss pavilion was brilliant (except for the glaring access of Swiss chocolate - what was that all about?!) The concept is based on the finite resources of the world. You find yourself in a makeshift supermarket composed of four rooms - one for coffee, one for apples, one for salt and one for water. Any produce that you find is yours for the taking. But, you are reminded, whatever you take now means there is less for those that come after you. The first room (coffee) was still relatively full as people had just been given this message. However the second room was devoid of apples and the salt room was fairly empty too. The water room had been stripped of plastic cups and the water fountain showed that a large proportion of the water resource for the pavilion had already been used up. Despite the fact that we had witnessed what happens when people just take whatever they want without considering what they and others might need, people were turning the tap on to wash their hands and fill their bottles up as if they hadn't been listening at all.

So there are our top tips for visiting Expo based on our 12 hour day of wandering the pavilions. Let me know if you are going or have been and have any tips to add!

The Slow Food pavilion was a series of simple wooden huts filled with educational materials and displays.

And a great place for wine and cheese tasting too!

A glass of wine plus a tasting of four cheeses (they change every week) costs €10 - even better, you get to take the wine glass home with you! Additional glasses cost €4.

The Swiss pavilion was a brilliant concept and asked us the fundamental question: are you scared of going without?

Inside the Qatar pavilion and below, inside the Moroccan pavilion which was lovely and calming to wander about until you reached the boiling hot desert room! Not a bad gift shop either :)

Austria's concept of creating fresh mountain air was not lost on me and was such a welcome break from the heat! I really wanted to grab some apple strudel, it looked so tempting!

Spot the sign that made me laugh... immature, I know...

Inside the Italy pavilion where miniature sculptures of regional chefs stood proud and mirrored halls catapulted the beauty of the peninsula into 4D.

The Tree of Life, a water and light show to sit back and rest your poor legs at!

The UK pavilion, a huge bee hive made of wires and lights. Pimms is served here too but don't expect European alcohol measurements, this is a firmly British establishment!

Brazil: a canopy that stretches above a miniature rainforest (but really everyone just goes to walk across the big bouncy net - not to be attempted in heels like the poor girl we saw struggling with her boyfriend, although he fell down first!)

We only just brushed the surface of Expo, there were so many other pavilions we wanted to see (Cocoa pavilion and Lindt shop, I am looking at you). Hopefully if we get time this summer we will head back - although there's so much coming up! I'll be graduating next month and then we're heading to Canada for an entire month! Once back, we're off to France with my family and then it will be near enough time to head back to Exeter to begin life as a masters student, eek! We shall see, Expo, we shall see.

Expo Milano 2015 Part 1

This post originally appeared on La Lingua, one of our committee members' blogs. If you have any food-related posts you'd like to see on our blog, get in touch!

Expo Milano 2015 is well underway and a couple of weeks ago, Michele and I headed down to have a look to see what all the fuss was about. The point of the Expo is to explore new methods and technologies surrounding food production and how we can make this more globally sustainable. For me this is an incredibly interesting and vital topic and I was really eager to learn more about how we can feed our increasing population in the future.

We arrived at 10:30am, half an hour after it opened and stayed for about 12 hours! There's a lot of walking around and queueing to be done so if you go, make sure you wear comfortable shoes!

For me, there was very much a theme park atmosphere and I felt a little bit like I was at Disneyland for adults (ok so Disneyland for adults is basically just Disneyland but you get what I mean!) There weren't any rides unfortunately but there's a huge dose of festive spirit and with many pavilions designed to reflect the architecture of their home countries, it's almost like walking down Main Street USA chez Mickey.

Obviously I took a lot of photos, although I wasn't clever enough to actually charge my camera up to do so. Luckily when it died halfway through the day, I had my iPhone to hand although as I've got a bog-standard 4 (I'm talking pre-Siri here!) the camera isn't fantastic so please excuse some of the pictures!

I've split my pictures into two posts to break it up a little (I seriously got very, very snap happy). Next time I'll include some of our top tips for surviving Expo too for those of you looking to go!

Watching grana padano being made; the smell was incredible! Even the police got in on the action...

Traditional dance demonstrations just outside the China pavilion... I really felt for these guys, it was an absolutely sweltering day!

Inside China's pavilion ^

In my opinion, Holland has got the right idea. Instead of having a big pavilion filled with not-much-at -all, their spot has been colonised by food trucks serving up delicious fast food. I spotted a cheese truck selling cheeseburgers that were literally burger patties made of cheese instead of meat. Genius.

Wandering around France's pavilion where you can buy yourself a nice fresh baguette. Ooh lala!

There was a wine showcase next to the Alto Adige pavilion; I loved this feature which showed all the different colours of wine. The darker ones looked very similar until you peered through the bottle necks and saw some glowing garnet whilst others oozed a plummy light.

The vertical garden at Israel.

Japan was one of the pavilions lots of people had advised us to check out and it really didn't disappoint. We had to queue quite a while to get in but it was worth it! Even if we were struggling in the heatwave...

Inside, you're guided through, room by room. It's a very immersive experience with a lot of thought put into presenting the stories and messages in a way that gets you participating and thinking about it. This room was telling us the story of the destruction of natural habitats and how local people are trying to undo the damage.

^ A handy sushi guide for those of us who have no clue what the different types mean!

The futuristic restaurant was an interesting experience. We were all given chop sticks which activated a touch screen (I am terrible at using chop sticks and failed massively on most of the games although our table won the race and that's all that matters of course). The screen took us through seasonal menus depending on our personal food preferences which was a great idea as it showed that you can eat sustainably no matter what food you enjoy most. The session was finished off by a musical number which I definitely wasn't expecting!

It's a lot of fun walking up and down and looking at the different interpretations and uses of allocated space by the different countries. Some of them looked like holiday resorts, others looked like art galleries and others looked like palaces. Next time I'll share some more pictures as well as some tips for visiting Expo! Is anyone planning on going? It's open now until October 31st and there's lots and lots of yummy food to be had...

Hubbox

Burgers aren't exactly the latest in food trends anymore but they're still pretty damn popular. And for good reason too. Firstly because they're delicious. Secondly because it means they're beginning to take over the smaller cities (i.e anywhere that's not London). 

Exeter is quite a small and remote place so it isn't exactly the first place for food trends to hit (although it's definitely not the worst place to be for an aspiring foodie either!) And luckily, when Exeter does something well, it does it bloody well.

Whilst there is now a relatively impressive range of options for burger fans within this tiny city (Byron, Urban burger, Ruby Diner, The Grove Diner) my favourite so far is absolutely hands down Hubbox. 

The interior is somewhat reminiscent of the Ikea self-service warehouse with bare-brick walls, angular metal frames and chipboard creating the feel of a pop-up. Luckily it seems that Hubbox is here to stay. On my first visit, I was absolutely bloomin' ravenous and decided to add a side of apple 'slaw to my order. Oh and a large portion of fries. At £2 for those I was expecting something relatively manageable. It turns out that a large fries is probably enough for three people to share.

Fear not my friends, I ate them all (mostly). The menu offers a fair amount of choice and even allows vegetarians to take their pick from more than one option (shock horror!) As one of those flakey pescatarian types, I greatly appreciate the inclusion of a fish option, the Mack Daddy which I tried on a different occasion. It was absolutely bloody marvellous and definitely worth a go.

Of course, we couldn't eat burgers without having milkshakes to start. The food arrives pretty quickly at Hubbox and is delivered with a charming smile from the lovely waiting staff (my dissertation partner works there so I'm definitely trying to get free goodies from her by putting this in - but it is also very true... hint hint...) Your friends may not give you such charming smiles when you try and get shots of them cramming the delicious food into their mouths.

I went for the Bella which as you can see is practically pornographic. The menu says grilled goats cheese with roasted red pepper, crispy courgette and beetroot mayo but it tastes better than anything you could ever dream of throwing together in your own kitchen. I've heard the meat options are fairly dreamy too.

The Big Kahuna with its 2 x 4oz patties, pulled pork and Swiss cheese is a rather popular one with the lads - every time I go, it never fails to be chosen by at least one ambitious guy in the party.

But I still say the Bella and the Mack Daddy are reason enough to go on their own. Bonus points to Hubbox for their burger buns that don't disintegrate and let you get a good grip on your burger from start to finish. Happy face-stuffing!