Gastronbury 2007: The Food Review

United Kingdom | by Justin Madgwick | 24 June 2007

I will, however, state here, with 900 food outlets there was little chance of me scraping the surface - so for all those magnificent people who carry, prepare, cook and sell their wares that don't get a mention in this blog - it's nothing personal!
 
In all, we managed to sample the delights from about 60 stall-holders. I have highlighted those we deemed to provide the best quality from that selection - taste, value, friendliness, ambience - and have created our hall of fame (no shame will be passed in this article) in various categories plus our top-three overall food and drink stalls.
 
So, we start the day with Breakfast...
 
I had a slightly unfair advantage immediately as I was lucky enough to be camping in the backstage hospitality area and Lulu's Cafe there does a great bacon and egg, sausage and egg or any combination of, in a roll; but venturing further afield there were some good places to get that first meal of the day.
 
Most of the larger cafes do the standard full-English, and to be honest they are all pretty much a so-so affair, but there were a couple of alternatives if you are prepared to look a bit further afield. In the Tipi Village for example there was a young guy selling museli from the entrance of one of the tipi's - the queue indicted it was worth it; in Lost Vagueness the previous night's veggie burger stall had turned into the breakfast veggie burger stall and on the way down to the Jazz World stage there was a great turn-out at the Tiny Tea Tent.

However, according to the people in the queue who had frequented The Garlic Kitchen - this was the best place for an 'English Torpedo Breakfast' with a difference (clue is in the name). The Fayres Fare had a good vibe and atmosphere - plus a queue! For me, the crepes at Earth Heart on the edge of the Craft Field were worth the walk - not only is it quintessentially Glastonbury (earthy, un-conforming and very friendly) but it has a great little chill-out tented area with floor cushions and uplifting tunes playing. They also serve great fresh caffetierre coffee and a secret recipe spicy Chai.
 
Being a coffee addict who normally consumes unhealthy quantities of espresso everyday, I made it a personal mission to find a good coffee. Apart from the Earth Heart, it was a hard slog. A good alternative on the same vein as Earth Heart, but a lot buzzier, is Chai Waller's on the main drag to The Other Stage, it also has a small stage area, seating and good Chai and Coffee options. Unfortunately Xpresso (a personal friend of the 2005 event) had no power to their professional Espresso Machine; the more corporate mobile vans purporting to sell the real McCoy were off par and instant just isn't my thing! After a muddy trudge around Jazz World to see Icelandic nutters - Gus Gus, I found a little coffee and pasta place, run by Italians, all dressed in Italian national football jerseys; Pasta & Basta sell real Espresso coffee, as good as you will get, and the Latte was damn fine too. £1 for an espresso - that's cheaper than the high street or anywhere on site selling inferior versions. Glasto Coffee Seller 2007 - Pasta & Basta!
 
My wife on the other hand is a huge consumer of tea, and although you can get anyone to pop a PG in a paper cup, the fresh brewed stuff is apparently all that will do. Apologies for the lack of a photo here, but the American Cookie stall near The Pyramid Stage ticked everyone's boxes for their fresh tea - even though it's £1.50 a cup, they sell double chocolate cookies too - served by one of the happiest stall holders we encountered!
 
With the global push on having your five pieces of fruit and veg being rammed down our throats by all and sundry, this year's Glasto appeared to have more fresh fruit, smoothie and juice bars than I remember. Most, in fact virtually all, were simply cutting up fruit and either serving in a cup or whizzing up - so as long as the fruit was fresh you were pretty safe; however, opposite the American Cookie stall is a little stall, blink and you'll miss it - it didn't even appear to have a name - selling absolutely delicious Water Melon; if you want something zingier and really refreshing - there were a couple of fresh-squeezed lemonade stalls dotted around, the best of which were the mobile Old Fashioned Lemonade stall near White Lake Bridge (but not there when I returned) and on The Causeway which gets my vote for cold drink stall (non-alcoholic) - great bunch of guys serving, all really happy and the lemonade was excellent. £2 a cup might seem a bit, but everyone is selling for about the same price.
 
Lunch/dinner/tea - whatever - is a dilemma - so many options, every nationality of food, every possible concept - it could be a food festival! So, I enlisted help of a few friends to really try as much as we could, and here are our top choices:
 
Whilst enjoying The Automatic over lunch at The Other Stage we had an OK standard burger and chips from none-other than Ian Beale's Eastenders stall - The Meal Machine - well, Glastonbury's version. The staff here were really good and it was an inexpensive place. On a "basic" food instinct a visit to Pure Pie proved worth the squelching across the mud, an idea a large number of other hungry folk shared.
 
The Quality Welsh Venison stall closer to The Pyramid but on the same main drag is in fierce competition with the Organic Venison stall near the cross roads of White Lake Bridge  - both do excellent burgers and steaks from about £4.
 
Just by Saloon 25 there is a group of stalls selling pizza, burgers, crepes and falafel - now we like falafel, and tried numerous - these guys were good, and a good location with good staff - note the absence of anything more positive than "good". On the Falafel thread, my personal favourite was in-between Jazz World and The Glade, simply called Falafel - really flavoursome and great garlic sauce - but one could easily eat nothing else for weeks and try a different stall every few hours - Glastonbury is seriously into Falafel.
 
Veggie Burgers et al are also big news - and there are some great and not so great. Unfortunately we had lots of the latter. One stall, however, stood out in Lost Vagueness, opposite the Little Chinese Picture Palace is a big stall, open late and serving good food with toppings - we tried three different options, all went down well - they had a sister stall near The Causeway - same good effort! We also thought Gibbs which is near the Meeting Point at Leftfield was good - but there was a big queue following their mention in the official programme. Queen Delilah's near the end of The Glade had some good bean dishes worth trying at reasonable prices, friendly staff and a reasonably fluid queue.
 
In Saloon 25 you can have a pretty fine Hog Roast whilst watching line dancing - dancing you can then join in with - not my cup of tea, but great fun watching people falling over. Hog Roasts are in plenitude, we enjoyed all of the ones we tried - the better ones being - situated at the back of crowd for The Other Stage; en-route to the Circus Fields and, just tipping it - near Late 'n' Live - is the stall known (by coincidence) as voted Best Hog Roast in the UK - and you can see why.
 
Curry and Eastern influence is ever popular, The Thali Cafe did a great Thali (!?!) and the punters we spoke to there were happy with everything apart from the queue to get their food. Two stood out for us. First was The Curry Leaf - situated in-between the Pyramid Stage and The Other Stage. With one of the friendliest and happiest bunch of people serving homemade curries with sauces and decent rice - they have a noodle stall too which was fine -  their curries have earned them a mention (and, a big plus here, they are open late!) The other was Chapati Man - a caravan stall on the left going from Orange Chill 'n' Charge down to Field of Avalon. We tried each of their offerings - veggie and meat based - all excellent - the Chicken Sag getting lots of thumbs up. £4, happy staff - Mr. Chapati himself beaming most of the time. A huge positive for these guys is that it is really easy to eat their food - the wrapper is the Chapati and therefore you need no fork and there is only a small napkin to throw into the recycling bin. The only downside for this particular stall is also their upside - the food can only be made fresh, so they cannot be open as long as some of the other stalls; it can get busy, but it is well worth any wait you may have.
 
As you leave Jazz World to head towards the big stages there is a stall on the right with several enormous cauldron/paella-type pans with either potato or sausages floating in sauce. This is La Grande Bouffe or "Posh Nosh" - get £6.50 out of your muddy pocket and treat yourself to The Super Royale - potato with bacon bits, cream and sauce with a really good sausage on top - sure you can "just" have the potato for £4.50 - and that is better than most of the burgers (both types) and they do vegetarian options with blue cheese as one topping. This is a great find (thanks Steve) and probably gets the vote for taste and authenticity - but it is a bit pricey for festival food and you really need to sit down with a fork - not very feasible in the rain this year.
 
Noodles have been mentioned briefly; and a bit like the falafel there did seem an awful lot to choose from. Enlisting extra help to try a few, and thanks to those of you I spoke to in the fields, general consensus was if you like noodles you can't go wrong with Now & Zen - they have several stalls dotted about, the noodles are very good and you can have fresh tempura vegetables on top for a little extra - I really recommend you do that! The staff were efficient - the team at the stall opposite Orange Chill 'n' Charge were the friendliest.
 
I don't do sweet stuff, but our team do - the chocolate balls or banana cake at Earth Heart were popular, the Old Fashioned Confectionary Stall did well and, of course, the American Cookie Stall got some praise!
 
A few pints are needed throughout the long weekend, most bars serve the same stuff - Carling, Guinness at a few and various ciders. Two thoughts went through our heads when doing this bit - speed of service, quality of drink. Speed has to go to May 1st Bar by Jazz World - firstly it was peeing down and therefore rammed to the rafters - but we didn't have to wait - the staff were absolutely on the money. Dream Time Bar near The Other stage had a good crack at that - but don't try and buy a beer in-between acts - it gets ridiculous. Same could be said for the Brothers Cider Bar at Jazz World - the crowd clambering for litre bottles 7% Pear or Strawberry Cider - they couldn't get rid of their cash quick enough.
 
The Queens Head is great for catching acts over a pint, but it gets truly packed out when it rains. The Late 'n' Live Lounge next to Orange's Charge 'n' Chill is a better option - we enjoyed a cracking set by Scouting for Girls whilst supping a cool beer - went down well.
 
The Bimble Inn in the Tipi Village is a chilled out eclectic organic real ale and cider bar with a wide range of spirits too; the cider is strong and very orange (!), the beer is very real and organic - £2.50 a pint, sore heads I am sure - cool place though with a small acoustic area and on ambience gets our vote for best bar.
 
In 2005 we had stumbled into Slippery Dicks - a small bar off the old railway embankment in-between the Craft Fields and Lost Vagueness. Then it was a hidden gem, more of a spoken word type of hang-out. It's now a full on party bar with a very tough entry system as it is down some steep steps and the "bouncers" operate a one-out one-in policy. Get there early, and enjoy it before it gets too full as you won't be able to meet mates there later.
 
Purely on the uber-weird we have to mention New York (DownLow) - a seedy gay bar set-up in the Trash City field. Firstly you have to put on a moustache to gain entrance, you then have to buy tokens in order to buy drinks from extremely camp leather adorned men-folk. The same tokens can then be used in next door's Flaming Circus whilst you watch beat-box gurus followed by acts such as Warlords of Pez; you get served by cross-dressing ballerinas, burlesque dancers or zombies - it just doesn't get any better really does it?
 
Finally, we come on to late night or "munchie" eating. Now, these "recommendations" have to be made with a disclaimer - and that is that at 4-5 am and with a few jars in you a lot of things can taste good. I didn't go back to these stalls by day. Near the entrance to Hospitality (or 'Hostility' as the VF folk call it), diagonally opposite our 2004 Food Stall of the Year (The BBQ Pizza Company) is a large stall selling cornish pasties, burgers and chips. They are open late (or early depending on which way you look at it) and they serve quickly. The pasties were a little light on filling, the burgers a bit unadventurous, but their chips and real curry sauce went down a treat.
 
One I regret not going into was the Japanese stall at the smaller entrance to the Tipi Village. A proper sit down "restaurant" with "gaishers" and even a little seated reception area, so please can I have a ticket for 2008?
 
Our top 3 food stalls for 2007:
 
Chapati Man - I think Chapati Man just nicks it on value, simplicity of choice and ease of eating.
The Curry Leaf - friendliest and happiest team, good range of food and a real alternative on the late night route.
La Grande Bouffe - posh nosh in the mud - it tastes and smells damn good. You can find this stall in London's Camden Lock Market at the weekend.
 
Pasta & Basta and The Lemonade Stall have to have a special mention for quality of drinks.