Unusual food up for tasting at Wildfoods festival
Media Release - December 30, 2002
One of the world’s most challenging collection of unusual food up for tasting at annual Hokitika Wildfoods festival
Arguably the world’s most unusual collection of challenging food will be on offer for 20,000 fans who like to sample fear factor-style food at the annual Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika in March.
The South Island West Coast event will be held on March 8 and no other festival in New Zealand has such a variety of wild and unusual food.
Bulls’ penises, sheep’s eyes, pig offal, scorpions, worms, seagull eggs, horse meat and rams' balls are just some of the fare.
The original purple Maori potato (not the kumara), grasshoppers, mako shark, emu meat, spagnum moss, manuka smoked wild pork, snails, bulls' testicles, whitebait, slugs, ostrich meat, ponga frongs, octopus, eel, kangaroo, mutton bird, truffles, paua and crayfish are back again.
``Wild foods are very healthy, lean, organic and not GE-affected. GE has not got this far,’’ festival organiser Mike Keenan said.
``We have a lot of organic and environmentally-sustainable wildfood that gives us a point of difference to other festivals. It is about enjoying the abundant healthy, lean, organic wildfoods harvest from the West Coast.’’
Some of the country’s top young chefs are also cooking off for the New Zealand wildfoods chef's title. The chefs are required to produce a mouth-watering two-course meal within an hour.
Just 1800 people attended the first festival in 1990 compared to 20,663 at the last event.
The festival is the annual showcase of the West Coast’s traditional pioneering lifestyle and is regarded one of the finest events in the country.
It has already featured in media all around the world and provides an opportunity for people to try food they are unlikely to see on an average restaurant menu.
This year’s event will be of major interest following the Fear Factor tv show which has seen contestants struggling to stomach some daring food.
The 90 stalls will feature some of the most daring delights imaginable.
The festival in the greenstone and dairy town of 3300 is the biggest annual event on the West Coast, generating more than $2 million for the community.
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Media Advisory: Word of Mouth Media NZ is handling all media inquiries for the March 8 festival.
Please get back to us if you want further information or we can arrange any interviews, photos, camera work. Thanks and Happy New Year
Kip Brook, Word of Mouth Media NZ Ph: 03 374 5426