All fired up and Dubbin
Sunday the 1st of August saw us fire up our giant fire pit for the first time since this whole pandemic started, and what a day we had. We had originally turned down a space at the show due to the fact everything was just still so up in the air, but when we got asked again, we couldn’t say no.
It’s not the first time we made an appearance at Beach Dubbin on Southsea Common. The last time we were here we served up freshly grilled goat koftas on hand-made tortillas with an amazing romanesco sauce, and what a dish it was. I did come away thinking that the masses of Portsmouth were not quite ready for goat and also made a note to self that more hands are needed when you handpress each tortilla to order!! Those that tried our food loved it and we came away feeling chuffed and happy to have done it.
This time around we teamed up with Jack from the Southcoast Bagel company. He made us some bespoke charcoal everything bagels alongside some black sesame bagels (we thought some people might not be quite so ready for the BLACK bagel). They were deliciously fresh and ready to be filled……
This year we were cooking free-range grass-fed flank steak, low and slow free range pork belly in chipotle honey and sumac marinated halloumi.
So Sunday the 1st came and so did Jack with ALL the bagels and I just remember looking at them with a hint of panic; thinking to myself “how are we going to sell all of these?”.
Our day kicked off at 7am on Southsea common with a hand full of VW camper vans and a couple of other early traders setting up. As it’s been such a long time since we set up for a festival, we thought it best to give us lots of time to get everything sorted, I’m glad we did.
With everything set up and the fire going I finally looked up to see that the common was full of traders, car enthusiasts and a big old jacket potato van next to us. Nevertheless , we were ready opened up and slowly a queue began that just never seemed to get any shorter…
By two ‘thirty we had sold out of everything, and I’m not sure how to explain how happy this had made me, Iris and Jack feel. All of the hard work and planning had paid off, and most importantly we did it all sticking to our values of what good food should be.
We hope to get out and about more in the future as we really do feel happiest in a field next to a big old fire cooking amazing produce, feeding people and making them happy.