I was extremely privileged to have been invited to last week’s Royal Queensland Food & Wine Show. (And this opportuni-tea came through the power of Twitter. How marvellous!) Although there wasn’t a cup of tea in sight many of us were able to get our daily dosage of antioxidants by other means. 😀

According to their website, the aim of The Royal Queensland Food & Wine Show is to showcase the nation’s finest food and wine offerings. I remember watching their tweets earlier in the year and salivating as they announced the winners of the Cheese and Dairy Show and the Icecream, Gelato and Sorbet show.

On June 5th they crowned the Tajima Fullblood Wagyu as Australia’s best steak. It is a NSW Wagyu that was said to have beaten a high class field of record entries. Here is my attempt at capturing the moment when samples of this tea-licious beef was offered around the room. There were a lot of salivating onlookers trying to grab a bite as you can see.

Tajima Fullblood Wagyu crowned Australia’s best steak

 

The Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show is the most prestigious beef competition in Australia, RQFWS Chief Judge, Russell Smith announces. He also gave credit to the people that cooked the beef whom he deemed them more important than the judges themselves. He was very humbling.

I was extremely privileged to have exchanged a few words with Russell where I openly admitted I was unaware the Queensland Food and Wine Show were showcasing products not just from Queensland but Australia-wide (well, I have only been in the country for less than two years). He did mention that previous competitions such as the chocolate show (I wish I knew about that one!) showcased chocolates that are imported as Australia isn’t renowned for its production of cocoa beans of course. So there might be a chance for a tea competition at least given that there are great tea plantations here in Queensland and Australia-wide, I remarked; rather cheekily.

My star struck moment was bumping into several food bloggers including Kerry Heaney from @eatdrinkbekerry fame and the tea-lightful Michelle Levings from @FoxedGlove fame whom invited me along to the event (thanks m’dear). It was ever so lovely to meet a fellow tweeter Gemma and of course, the equally lovely Miss Foodie.

Kerry Heaney (aka @eatdrinkbekerry)

Other competitions to be featured later on in the year at the Royal Queensland Food & Wine Show include the Sausage King competition on 8th July and the Beer competition in October. I’m looking forward to those.

I also look forward to the day that the Royal Queensland Food & Wine Show presents a tea competition in the near future. I’m hoping that my appearance at Regional Flavours in July is a small step towards that momentous day. (More details to follow very soon).

Here’s to all the 2012 RQFWS Branded Beef Winners and the 2012 RQFWS Branded Lamb Winners. Raising a cup of tea as a toast to you all!