Colour me good

Working from home can be quite isolating, so I'm always on the look out for cafes and coffee shops to work in. I haven't really settled in any one until I came across Add the Colour.


Add the Colour is a new breed of coffee shop that has found it's home in the old parking information office on North Road. The idea is 'coffee, images, colour' - basically it's a place to drink good coffee and tea while surrounding yourself with some of Brighton's photography talents. It's an amazing spot for local photographers to showcase their work and whats more, they often congregate here and there are regular photography talks. It's definitely not just a place for photographers though, people from all walks of life come and go as I sit and work here throughout the day.


Coffee comes from Edgcumbes, I can't really comment on the coffee as I've been caffeine free for 2 years (natch) but the teas are amazing - from The London Tea Company and available in a wide range of flavours.


The food choices seem to increase each week and there's lovely local made quiches and bread of which Add the Colour have a delivery of each morning (not that I spend a lot of time here or anything). There's also some amazing brownie type things, I swear they're taunting me.


Best about this place though is Dan who owns it, he's always got some interesting to say and is clearly passionate about what he has to offer. Get yourself down there and say hello if you spot me.

Edible gets fired up

I have a lot of male friends and we all know men like to out do each other with 'manly things'. So of all the events of the Brighton & Hove Food Festival, I knew I had more chance of getting them down to this. I was right. 


So, on Sat 11th and Sun 12th Sept following a Facebook status stating where I was off to, I met up with a group of friends and checked out what delights the Fiery Food Festival had to offer. As a photographer, I love this kind of event - it poses a wide range of things to capture and you often get a lot of banter with the stall holders. The event itself offers lots of things for everyone to do though. Littleuns were well catered for, with lots of activities for them to get involved in/be entertained with while Dad outdoes his mate Dave with the Satan's Shit. The bar kept my rabble of friends happy, as did the array of hot food (particularly the jalapeno sausages with bum burner sauce), though I did feel some of it was slightly overpriced for what you got. The range of foods was pretty broad - Thai, BBQ food, indian cuisine and some impressive pans full of tagine. Personally, I was blown away by BBQ Shack's ribs - marinated in a whole host of sugars and spices and slow cooked over many hours - delicious.  


There was an array of stalls, offering tasters of their wares and we all know how the general public love free things. Particularly good was the Chilli Pepper Pete (having a cheerful man behind the stall means everything) stall. Also I was really impressed with the range of cheeses on offer from Simply Gorgeous Cheeses Ltd and a snip at 3 huge blocks for a fiver - though I wasn't as taken with the belgium chocolate Wensleydale as I had thought I'd be (why I thought it was a good idea in the first place is beyond me).


At the end of both days comedy acts entertained in a big white tent, which was a bit hit and miss but nowt you could grumble at for a 3 quid entry fee. Following this were the chilli eating competitions, which was enough to make your toes curl - the horrified audience watched while some very red faced men and women ate some of the hottest chillies in the world, so hot that I thought one of Sundays' winners (it was a draw) was going to turn into a mythical serpent with some of the moves he was busting.


All in all, a really enjoyable two days (night time drinks in the nearby Fitzherberts may have contributed to this though) - the sun was out, friends came and went and  there were lots of things to try and buy.


I've posted a selection of photos here but you can a larger selection on my photography Facebook page or the whole set of almost 200 here. 

Welcome!

We love doing Edible, mainly because we get to talk about so many of the amazing things Brighton has to offer with food and drink. As a seasonal magazine, we often have things that crop up that we want to share with you but that didn't quite make deadline or we couldn't squeeze into a corner of the magazine. That's the idea of this blog, it's a place for us and some of our food loving friends to ramble about the things we love, what we think you should love and what we didn't love so much. Alongside that, our photographer has many photos that she'd like to share with you that we simply don't have space for in print.

We hope you enjoy our witterings and our visual offerings and please get in touch if you have ideas or recipes you'd like to contribute.