Your Handmade Market foodie bucket list

Posted on 21 June, 2019

If you’ve got a case of the winter blues, Handmade Markets will warm your spirit – and more specifically your belly.

The theme for the upcoming market is Winter Warming Food, so you’ve been warned: jeans are out, and your stretchiest, most comfortable leggings are in.

The quarterly event, held across 29 and 30 June at Exhibition Park, will be a smorgasbord of comforting hot, spicy drinks, warming winter wines and spirits, and nourishing and hearty food.

“It’s always worth it to brave the winter chill for a day out at Handmade,” says market founder and owner Julie Nichols.

“The market is all indoors and heated, so along with the all your regular favourites there is amazing food and great shopping, it’s the perfect winter day out, really.”

“We love giving our regulars plenty of new stallholders to enjoy while ensuring they can always revisit some favourites too.

Handmade has hand-picked 60 new stallholders for the market, bringing the total number of stallholders to 270.

However, when it comes to food, we’ve done the hard work for you. All you have to do is rock up and enjoy! Here are some of the food highlights to look forward to.

Street Food

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If you’ve been dying to escape the Canberra winter but have “responsibilities” (sigh) there’s special focus on street food this market.

You can pretend you’re strolling a street in Korea, or China, or Vietnam—all from the comfort of an indoor heated market hall, with fantastic shopping as well.

Korbq

You’ve probably heard of Southern fried chicken, right? Well, Korean fried chicken, otherwise known as KFC, takes everything that’s great about fried chicken and adds a certain Korean twist—a spicy, sweet glaze for a crispy and sticky treat. The only thing left to decide is wings or thighs.

Super Bao

Sink your teeth into hot and fluffy bao buns with delicious fillings: pork belly, crackling pork, fried chicken, tempura prawn, and tofu.

Super Bao was created by Paul and Angel, who were born in China, who make all the steamed buns by hand to ensure the soft and fluffy texture.

Pham Sisters

If you’re vegan, don’t fret, Pham Sisters from Melbourne will be offering up Vietnamese food with a modern twist.

From rice paper rolls, spring rolls and vegan nuggets, to vegan beef satay noodles salad and vegan stir-fried veggie rice, Pham Sisters has got all your plant-based needs covered.

Coffee

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If you need a caffeine hit, hit up The Bearded Brewer (who’ll be bringing their fun blue vintage coffee caravan to Handmade) or Guerrilla Roasters.

Both brewers are passionate about serving up the best quality coffee, sourced from sustainable farms around the world.

Chai

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It’s hard to be a tea drinker in a city obsessed with coffee. Thankfully, Real Chai and Chai Addict will be on hand to offer zingy chai to wake you up. Who said tea was boring?

Real Chai not only has their Original (traditional spices and tea) blend, they also have Dark French Chocolate (with real chunks of chocolate), Caffeine-Free (with organic chicory and dandelion), Honey-Blend (for convenience) and Christmas (with white chocolate, cranberries and nutmeg) blends. And their brand new organic, vegan chai latte powder will be available too – but don’t worry it’s just fast, not fake.

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From Chai Addict, their namesake Chai Addict blend and Chai Harder (their spicier blend) is a masala chai tea concentrate handmade in Melbourne from certified organic spices and certified organic Ceylon tea.

Made in small batch brews to bring big flavour, the ingredients used are composted at local community gardens, which is then used to feed the vegetable plots to close the sustainable loop.

Gourmet Pantry

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Fill your pantry with unique pantry items from the Canberra region and around Australia. Stock up on premium salami from Goose on the Loose, with flavours you won’t see in the supermarkets. Duck & Juniper, Pork & Truffle, Wild Boar & Fennel and Kangaroo & Chilli, anyone?

If you’re looking for some special salt to enhance those warming winter dishes, pick up some Smoked Solar Sea Salt from The Original Smoke and Spice Company. The salt, which is suitable for both shakers and grinders, is smoked by hand, and then tumble roasted with garlic, shallots, coriander and even a hint of chilli! And their Freshly Smoked Garlic is smoked over Manuka honey, bay leaves and rosemary.

Needing some extra antioxidants in the winter weather to keep those pesky colds away? Grab some award-winning, tasty black garlic from Garlicious Grown. Black garlic has twice the antioxidants of fresh garlic. Worried about garlic breath? Just tell everyone it’s good for you (and them).

Hunt down some Grade-A truffles (see what we did there?) with Great Southern Truffles. Truffle oil, butter, salsa, sauce, mustard, and honey are some of the base ingredients used to create the speciality gourmet truffle range, which is supplied to top line restaurants and retail outlets Australia wide. Create your own restaurant experience at home with products such as duck foie gras and black truffle butter.

Sweet

Imagine yourself in Paris with jumbo gourmet macarons from Macaron De Paris. True to the name, these macarons are twice the size of your average macaron, with 25 flavours ranging from authentic ‘Creme Brulee,’ ‘Lemon Meringue’ with a lemon curd centre, the mouth-watering ‘Sea salted Caramel’ and their newest release ‘Nutella Rocher’ which has a ‘ferrero texture’ and a roasted hazelnut in the middle.

Get a PG-rated version of a bun in the oven (hehe) with Bundt in the Oven, mini bundt cakes with a ‘hole’ lot of flavour.

All cakes are handmade from scratch locally using rich quality ingredients and have quirky flavour names. So, whether you’re ‘Not into yoga’ (Pina Colada flavour) or enjoy a caffeine hit (‘Bean me up, Scotty!’) there will be a flavour for you. 

Want to be the first in the door?

Handmade Canberra is generously inviting HerCanberra readers to be first in the door on Saturday 29 June during their VIP hour from 9 am – 10 am.

There’s never been a better time to sneak in before the crowds. No need to register, just turn up!

the essentials

What: Handmade Market June 2019
When: 29 and 30 June, doors open at 10 am and close at 4 pm
Where: EPIC Exhibition Park
Entry: Free but donations to charity collectors are encouraged
Web: handmadecanberra.com.au