Sweet As Festival, Casula

"Sweet As" is a phrase most commonly said in New Zealand (pronounced "sweet ez"), but is now often said here in Australia to express something as being "cool" or agreeable. I think it's a great name for a dessert festival, and I found it particularly apt in that the festival was being held at Casula Powerhouse, where the Niu Warrior exhibition is being held. While I'm not much of a sweets person, the rest of my family is, and I do love a good festival, so we found ourselves at the Sweet As Festival for Crave SIFF on Saturday.

Entry was free, and we bought some tokens to exchange for food ($10 for 12), grabbed a paper plate, and started exploring.

The first stall we came across featured some Asian desserts, including custard tarts and pandan cakes. The man running it was very informative and answered all my questions about the desserts. I ended up leaving with some sweet corn and coconut pudding and other assorted cakes I hadn't tried before.

So colourful!

There was another stand selling all sorts of baclava and Middle Eastern sweets. Normally I'd go nuts for baclava, but I knew there were many more desserts to sample, so I limited myself to one and chose the bird's nest variety. It's commonly made in a spiral shape, and the outer shell was deliciously crisp, giving way to pastry made chewy by the syrup.

The Australian stand was a bit disappointing - devoid of pavlova and lamingtons (which happened to be at the French table :s), all that was on offer were cupcakes and cakepops.

There was free tea available as well, a few varieties of T2 tea and some iced Turkish apple tea, to clear the pallet after so many sweets.

The Ethiopian coffee stand was quite interesting - we got to watch the lady make the potent brew by heating a traditional urn filled with water and coffee beans. It didn't take long at all, and the coffee was bitter, aromatic and strong - I quite liked it.

For some reason they had Turkish delight at the Greek stand, but we tried some anyway. The rose, a classic, is always my favourite, but they had a hazelnut variety as well that I really liked.

The spoils.

They had free face painting, and Katie took full advantage.

All that sugar was too much for me, so my dad and I tried a sausage sandwich. At $3.50 I was at least expecting a little warmth, but the sausage was stone cold. With that disappointing ending, we thought we'd try to fit in some culture, and took a look at the Niu Warriors exhibit.

Niu Pasifik Warriors - 50 Artists works from the Pacific rim.

Kilikiti - Exhibition of Samoan Cricket bats from the local Sydney Samoa Community.

This collection, curated by Leo Tanoi and Giles Peterson, really spoke to me because of my Maori heritage. Also the fact that my step-mum is Tongan and I've grown up with her family made me feel like I could definitely relate to the pieces featured here. For anyone interested, I definitely recommend a visit - but hurry, because the exhibition ends 4th of December.

This was an excellent venue for the Sweet As festival, but hopefully they'll get the glitches ironed out in time for next year (if they decide to hold it again). Despite the slight flaws - the odd placement of certain desserts, and the cold sausage - the event had enough good points that, if they were to hold it again, I'd definitely go back. Look out for it next year!

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre

http://www.casulapowerhouse.com/

1 Casula Rd
Casula, NSW
2170

Phone: 02 9824 1121

Comments

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What a fab day. Love the face painting - too cute

Posted by: Nic@diningwithastud | Oct 26, 2011 at 10:39 AM

Seems that some things had identity issues, LOL! I think I wouldn't been able to manage that much sugar and would need something savoury like you did, too bad the sausage was cold.

Posted by: Gaby | Oct 26, 2011 at 12:45 PM