Truffle Festival

Mundaring, home of the 2010 WA Truffle Festival, was buzzing with people yesterday.

Never having tasted a truffle that was not chocolate before, I had been looking forward to this event for the past few months. A lot has been reported about the burgeoning truffle industry down in the south west corner of Western Australia so with taste buds ready we headed to the hills and tree lined Mundaring.

Not being sure what to expect I was pleasantly surprised to find a myriad of small white tents offering all manner of locally made gourmet morsels, from lemon infused olive oil to tasting plates of penne pasta and mouth watering pastries. But we had come to sample the TRUFFLE and once spied headed to the larger than most Truffle Tent.

Truffle shavings lightly covered the leak and potato soup and parmesan pizza whilst the expensive delicacy was incorporated into a chicken sausage baguette.
Well, what did it taste like? Hm.... not like anything I'd had before and to be honest the small amount tasted needed further exploration BUT when I came to purchase a small piece, I realised that I was in fact trying to buy Black Gold....yes it was perhaps the most expensive type of food I have ever attempted to buy. I say attempted, because when it came to it I just could not bring myself to pay the prices being asked. $115 for a 4 cm ball of black stuff was just more than I could bring myself to pay. It just seemed unreasonable to part with that amount of money on a whim, maybe next year if the price has come down a little.
These truffles were not for individual sale.....but were being used in the cooking. That is probably between $500 - $700 worth.

Still the experience was priceless........I also had my first churro. Now that was something I could afford and it was delicious.