The Auckland Food Show 2019

Last updated on 12 August 2019

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The Auckland Food Show was just as good as the last time I went.

Every year the Food Show is held in Auckland and in Wellington, and in 2017 my friend and I headed along on to check it out for the first time. It was a blast! Last year we missed it because we were gallivanting around Melbourne, but this year we headed off to the stadium once again and enjoyed every minute of the nearly four hours we spent there.

If you’re not aware, the Food Show is set up in the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland, and showcases hundreds of stalls from merchants, vendors, big and small business. You pay a $28 NZD entrance fee (which I think is a bit steep considering once you’re in there you still gotta buy the things you want), and then you can make your way through the crowds to sample everything from chocolate to meat to cheese to alcohol and more.

My favourite stall this year was Samaori, partly because we had the best chat with the women there (they were actually so so lovely! Shout out to you ladies!) and partly because they had incredible cacao blocks called Koko, which could be melted into yummy chocolatey goodness or whizzed up in a blender to create a grind/powdery substance to sprinkle on things like desserts or added to hot water to make hot chocolate. Definitely bought one.

Another fantastic stall was Good For. I had been to their pop up store in Mt Eden last year, but it was so neat to see them at the Food Show too. They are essentially a store full of good things. Everything is in in bulk bins, so you bring your won containers and just pay for the things you put in them. They also sell things like bamboo toothbrushes (which I bought because I’ve been meaning to for a while now), keep cups, ethical beauty products and hair care, reusable containers and bags. Highly recommend checking them out; you can find their stores in Ponsonby, Parnell, Takapuna and New Lynn.

We managed to score quite a few freebies as we went along (pro tip for heading to the Food Show in the future: if you go on the last day people are trying to get rid of the freebie things so you might get more things! We definitely were given more freebies this year when we went on the Sunday than we went on the Saturday), but we both spent a good chucnk of money on things like Dish magazine subscriptions, chocolate, fudge, cocktails, and various others bits and pieces.

Here’s my Auckland Food Show haul:

If you get the chance to go next year, then it is a lot of fun. We didn’t manage to see any of the events/talks put on by New Zealand’s chefs this year, but that was mostly due to us a) not being too bothered about the ones that were on when we were there, and b) losing track of time and missing the one we did want to check out.

Did you go to the Food Show this year?