Hitting The Forage in the depths of Canberra winter is a cool experience, not only is the biting winter chill fighting through the layers of clothing but only the hippest folk in Canberra get out to these sort of events.
There’s a lot of that cultured hipster feeling that Canberra seems to do so well, the carefully manicured appearance of thrift and alternative so that it’s “an individual” yet someone exactly in the pattern locals are used to expecting.
Sure the battle for parking around the New Acton precinct can kick the evening off with a frustration – surely driving on the correct side of the road and following a few arrows isn’t that hard Canberra? However it’s nice once you’re in. Our first stop was the Peruvian Chanchito stand, my first introduction to such a beast and hopefully not my last. At $12 for a good sized (1.5 hander) burger heaped with pork belly and slaw, between a slice of sweet potato and a rustic roll it’s big on flavour providing ample fuel to ward off the cold.
We boosted our our inner warmth unloading a closet of rarely used blankets to the Vinnies Winter appeal, sadly it seemed so many of those hipsters among us forget the struggles of some and shied away from donations, be that of coin or warmth.
For the organisers there’s no doubt the formula worked, can it be repeated through the year as intended? Only time will tell.