Food festivals and food events in February

Expect sharing trays piled high with sticky wings, crispy pork belly, zingy papaya noodle salads, and – our top pick – florets of adobo-glazed cauliflower, deep-fried and to be dunked in a zingy lime aioli. Moving onto mains, there’s tender chicken in a soy, garlic and cane vinegar stew with a side of crunchy green beans, just-pink-enough slithers of bavette steak coated in the yolk from a frilly fried egg, and sticky rice with a rich satay-like aubergine curry.

3, 10 and 17, eventbrite.co.uk

British Dal Festival

Anyone with a pulse – or an interest in them – should put a date with Bristol in their diary this month; the food-obsessed city is again playing host to the British Dal Festival after the success of last year’s inaugural event. A free event taking place across town, one of the highlights will be a Dal Trail leading hungry visitors around the city’s restaurants, cafes and markets. Venues will include Poco, Tiffin Time and BOX-E - each serving their signature dals – with linked events in restaurants in Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds.

The finale will take place on Saturday 16 February at Paintworks, with a dal market place, street-food stalls and cookery demonstrations from Chetna Makan and Bristol-based chef Jenny Chandler. If you’re feeling inspired to rustle up some of the dishes at home, the festival’s website will include a pulse library packed with recipes for cauliflower chickpea curry cakes, dal saag, Greek fava purée and more.

10 – 17, britishdalfestival.com

Craft Beer Rising

This February, Craft Beer Rising returns to East London bringing together fans of craft beer, cider, street food and music all under one roof. At the Old Truman Brewery site, on Brick Lane, 155 breweries from across the world will be showcasing their beers, from UK-based Lost and Grounded, Bianca Road and Tiny Rebel to American favourites Brooklyn Brewery and Goose Island, as well as low- and no-alcohol craft brews.

To keep festival-goers fuelled a new dining area, the Fox’s Den, is also launching this year. Claw will be serving up indulgent lobster rolls, while Only Jerkin’ will be dishing up its signature triple-dipped fried chicken.

21 – 23, craftbeerrising.co.uk

These are the best craft beers to try including:

• Wild Beer Co Modus Operandi

• Tiny Rebel Clwb Tropicana Tropical IPA

• Magic Rock Salty Kiss Gooseberry Gose

• Lagunitas IPA

• Beaverton Brewery’s Neck Oil

Rockcliffe Hall Food Festival

For eight days this month, County Durham’s Rockcliffe Hall Hotel is putting on a food festival, aimed at celebrating the best of British cuisine. An artisan food fair is kicking things off with Durham Distillery offering small-batch gins, the Northumbrian Bakehouse selling its shortbread (think cherry and walnut, stem ginger, and toasted coconut) and Geordie Bangers frying hog roast sausages.

A series of lunches and dinners cooked by guest chefs will then take place over the following days, with highlights including Andrew Pern (of The Star Inn at Harome) cooking a Sunday roast of sirloin beef with all the trimmings (think roast onion, confit carrots, duck fat ‘roasties’ and greens) and James Mackenzie (of the Pipe and Glass Inn) serving guinea fowl and ham hock ballotine, pease pudding, pea shoots and scampi fritters. Don’t miss the Taste of the North East Banquet, either: chefs Andy Simms, Ronald Robson, Stephen Lawford and David Henry will be serving a four-course feast including cauliflower panna cotta followed by pistachio parfait.

2 – 9, rockliffehall.com

Click here for the best places to eat in County Durham

Food, Drink and Rhubarb Festival

With its PDO status, Yorkshire forced rhubarb deserves its own annual celebration – and it gets one each February, in the heart of the rhubarb triangle, at Wakefield’s Food, Drink and Rhubarb Festival.

Along with stalls selling rhubarb produce (think jams, chutneys and rhubarb cakes) there will be live cookery demonstrations and street entertainment (much of it rhubarb-themed, of course).

22 – 24, experiencewakefield.co.uk

Try our rhubarb recipes here...

Bar Douro Chef Series

Arguably London’s best-loved Portuguese restaurant, Bar Douro has announced its 2019 chef series and the good news is that it kicks off this month just when we’re all in need of a little sunshine on our plates. The series entails four different Portuguese guest chefs taking over the restaurant’s kitchen in turn between February and May, each one bringing their own particular flavour of Portugal to Flat Iron Square for one night only.

First up is Antonio Galapito of Lisbon’s Prado (and, previously, of London’s Corner Room) who will be taking over the pass on 26 February with a five-course menu of seasonal small plates, and organic wine pairings. He will be followed by Joao Cura (of Porto’s Almejo) in March, Vasco Coelho Santos (of Euskalduna Studio and Semea by Euskalduna, also in Porto) in April and Manuel Maldonado (of Lisbon’s 100 Maneiras and Bistro 100 Maneiras) in May.

26, bardouro.co.uk

Feeling inspired to visit Portugal? Click here for our Lisbon foodie guide

Exmoor Food Festival

February is the month to eat your way around Exmoor. All month many local restaurants will be offering special menus as part of Exmoor Food Fest. Details of which restaurants will be taking part this year were yet to be announced as we uploaded this guide but keep an eye out online for updates and expect everything from supper clubs to seven-course tasting menus.

1 – 28, exmoorfoodfest.com

Click here to read our foodie guide to Exmoor