The Hog Roast Ballymoney team gained an insight into our local area’s nefarious past last Saturday, when we were asked to cater for a Smugglers’ Rum Festival! There isn’t any smuggling going on these days of course, but every year the town has a festival to celebrate the introduction their favourite spirit into the area, regardless of how it got here in the first place! Nowadays the old smugglers’ caves have become something of a tourist attraction and a museum even opened last year so people could learn more about it.
Since this was the first festival to be held since the opening of the rum museum, the organisers wanted to push the boat out (if you’ll pardon the nautical expression!) in the catering department to attract as many festival attendees as possible and drum up publicity for the new museum. They needed great food that could be cooked and enjoyed outside that wasn’t going to cost a fortune, so of course Hog Roast Ballymoney was the first and only company they thought of!
We were fascinated to learn more about the dark days of smuggling and couldn’t wait to get there! With all that rum being bandied about, we were expecting it to be a rather rowdy affair, and we weren’t wrong! Luckily, we were on hand to provide everyone with a filling treat to soak up all rum, and our serving table seemed to be just as popular as the outdoor bar! With acoustic shanties being performed by a talented local band and museum volunteers dressed up as smugglers for day regaling people with tales of dark stormy nights and dodgy goings-on, the atmosphere couldn’t have been better-and neither could the food! As the event organisers had hoped, our hot and heart slow-roasted pork, fitted perfectly with the ambiance of the day and the rum enthusiasts couldn’t get enough of it!
The Hog Roast Ballymoney team had a great time cooking for the rambunctious rum drinkers and we always love being involved in events that celebrate the local area’s past, however controversial that past might be! And the best part is, we’ve been asked to come back and do it all over again next year!