A Taste for Living food, wine and art community festival, Gasworks Park, Port Melbourne

The Japanese trio, Azuki Beans launch into their act. More pictures >>

I'd seen various signposts pointing to Gasworks Park during my sorties around my local area. but I'd never actually visited it. Then I noticed there was to be a community food, wine and arts festival there on the first Sunday in March. The Spouse had his hopeful Sunday morning cooked breakfast glint in his eye, so when I suggested we let someone else do the cooking he was out and into the car in a flash.

One of the things that puts me off going to things like this is trying to find a carpark but the local secondary school had opened its gates to accommodate the crowds. They should have rattled a few collection tins and raised some money for school activities!

We walked in near the children's entertainment area where the Azuki Beans were just starting their act. Nearby other children were totally engrossed in painting and other works.

Out in the main arena about 18 local restaurants and food purveyors were barbecuing and cooking up a range of goodies. Wisely, most had just two or three items on the menu, making the whole festival like a progressive tapas meal.

We were soon tucking into chicken skewers, dip and olives from the Graham Hotel. Nearby the Dalmatinos was selling delicious cevapcici - tasty sausage-shaped meatballs. There was sushi, kebabs, burgers and other delights but the dish that really wowed us were the Pasteis de Bacalhau, fishcakes made from salted cod and served with a dried bean dish. We could have eaten two or three more plates of them. I've noticed dried salt cod at my local market so I will be trying these out soon. Here's my recipe.

Half a dozen wineries were selling glasses of their products. It always amazes me how Australians can sit in the blazing son sipping red wine. Even The Spouse succumbed to a glass of Sangiovese from Tahbilk. I had one of their sav blancs.

We sat and listened to the live music for a while until the heat, nudging 30, became too much for us.

The kids were still having a ball, playing a range of percussion instruments and parading around on the lawn. And artist Julie Squires had just put the finishing touches to a large fish sculpture made of canned fish.