Fancy Food Show

The chow opportunities just don’t seem to end! BBQ & Chocolates in Champaign and our visit with Dr. Wansink followed by the Fancy Food Show at McCormick Place; it’s going to take a few days to catch up and write about the events of the last few days. However, my visit to McCormick Place takes precedence since today was the first of this three day exhibition.

A few months ago, I expressed a desire to obtain passes to the Fancy Food Show, very kindly ReneG and NR706 graciously offered me passes. A wonderful side benefit of the LTHforum-lifestyle is the kind help from fellow posters.

This morning I was on the 7:35 train winding my way to Chicago reading the Fancy Food Show information and deciding my game plan. I felt a tap on my shoulder from the woman behind me who commented she was going to the Fancy Food Show, too. This woman owns Lartey’s Gallery and Gifts, which makes gift baskets for any occasion plus offers a chocolate fountain for events. She was going to the Fancy Food Show to learn market trends and identify vendors for her business. She then inquired what my business interests are. It is moments like this when I feel like I am a Cone Head from Saturday Night Live, where my whole life can be easily explained in three words: “I’m from France.” Of course, I had to tell her the truth: I had my first cooking effort when I was 3, collecting cookbooks since I was 11, I joined Culinary Historians hoping to find people who wanted to search out interesting food and learned they like to talk about food, but I found this internet food community 3 years ago who really do like to search out food. From the puzzled look on her face, I could tell my coming from France seemed the more reasonable explanation.

As the day progressed I refined my expertise, which stated consultant on my badge, to restaurant turn arounds. A swift and easy explanation with a modicum of truth, though nobody ever paid me for my ideas and suggestions.

When one attends a show called the Fancy Food Show, starving is not going to happen. You want fish? Lots of Salmon processed many different ways and offered in generous quantities for your evaluation. I stopped by the Vita booth, which retails pickled and cream herring. They had a Salmon salad, which I felt was especially good though I had never seen it retail. There’s a solid reason I have never seen it, it is only offered in 10 pound containers to the trade.

At the Charlie Trotter booth, they were offering seasoning sauces and samples of Salmon gravlax. Just as soon as my fish sample was in my mouth, a guy from Glencoe did a hit and run, “So where are the foie gras samples?” I’m in mid swallow, Mr. Glencoe has dived into the crowd and I’m left looking at a sputtering Charlie Trotter employee. This Chef felt they were getting more heat than they deserved since they quietly stopped serving foie gras at least 3 years ago. He said he read on some internet site about someone seeing foie gras at Trotter’s since that time. “Sure, we had a guest Chef who designed his own menu, which included foie gras! We weren’t going to tell him he could not have it. Where else could this charity raise $45,000 in one night? Really, some people have too much time on their hands!” At this fortuitous moment, I handed him a LTHforum card advising I was probably one of those people. Certainly I don’t know where he read what he read, but I said on our site, he was welcome to register, identify his affiliation with Charlie Trotter’s and respond.

If Charlie Trotter wasn’t offering pate, there was plenty of pate to be tasted at other booths. I don’t believe I saw foie gras pate, though I saw pates of rabbit, duck and even an asparagus and broccoli pate. Lots and lots of sausage as well as roast beef and even elk from Texas. I didn’t know Texas had elk.

At several booths, I found cheese straws, which is a classic southern snack with drinks. At two booths, it was the classic cheddar cheese straw. The third booth not only had cheddar, they offered blue cheese, jalapeno-cheese and a garlic cheese variant. He then offered four cookies, which I did not recognize as having the same pedigree as the cheese straws. I asked the company if the cookies were also of a southern tradition. I learned the cookies were originally offered as straws, however he changed to cookies to break the seasonality of straws. Seasonality? He sells most of his straws in the 4th quarter, which translates to the trilogy of Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year’s.

One Italian importer, or at least it seemed they were, two sniff-guarded food stations filled with fresh mozarella, stuffed grape leaves, many kinds of olives, artichoke hearts, stuffed mini sweet peppers and a variety of salads. You were free to eat as much or as little as you wanted. Cheese and dried sausages were offered just a few feet away. Who needs lunch when you have this to plow through?

Kikkoman was located at two locations: one where they pitched soy sauce and somewhere else they pitched some pretty good soy milk. At both locations, I obtained my favorite souvenir: sushi pens! These were pens molded to look like chop sticks holding a lump of rice with salmon or tuna laid on top. Totally cute and not always visible to exhibit visitors.

After a few hours of walking about, I needed a prolonged rest. I remembered from the program they had a guest chef demonstration. It was just before noon, so I walked over to find less than 10 people patiently waiting for someone who looked like and turned out to be Paul Prudhomme; which I will describe in a separate post. At 2 PM and 4 PM, the guest chef were Chef’s from Charlie Trotters. I came for the 2 PM demonstration of cooking sea scallops, which included the inevitable question from the audience about foie gras! This chef handled the question much more smoothly than his colleague at the booth.

For those attending Monday and Tuesday, the guest chef series includes:

Monday
10:30 and Noon: Executive Chef Paul Wildermuth, Opera Restaurant
2 PM and 4 PM: Executive Chef John Bubala, Thyme Restaurant

Tuesday
10:30 and Noon: Regis Bouet, Master Patissier & Chocolatier, Patisfrance
2 PM and 4 PM: James Corwell, Instructor and Executive Chef, Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, Culinary Institute of America at Greystone

I could go on and on, which I will at a later time. As tired as I feel at the moment, I felt my time was well spent.

Best regards,

A few more notes:

Saveur Magazine has a booth near the cooking demo area. They are offering discounted subscriptions, which are not as good a deal as what I can find on e-Bay. To sweeten the deal, they are including their ‘Food for the Holidays 2004’ which was not offered to subscribers but was sold on the news stand. I commented as a subscriber, I wasn’t offered this edition; which I might have wanted. I was able to obtain it for $5, which is down from a list price of $9.95.

This may be pre-Moto or inspired by Moto, they had edible paper and felt-tip markers with vegetable dyes to allow you to make your own designs and eat them. It was sold as a juvenile product with cartoonish outlines, though I could see a plain edible paper with markers having a very Adult market appeal.

I find myself at one point getting into a discussion on the merits of bottled salad dressings. Why I volunteer myself for these things is beyond me. These people were marketing a non-fat salad dressing based on a 50+ year old recipe. I’ve never been too charmed by those type of dressings, which I kept to myself. I did offer my favored salad dressing, if I don’t make it myself, comes from Germany in portions just enough to dress one salad. All you add is water and olive oil for a very refreshing salad dressing. The woman advised many salad dressings have water in their first four ingredients, it is just a cheap filler which her salad dressing doesn’t use. I doubt water wasn’t present, but why argue the obvious? Instead they kept advising me how expensive and rare my choice in salad dressing was. Yeah, but a bottle of salad dressing I don’t like stored in the refrigerator costs money, too.

For Culinary Historian devotees, Jersey Mary's BBQ sauce who spoke to use in September, 2003 has a booth there.

Not sure what the highlight of the show was for me today, but the runny French cheeses and the Texas elk tamale are way up there. I think Gary has pix of both.

So where's the next installment? We're breathless!

I am quite enjoying this. Both that you went-- and that I didn't, but can just read about it later.

nr706 wrote:Not sure what the highlight of the show was for me today, but the runny French cheeses and the Texas elk tamale are way up there. I think Gary has pix of both.

Ahhhhh, yes, the runny French cheeses. (Maybe LTHForum does need a Delicious emoticon after all )


The Elk Tamales, from Texas Elk Company, were terrific. Though, retrospectively, it may have been partly the novelty of Elk tamales.


The Fancy Food Show was run in conjunction with the Food Marketing Institute Show, U.S. Food Export Showcase, Produce Expo and All Things Organic, with wildly different outlooks on matters food. Though, maybe not that different after all, as the one unifying factor seemed to be Money, or, should I say, the desire to make money, and lots of it at that.

The one solid trend I noticed was Tea, which seems the current 'It Girl' of the food world. Hummm, is it possible Hammond is actually Faith Popcorn?


Tea was everywhere, in all shapes, sizes and forms.



Wine from South Africa was represented with 3-4 booths, including Robertson Winery manned by a friend of ReneG's. I quite liked the Pinotage.


On the Food Marketing Institute side there was more commercial crapola on display than one would need and/or want in 114-lifetimes. Which is why they call it a Marketing show as opposed to a need/want show.

While I may not want, or need, 456 types of breakfast cereal, 900 ways to package grapefruit or even 2-Gillion types of salad dressing the Single Serving Spam did catch my eye.


Of course there were displays of things one actually wants and needs.


And the best picture I took all day, though I have absolutely no idea what it's meant to represent.


All in all a very interesting day enhanced by the opportunity to spend time with Tom (nr706) and Cathy2. Not to mention a nice chat with Joel Smith at the FFS representing Slow Food.

Enjoy,
Gary

A few more notes (alas, I didn't take pix like Cathy and Gary did ...

Two other categories that seemed to be all over the place - olives (including flavored olives) and salmon (Gary and I had some excellent citrus-cured salmon from Trotter' s To Go).

I had an interesting discussion with makers of a barbecue sauce. The president of the company said he was also in the landscaping business, and couldn't wait to get back to "diggin' holes and movin' boulders." His original recipe sauce - which he claims he bought from someone in Kentucky and has been in continuous production for 117 years, was complex, not particularly hot, and a bit sweet for my tastes. But if it weren't surrounded by so many other excellent barbeque sauces, I think it'd be considered excellent. (On that topic, Gary introduced me to Scorned Woman barbeque sauce, which I liked a lot - not just for the name - and I was surprised that it was produced by Vita Foods, best known for their ubiquitous lox and herring.)

And I had a long talk with the woman from the Hazelnut Council (most of the world's supply comes from Turkey, the only signniificant US production is in Oregon, which is why they're headquartered in New Jersey), but their handout, in addition to s small bag of nuts, was a $20 off coupon to Thyme. I didn't realize Thyme had a particular affection for hazelnuts.

I skipped Day 2 of the Fancy Food Show to reserve energy, as well as catch up on work, to allow me to enjoy the final day of the Fancy Food Show.

I again met the Gift Basket Lady on the train. Road warriors of the aisles of McCormick Place can easily make one bosom buddies. She immediately inquired where was my big bag to carry loot, uh give-aways, from the show. She gave me a few pointers where I might find a suitably large bag, then reminded me to never forget again. This is a hard earned lesson, which I will revisit later.

When Day 2 opened, I decided to visit the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) show, whose primary focus is products destined for grocery stores. I bee lined to the Thai Trade Council booth which hosted a number of Thai firms who want to import to the USA. One firm was frying the long shrimps one often has for Tempura alternating with shu mai (pork filled dumplings for dim sum) with three dipping sauces. Their level of English was such, they were much happier with my mouth filling with samples than my asking questions.

At the next booth was an American representative of a Thai Chili Sauce company whose USA office is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Why? Because the Thai owner’s daughter lives in Cedar Rapids. This company is only about a year into this market, though they have already stocked product with the venerable Thai Grocery. I inquired with the woman how much did she know about Thai culture and food, which she admitted she was still in the learning phases. I recommended to her David Thompson’s book plus following this website, especially the detailed dish-by-dish explanations of Erik M. I was somewhat surprised neither this woman nor the Thai Trade representative knew nothing of David Thompson’s book. I advised the Thai Trade representative the Thai government financially supported David Thompson’s efforts which have contributed substantially to people’s knowledge of Thai food and culture.

My internal clock went off, it was time to go to the Fancy Food Show for a French pastry class. I buzzed past Nr706 who was on a cell phone and told him I’d meet him later, then zipped to my destination. This was not a class for purists, rather a class for trade. This chef made Crème Anglaise using cold and hot methods. The cold method used a trade product, which the audience and I surmised was an instant vanilla pudding-type product. To this he introduced a black currant concentrate, then folded in whipped cream. The hot method began well enough with egg yolks beaten to a lemon color while waiting for cream to come to a boil. He then added some hot cream to the egg yolks to temper them before dumping the cream-yolk mixture into the pot of cream. He then added a dry product which again we surmised was like vanilla pudding mix. I don’t know why they just didn’t bother putting pudding mix into hot milk and skip the eggs; which could be introduced via the powder. It might be psychological. Early cake mixes were not very successful in this country initially, though they could not have been simpler: add water to mix. They did some focus group studies only to learn women didn’t feel quite like the cake was from their own effort until they started cracking eggs into it. Who knew French chefs have that same vacant feeling?

I later visited the booth of the Pastry products manufacturer to discuss what was in that dried powder; especially since it was a trade product not available to little ol’me. He roughly agreed our guestimate these products were similar to instant and regular pudding mixes. Though their professional products had ingredients, which elevated them over the consumer product. Yep. I then inquired if he knew anything about (CrazyC’s recent interest in finding) Ovalette? He had heard of it but it didn’t quite register. I said it was a product which was supposed to stabilize egg whites, though I thought it was a dressed up product name for Cream of Tartar. He agreed that was very likely true, indicating that manufacturers sometimes try to brand name common products to provide an air of exclusiveness. (If I was a real she-devil, this was my moment to say, “Yeah, like instant and regular pudding mix,” but I didn’t!)

I caught up with Gary and Nr706 to sample ridiculously expensive and runny cheeses. As much as I like these cheeses, if I bumped into it unlabeled in the back of my refrigerator. I’d pop on my Russian gas mask, several layers of rubber gloves to gingerly lift and escort that monster out of the house. Instead we are scooping decadent amounts of runny cheese on crackers and discussing the challenges of cheese importing. I remember my conversation with the Custom’s officer who said any cheese can be imported except for one pourable cheese from France. The lady didn’t identify this one especially, because she was having problems with a full range of cheeses; especially those from raw milk. Things were further complicated by the French recatagorizing some cheeses, which triggered a new review process from the U.S. Oh, the life of a cheese importer is never short on surprises, while we nod our heads in sympathy while dipping into the cheese troth yet again.

After a while, we broke off to go our separate ways to see what we could see. I returned to the FMI Show since it was still largely unexplored. I found myself in the McCormick Spice booth providing consumer feedback they did not seem particularly interested in receiving. I told them how I needed juniper berries to brine my turkey for Thanksgiving. My two decades old bottle of McCormick juniper berries tasted like dust, so I went to the store for the small quantity I needed. The McCormick representative inquired what was a juniper berry. I said it provided the dominant flavoring in Gin, used in marinades for Sauerbraten and it comes from juniper bushes, which just didn’t seem to ring a bell. She called her colleague over to listen to me politely complain. I told them their display is so full of spice blends, which I surmised was their marketing direction, that many spices and herbs I used to obtain seem to have gone missing. I told them it then forces me (as your not so average consumer, I guess) to seek out spice houses to fill my incidental needs and probably my new favored source. In a nutshell, by being incomplete in their offerings they lose market share when people find 3rd sources and stay away. It was a plain honest feedback, which cost them precisely nothing and they were speechless.

As I was looking for the firm that was giving away insulated bags for my loot, I saw a booth selling wood chunks for smoking. I called to Gary’s cell phone and left a message. Meanwhile, this booth had chips, chunks and planks of cherry, birch, aspen and maple chunks, which one doesn’t find easily around here. Just as I was feeling my way, Gary called to advise he was making his way there. Just to prepare the guy of our pending guest, I told him about how Gary knows his way around BBQ and he would likely have quite a formidable conversation. Once I made the initial introductions, I was a fly on the wall as they sized each other up for BBQ knowledge. At one point, the wood guy turned to me to advise I was present for a professional level conversation; which I certainly appreciated. We learned the wood guy not only had this smoking woods, he had a hardware store, sold hunting supplies plus a shoe polish business; where he even rolled his eyes. When we parted, the wood guy suggested we come back at the end for samples.

At this point I needed some rest and Fancy Food Show had yet another cooking class. There was a Chef from California’s Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant who did a food demo of a fusion Vietnamese-French dish: Orange sabayon sauce with 'Vietnamese' papaya salad with rare flank steak arranged on top. He was complaining he could not find green papaya in Chicago. I inquired if he had tried Thai Grocery, which he answered kind of weird, "Yeah, a thai store might have it." I then understood he wasn't from Chicago. I gave him a LTHforum card and advised if he has a food demo to do in Chicago in the future, maybe we could help identify sources. He really buys into this 'fly-over-country' stuff because he was "gambling" by not bringing his own fish sauce. The only reason he didn’t was fear it might break open in transportation and ruin his clothes.

As 4 PM approached, exhibitors began shoving stuff at you to take home. I have a generous quantity of Thai chili jam and curries, which I could really use. I passed a Polish venue who shoved two packets of macaroni. Someone wanted to give a cornbread mix, I asked instead for a hush puppy mix and got both. Lots of odds and ends, but my great prize was upon returning to the wood guy, who gave me some planks, a bag of cherry and a large bag of mixed chunks.

I was a bit weighted down with about 4 bags, with three of them wood. As I was leaving the FMI show, a woman advised I could take only two bags with the rest donated to the Chicago Food Pantry. At this moment, I was thinking of the Gift Basket Lady who felt I was mistaken not bringing my own bag. The way my bags were arranged, the wood was front and forward. I pointed out most of what I have is wood and not attractive to the food pantry. The lady started a rules-will-be-(unannounced)-rules lecture, when I remembered a bag of potato chips Gary handed to me. I dug it and gave it to her. She looked at all my wood and nodded me past. I did not go further than 10 feet when another security officer began this process again. I again pointed out my wood, but this didn’t impress her. I then told her I gave a bag to another guard who was satisfied, so why couldn’t she go along with this? “Oh fine!” and let me go.

Carrying all that wood around was quite a penance for free. As the last passenger on the courtesy bus, I persuaded the guy to drop me off at the train station. I tipped him generously and made my way home sweating like a pig.

Thanks again ReneG and Nr706 for opening the doors for such an entertaining and educational experience.

Regards,

The last notes of the Fancy Food Show 2005…

As we have learned from our beefathon’s or Jim’s vs Maxwell Express, a side-by-side comparison can be quite revealing. At the Fancy Food exhibit, a number of companies sponsored ‘Focused Tastings’ of jams/jellies/preserves, non-alcoholic beverages and dips and spreads. When you enter this area you are given a checklist to complete and return afterwards to alert manufacturers of your interest and to follow up with more information. There several hundred items available for comparative tasting. To do justice, you really had to know what interested you and focus on that; allowing for pure curiosity as well.



There was another focussed exhibit: ‘Sauces and Seasonings of Asia: An Audio-Guided Tasting.’ They had a narrator describing the tastes and characteristics of each product. To taste each product they had a carrot stick, which really struck me odd, especially as many sauces like fish and soy sauces don’t really cling. Why not a small ball of rice? Their choice of a carrot was really not well thought out and maybe a last minute stand in. Each narrative seemed to be crafted by the manufacturer/sponsor. Many contained information on the processes and uses, but one got a bit lyrical, “Women only produce this product, which if universally used there would be peace on Earth…” Or maybe it was Monks! It’s just a soy product to me.



I mentioned earlier they had a preview of a new franchise concept at the Food Manufacturer’s Show, which ran concurrently. The Soup Nazi of Seinfeld fame cashes in with soup, of course. They had television monitors with the real Soup Nazi being interviewed on CNN, actually the Soup Nazi was warming a seat while someone else did all the talking. They had an actor (?) serving soup who if you looked casually seemed to be Soup Nazi himself. Again, side-by-side comparisons indicated this could not be the real Soup Nazi: he made eye contact which the real seemed loathe to do. When I walked past the first time, they had Lobster Bisque, which was Elaine’s favorite. When I returned the rotation had changed so I had a Jambalaya, which was perfectly acceptable.



Chef Talk was an opportunity to rest and learn a new recipe. The first occasion I had no knowledge of the schedule of guest chefs. As I am approaching I see someone who appears to possibly be Paul Prudhomme, which indeed it was. There were so few people there, it was very easy to engage him in conversation. When I asked if I could take his photo, he agreed as long as I was with him in the picture.



I did meet one Chicago media person who took one look at me, then commented, “So the foodies have invaded the Fancy Food Show!” Yes!

It is fascinating for me to read these posts because when my dad was in the candy/fruitcake business 30 years ago (Bissingers candy, the one in Cincinnati, not the current one in St. Louis) and he exhibited at the fancy food shows, I went with him twice to New York and once each to new orleans and atlanta. I was under eighteen, but he was able to get me in. I was not much of a foodie then, so much of it was lost on me. My most vivid memory, other than being threatened by union goons for helping my dad set up his booth (which they vandalized overnight), was enjoying the scotch samples and the Kirin beer samples at the age of 15. I also had my first experience with tofu there. It used to be called the fancy food and confection show, and I remember lots of sweets.
-Will

Fancy Food Show - All Things Organic - US Food Export Showcase - 2008

Lots of impressions as well as very sore feet from visitng the 'Global Food and Style Expo' today.

Once arrived, collected my credentials and arrived to the keynote speech just as Bobby Flay wrapped up. My friends who kept a front row seat told me I missed a dynamic talk. While I didn't capture the details, I think they came in skeptical and walked out quite sympathetic to him. The lady next to me kept calling out, "I love you Bobby!" I looked at her with a bit of surprise on my face, she responded to my silent question, "I love my husband, but I love Bobby more!" We laughed like all women do when you know there are just some things in life you will never have.

My friends and I went our separate ways, because they are more industry people than myself. I followed Bobby Flay to the cooking demo that would commence at 10:30 AM. I used this time listening to him, not watching, to figure out if there special booths to hit. I realized later I approached his demo like I do television, something to listen to while I read something else. Bobby encouraged people to ask questions while he made the dry rub seared chicken breast and bread salad with grilled vegetables. One question inspired him to take an impromptu poll of this audience of food professionals, "How many people have gas grills at home?" Almost 75% of the audience raised their hands. "How many people cook with charcoal?" Maybe 10% of the audience raised their hands. I suspect if he asked a more refining question, "How many use wood charcoal?" I may have been one of the very, very few. It confirmed his opinion that charcoal seemed to be on the way out. He also said if you use charcoal, then you need a chimney. "Does anyone use liquid charcoal starter?" Only one brave soul raised his hand. "Do you like the taste? Heck, you are one of those guys who thinks they know how to grill!"

Bobby Flay responding to an Iron Chef related question, "Do you already have ingredients mise en place before the competition." Bobby advised there are no mise en place before the competition. The only things started in advance is chicken stock at a boil and oil heated to frying temperatures. He commented, "Frying foods is a great method to quickly cook food for the competition. It is absolutely an essential method to prepare so many dishes in so little time." He did suggest if anyone wanted to take his place as an Iron Chef, then they were welcome to give it a try. He emphasized the Iron Chef competition is quite an endurance test and not very easy.

Bobby Flay's books were on sale, which he autographed. I didn't buy a book, because when I walked past maybe 45 minutes later he was still signing books.



My favorite souvenir I will hold onto longer than anyone will ever suspect: a Del Monte Quality paper pickle hat. I took an heir and a spare. You cannot buy it from me, I will not give it away. It will be my crowning glory at some silly occasion. I met a lady who not only wore the pickle hat, she also had an "I love pickles' t-shirt. Now that is just too precious.

The conversation that made the whole day worthwhile:
I stopped at a booth of bulk sellers of rice and grains. I inquired about the rice shortage, was it really real? I asked a guy who represented two different rice co-ops whose membership was 500 and 1500 (possibly 2000) rice growers. While in the USA and Canada, there is no shortage of rice. There are rice shortages worldwide due to crop failures in Australia and Asia.

He then outlined what was happening using the Phillipines as an example. The Filippinos eat rice 3X a day, it is an essential element in their diet. They normally buy their rice from Vietnam or Australia, where both had rice crop failures. Their need for rice is so great, they now turn to the United States for rice. They are willing to pay a premium to the domestic price to get this rice. It is his responsibility to get the best price for his rice co-ops, which presently is the international market. To sell domestically, he can only do this responsibly by offering the export price to domestic customers. While we have no shortage per se, the world market forces are influencing the final price of our domestic rice.

Domestic rice customers are now being granted allotments instead of buying all that they want. Domestic customers who may have abandoned contracts in the past who may be revisiting his co-ops as a source are being turned away. Sam's Club and Costco are not used to being given allotments. They also don't accept price increases less than 60 days advance warning. The rice market is so dynamic that price increase of 15% in a month is not unheard of presently. When one of his regular customers advised they will accept no more than a 2% increase, then he declines to sell them rice. He advised the U.S. market, due to these allotments, will have no shortage of rice though it will be paying more for rice.

Recognizing these events run in cycles, I learned the next rice harvest is not until October 15th. He was of the opinion this worldwide shortage of rice will likely not ease for a few years. If there is another crop failure, then I can see that may continue. If there isn't, then I cannot see how this could carry on for years. We both agreed we would have to wait and see what happens.

I commented I had not seen bananas at Costco for the last few months. He suggested it could be a similar issue like for the rice. A cost increase Costco would not accept, which meant the product was withdrawn from their offerings.

In the organic section, there was a miller who highlighted, "We mill our grains using water power!" This caught my attention hoping they may be using an old fashioned stone watermill. I then inquired if they used stone or steel plates to grind their flours. When I learned they used steel, then I was no longer impressed. Long ago, Elizabeth David advised whole wheat flour ground at stone mills was far superior to those ground between steel. The stones stay relative cool while the steel heats up killing the germ. She felt steel ground whole flour was so inferior, you may as well use processed wheat flour.

I visited a pecan grower from Western Missouri near Kansas City who had samples of pecans about the size of a nickle. I craftily said, "These pecans sure don't look like they come from Georgia." I knew what his answer was before he said it, "Pecans are not from Georgia. In fact, we probably are the only distributor of natural Pecans. Pecans in Georgia and Texas, they are clones!" I knew he was using hot button language to persuade me his pecans were better. I didn't agree with his notion they were cloned, which we debated for a while. He was claiming his pecans tasted better because of their naturalness. While the pecans were good tasting, I didn't find them extraordinarily good tasting. While most of their business is wholesale or shipped direct to customers, they do have a small retail shop at their location. I promised to visit someday, which I may really do.

Diagonally across the aisle was another pecan producer from a state where pecans are an introduced crop. I always find it interesting how trade show booths can sometimes place competitors within shouting range of each other.

There was a booth who displayed a 2-foot long tube maybe 4-inches in diameter filled with saffron. It was an absolutely stunning sight. Their giveaway was vacuum packed vanilla beans. They had small packages of saffron taped together to keep people from taking off.

The most surprising single serving packaged food product was sauerkraut in 1.5 ounce pouches. While 1-2 pounds of sauerkraut can be daunting if you are living alone. However a 1.5 ounce pouch is such a useless quantity, at least in my experience, to be very amusing. I wonder how Big Lots will price those itty bitty packages someday.

If you do attend the exhibition, then do get some of those multiple use grocery bags. There were several groups giving them away. They were much easier on the hands than weighted down plastic bags. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board had updated information and maps to various cheese producers, artisan as well as farmstead dairy. They also had a booklet highlighting 'Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Directory.' All useful for roadtrips to Wisconsin. USDA Market News gave away 'church key' (bottle openers) key rings, which is occasionally very useful.

I met a producer of Agave nectar, which I complained about the high price. A friend's daughter in law has cancer and uses only agave nectar for sweetening. My friend tries to accomodate this by making jams and jellies with agave. Those packets at Whole Foods have been costing her a fortune. I learned one can buy gallon containers of agave for around $28 retail, though he hinted some may mark it up. Once he gets back, he knows I will be contacting him for local distributor.

I did see Hot Doug (the only person with red hightop sneakers) as well as Paul Prudhomme walking and skootering respectively up the aisles.

A good use of a day, but I will probably be sore tomorrow!

Regards,

I went on Monday so didnt get to see Bobby Flay. It was a great time though. I was very surpsied myself that Chef Prudommes booth was pretty vacant as far as people. Got to chat with him for a bit