As I mentioned in my previous post, we spent one of our days in NYC at the Fancy Food Show, held at the Javits Center. If you stay in a hotel in NYC, you'll likely see a Javits Center fee on your bill as part of the taxes; I wonder who decided that the city's tourists should have to pay for this facility...
Our hotel, located near the bus terminal, was easy walking distance to the food show, so we trekked over mid-morning on Sunday to get the party started. We didn't know what to expect from the show but were eager to find out.
First, let me say that the Fancy Food Show is for trade people only; you have to be a food supplier, buyer, or other cog in the food wheel to get in. We were able to get passes through one of B's friends and were so glad that we did. It was an experience unlike any other.
As we approached the building, we passed a man giving away bottles of some beverage on the corner; it set the theme for a day of gimme-gimme-gimme freebies.
We entered, picked up our badges from the registration desk, grabbed a program, and headed in to what we learned was the second (international) floor. Signs hanging from the ceiling proclaimed the regions of the world from which the food in the area came; countries from Europe and all over the globe were represented. We decided to save the international flavor for later and headed downstairs to the domestic food and slowly ate our way around the country.
Every booth offered free samples of a specialty food item, from chocolates to candy to chips to hot sauce to soup to casseroles to sodas to ice cream to nuts--if it was a specialty food item, or even a mainstream item like Jelly Belly, they had a booth and were giving away freebies. Because you couldn't take any food out of the building, there was no reason to save anything--and so we ate, and ate, and ate.
Our very first stop was at the Larabar booth; Larabars are one of my favorite snacks and a must for every trip, from an outing to the mall to an international vacation. They have three new flavors coming out soon, including a tropical flavor and peanut butter and jelly (and a chocolate one, but I'm not that crazy about their chocolate flavors), plus a new kids' line that involves crispy rice coming out (didn't try it, but I probably will buy when I see it in stores). I learned that most specialty chocolates, while they might look different from one another, generally taste the same, at least in my mouth, and I don't think that I could tell the difference between the high-end chocolate and the bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips that I use for baking (though if someone wants to set up a taste test for me, I'd more than willingly participate).
Other than Larabar, my favorite booth was of hot chocolate because it brought me back to Venice. We had hot chocolate every night, and the flavor and consistency, while nearly impossible to find here in the States, was replicated perfectly at that booth. Now if only I had written the name of the product down... Oh, hindsight. Perhaps we'll have to go to another fancy food show to find out.
The Fancy Food show was both lunch and dinner (we left for a mid-afternoon nap and then returned) and was a rollicking good time. If you ever have the opportunity to go to such an event, I highly recommend it. The next event will be held in San Francisco in the winter; mark your calendars!
No comments:
Post a Comment