My tip of the day: Never walk around at a food show for four hours in sandals.
My feet are KILLING me. My friend Rishi and I spent the afternoon at the Fancy Food Show in the Javits Center. I’ve never seen anything like it. 2,400 specialty food vendors from around the world come to NYC to show their stuff, introduce new products and make business deals with the wheelers and dealers in the food industry. Oh yeah, and they’re practically all serving free samples.
The Javits Center is huuuuuuge; the exhibition covers more than 350,000 sq feet.
The array of high-quality foods was incredible: Olive oils, cheeses, meats, wines, drinks, desserts, sauces, spreads, ethnic foods from dozens of countries… you name it, it was probably at the show. This was beyond sensory overload; there were so many sights, sounds and smells, we had no idea where to go next. We ended up taking our time, systematically wandering up and down the aisles and nibbling on whatever caught our eye.
(Note: No cameras were allowed unless you were a member of the press, so I was terrified to take pictures for fear that security would confiscate my camera, drag me to a back room and beat me with bottles of imported olive oil. Rishi hid his camera in an empty soap carton, presumably so that anyone checking his bag would just think he’s really, really clean. We did manage to grab a few pics here and there.)
I wonder how many people it took to come up with that name.
This pomegranate ice cream was insanely creamy and delicious.
One of the Bulgarian vendors was handing out free samples of spot remover. ”It’s from Bulgaria!” the man said. Alrighty, then.
Of all the foods we tried, here are a few of my favorites: Saffron pecorino with black pepper, truffle blini with truffle paste, halloumi (salty cheese from Cyprus that can be grilled), Horchata de Chufa (creamy Spanish drink made from ground chufa nuts), teriyaki and blackberry glaze, Louisiana bbq sauce. Good eating.
A few random notes:
1) About ten minutes into our visit we saw a man, sitting in the middle of the room, lean over and vomit into a giant trash can. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Fancy Food Show! Don’t have what he’s having!
2) Olive oil was EVERYWHERE. Seems to me that if you want to get into the food business, olive oil is not the way to go. Too much competition.
3) By 5 pm, we were hearing people say things like, “I can’t look at any more food,” and “My legs hurt.” The food show’s an endurance sport.
If you ever go to one of these events, here are a few tips:
1) Pace yourself. Rishi and I came in guns blazing and sampling everything in sight. We didn’t realize the scope of the show. You can fill up pretty fast on cheese, bread and olive oil, so choose wisely and save plenty of room for what’s to come.
2) Take breaks to give your stomach a rest. Luckily I felt fine but I’m sure my stomach was wondering what the hell was going on. I think at one point I ate, in order: drunken pecorino, kimchi pancake, cheesecake and air-dried beef. Yikes. Be careful.
3) Wear comfortable shoes. I can’t stress this enough.
Rishi texted me a little while ago; by his calculations, we walked 5.6 miles. We spent 4 of those miles gorging ourselves. So the net calories burned equals about… negative 2000.
The Fancy Food Show continues until Tuesday, so if you can snag a ticket, wear some good shoes and head over there!
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