When I tell someone that we’re going out of town for a food show, the most common response is something along the line of “that sounds like so much fun” or “that’s so fancy”. And you know what? It is fun, but not for the reasons that you think.
Yes, there is a lot of food to try and taste, as well as paper products, packaging and chemicals. There are also lots of salesmen and women vying for your business to carry their products. But this is not the fun part, well… some of it is. Do you want to know what the really exciting part of a food show is?
For Chef Kevin and I , it’s getting out of our own four walls. You know, the exploring and discovering new tastes at the local restaurants in the cities where the food shows are held. This year was even more exciting because not only did we go to the Atlanta area for an annual food show, but we brought along Tay Mae, Devin and baby Knox to share in the excitement!
We went to Honey Pig for dinner on the night of our arrival and enjoyed so many tasty proteins, kimchi and accompaniments with our Unlimited Grill. We found out that most of us do not care for the large intestines, except for Chef Kevin who LOVES them. We left fully stuffed, extremely satisfied, and ready for our next part of discovery. I must fully disclose that Kevin and I have been here twice before on our prior visits to this particular food show, but it was SO much fun taking Tay Mae, Devin and Knox this year!
Following Honey Pig we walked to Orange Coffee Bar for after dinner drinks, which were also delicious, while we waited for our shuttle back to the hotel. By the way, if you stay at Sonesta while in Atlanta, this hotel was super clean and comfortable while we were there.
Before the food show the following morning we had breakfast, yes kinda silly before a “FOOD SHOW” but it’s our thing. Then, off for some other worldly adventure in Little Korea at the Great Wall supermarket. This place is enormous! When you walk in you are greeted with a sea of alien produce from jackfruit to ya pears, bitter melon to nagaimo (which appeared to be a type of yam). It was an Asian Super Walmart, they even had fish tanks, but not pet type fishes, instead giant bullfrogs! If you want fresh fish you can choose from still swimming catfish, talapia, soft shell turtles, bass and gooey duck. Hands down this is the most exciting shopping that we’ve ever done!
You might be wondering why we went to an Asian supermarket in the first place… hot sauce on our bloody mary bar of course! See every time we head out of town, whether it’s for business or pleasure, we always look for cool or intersting new hot sauces for everyone to try mixing into their bloody mary during Saturday and Sunday brunch.
The hot sauce shopping was a bust this time, but we came back fully energized, loaded with some crazy new ideas and full of excitement for our upcoming spring events. Stay tuned for more details on upcoming goings on and sign up for our newsletter, blog post, facebook, instagram, YouTube and Twitter to get the scoop!
