Foodex 2009

These are the samples I hauled home: Italian oranges, honey from For All (thanks, Natalia!), bottles of Taiwanese fruit tea, Greek olive oil, Japanese rice, fresh wasabi, seasoned salt, and a lot of sweets and other treats.

Thanks to Sachiko and the New Tree chocolate company, Tod & I got tickets to attend Foodex, an enormous food industry exposition. We lied about our professions to get in (I was a” food planning specialist in the Hotel and Leisure category” which is a big exaggeration of what I really do) and it was worth the deception. We were in tasting heaven - 8 exhibition halls of local and imported foods from all over the globe! In four hours we sampled over sixty different foods and drinks. Even the tiny portions quickly added up to a very full belly!

I tried to make a list, but there were so many things that I lost track. Here are some highlights:

Weirdest: Cinnamon-dusted, chocolate coated, dried natto
Most Available: Mango in various forms
Most Tasted: Olive oils - so many, all so good
Most Filling: Farro and chickpea soup
Best Fried Dish: Breaded catfish
Best Japanese Food: Tempura fried gobo pickles
Best Alcohol: Mexican cherry tequila
Best Chocolate: Thyme chocolate from New Tree
Best Fruit: Blood orange
Best Vegetable: Avocado
Most Surprising: Black garlic
Nicest Presentation: Tomato and mozzarella
Best Spiel: Chia seeds to me; Tod talked to the wasabi folks for a long time

Posted by kuri at March 05, 2009 10:12 PM