i like what i eat

Eating myself silly - Part 2

As if that Chowhound picnic pigout wasn't enough, we had to gear ourselves up for the second part of our eating marathon, just a few hours later. After repeated nagging from me, my flamboyantly fabulous Ukranian friend O. finally had me and the family unit (J and my Mom) over to her parents' for dinner at their apartment in the Sunset. I learned my lesson about wanting to eat dinner at a Russian home. It was one of those (thankfully rare) occasions where you start to feel frightened by the quantity of food that arrives in an endless stream to the table, heralded by a fanatically hospitable Russian mother.

Due to some miscommunication, we arrived way past the scheduled dinner hour, and were greeted by O.'s parents, aunt and uncle waiting in the lobby for us. After a little damage control, we were immediately seated at the table, and then stuffed with Russian delicacies for the next 4 hours or so.

The meal started with about 10 appetizers, no exaggeration. Three kinds of mayonnaise salads, blini and salmon caviar, stuffed eggplant, smoked salmon, onion relish, pickles, mushroom pie, noodles, salmon baked with beets, and surely more items I am forgetting in my post-prandial coma. And that was just the first course. When I heard that, I started to panic. I was so far away from home, and clearly these folks had gone through a looot of effort. But, wow. I really don't eat that much food in a week, not to mention that the family unit had already stuffed ourselves at the Chowhound picnic.

The main course was a chicken pilaf type of thing. Delicious, actually. One of the best things on the table, with the exception of the excellent homemade pickles. I ate about a forkful, and then jumped up to clear plates so the hostess wouldn't notice quite how much food was left on my plate.

Dessert was 3 or 4 kind of storebought cakes, mousses, chocolate covered wafers, Halloween candy, the Ukraine via the Sunset District smorgasbrod of desserts, in other words. Tea was a welcome interlude and stomach settler.

We finally rolled home.

I will drink water today and consume green superfood in capsule form. Maybe suck on a lemon or something.

Eating myself silly - Part 1

October 6 marked a watershed food day for me - I consumed more food, and more diversity, I think than I have in about 3 months.

The day started out with the annual Chowhound picnic in Tilden Park. For one reason or another, I've missed this picnic every year, and with the location moving from Golden Gate Park to Tilden, I really had no excuse not to go.

The day started out a little frantic when I thought the picnic started later in the afternoon than it actually did. Each person was supposed to bring a dish that fed 20, and I hadn't even started cooking at the time I was supposed to be there. With a frantic dash to Berkeley Bowl, and my intrepid Mom coming to my rescue, I managed to turn out two very presentable dishes, Aloo Chaat, assembled tableside, and a savory semolina pudding perfumed with curry leaves, ginger, and roasted chickpeas.

As was to be expected, the food turnout at the picnic was spectacular. The highlights of the appetizer table were some really good bresaola like dried beef sausage, some amazing pate with homemade oatmeal digestives, and delicious red and white wine grapes (varietals fully explained on labels, of course). Our contributions were a big hit, with much picture taking and comments galore. On the entree table was an amazing savory carrot pudding, spicy Thai Basil Chicken, and a pleasant Posole. Also on the entree table was an elegant little Spanish appetizer dish, with great chorizo, marcona almonds, and roasted peppers. Perfection. EDIT: Another favorite I forgot to mention in the first go-round was an incredible beef terrine with toast. The moist flaps of meat on crouton were picnic sandwiches at their best.

Dessert was the show stopper for me. Someone had made truffles in four flavors, of which ginger was my favorite. Butterscotch pudding was yummy, as was the Ricotta Pie. The two best things at the dessert table were flats of "ground cherries" in their husks, and a haunting chocolate sorbet, made with both slab Valrhona and Droste cocoa powder. The ground cherries really spoke of their relationship to the tomatillo, and had a puckery, sweet, foraged quality that I loved. I could eat those things out of hand any day of the week.

A purchased highlight was a Navarro Gewurtztraminer grape juice. Its honeyed sweetness was cloying until mixed with a touch of mineral water. And then, divine. I didn't miss wine at all.

Natural Products Expo East, Baltimore, MD

So this past weekend I went on my annual sojourn to Baltimore for the East Coast version of the biggest natural products industry trade show there is. I've worked in this industry for 13 years now, so I've really seen this show grow and change as natural products have become as much part of the Wal*Mart vocabulary as "cheap, China-made products." But this Expo is still full of really nice, well intentioned people who actually believe in what they do. They just get paid a lot more now because their little companies are owned by corporate giants who stay out of their way. Yeah!

I was there to see a bunch of old friends, hang out with my clients, get into this intensely competitive strategic mode that only seems to happen at NPE, because all your nearest and dearest competitors are right there in the booth next to you. I love it. It reminds me why I love to do what I do. And I do really love my work. Brand work in this industry warrants the kind of cheesy speech that Oscar winners get: "I can't believe I get paid to do this stuff, etc." Lots of fun and good stuff happened for my clients. I saw lots of great new products, brought home three huge bags of samples, and met up with people I will likely be working with over the next few months.

So here were the key trends and highlights from my perspective (keep in mind that I only work with natural foods, but there were lots of other natural products there. I just didn't pay that much attention, as I don't have any clients in those spaces.)

It's all about berries and other antioxidants. Noni, goji, mangosteen, and the more common temperate berries ran rampant. It's amusing to see. I remember first working on antioxidants back in the mid-90's, and back then at Clif Bar we were all about turmeric and green tea. They're still around. Maybe I should I have done a better job making turmeric the Kleenex of the antioxidant world, because I genuinely believe in its goodness. I make J take copious amounts in capsule form every day.

Omega 3's in the form of flax oil, fish oil etc. Everywhere. It's all about Omega.

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. M&M Mars did the world a favor with their self-serving chocolate antioxidant clinical trials.

Lots of nice smelly stuff. That's just a personal thing. I love NPE for nice smelly stuff.

Maitake for diabetics. Diabetes and celiac disease seemed to be the two top diseases on the forefront of manufacturers' minds.

Green superfood drink powders. Particularly Barleans. In my opinion, the best tasting green powder mix around. Tasty and powerfuel!

Surprisingly, hardly any probiotics. Given my personal passion, I expected more. Sometimes I am a little off, timing wise. Maybe Expo West, in Anaheim, in March.

Oh and of course the Expo was 'green.' Yawn. Everyone seemed to be throwing the potato starch utensils and sampling cups into non-recyclable wastebaskets.