gfron1

Tyler gently reminded me that we polished off the bottle you gave us a few months ago. But its so much more exotic when it comes from Korea

Thank you for all the info. The type I have is not labeled as black vinegar, and it has been infused with lemongrass. They had other herbed varieties as well. It is also labeled as a concentrate 5:1 water:vinegar. I'll post pics of the packaging which is quite beautiful tonight.

I met a Korean company at the San Fran Fancy Food Show that was selling an amazing drinking vinegar. They told me it was very common in Korea (I assumed beyond Korea). How common is it? What type of vinegar is being drank?

We ran into scheduling problems - meaning I was too damn busy and too damn tired to do much. So we ended up doing a Jollibee breakfast (god help us to never do that again!), Saigon Sandwich which I would do again for super cheap, House of Nanking in Chinatown (good, not great, but good) and a really great Thai place in North Beach (correct me if I'm wrong) called Lemongrass. We really enjoyed Lemongrass and "discovered" a rice pudding joint next door. That was a hit for us because there was a huge line waiting to order and they ran out of ganache. The owner was gone and so the workers didn't know how to make more. I stepped in and due to their lack of cream, whipped up a damn tasty water based ganache which made most of the line very happy. That was fun

I'm cramped over right now from too much sampling (really, seriously...bad, bad pain). Was the waffle mix the malt mix that I saw? I'll be sorting through my notes in the next day or two, but I had three highlights: 1) The business stuff (previously noted) which is concerning to me. Mergers mean less variety and higher prices. 2) Cool toys (I said cool, not necessary) Pacojet demo, food smoker demo and did anyone else see that ultra cool mini-shishkabob cooker! That was the coolest toy ever. and 3) the Korean drinking vinegar which I'll be doing a full write-up on at my blog. I twisted their arm to get a bottle. Another cool booth for me was the Japanese salt booth which they sent me away with one of each of their varieties (20ish) so I'll be writing those up as well. Great fun seeing old and new friends (I'm not sure which Ruth would be considered), always a bit sad seeing Paul Prudhomme looking frail in his cart, and always fun being blown off by the big guys because I'm not a soul-less mega store. More to come later.

I just finished and boy am I tired. i always forget how tiring it is to walk the floor. There are a couple of new products that I'll report on when I get home, but the big news is the business deals. Peters Imports acquired Chelsea Market Baskets on Friday, and there are other acquisitions happening as the small companies fight to exist and the large companies fight to survive - both requiring different strategies. I finally found Keller, who couldn't justify the show expense so she partnered with CMB which is how I found out about the acquisition. And much to my surprise, no great deals, just the typical ones - 10%, free shipping, etc.

It seems like the mid-sized distributors are the ones who passed this year (Ritrovo, Keller). The big and small are mostly present. It seems the two hot items are aloe water and wine/chocolate pairings - neither being particularly new nor exciting. A rather boring year so far. A few new cheeses but I got to them late in the day when I was too tired to appreciate them. my best deals seem to be happening unofficially with attendees who are present but not sitting booths.

This makes complete sense and so I'll repeat that it is appropriately good for its price, but I wouldn't pay any more for it. I neglected to mention how poorly timed my service was...very bad.

Thanks guys. I currently store them in the big rubbermade bins and I'm overflowing, so I'll look at the speedrack option.

I don't understand the half v. full sheet issue. I always buy full sheet and cut them to half sheets. Is there a reason why you don't want to do this?

Just got back. We thought everything was very nice and appropriate for the price. But not great. Again, appropriate. had we paid more it would have been over priced. Started with the Hotel Nacional cocktail. Then we had the rack of lamb and chicken clay pot, brussel sprouts and Japanese eggplants. All good. I really enjoyed the pinapple green sichuan pepper dessert. It was interesting, well flavored, and nicely executed.

I've been through the vendor list and this all kinda sad. So many companies just aren't here this year due to the economy. I was hoping to make some great deals, but the vendors I want are MIA.

Thanks. I'll go check out Yelp. Last night we did the Saigon Sandwich which was well worth the $3 price tag, but not very good meat as far as I'm concerned.

if she can wait that long she should go to the NYC Fancy Food Show and she'll have more options than she knows what to do with. The summer Chicago salt was cancelled this year. If she can't wait, then subscribe to the two free magazines - Specialty Food Retailer and Gourmet Retailer. There's a couple of smaller mags that are good also.

I'm here right now and looking for anything near Moscone (I know, nothing will be near here, but we don't mind walking or public transporting).

Alright. I took one for the team. I used a frozen Minute Made lemon juice from concentrate. Just juice and water. It was on sale for $2 for 250g. My recipe needed 450g so I added fresh - another 5 lemons. This wasn't a controlled experiment since I combined juices, but it gave me a good idea of the outcome. I found the taste to be just a bit more subdued than normal. Still tangy and it saved me a decent amount of time. If I could find a bigger bottle of the concentrate I would try it again or find it on sale again. But it seems like a reasonable substitute. It definitely needs to be the frozen juice though not the lemonade.

Where do the pros store your silicone? I'm asking because my collection has grown from a few to a bunch, so what used to do just fine in my toy box has now started overflowing and falling out all the time. Are you hanging them on a wall? These suckers like to creep around so I've got to get them wrangled.

That's what I'm talking about! Thank you. I saw that the championships were coming back so I need to carve out a long 4th of July holiday if I can afford to close the cafè down for a week. Pastry Scoop sounds like a really good option too and I've never made it the NYC (you big city folk scare me ). I'll actually be presenting at the Fancy Food Show this weekend in San Fran - they don't have much in the way of pastry workshops, but I've met a few import distributors that have good stuff. Amoretti and the like tend not to go to them - wrong market. I'll check out the others. Again - a big thanks!

What options are out there in the US for meeting various pastry vendors and attending workshops? I'm more interested in nicer pastries than Wilton type stuff. I know the pastry championships are one option, but some of the others I've seen are more geared toward grocery stores. Am I missing anything? Thanks.

It all depends what your purpose is. Mine is very clear - find new products to stock in my store and connect with existing vendors to get their show deals. So for me I need to have a clear strategy to navigate the 1,700 vendors or I won't have enough time.

Yep - despite the critics, my pans (going on 4 and 5 years) are as non-stick today as they were the day I bought them. Only one has scratched and that was my own stupid fault. My greatest joy is when I do sugar work in them.

Sounds like its time for the food scientists to step in. My guess is that your dairy is different and that may have led to the problem.

and I'll repeat - yes. The Daring Bakers just did it last month to insert them into a yule log.

Chad's book was top of my gift list this year and I received it late last week finally. I've really been looking forward to it because I know knife skills are an area I need to improve on. But I also know that with my work schedule if you get an hour out of me each night before I fall asleep you're doing well. As a testament to the book, I'm half way through the book after just a couple of nights of reading - haven't fallen asleep while reading it yet (something the last Harry Potter book can't claim). I'm really enjoying it and can't wait to start my practicing.

I think its funny because I can't come off of my holiday pace. I am filling every second with production still and my mind is racing, but because I don't really have much to do...well, you see the results.