Great hard-to-find condiments

[Shelby]

On the sugar topic--and I realize that maybe you aren't into selling sugar products, but I thought I'd add this in case you change your mind.

 

La Canne sugar

 

I have the pecan and the ginger.  It's interesting and good.  I've put it on blueberry muffins before baking....cookies......

 

[Pan]

We could always increase our scope some time later.

[Cronker]

Delivery to Australia would be wonderful, albeit at a higher premium, surely.

[Pan]

Definitely. Shipping will cost more.

[Pan]

Hi, everyone!

 

I went to the 6th Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn today with my girlfriend. It was a way different experience from the Fancy Food Show I had attended in San Francisco in January. The Fancy Food Show is an industry event to which the general public are pretty much excluded and people are looking to do a lot of wholesale business. The Hot Sauce Expo, which will continue in my absence tomorrow (technically later today, Sunday), is a public event that requires only $12 and change for tickets (and I believe $10 if paid in cash at the venue). It's also specifically devoted to hot sauce (some alcoholic drinks, milk and bottled water are also available, as are barbecue, hot dogs and a couple of other food items, but they are sidelines), and loud though not ear-splitting heavy metal music plays from the "Stage of Doom" for most of the day.

 

More importantly, for my purposes, there was one absolutely phenomenal vendor, at least one other terrific one and several very good ones, among the larger number of ordinary ones and a few downright bad ones (if you're going on the last day, please trust me and do not try the crab salsa!). The mix of vendors was quite interesting, with a good representation from New York and nearby states from Massachusetts to New Jersey, others from the South (one great one is from Florida and was in the far side of the room) and West and some international ones from Australia (who had a good gingery sauce) and England. My girlfriend also enjoyed the expo as a retail customer who tried most of the same sauces I tried and a few others and bought 3 sauces.

I'm still writing up my notes about the vendors, but definitely plan to use some products from some of the best ones who exhibited today.

 

At the end of the show, both of us had some beer from Lagunitas, one of the exhibitors, and a blessedly non-spicy Polish meal at a food store with tables called Polka Dot (my girlfriend also bought several items to go for her 2nd-generation Polish-American mother) and then walked down to Williamsburg to have some good hot chocolate and chamomile tea at Martha's Country Bakery. I plan to lay off the spice tomorrow, too, but it was certainly a good afternoon and a very worthwhile trip to the expo.

[kayb]

7 hours ago, Pan said:

Hi, everyone!

 

I went to the 6th Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn today with my girlfriend. It was a way different experience from the Fancy Food Show I had attended in San Francisco in January. The Fancy Food Show is an industry event to which the general public are pretty much excluded and people are looking to do a lot of wholesale business. The Hot Sauce Expo, which will continue in my absence tomorrow (technically later today, Sunday), is a public event that requires only $12 and change for tickets (and I believe $10 if paid in cash at the venue). It's also specifically devoted to hot sauce (some alcoholic drinks, milk and bottled water are also available, as are barbecue, hot dogs and a couple of other food items, but they are sidelines), and loud though not ear-splitting heavy metal music plays from the "Stage of Doom" for most of the day.

 

More importantly, for my purposes, there was one absolutely phenomenal vendor, at least one other terrific one and several very good ones, among the larger number of ordinary ones and a few downright bad ones (if you're going on the last day, please trust me and do not try the crab salsa!). The mix of vendors was quite interesting, with a good representation from New York and nearby states from Massachusetts to New Jersey, others from the South (one great one is from Florida and was in the far side of the room) and West and some international ones from Australia (who had a good gingery sauce) and England. My girlfriend also enjoyed the expo as a retail customer who tried most of the same sauces I tried and a few others and bought 3 sauces.

I'm still writing up my notes about the vendors, but definitely plan to use some products from some of the best ones who exhibited today.

 

At the end of the show, both of us had some beer from Lagunitas, one of the exhibitors, and a blessedly non-spicy Polish meal at a food store with tables called Polka Dot (my girlfriend also bought several items to go for her 2nd-generation Polish-American mother) and then walked down to Williamsburg to have some good hot chocolate and chamomile tea at Martha's Country Bakery. I plan to lay off the spice tomorrow, too, but it was certainly a good afternoon and a very worthwhile trip to the expo.

 

I am anxious for you to get this venture up and going. I feel pretty certain I will be a good customer.

 

[gulfporter]

This is my go to condiment.  Straight from the squeeze bottle onto fajitas, sandwiches or into a stew pot.  Also mixed with mayo, or mixed with cherry preserves next to grilled fish and meats.   My husband likes the dulce version better for straight from the bottle uses.  

 

[Pan]

Thanks, and it's great to have someone in this thread who lives part of the time in Mexico! I'll look into it.

 

kayb, we're eager to get this business started, too. We're still in the research and planning stage and will keep everyone abreast of our progress.

[Cronker]

There are some very interesting relishes, jams and sauces made here in Australia from native ingredients (we call it bush tucker).  lemon myrtle, finger lime, quandong and samphire spring to mind, and are quite prevalent in better restaurants, although often expensive 

[Pan]

Cronker, do you have any favorite makers for these items? I'd be quite interested.

[Pan]

I did some quick checking on Clemente Jacques. Clemente Jacques seems to be a pretty widely available brand, though the Chipotles Dulces are not for sale on either Walmart or Amazon, so the variety of products that are easy to obtain throughout the U.S. seems to be limited.

[MelissaH]

18 hours ago, gulfporter said:

This is my go to condiment.  Straight from the squeeze bottle onto fajitas, sandwiches or into a stew pot.  Also mixed with mayo, or mixed with cherry preserves next to grilled fish and meats.   My husband likes the dulce version better for straight from the bottle uses.  

 

I'm now totally intrigued by these. Any guesses where I'd find them in the USA, at least until @Pan gets his venture up and running? I'm in small-town upstate New York, a 6-hour drive from NYC but within easy reach of online sources.

[Cronker]

These products are pretty good.

http://www.outbackpride.com.au/products/sauces-and-dressings

[Pan]

Thanks, Cronker. Those products look very interesting. Do you have favorites from among them?

Edited April 24, 2018 by Pan (log)

[Pan]

Melissa, some products from that company are available on Amazon, but not all of them.

[Cronker]

The bush tomato sauce and the lemon Myrtle chilli are both really good and give very interesting variations on flavours you are familiar with.

[Pan]

I will definitely keep these in mind. Thanks, Cronker.

[Cronker]

No problem.  Keep in mind that the brand I have suggested is one of the larger producers- a great amount of Bush tucker is very artisanal and small scale.  You might be better off having a purveyor if you’re after the really good and interesting things..

[kayb]

Here's one I just ran across:

 

 

Website here.

[Pan]

Hi, everyone! I'm probably overdue for an update, so here it is!

 

From Saturday, June 30 - Monday, July 2, I attended the Fancy Food Show at the humongous Javits Center in far west Midtown Manhattan. It was an immense show, and I spent a few hours on the first day and 7 hours apiece at the show on the second and third days.

 

There was huge international representation. For example, in the Italian section, which occupied two rows and then some, Cascina San Cassiano was one of the most outstanding vendors. I must have tried a dozen sauces and jams they make, and none of them was anything short of excellent. I also got to try a unique product, Peschiole al Tartufo Estivo, which are very small young green peaches without pits yet, lightly pickled in black truffle water, made by Savini Tartufi. And these are just two highlights from the Italian section.

 

Among the interesting American products were habanero pralines, which we may carry, and jams that are only slightly sweet and include tea in them. And then back in the international sections, there was the tomato sauce with mastic oil from Santorini, the fantastic smoked chili powder produced by the Mapuche Indians in Chile, the hot piri-piri sauces from Portugal...

 

Of course we can't carry every product. Some companies require a 5-pallet minimum order for wholesale, other companies produce very good products that already have wide distribution, and others charge so much money for wholesale that we'd need to sell very expensive subscriptions to include their products (perhaps an option if there turns out to be a lot of call for that later). But there were quite a few very interesting products that we may be able to carry soon.

 

I had to leave town the morning after the end of the Fancy Food Show, and I am only now nearly done writing up my notes on vendors and products on spreadsheets and following up with questions about minimum wholesale orders, wholesale prices at different volumes, lead times and sometimes possible smaller sizes of sauces that normally come in large jars.

 

One thing that's clear is that we will sooner or later - and probably sooner - be doing a lot of importation. We will almost definitely be importing from Japan, probably from Canada, and quite likely from some countries in Europe and South America. An excellent South African company is also in the mix, and of course we are very interested in the leads some of you have given us on bush tucker in Australia. If any of you have any insight into anything we should consider doing to make the process of importing easier and more effective, please let me know.

 

Other things we've been dealing with are purely related to starting a business: Applying to start an LLC (not too hard to do but requires a $200 payment to the state if you do it in New York, and then comes with an onerous publication requirement, to essentially advertise for 6 straight weeks in a daily and weekly newspaper of the government's choice in the county where the LLC's office is, although that can be in not-too-expensive Albany County if you use an agency), getting an Employer Identification Number from the IRS (also a simple process) and filling out more necessary forms. Opening a business bank account is another task that should be performed soon.

 

There's more to say, but I have to get some sleep, as my other life as a musician beckons, with a 1.5-hour gig at a nursing home tomorrow (technically, this afternoon), a dress rehearsal on Tuesday and a rock concert on Thursday (if you're interested in that, click here - I'm a guest artist and play on the title track of the new CD).

[Pan]

Hi, everyone! I'm way overdue for an update. First, I want to tell you all a little about the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, which my brother/partner and I attended in January. It was exhausting but not nearly to the extent of the way larger show last summer in New York, and it helped a lot that the two of us were working together this time. It was interesting to see the trends in the food industry. There are a lot of products now that are low-sugar or have no sugar added, including hot sauces and jams, organic is in, and there was also an emphasis on gluten-free products from purveyors of foods for which that's relevant - and some for which it's not.

 

Some highlights: Cane Land has a big sugar cane plantation in Louisiana and makes fantastic dark and spiced rums and wonderful rum cake. They don't make hot sauce or condiments, but they do make spiced rum pecans that are a nice snack. There were several other purveyors of delicious flavored peanuts and other nuts - a personal favorite was the Everything Goes Nuts by Bobby Sue's Nuts from Chappaqua, New York, whose flavoring is meant to be like everything bagels, but I like it more than those. There was another booth giving pours of excellent Italian red and white wines. Of course it's a good idea not to drink too much wine and rum while you're working, and we didn't! We also tried some rich dark chocolates made with hot peppers. We enjoyed the Sardinian cheese booth - Pecorino Sardo is a very good cheese. And Essendorfer, the Bavarian company I mentioned last winter, came back to the San Francisco Fancy Food Show with a whole bunch of additional products, all of which were excellent.

 

There were a couple of organic hot sauce makers we liked that are making sauces with only a few ingredients that really depend on flavorful peppers, and the ones we liked best are made by a vineyard in Napa that also grows their own unusual hot peppers. They were funny - their hot sauces weren't displayed, because they were emphasizing other products like flavored olive oils and wines, but when we asked them if they had anything else, they said "We have some hot sauces, if you'd have any interest in that."

 

Also while visiting San Francisco, I tried a bunch of sauces my brother picked up on trips to Europe and Japan. We particularly liked a number of sauces from Japan. For example, we loved a condiment of fried onions and garlic with chili, a roasted red chili soy sauce, a seven spices miso with kombu and a crunchy, garlicky wasabi oil furikake sauce, meant to be used to flavor rice.

 

I also have a bit of fairly exciting news: We just started advertising on Facebook. Right now, our main aim is to determine which of a number of possible company names seems to be most popular, but because we tested 4 ads against each other, we also have had somewhat of a chance to compare their effectiveness in attracting people to go to our landing page and leave their emails for us to contact them when we're sending out information about subscriptions. We also have the lineup of products for our first deliveries to our subscribers planned out. When we're ready to take subscriptions, I'll post a link to the URL here, for anyone who might be interested. Wish us luck in continuing to advertise and try to find customers for our subscription service!

[ElsieD]

What is your Facebook page or are you not allowed to post it here?

[Pan]

Our Facebook page is very embryonic at this point. Let me know if this link, which is coming up for me, works for you: https://www.facebook.com/SpiceSeeker-2523862607643172/?modal=admin_todo_tour

 

I just got a strange error message from eGullet: "The link could not be embedded because there is no status at that URL."

 

Anyway, we might or might not keep that company name.

[ElsieD]

It worked for me.  Thank you.

[Kerry Beal]

Loaded - but I wonder if the eG message relates to there being no content yet?