June 29, 2009 |
Short Order
A Fancy Food Show with No Food is a Tease
By Bao Ong
What’s a food show without samples to taste? It’s a tease, if not a ripoff, and many of the more than 24,000 hungry mouths expected at this year’s Fancy Food Show are complaining.
Brooklyner Shelly Trilla, who wants to open a gourmet shop with friends, forked over $60 to walk the aisles and scout the offerings of the 2,300 exhibitors. “It’s odd,” the bewildered woman cried. “This is about food. We should be able to taste everything if they want our business.”
I was famished too without a sign of even a cracker or a bottle of water.
Chocolate sushi from Miami stopped me cold. I stood there admiring maki rolls, nigiri and fish roe molded in dark chocolate with dried guava and mango, candied ginger, and mascarpone. Alejandra Bigai of Romanicos Chocolates said a client had requested it as a gift for a friend opening a sushi bar. “It a treat to eat it,” she said. But alas, she had no samples, not even for a blogger like me.
And if you did pick up some swag, there was no guarantee you’d get it home. Security guards checking bags at one exit insisted visitors must turn over any loot for charity.
We don’t fancy that.