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Herbs, Spices, Gourmet Goodies
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The
Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo is a trade show for Gourmet Restaurants to find their next best thing.
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Hot Freshly Made Egg Rolls
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Gourmet Cookware
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We began our day there at around 11 AM thinking that was a reasonable time to arrive. Five minutes in we realized that getting there at 8:30 when it began, might have been a much better idea.
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Tasty Latkes Available to Buy Frozen and Ready to Heat Up and Serve
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All Types of Things to Buy
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Where to begin was our most pressing concern and the smells that filled the convention center were calling. The first aisle was filled with culinary delights such as Duck Pate, Tuna Sashimi with Avocado Cream, various types of Chinese dumplings, and beef, chicken, or shrimp cooked in many different ways.
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Beautiful Displays of Fresh Fish
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Extra-Large Man Sized Mix=ers
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Along with the food were vendors hawking all different types of professional wares including dishware, cookware, tabletopware, and machines to do just about anything conceivable in the kitchen.
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Kimono Clad Ladies Show off Sushi Making Machines
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Freshly frozen Fish
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Great Knives are a Chef's Necessity
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One thing I found particularly interesting was the surprising fact that what I thought may have been a specialty food of a particular restaurant may not have even been made there and may in fact have been purchased from one of the vendors at the show.
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Wine Tasting
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There was everything there you could think of including every type of gourmet dessert imaginable, including icees, smoothies, many types of homemade gelato with the big fluffy peaks. I found that there were the manufacturers of the machines and then there were the makers of the ingredient mixes. I saw a few companies that had that wonderful fluffy gelato with the peaks, but then I realized they tasted very differently and found it was due to the fact that they had purchased different ingredient mixes. There were also frozen yogurts, and soft ice cream as well as ice cream mixed with various ingredients much like Cold Stone.
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The Best Tasting Gourmet Popcorn
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Treats like chocolates, and flavored popcorn and even chocolate popcorn were part of the extravaganza. All kinds of appetizers, snacks, sweets and savories were available to try.
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Cheesecake in Four Flavors
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Array of Desserts
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Every gourmet coffee manufacturer also made a showing at the Expo, as well as soda drinks, tea drinks, lemonades, smoothies, and every type of icee’.
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Lots of Wines to Try
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Alcohol infused beverages of all varieties also made a showing including everything from beers, wines and sparkling wines, to vodka drinks, creamy alcohol based drinks, various mixes and infusions, and even colored sugars to dip your glasses in to make that super yummy martini.
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Flavored and Colored Sugars to Decorate Your Martinis
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Colorful Wine Bottles
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Even all types of faux food to use as decorations in however one would see fit was displayed and shown. It looked pretty darned good too I must say. Good thing I was completely full by the time I reached that part of the expo or I may have bit into something I wouldn’t have been too happy about.
**image24**
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Exotic Fruits of Thailand
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A favored part of the Expo was a cooking demonstration and cocktail party we attended at the Thai Pavilion, put on by World Renowned Chef
Tommy Tang, host of the culinary travels show on PBS “
Let’s Get Cooking.” Thai and Fusion cooking has taken the world by storm and the Thai theatre provided restaurateurs all the necessary tools and information needed to participate in this quickly moving popular trend in the food industry. Also sponsoring the Thai Pavilion was
Thailand Department of Export Promotion (DEP) and the
Royal Government of Thailand. An extensive array of products including beverages, fruits, rice, cookware and tabletopware filled the Thai Pavilion.
www.letsgetcooking.com
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World Renowned Chef, Tommy Tang, Host of PBS' show "Let's Get Cooking"
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Besides the demonstrations by
Tommy Tang, Nick Christiansen, McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant, Irvine, Mikel Kim (formerly of the French Laundry and Chez Panise) and Sal Marino of Il Grano, also demonstrated some of their specialty dishes.
Katsuya Uechi, creator of the immensely successful
KATSUYA restaurants, and Executive Director of the esteemed
Sushi Institute of America in Los Angeles, did a sushi demonstration on Sunday.
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Ovens for the Chef's Kitchen
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To read my article on Tommy Tang click here.
Another memorable part of the event was a massage by
Yolanda Holly of
Medi-Rub Corp., who manufactures the World’s Finest Massagers!
www.medirubmassagers.com
All in all it was a great event and one I will certainly attend again.
For information:
www.westernfoodexpo.com
All Photos © Judith Orr Photography
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