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The 2008 Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show
By Buddah | November 14, 2008 |
November 8-9 in Washington DC, they have this annual cooking show, but it is a lot more than just cooking displays/demostrations. There was beer and wine sampling, (enough that you will leave plastered after you made the rounds. Too bad I don’t like beer nor wine. There were book signings, food carvings and lots of sampling. There was also the high profile chefs from the Food Network- Bobby Flay(only Sunday), Paula Deen(didn’t do much cooking, but a lot of talking and mixing it up with the audience), and then the beautiful Giada, who didn’t draw much of a crowd. People had to pay to see them, and I guess at $55 starting price people would rather spend their money on the other two. The event is more for the ladies who watch the cooking channel than for men. Go ahead and make your comments. I am inviting it, I know.
Anyway, I got in the food show free of charge thanks to Michele and Tom of the Intensity Academy. A big thank you goes out to them for the hookup! It allowed me to catch Paula Deen free, mingle before the show started and come and go as I pleased. I also received some freebies and discounts from certain vendors which was a cool benefit.
The place was huge, so I made quite a few circles around the convention center once the crowd hit because I could not get close enough to certain booths to sample stuff. The show started up at 10am, but by 11:00-11:30am it was jam-packed. It was like the Fiery Food Show in Albuddahquerque, and just as big. The place emptied out a bit around 3ish, mostly after Paula left. Up to that point it was hard to move around the crowd.
I hung out with Uncle Brutha, the multi-award winning hot sauce maker who had many of his awards with him at his booth. He was also showing off his Barack Obama hot sauce label that he was selling quite a bit of at the show. I have had his sauce before, and I love the No. 9 as an overall sauce, and the No. 10 mixes in with and makes the best chicken salad. I got a little history about why they are called No. 9 & 10, but if I ever do a review with him, then I will talk about it then. Nice guy and his associate too, his name escapes me. We talked quite a bit in the show, and about his next offering which will be a marinade. He has high hopes because he is getting great feedback so far.
I want to mention a few vendors, 2 of which we will be doing reviews for. One is Spice Rack Chocolates, an award winning chocolate using spices in their chocolate to create a new flavor experience. They have their “En Fuego” Collection which is made with spicy ingredients, and that is what they gave me to review, so stay tuned for that. You should check out their website because their spice selections are very unique.
The other company is called Raisin the Steaks, a steak sauce made with, of course raisins. Should be interesting on some burgers and chicken too. The flavor was sweet and tangy and I think I will have fun playing with it on my meat. 
I hope we can have the opportunity to do other reviews with some of the other contacts I made. One in particular blew my mind, Curry Simple. Anyone familar with CinChili and their microwavable packages, Curry Simple sells in a similar type of plastic pouch, except they aren’t microwable. Yet, they are ready made and pour right into your meal, and all you do is heat them up. They were pouring their different Curry selections over white rice. I fell in love with their Green Curry which lit me up a little with it’s heat. The flavor was so good, it was by far the best curry product my mouth had ever tried. In fact, I don’t even like curry too much because the smell is often overbearing. This product only overwhelmed my sense of taste, but in a good way. I also loved the red curry and 2 of their chili sauces which I bought along with 6 bags of Green Curry. Everything I tried with the rice was beyond spectacular.
I brought Michele who loves curry over to their booth. She totally fell for the red curry version. Tom, doesn’t like curry at all, but after some prodding went to their booth too and fell under the Curry spell. As well as another vendor who told us the same thing about not liking curry, but how Curry Simple was great. Their red curry was almost sold out after the 1st day. This was the standout of the show hands down, and would recommend it to anyone. Especially if you do not like curry!
Another great company was Sweet Margy: Confection Diva. Toffee with nuts that are so soft and tender it doesn’t stick to your teeth. Best toffee I have ever had. Their caramels couldn’t even come close to Hudd’s dear Betty’s though.
I sampled some nice spicy products from The Happy Jalapeno Company, Texas Sassy, Hot Squeeze, and Raye’s Mustard. I didn’t have enough money to buy more than I wanted. I definitely wanted some mustard so I was disappointed that I didn’t get at least one jar. They had a yella mustard that I even liked. I brought me back a small booty, mostly from Curry Simple. Some of the companys are local for me anyway and I can buy at Whole Foods, others will have to wait until the next time. Raye, if you read this, let us do a review!
One of the Chileheads I met was Brian of hotsaucedaily.com, a new Chilehead Blog. It seems despite living in Maryland Brian has all ready met up with Turk, and Bisummo has chalked up another positive review. The ASSimilation continues. I will have to question Turk’s new nickname though at the end of the review:
“Created by Todd “King of Sting” Ross in Orlando, Florida, be sure to check out Bisummo.com for more info on this sauce, as well as their other sauces: Chok’on Dis Hot Sauce and Chok’on Dis Blaz’n Glaze.”
Welcome to the Chilehead world of blogs, Brian and I look forward to seeing you swing by and saying hello. Your site looks good. Contact Cap’n Bones at admin@tastethefear.com if you need anything or about the Cape Fear Pepper Company products we talked about. I am sure the olde fart will be more than willing to hook you up with a review. 
Overall it was great to hang with Michele and Tom again, and meet so many nice people. Who knows maybe we will get some people to come by and say hello. Either way, I recommend the show for vendors, because Intensity Academy cleaned up the first day making the trip from Florida worth it. I will tell you it is one expensive booth, but you can not beat the crowd. I will also recommend the show to beer and wine drinkers because at $20 for all the tasting you can handle, you really get your money’s worth. I also recommend the show for food lovers, not necessarily chileheads. They are a lot of products to sample, cookware to purchase, plus cooking shows to learn from. I even bought a cook book and got it signed by one of Paula Deen’s chefs.
Related Posts
- Wrap-up of Buddah’s 2008 Fiery Food Show Adventure
- A Look Ahead…from ZestFest 2008
- 2009 Fiery Foods Show Buddah Diary – Day 1
- 2009 Fiery Foods Show Buddah Diary – Day 2
- ChileHeadEd Reporting live from the Fiery Foods Show
Topics: Contests/Events, Friends, General | 19 Comments »
Awesome sounding show. I would’ve liked to have been there and I know Betty would’ve for sure. Thanks for the caramel compliment :nerd:. Made Betty’s evening. Isn’t Paula a character? We got to meet her and her husband back during the summer. Sounds like some cool reviews coming. Can’t wait to see them.
Brian’s a good guy. His blog has actually been around for a while. That’s where I got the idea for the AMHS bacon wrapped stuffed jalapeno recipe.
As far as “King of Sting” moniker goes, it was a goofy name that I spit out to a friend when we first starter up and the joke behind it is that I’m the king but get no respect. See picture in the “about us” section of bisummo that goes along with the name and you’ll see what I mean.
CLICK HERE
Great write-up :nerd:. Looks like a very cool event and I would’ve paid the $55 to go Giada. Grroooowwwl.
Thank you, I would get a lapdance for that kinda money from her. She is quite the looker.
Paula is quite the entertainer. Tell Betty, that mention was free because of the FMK vittles, but the next one will cost her.
Nice write-up, :nerd:. We had a blast at the show too. It was great meeting Michelle and Tom and Uncle Brutha.
We saw Paula Deen’s “show”… my wife really enjoyed it. I was hoping she would cook more, and do less schtick. Guess that’s her.
I definitely plan to go next year. And I hope more hot sauce vendors sign up.
Hi Brian, thanks for paying us a visit here on TTF. Your site looks great!
Cap’n
i want to make love to paula dean and use butter for lube.
awesome write up.
Thanks Brian and a hearty welcome to TTF. We definitely need more hot sauce/salsa vendors at that show. Oonsidering the traffic that place got, they definitely can’t go wrong with the heavy investment. I would love to make it to that show every year as well.
Great read
and welcome Brian. I’ll check out your site later.
It was a whirlwind of fun! We ended up on a 3 second view of Chup on the Today’s Show!!! A few seconds on national TV is better than none. Thanks for coming :nerd:, we had a GREAT time. What a professional show, we sold out of Chai Thai. To celebrate the show, media & tons of fun we’ve been having lately we are offering any 5 bottles for $20. Just email me with your choice 5. EMAIL PROTECTED (Click To Reveal)
Personally, I’m making a Chai Thai Turkey for Thanksgiving!
Awesome offer Michele and for those that haven’t had a chance to try IA’s products, you are missing out.
I had hoped Curry Simple would’ve wanted to do a review with us with their great products, but I guess they didn’t want to. I was also hoping Uncle Brutha was going to stop by as well. I know I talked to him about getting his products in JJ’s. Tis a shame.
Hi :nerd:. What a nice review of our show! I’m with MCES and if you want a free ticket to the 2009 DC show in November, let me know. We’re also in West Palm Beach in March and Atlanta in April. Also, love the Caveman pic!
Atlanta in April?
Something close to home! 
And Welcome aboard TTF Wendy!
Welcome to Taste The Fear Wendy. Thanks for stopping by. Oh, and thanks for the heads up on the Atlanta show! I’ve marked my calendar for that one.
FYI, that’s not a caveman, it’s :nerd:.
Hey Wendy, I am glad you found your way. Keep in touch I would love to go again. Maybe you can hold my wallet next time so I don’t spend as much money as I spent at the last time.
great pic of paula deen! thanks for sharing –
No problem Kim. Thanks for visiting Taste The Fear!