Re: [CH] Any reports from Fiery Foods Show?
RavenMoon (ravenmoon_ch@yahoo.com)
Tue, 18 Mar 2003 07:20:01 -0800 (PST)
Well shoot, I was going to honor the Oath of Silence,
but since Jim already broke it....
Even though I live in Santa Fe, this was the first FF
Show I have been able to attend. It was an incredible
sight.... chileheads and hot foods as far as the eye
could see!
Had a wonderful time wandering among the vendors... at
times it was difficult to get through the crowds, but
I heard a lot of people saying that it seemed like a
small turn out. Sampled a lot of incredibly good
products; wished I had the money to just say, "Yep,
I'll take one of everything in the place!"
Purchased some super chocolate covered chile almonds
from a woman who turned out to also be the florist
handling my best friend's upcoming wedding. Acquired a
really flavorful chipotle sauce from an Australian
outfit called Disaster Bay (nice bottle shape too!).
Also purchased a really fine sorta-hot green chile
salsa from a Texas company whose name escapes me at
the moment. But, the favorite thing I brought home was
a beautiful chile-red ceramic ginger-jar-shaped pot
with chiles for handles on the sides and the lid!
Bought some really excellent pickles (20 Pepper Garlic
Dills... not as hot as I had hoped but really
delicious!) from Chip Welsh and company, but didn't
get to meet him. Was grateful to John Hard for
pointing me in the direction of Mild to Wild Pepper &
Herb Co., but John was sooooooo swamped and busy that
I didn't stay to chat.
Finally made it over to Jim C's (seemed only right to
meet the guy I was married to for the weekend) and
found him to be as charming and kind in person as he
is via e-mail. Indeed... meeting him was the highlight
of the show for me!
I had taken my 16 year old chilehead daughter with me,
along with a colleague from work who likes her food
"spicy." On the drive down to ABQ I told my co-worker,
"If this guy offers you any bread, nibble daintily!"
She was NOT to be disappointed! Jim had indeed brought
along The Bread, but for some reason it was cut up
into postage stamp sized pieces. I didn't find it to
be that hot, which really surprised me after hearing
about it all these years (always thought of myself as
a Moderate... hmm...), and my daughter thought it was
great, and not unmanageable either. My co-worker spent
10 minutes recovering and gasped out to me later that
this was the absolute limit of her heat tolerance.
(But then she's from Toledo, Ohio! <vbg>) Now I must
admit, I didn't put any of the UnBEARable sauce on my
Bread, but I am not a fan of extract sauces.
During the course of the show I also had the
opportunity to discover some of the secret benefits of
being married to Jim!
After the show closed, we headed north to one of my
fave places for dinner... The Range Cafe in
Bernalillo. Over dinner my friend remarked that she
had never even *imagined* such a variety of chile
flavors and products.
It was a blast and I'll be back next year!!
~ Raven... being buried under snow in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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