Summer Fancy Food Show Report

Well, it's not so much a report of the Fancy Food Show, as it is a report on our visit to the Food Capital of the East Coast. We did go to the Show, held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, where everyone is a salesman - including Rick Bayless, hawking his ready-to-use sauce line.  He didn't look all that happy when we strolled by, but perhaps that was because of the woman taking one picture after another with each member of her party included in the photo of the Chicago Chef.  This is only one of two pictures I took at the show. 

The other would be of this huge stack of cheese.  Yogurt - Greek style mostly - and anything themed "healthy and natural" seemed to be the biggest trends. We tasted a lot of chips, chocolate and gelato,  hams, cheeses and salsas,  soft drinks, coffee and beer (Kevin).  At least this year we managed to visit both floors, but by 3PM we were done done and done.  

So.  Now we are in New York City, free to explore.  We sat in our hotel room and plotted out the evening's agenda, beginning with a couple of roof-top bars.  Starting at the Sky Bar at La Quinta hotel's 14th floor at 32nd Street - a sort of no-frills deck hanging out directly underneath the Empire State Building - we then walked up Fifth Avenue to the Penthouse lounge called 230 Fifth.  This was - as you can probably imagine - a little more upscale than La Quinta's entry into the ring.  It was huge, for one thing - the doorman said 2 to 3 THOUSAND people can pass through there on a typical weekend night.  It was also under the watchful gaze of the Empire State Building, surrounded by plantings and benches, chairs and tables over every square inch.  One discovery we made - which we probably wouldn't have known about had we not visited 230 Fifth - was a metal sculpture of a man peering over the edge of the building. We were wandering around the part that was closed on Sunday night and there he was, tethered but still tottering on the edge of the roof.  When we got back to street level we turned our heads skyward - we are rubes, after all - to see if we could see him again, but no, not him.  Instead, it seemed that at the top of every building around Madison Square Park, there was another person standing on the edge of a roof.  We kept going, "Look, there's one! and over there, anther!".  It was very cool.  We quickly figured out that it was only around the Park and figured we  would have to Google it when we got home.  Sure enough, it's one of those amazing public art exhibits that puts a city like New York so far ahead.  Antony Gormley's Event Horizon is the current exhibit sponsored by the Madison Square Art Conservancy. 

We next headed off for food.  We had a very bad summer roll at 230 Fifth, in a desperate moment.  The plan for the evening was tapas, beginning at Txikito on 9th Avenue.  Success!  We sat at the bar at this tiny place, where they offer beer, wine, gin and tequila.  That's it.  No vodka, no bourbon.  It's a Basque place and that's what they typically drink.  We began with two canapes - the white anchovy (BOQUERóN) and the gratin of artichoke (TUTERA).  Both were wonderful, and truly canapes.  Plenty of room for the crispy beef tongue (LENGUA) and the TXIPIRON "ENCEBOLLADO", or ribbons of squid ala plantxa.  Kevin really wanted to try something cooked on the plancha and those fettuccine of squid were the best thing we had all weekend.  They were sauced with a pine nut puree that was the perfect foil.  We finished the small plate feast with a couple of simple croquettes (KROKETAS), managing to work up an 80 dollar bill in the end.  Funny how that happens with small plates, eh?

Our next venue was way uptown at the Chambers Hotel on West 57th at Fifth, so we got on the Subway.  Ma Peche is the newest David Chang hot spot and we wanted to be there.  The dining room, tall ceilinged and pale colored, is below street level. One big X shaped community table dominates the floor, surrounded by typical banquettes and free standing four tops.  Not a bad space, with a peaceful air.  We ordered the crispy pig's head torchon, the ribs and the fried cauliflower.  The torchon had the crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside thing going on, very nice.  The highlight was the Thai basil scented cauliflower, while the ribs, with their very sweet lemon grass caramel glaze, were fine.  Just a little too "candy" like for our tastes.

We took a cab back to the Hotel and crashed for the night.  Monday plans included the famous "People's Pops" stand in the Chelsea Market, followed by a walk on the High-Line and lunch at Bon Chon Chicken before our 2PM train out of Penn Station.  Much success, but the post will come later, after I get my Monday work done this Tuesday morning!