Posts Tagged ‘Jacob Javits Center’

The Fancy Foods Show!

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Living in NYC has its trade offs.  I live in a tiny place (and pay through the nose for it), the humidity is brutal, I miss nature…I can go on & on.  But don’t cry for me, it ain’t ALL BAD.  One of the perks of NYC are the wine/food conventions at the Jacob Javits Center.  And today I attended the 3rd day of the Fancy Foods Show at the Javits center.  On 3 (or 4) massive floors, over two thousand exhibitors came out for this 3 day convention.  And to be able to attend was truly a treat!

As a wine guy I know I should be more of a foodie.  And while I appreciate fine food, I am not an expert (although I do know what I like!).  That said rather than review the food, I want to write about some observations, and then a quick wine review of some wine I tried.

Observation #1 – Olive Oil is in.  There were A LOT of people showing off their olive oil.  There was olive oil from many countries, in MANY different shaped bottles, infused with lots of flavors.  If I could invest in olive oil, I would.

Observation #2 – Cheese is in.  Wow was there a lot of cheese there.  Soft cheese, hard cheese, stinky cheese, fake cheese (Dr. Seuss anyone?).  Name it, it was there.  And there is so much to learn about cheese.  Just all the names.  Quick tip I learned; apparently Europeans say that one should start the day with soft cheeses and eat progressively harder cheese as the day goes on.  Interesting, huh…

Observation # 3 – Chocolate is IN!!  (more…)

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NY Wine Expo – at NYC convention center

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

This afternoon was the “trade” portion of the NY Wine Expo at the Jacob Javits center. There was A LOT of wine on hand, some “nosh” and even some beer purveyors.

I enjoyed the tasting very much as I was able to both try wines from several different regions as well as speak with winemakers from all around the world.  But I must admit that I was disappointed with one aspect. Upon entering, I was not given a tasting booklet. Typically, when large tastings take place, especially when there are as many as 100 (or more) wines, people are not going to remember everything they tasted off the top of their heads. As such, many of the events hand out books to all attendees to both direct them to the various booths as well as to provide them with some space (1-3 empty lines) to write about wines tasted. This book may contain everything from Winery information down to the wines technical data. But at a minimum it provides a few lines for the taster to take some notes and refer back to later.

Not having a tasting booklet or any organized notebook to take notes in, I sadly will not remember most of the wines that stood out. I did take brochures or business cards from some, but I still will not remember WHY I felt the need to take info from those booths – maybe the pourer was cute – as was the case at 2 booths… 😉

This being the 1st annual NY Wine Expo, they were astute enough to solicit feedback, and I filled out a questionnaire and mentioned the merits of a tasting booklet for future events.

There are many more tastings taking place throughout NYC this week. I hope & expect that they will hand out tasting books/sheets at the others and as such I hope to have more specific feedback to provide you all with.

Until then, happy wine tasting…

WTG

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