5 Boro PicNYC - May 27th Edition

The food blogger community is a great one and I really appreciate Jackie Gordon giving some of us a heads up about the upcoming 5 Boro Picnyc at Governor's Island. The event was sponsored by Jarlsberg USA, Zagat, Village Voice, Sixpoint Brewery, High River Sauces, Teen Battle Chef, Family Cook Productions, and Earth Matter.  

The southern tip of Manhattan holds a great view along with the South Street Seaport, Staten Island Ferry, and Governor's Island Ferry. This was my first time going to Governor's Island and me, my friend Lesley, and a slew of others were there specifically to enjoy the 5 Boro Picnyc during the holiday weekend. Families with bikes circled around the  island while others had strollers, men and women sported babies in Bjorns, friends arm-in-arm with tickets in hand ready to partake in many of the vendor options.

A quick ferry ride had us at Governor's Island in minutes and people herded into the main lawn--an expansive park area with white tents along the rim and NYC historical buildings in the distance--to the sound of bands tuning up and the pungent smell of meat on the grill.

Many of the sponsors for 5 Boro Picnyc offered food samples along with restaurants in NYC including Jimmy's no. 43 offering cole slaw, barbecue chicken, and flank steak with chimchurri sauce; The Fat Beagle selling some amazing goods including the best cornbread I have ever tasted (so, so sorry grandma) with honey butter along with pork sliders; Van Leeuwen had cones and sundaes not limited to pistachio and green tea; Red Hook Lobster, who I had also seen at Smorgasburg the day before, selling their mainstay lobster roll and shrimp rolls on buttery buns; Brooklyn Grange providing some necessary light fare of fresh greens and a lemon vinaigrette; Madria Sangria with a fruity and tangy sangria as a nice alternative for non-beer enthusiasts, and there was the KIND Bars stand as soon as you entered into the picnic area (just to name a few).

While a live band played attendees sampled everything there was to offer. There were many pork options as tends to be the mainstay when it comes to barbecue but there was also barbecue chicken, lamb sausages, potato salad, and salad. The Jarlsberg tent had grilled cheese with pork and one by Josetth Gordon composed of kale and caramelized onions. The kale jarlsberg sandwich was by far my favorite and a line worth standing in multiple times. I also took to Josetth's juice, a cucumber - ginger refresher that had a great natural sweetness to it reminding me of sweet tea, but good for you!

This was one of the more calm and least rowdy picnics I've experienced in NYC during a holiday weekend. Even with alcohol present and available for free for a period of time the crowd was chill, the lines moved swiftly, and it was a mellow event overall. Kids and infants were present, whole families camped out in near bands and in the shade while sending persons from their party to go on this line and that. My friend Lesley and I manned various sides of the Jarlsberg tent for freshly cut cheese with figs and crackers or for grilled cheese ooey gooey to the touch. Making the rounds we sipped on sangria or beer and took in the reduced humidity of the day and the smooth sounds from the front that were just the right decibel not to hurt your ears but for you to enjoy the music as well as hear your friend during a conversation.

As with events like Choice Eats and the IACP Culinary Expo I'm always eager to be introduced to more food options in the community. One of the best finds for me was Brooklyn Grange and learning that there's a farm on an NYC rooftop here in Queens as well as a couple in Brooklyn as well seeking to "improve overall quality of life" in the city. As mentioned The Fat Beagle's cornbread was a revelation and Lesley couldn't stop talking about it (still can't if you visit her Facebook page) and Madria Sangria's is a nice option if you just want sangria in a bottle without having to purchase the juice and the wine separately. Josetth's food was also a great introduction to her website and cookbook and Jarlsberg is going to become my new go-to cheese. I made sure to wear the Jarlsberg t-shirt from the press event and was happy to advertise their logo "Go Jarlsberg or Go Naked." I heartily agree with this statement.

Roaming Governor's Island and taking some pictures of the NYC skyline, enjoying the graphic design show at the museum on site, and taking in the cool breeze from the Hudson was a great capper as Lesley and I exited 5 Boro Picnyc and headed home with full bellies, lots to discuss in terms of new food options, and an overall lightness in our demeanor from an event that was a pleasant way to enter Memorial Day. Governor's Island was an ideal place for this venue. The lawn area was big enough that I never felt overwhelmed by the growing crowd nor did I feel like there was no space for me as an attendee. I'd encourage more people to attend next year and in coming years. Just come, enjoy the food and music and ambiance, and relax and enjoy aspects of the 5 Boroughs on a lovely island.

Special thanks to Food Karma Projects for giving us food bloggers the opportunity to attend and review this event and again thanks to Jackie for getting us in touch with Food Karma. 

Interview with Culture NY co-founder Jenny Ammirati (A homegrown business bringing delicious yogurt year-round)

At this year's Village Voice Choice Eats festival in the Flat Iron District, Culture: An American Yogurt Company was present offering tastes of one of their signature yogurts as well as cookie yogurt sandwiches and other cool items perfect for a venue heating up with lots of attendees and spicy fare.

Culture has been voted by the Village Voice as one of the 10 Best Frozen Treats, by TimeOut NY as one of the 100 Best Dishes in 2011, and was an Elle Decor staff pick of Where to Eat.

After tasting and hearing about the hype I approached co-founder Jenny Ammirati about doing an interview. (She and her husband Gino make the yogurt and started Culture together.) She was extremely gracious about doing one and in the midst was delayed by the birth of a new child! But she was also kind enough to get back to me soon after such a big life event! So I cannot say how much I appreciate her answering some of my questions about how Culture started and her and Gino's inspiration for what has become a growing treat.

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One of the consistencies I have found in interviewing and reading interviews of local bakers is that they didn’t always know they wanted to pursue business in the food industry. Often times it’s kind of an epiphany. You had a career in finance before going to culinary school and starting Culture. Do you feel like finding what you want to do after being in a career you didn't enjoy is a way to get closer to your ideal job? Or do you think perhaps this discovery can occur by chance? 

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of baking with my mom and my sister.  When I was growing up, as often as we could, my sister and I would bake recipes from her Holly Hobby cookbook. (She is still one of the best bakers I know.) When I was eight years old I remember telling my mom that when I grow up I wanted to be a chef. Somehow something changed along the way, after college, I pursued a career in finance and worked in the field for ten years but in my heart I always wanted to work with food. For years I would take part-time jobs in the food industry because it is what I loved doing. Deciding to go to culinary school was really the “Ah ha” moment for me. It is when I felt like pursuing a culinary career changed from a dream to a commitment. It took a long time to get here but I am happy that I am finally doing what I love.

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Culture NY has gotten a lot of great press as one of the Best Frozen Treats in New York City in TimeOut NY, Village Voice, and New York Magazine. And what’s been noted is the all-natural/organic ingredients, the fact that everything is made on-site from scratch, and great taste combinations available to customers. Was one of your and your partner Gino’s main criteria for Culture making sure that ingredients came from local sources as well as being natural with no artificial sweeteners or additives?

When we began to make our strained yogurt at home we did a lot of testing and tasting of products on the market. We realized that there are a lot of additives, thickening agents, and artificial flavors & sweeteners in most of the products on the market. In general we prefer to avoid anything artificial in the food that we eat and after our taste testing it became clear that we prefer the taste of yogurt without additives. It became a mission for us to be able to make a great tasting yogurt without these additives. Our yogurt starts with great milk from Hudson Valley Fresh (a cooperative of New York state dairy farms producing some of the highest quality and best milk that you can get); we add our special blend of cultures and nothing more to create our yogurt. We take our fresh yogurt and add real fruit or spices to make our frozen yogurt.

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Something else that’s been noted about Culture’s yogurt is that it tastes like yogurt and not an ice cream substitution like some of the mass marketed yogurt many may purchase in stores. You base your frozen yogurt off of the Greek-style yogurt. Were you concerned that perhaps people’s taste buds may be averse to the more natural taste in that perhaps they’d become accustomed to the sweetened version?

We make our frozen yogurt from our fresh Greek Style yogurt that we manufacture in our store at 331 5th Avenue. We sell both Greek Style and our frozen yogurt in the store. When we decided to sell our yogurt it was because my husband and I thought that we had a great tasting product that we loved to eat. When we made it at home we could not get enough of it (we still can’t) and we were confident that people would like it as much as we do. Yogurt has been steadily gaining popularity in the US since the 80’s and because our frozen yogurt is made from our Greek yogurt our frozen yogurt has the same health benefits as our fresh yogurt including calcium, potassium, high-quality protein and live probiotic cultures. In short, we were not worried about it not tasting like ice cream because it’s cold, creamy, and tastes great to us.

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Several years ago there was a boom of yogurt chains within the city popping up in Manhattan and extending to the outer boroughs. And in general yogurts found in stores have been pushed as great healthy alternatives in snacking. Gelato shops and smoothie locations have also gotten bigger year after year, particularly with young adults and college students. When you started Culture did you realize that you were picking up on this boom and therefore trying to redefine it?

At some point my husband started eating a lot of Greek style yogurt and decided to make it at home. At the same time I started making toppings to go with the yogurt and spinning it into frozen yogurt with our little ice cream maker. When we decided to open Culture we had been making yogurt at home for some time and we had something that tasted fantastic and we were willing to take a gamble and see if other people agreed with us. Frozen desserts have always held a special place in my heart so the decision to open Culture seemed natural. The fact that it coincided with this boom was more of an accident then anything else.

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Culture offers a limited number of offerings in yogurt flavors but a bevy of toppings, one of the most notable and lauded is the maple syrup and blueberries, is this so that customers can enjoy the purity of yogurt with a varied style atop it or is it because you want to limit the amount of yogurts made not wanting to fall into the trap of doing seasonal items. 

We want our customers to be able to enjoy our yogurt on its own or use the toppings to create any flavor combination they may desire. We offer our fresh plain Greek Style yogurt, in fat-free, low-fat, and organic whole milk plus we offer flavored varieties of the fat-free and low-fat Greek Style yogurt. In addition, we have four frozen yogurt options at a time.   We always offer plain, one standard flavor like strawberry or banana, one “lab” flavor that is experimental or a flavor that may not appeal to everyone like strawberry basil, and one whole milk certified organic frozen yogurt option. We try to be seasonal with the flavors when we can be, for example, we offer apple and pumpkin in the fall and we get the apples from our local farmers market. Culture’s own signature toppings like Key Lime Pie and Vermont Maple are available all year around but we also offer two seasonal topping s at a time. This allows us to be creative and take advantage of what is seasonal and local. Raspberry Dream, a combination of a homemade raspberry custard, fresh raspberry sauce, chocolate cookie crumbs and shaved white chocolate and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, house made strawberry rhubarb compote served with a cobbler topping, just arrived for spring!

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The key lime pie, as well as the yogurt sandwich cookies, was wonderful offerings at Village Voice’s Choice Eats this year, especially once the heat of many attendees started to build in the armory. It was a good palate cleanser, coolant from the spicy dishes, and an all-around tasty dessert treat post savory goods. Do you think that there are certain flavors that may not be suitable in yogurt form?

One of the perks of making everything from scratch is that you are free to experiment with as many flavor combinations as you want to. We have tried a pretty wide variety. Chocolate is the one that comes to mind that can be a challenge because chocolate is bitter and yogurt is tart so it can take some trial and error to find the right balance but it is not impossible. Personally I usually prefer the more subtle and fruity combinations but variety is the spice of life!

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Admittedly New York City had a pretty tame winter this past year. But is Culture creating more yogurt-based goods to offset the potential for slower business in the colder months? 

We like to stay yogurt centric with our creations because that is what we do best. Our yogurt parfait, made from our fresh Greek Style yogurt, is popular all year-round and our yogurt muffins have developed a fan base of their own. Wash down a house made blueberry yogurt muffin with a drinkable yogurt and you are good to go any time of year. If you are a fan of our frozen yogurt, in the winter we offer special toppings like brownie Sunday supreme which goes great with a cup of our homemade hot chocolate in the colder months.

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Besides Facebook, Twitter, and www.cultureny.com are the other social media sites you use to gain more updates on Culture, where you’ll be and what you’re offering?

Right now we primarily use Facebook, Twitter (@cultureny), and our website as our social media outlets. So follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or visit our website.

Thanks so much Jenny for doing the interview! Wishing you, Gino, and your new baby a great year and Culture continued success! 

Sugar-Free (Reduced Sugar) Baking Month Commences!

Last August was gluten-free baking month in my household and so May will be sugar-free (reduced sugar) baking month! So I have said it, so it shall be done. What initiated this train of thinking was the IACP Culinary/Cookbook Expo I went to last month where I saw a great range of cookbooks and authors. One such author was Marisa Churchill whose book Sweet & Skinny focuses on making sugar-free desserts. Many of her recipes use Truvia brand natural sweetener. Upon receipt of a sample of this sweetener I figured it'd be a great test to try and make sugar-free/reduced sugar desserts.

The goal for the month is to make at least four recipes using Truvia and reporting back on the taste, texture, and ease of baking with this product. If time permits there will be some side-by-side comparisons to these recipes with sugar. However, the main goal is to get a sense of what, if any, differences may abound when using an alternate and natural sweetener.

I will be making a couple recipes from Marisa's cookbook, but will also be making some from the recipes available on Truvia's website.

My first attempt will be these:

Fudgy Brownies (photo by Mary Brueske, courtesy Truvia's website)

I'll report back in June. Feel free to follow my Twitter feed for updates and pictures!

Happy baking!

NYC Bake Sale 2012 (The Great American Bake Sale)

On a sunny, yet chilly Saturday in Brooklyn, NY the Great American Bake Sale took place, part of Share Our Strength's mission of ending childhood hunger (No Kid Hungry) by 2015. Bloggers Without Borders joined in to make a call across the nation for food bloggers to organize and join in! The NYC chapter's bake sale was at Brooklyn Flea in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Even though the bake sale ended this past Saturday you can still donate to a great cause via the donation page on the NYC chapter's site.

Bakers, entrepreneurs, and all-around awesome people Lillian Huang and Ken Leung were this year's organizers and they did an amazing job! Seriously, organizing so much food, people, advertising, and such was really a show in great organization. It was smoothly run and the volunteers were super helpful and all on the same page in terms of raising money for a great cause.

There were numerous donations from local bakers and food bloggers that had us in a sweets wonderland! Chocolate double deckers from Abby Dodge, Baked's sweet & salty brownie, and Michelle Jaffe's (Sweet & Simple) brownies were huge sellers as were many sweet and salty items including Ken's chocolate peanut butter pretzel krispies and Jackie's salted chocolate caramel nut bars (both gluten filled and gluten free) that were ooey gooey messes of goodness. Tasting a sample one customer said "I want to buy what I just had in my mouth!" Liddabit Sweet's bourbon pecan cookie with caramel filling was a fast seller upon tasting. One vendor tasted it, ran back and said "What did I just eat? I must buy it!" All in all there was a cornucopia of amazing goods. There were vegan items, gluten-free, different shortbreads and macarons (both American and French), variations on rice krispy treats, pie, scones, almond croissants from Runner & Stone. We had steady sales throughout the day and got a huge surge of customers once 2 or 3 o'clock rolled around for a post-lunch treat!

Brooklyn Flea was a great venue. The staff incredibly helpful and other vendors supportive, the crowd amazing and generous! Being one of the few vendors selling boku sweets and in such extensiveness we got a lot of customers. With Smorgasburg being the site of mainly food vendors it was a good balance to be around those selling mainly savory items, as well as jewelry, patchwork, offering bike tune ups, selling furniture and art and tea and coffee (great compliments to scones and other sweets).

And it was great to see Ken, Lillian, and Jackie (a great saleswoman), as well as Angela (Mind Over Batter) and meet Meghan (Buttercream Blondi) and Emily & Karen (Mainly Gluten Free in NYC), and Elizabeth (Brooklyn Supper), Betty Ann (Asian in America) as well as many other foodies/food bloggers eager to help the cause and perhaps participate next year.

All in all via online donations and what was made at the bake sale we raised about $3,400 to surpass our $2,000 goal! Thanks a bunch to our sponsors Brooklyn Flea for providing us a booth for free, Joe's Crab Shack for the awesome t-shirts, Whole Foods Union Square for the bags, and Fondu for the banner and business cards! Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by the booth and purchased, who tasted, who volunteered, and who donated (especially all the great bakeries for contributing delicious goods) and spread the word! Please keep it up and help us raise more money! You can make online donations here. And when making a donation you can get in on one of many awesome raffles, which means more sweets! How can you resist?

International Association of Culinary Professionals Culinary & Book Expo 2012

Palm Sunday was the last day of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Conference in New York City. With the last day of festivities came the culinary and book expo smack dab in SoHo. The culinary expo served as a smorgasbord of local, national, and international exhibitors of food & beverages and equipment for food professionals. KitchenAid and Cuisinart, big names in the food tools field, were there as well as Vitamix--unveiling their newest blender. The high power emulsion of the Vitamix 5200 blender created some wonderful chocolate fondue using chocolate from fellow exhibitor Guittard brand chocolate. Overall the texture was so smooth that you just wanted to slurp the sample and not be held down by a pretzel only providing bits of deliciousness. Another big name in the baking field, King Arthur Flour, was present promoting their latest catalog filled with not only ingredients for baking but equipment as well including pans, racks, and great tools for slicing and dicing. I gushed to representatives that I've been using my mini doughnut pan pretty steadily since purchasing it from their site.

The culinary expo was a carb and cheese fest, and I am not complaining about that at all. Light flavored cheeses such as goat cheese were paired with full-flavored ones like blue, soft cheeses like brie were paired with harder ones like Parmesan to show off the range of tastes and textures when it comes to the cheeses that can enhance a recipe. One of my favorite uses of cheese, and a nice way to spice up an old favorite English muffin, was the goat cheese, marmalade, and walnut which pairing on a whole wheat Bays English muffin, kept warm under a heating lamp. It was the perfect kind of treat to make you feel like you wanted to curl up on the couch and watch TV with some nice warm Runa "tea" on a rainy and chilly day. Any food dish that evokes cozy fantasies is a good one.

The Savory 

Kikkoman had a booth showcasing their variety of panko bread crumbs as well as their newer sauces both spicy and mild. The salmon burger with slaw made with Kikkoman panko bread crumbs and spicy chili sauce was a hearty & filling item that hit the umami spot. Soft bun, warm meat, tangy slaw, amazing.

I spoke to Kikkoman representatives and let them know I often use their brand of plain panko as a topping for baked mac and cheese as well as breading for chicken. Once you start using panko you cannot go back to regular bread crumbs. It's very light and crunchy without being grainy. One of the Kikkoman reps suggested I also use it for french toast. Having just made french toast with cornflakes I can only imagine the added crunch factor with panko. Yet another item to add on my To Do list.

Canadian Lentils served a phenomenal lentil and cheese quesadilla while also offering a sample recipe book for more uses for lentils including appetizers, soups, main courses and desserts.

Soon after trying the quesadilla I stopped by The Regal Vegan's booth to taste the toasted walnut lentil pâté that had a great savory kind of meaty taste to it without the meat of course. The texture was of a creamy spread and it was a huge favorite among attendees. After a minutes consideration I purchased some on the spot. Ella Nomcova, executive chef and founder for The Regal Vegan line, created the pâté after huge demand grew from customers that wanted to take it home rather than only try it at the restaurant she worked at. It's vegan friendly and tastes good fitting The Regal Vegan's philosophy of love, respect, and other nutrients as food honors the person eating it.

At the book expo where cookbook authors were set up to talk about books ranging from gluten-free to sensual cooking aphrodisiacs to all kinds of desserts to BBQ cooking to international fare. The tabbouleh with roasted walnuts was available from the book One Tribe Gourmet by Sara Hafiz. This tabbouleh was not as oily as ones I have tried in the past. It was more herb than olive oil and had a pungent taste due to the greens of mint and flat leaf parsley, while also introducing me to the cereal grain of bulgur.

Top Chef season 1 finalist Dave Martin was with the Nueske's booth where he made chicken jerky and also a chicken mesclun green salad with shaved parmesan and a light vinaigrette. This was a great, lighter contrast to much of the items available because carbs  (read: baguettes) were there aplenty as was cheese in the steady pairing of the two. Again, not complaining as all were delicious.

I also couldn't get enough of the lamb jerky provided by American Lamb. I know people may be on the fence about lamb and also veal but I have to say the jerky I tried was not too salty but also had a good range of spices and smoky flavor in it. If you've had real jerky you know that it's not as nicely packaged, nor should it be, as a Slim Jim. It has a rough exterior but a chewiness to it. It's hearty and filling and cured and dry so that it keeps well with age. In the case of jerky aging it is a good thing. Where USA Lamb's jerky was more in line with what I've seen Chef Martin's was done as an after thought so as not to waste Nueske's left over chicken but was a good taste as well and not as dry.

The Sweet 

The Rescue Baker Lisa Camerlengo presented her campfire cookies (a s'more cookie essentially with marshmallows and chocolate chips) as well as flourless chocolate cake (a dense dark chocolate delight), and her lemon bundt cake (a great citrusy treat within a moist cake).

Artopolis Bakery Patisserie specializes in Greek desserts and offered many items including baklava and melomakarona. I tried the melomakarona another dense but moist cookie with cinnamon, brandy, and honey included that reminded me of gulab jamun in texture and taste.

Artopolis Patisserie - A Citysearch find!

One of my favorite sandwiches which I'm unsure fits into the sweet or savory category is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich offered by Peanut Butter & Company made with their Smooth Operator peanut butter. Their store is also located in downtown Manhattan and their biggest seller is the Elvis inspired peanut butter and banana sandwich. PB & Co's peanut butter is as natural as it gets with a handful of ingredients, all of which you can recognize and pronounce. Good stuff.

I loved, loved, loved Wisconsin Cheese's dessert panini "The Mackenzie" made with pound cake, rosemary butter, fig spread, and Wisconsin brie. This was a super warm item where everything melded together and the fig and pound cake had a nice sweetness that melted in your mouth and the brie, being light in flavor and texture, worked well with it overall. I'm not a fan of figs, but it really enhanced this item and I couldn't get enough of it, especially being so toasty right off the grill!

I also enjoyed samples of the chocolate cake available in the book expo by the author of Sweet Home Rebecca Miller French. It was the last thing I tasted before leaving the expo and it definitely stuck with me.

The Information

It was great to speak with many of the exhibitors about more of the variety of uses for their goods and how much they encourage those to alternate their way of cooking within the food industry but also extending this to how people cook and bake in our everyday lives. Speaking with Chimere of Clean Plate Company we considered how great it would be for people of various backgrounds and communities to visit the culinary expo to not only taste new things but see and learn how different flavors can create something very powerful in a dish. There's a big hesitation once we get older to divert from what we grew up with. Chimere and I agree that it starts with children, from there we all grow into our own tastes. I know I experimented more with foods in college than I ever did when I was younger.

In discussing the best types of pears to use for baking at the USA Pears station I was informed that the samples they had of anjou and red anjou as well as bosc would be great for pies, particularly bosc if you wanted to retain a firmer texture within a baked item. Judging the ripeness of a pear includes touching the neck and feeling for firmness or not. If it's firm then that extends to the body of the pear as well. Pears are great for their crispness and get ripe once they are removed from the tree. They're in the apple family and also have a similar texture to the apple when baked, softening with the sweetness intensifying when cooked.

Canola Oil is one of the better oils being discovered by professional chefs. It has less of the solid saturated fats and more of the omega-3 fatty acids than even olive oil. It's being touted as one of the more versatile oils out there with a neutral taste. Canola Info is pushing it more for other uses as well as baking (in lieu of vegetable oil used in many cakes and cake mixes). I'll dig deeper into Canola and see how it may enhance the health factor, particularly for vinaigrettes.

I was happy to meet Luane Kohnke author of Gluten-Free Cookies which was the book I based all my cooking for last August when I did only gluten-free baking. I admire the fact that Luane has a full-time job at an ad agency and that she developed these recipes out of a pure love of baking and wanting to provide more options for those with celiac disease or who were just interested in using other ingredients and seeing how they work together. The mixture of flours she uses work really well together to create a great taste without taking anything away from the cookie itself just because it's gluten free.

Lentils are not beans technically, they are pulses but considered in the legumes family. Canada Lentils spreads the word about their various uses and how filling they can be. The goal of The Big Book of Lentils is to show that lentils work in desserts as well adding more fiber and protein to goods overall. It doesn't serve as a replacement for anything within the dessert frame but adds that healthier ingredient to enhance the nutritional content.

Runa, which isn't really a tea, is a leaf brewed like tea. Runa had their warm and cold bottled teas available and the traditional guayusa is divine! It's not reminiscent of a tea you may have tasted like earl grey, which many teas are based on, or english breakfast but holds its own with a subtle but lightly sweetened taste in the cold form. It does not have caffeine in it so don't expect an extra jolt to the senses to keep you up, but the all natural taste is said to aid digestion and boost metabolism being a welcome addition to the bevy of teas (or tea like) beverages on the market. And Runa is now available at Whole Foods. Chambre du Sucre also had a lovely tasting hibiscus raspberry tea that was a divine thing to taste after having many cheeses and sweets throughout the day.

As is always my wish when it comes to conferences it would've been great to have more time to explore what each booth had to offer. Compared to conferences like Book Expo of America this was not as hard to get through in terms of seeing everything and getting as much information as possible as it was on one floor. Yet, three hours wasn't enough, hard to believe. Seeing and tasting different olive oils infused with great flavors like BBQ bacon and curry and discovering more about endives (their variety and tastes in recipes) and tasting walnut foccacia I have to say I came out of the culinary & book expo much wiser and more excited to try other recipes to expand my own cooking and baking habits. Here's hoping IACP returns to NYC next year. New York City seems the prime place to connect culinary enthusiasts and professionals alike.