15th Annual Good Food Festival
This was a busy weekend for us, but Anne and I found the time to go to the 15th annual Good Food Festival, and the theme this year is "SOY".
Luckily, most do it well, with the clear winner being ... drumroll please ...
Chris and Tal's Better Sausage!
Despite the fact that it sounds like a porno movie, it was definitely the best new product at the festival. It continues the success they had with the Better Burger. The basic premise of their product is that they combine (about) 50-50 meat with soy to come up with a much leaner burger/sausage, but with the same taste. Strangely enough, this combination ends up having less fat than a veggie burger. (Because, let's face it folks, fat makes food taste better, and if you remove the meat taste, you need to fill it with fat to prevent it from tasting like cardboard). It's pure genius on Chris and Tal's part, and I wish them even more bright ideas. The extra good news about their products is that they are now available at Costco!
This time around, despite the Food Network Canada having a bigger presence, there were no real celebrities to be seen. Even Captain Highliner was merely a (life-sized) cardboard cutout. Speaking of Captain Highliner, the Highliner brand was promoted (along with half a dozen other food vendors) at a booth that was supposed to be promoting the new Canada Food Guide, but it was like watching a segment of The Truman Show, with the ads embedded. To paraphrase, "Since Canada's Food Guide recommends that you have two servings of fish a week, why not try Highliners' fish skewers? And it already has the red and green peppers on the skewer, so you are adding a serving of vegetables to this quick and easy dinner".
This year, the rude people were definitely the elder female Asians. They came via tour buses and got to literally go in via the back door, while the rest of us watched as the line (half an hour after the opening) snaked around the building and then part of the parking lot. Astronauts in the space station were mistaking us for the Great Wall of China. Then they (the Asians, not the astronauts) were constantly cutting into line, usually in front of me. It was like free turkey day at Honest Ed's.
To get back to the food, honourable mention goes to Kozy Shack's no sugar added line of puddings. Anne and I tried the rice and tapioca puddings, and that lack of added sugar really brought out the flavour of the vanilla extract. (Dang it! That's what I forgot to go back and buy).
Why did I forget, because I followed that rule about never going grocery shopping hungry. Our plan was going up and down all the aisles, sampling everything we could get our grubby hands on. By the time we were about three-quarters of the way done, we were pretty stuffed and started having thoughts like, "Fuck it. I'm not standing in line for dip!" And when we were finally done, we were so tired and full that we forgot most of what we wanted to buy, or the stuff just didn't look as appetizing any more. That's not to say that we bought nothing. We got a couple of "Kringles" (puff pastry ring with various fillings) for dessert. I picked up some snacks, like the Dan D Pak sesame and cashew pucks (though they were sold out on my favourite, the nut and seed pucks) and veggie chips. And of course, we got some of Chris and Tal's sausages ... and burgers.
Luckily, most do it well, with the clear winner being ... drumroll please ...
Chris and Tal's Better Sausage!
Despite the fact that it sounds like a porno movie, it was definitely the best new product at the festival. It continues the success they had with the Better Burger. The basic premise of their product is that they combine (about) 50-50 meat with soy to come up with a much leaner burger/sausage, but with the same taste. Strangely enough, this combination ends up having less fat than a veggie burger. (Because, let's face it folks, fat makes food taste better, and if you remove the meat taste, you need to fill it with fat to prevent it from tasting like cardboard). It's pure genius on Chris and Tal's part, and I wish them even more bright ideas. The extra good news about their products is that they are now available at Costco!
This time around, despite the Food Network Canada having a bigger presence, there were no real celebrities to be seen. Even Captain Highliner was merely a (life-sized) cardboard cutout. Speaking of Captain Highliner, the Highliner brand was promoted (along with half a dozen other food vendors) at a booth that was supposed to be promoting the new Canada Food Guide, but it was like watching a segment of The Truman Show, with the ads embedded. To paraphrase, "Since Canada's Food Guide recommends that you have two servings of fish a week, why not try Highliners' fish skewers? And it already has the red and green peppers on the skewer, so you are adding a serving of vegetables to this quick and easy dinner".
This year, the rude people were definitely the elder female Asians. They came via tour buses and got to literally go in via the back door, while the rest of us watched as the line (half an hour after the opening) snaked around the building and then part of the parking lot. Astronauts in the space station were mistaking us for the Great Wall of China. Then they (the Asians, not the astronauts) were constantly cutting into line, usually in front of me. It was like free turkey day at Honest Ed's.
To get back to the food, honourable mention goes to Kozy Shack's no sugar added line of puddings. Anne and I tried the rice and tapioca puddings, and that lack of added sugar really brought out the flavour of the vanilla extract. (Dang it! That's what I forgot to go back and buy).
Why did I forget, because I followed that rule about never going grocery shopping hungry. Our plan was going up and down all the aisles, sampling everything we could get our grubby hands on. By the time we were about three-quarters of the way done, we were pretty stuffed and started having thoughts like, "Fuck it. I'm not standing in line for dip!" And when we were finally done, we were so tired and full that we forgot most of what we wanted to buy, or the stuff just didn't look as appetizing any more. That's not to say that we bought nothing. We got a couple of "Kringles" (puff pastry ring with various fillings) for dessert. I picked up some snacks, like the Dan D Pak sesame and cashew pucks (though they were sold out on my favourite, the nut and seed pucks) and veggie chips. And of course, we got some of Chris and Tal's sausages ... and burgers.
Labels: food festival 2007 toronto
posted by Frank Yao | 10:26 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the nairitive Frank. You are so good at it. Am keeping a book of your writings. Keep it up. Always good to go back and re-read them. Thanks again.
Paul
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