International Restaurant & Foodservice Show 2015

Since my wife is a kick-ass baker, she gets passes to these events every year. Last year I couldn’t make it, so I made sure I had room in my schedule to take advantage this time around.

Apologies in advance for what is essentially a photo-dump here. I took photos of and tasted so many great things. I will basically annotate the more memorable ones, but feel free to ask any questions in the comments if you see a photo of something that I don’t explain well enough.

First we hit the Japanese pavilion, which I was psyched about because there is inevitably a ramen showing.

Three different flavors of apricot booze:

Pure MSG used to cook these mushrooms. UMAMI, as the idiots say.

Bonito shavings in a bag for making dashi broth:

And the tools used to create said shavings:

Black garlic – good shit. Soft, pungent, but not breath-killing.

Ramen! Tonkotsu broth:

That little cup of ramen was from this station:

This place had different colored and flavored soy paper for use with sushi rolls:

Famous noodle makers Sun:

Seaweed snack packs:

Matcha powder vendors:

This tofu was showing off a soy sauce specifically made for sashimi:

An interesting vessel for hot tea:

This company makes all natural unsweetened unfiltered un-fucked-with sparkling grape juice. The shit was delicious:

Some treats that were made with the mach powder:

Another noodle company – these ones gluten free. They were actually pretty good!

FISH!

This reminded me of porridge, but made with sesame seeds:

More ramen – this one was Italian fusion style, with tomato and fish broth, veggies and parmesan cheese:

Gotta love these little fucking sodas:

Okay here’s a little break out for some good shit. At the end of the Japanese pavilion we stumbled into these trays of perfectly pink meat. Veal, lamb, and beef, to be precise, all from New Zealand. All natural grazing, no hormones or fucked up shit happening. The stuff was delicious. Take a look:

I look up, and instantly recognize this dude from TV. It’s Chef Russel Jackson from “The Next Food Network Star” and Dissident Chef / Subculture Dining fame. He was in the midst of hamming it up for me in this shot with some gnashed teeth, but his helper’s hand got in the fuckin’ way!

He was cooking up the goods!

This joint put forth some really high quality Scottish salmon. One was even pastrami flavored.

There were tons of bread people. So awesome looking:

Nice natural apple juices:

The Piggery had a great selection of pig-centric items. my favorites were the pate and the capacola:

Some really nice looking fucking pasta!

Sausage party!!!

Some really nice moonshine from Dutch’s Spirits, made from 100% cane sugar:

This place was pushing their fancy presenting cups for passed food, but they were also serving a nice fresh quinoa dish in a shitty old cup:

Speaking of vessels for serving food… these are all edible – pretty neat:

Items for shaving meats. Who doesn’t like shaved meat?

Stuffed grape leaf cigars:

Finishing salts:

Innovative cheeses:

These lamb purveyors were planning to cook up some really nice lamb bacon … but not until the following day of the show. Bummer. They did have lamb tacos though.

This was some really great French style meats, like pate, blood sausage, head cheese, etc.

Here’s my wife lined up with some gargantuan-sized mixers:

Knives for me!

SAUCE out the ass!

A big fat fucking octopus:

These Two Rivers dudes were serving up some carved beef:

And… PIECE OF SHIT systems… FREE!!!

Okay now on to these guys.

I was blown away by the stuff they had under the glass case, but here’s a quick look at some of the best.

A5 marbling, bitch! It’s not Wagyu, but it is a nearby prefecture.

Here piggy, piggy piggy…

Oh fuck yes…

We found our way into a booze corral. First we tried Whistle Pig rye, which is made 100% from rye and no other grains. I liked it a lot, though retail at about $75 seems a little high.