As previously reported on my most recent edition of our e-mail newsletter, Table Talk, I was just in New York for the “2009 Summer Fancy Food Show”.   This show is huge, 2,300 exhibitors from the U.S. alone!

I love going to shows and consider myself rather efficient at them; you’ll usually see me walking rather quickly, ruling out things that are out of my group of categories – like the 615 different “waters” that one can buy – I did find “Q Tonic” and tried that but I skipped the tea water, the chocolate water, the electromagnetically-charged-probiotic-ginger-cherry-pomegranate-carrot-juice-water-spritzer…

Seriously though,  I walked this show for 5 hours one day and 7 hours the next and never revisited anything – and barely made it through the entire building! Each day I sampled hundreds of different foods and the information that surrounds them and enjoyed it all immensely.

While digesting all my thoughts, I came up with my own top 5 foods that seem to be seeing an explosion of choices…and I’m pretty sure they are mostly speaking to our current state of mind, comfort and a throwback to the past:

Applesauce

Granola

Tea

Honey

Asian foods – either Ready-to-eat in jars or packets or frozen or boxed meals

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I took about 16 pages of notes in my half size spiral notebook and I have great ideas for the future.  Keep watching for our food goodies, starting to arrive already – If you haven’t experienced the Effie’s Oatcakes, you should.  Though I had already brought their product in, I had yet to meet friends and business partners Joan & Irene, which I also did this weekend!

effies oatcakes

This biscuit is has a distinctively buttery texture, much like a shortbread cookie, yet it contains oats & crunch that could pair well with wine, cheese & fruit or alongside a beautiful cup of tea – plain or atop with jam.  Owner Joan likes to curl up with a hot chocolate and a good book and an Effie’s Oatcake.  Me? I just like them plain.

After a little hiatus due to my busy life, I wrote another article for Rapid Growth this week about ethnic groceries.  If you read my blog or you actually know me well, you’ll notice that I love to travel.  Recently we’ve done the Asian trip again.  We headed to Hong Kong and China.  It was so exciting to come home after a cooking class in China that my hubby, Steve, and I took together – because I came home, bought a wok through one of my sources and he seasoned it and started using it immediately!  Now that our farm share has started, it’s truly stir fry season!  (Next we need to try to stir fry on the grill!)

Anyway, I wanted you to know that the new installment is out of my writing and that if you have any feedback on where to shop for the ethnic groceries in the greater Grand Rapids area, I would love to know more places.  I haven’t even ventured to the West Side much and would love to.  Share a comment so we can all see it!

Back when Asparagus! The Stalkumentary was first released, I went to the Wealthy Theatre to view it.  I was intrigued by it then because my business was new and I was getting into the ‘foodie’ scene.  I knew right away through friends that one of the producers & directors of this 53-minute film was Kirsten Kelly, a fellow Calvin grad, who grew up in Oceana County on an asparagus farm – so she knows firsthand how this all goes.

After viewing the film I was provoked to follow it, because WOW – it was funny, sad, politically angering (even though I profess to not care about politics!) and truly eye-opening!  It took a while for it to move through all of the film festivals and such (and very respected ones like Harvard’s The Food Literacy Project) to make its way to mainstream sales and video.  Since it came out on video I’ve been selling it in the store.  It’s $24.95 retail.  Recently it made its way to our local PBS station GVSU and I know more people have now seen it.

However, I know you all haven’t seen this movie.  That would be impossible.  And being as excited as I am about eating local, about eating asparagus in many different forms and about promoting Wealthy Street, I couldn’t help but want to promote this movie to a wider audience.  Did I mention what a fabulous person the director, Kirsten, is too?  She is passionate about asparagus and she will be in the house to talk about these tall green stalks of veggie.  Join us!

So here it is, Art of the Table sponsors a local asparagus festival!

Asparagus: A stalkumentary

·

Please join us for a local asparagus festival

featuring an open house of samples and information

as well as a screening of the film

& a Q&A session with producer

and director, Kirsten Kelly!

The feature is a captivating & award winning short film which brings to reality the joys and struggles

of Oceana County, Michigan farmers.

The film is described by NY Magazine as “oddly brilliant” as well as “powerful, disturbing, political and yet highly enjoyable!” by local viewers.

Where? Wealthy Theatre @ 1130 Wealthy Street SE

When? Wednesday, June 3

6-7:30pm open “asparagus” house with food sampling, local stores & farmer appearances *see list below*

7:30-9pm film & discussion

Cost? Only $10, all proceeds go to the Wealthy Street Business Alliance!

Advance tickets (recommended) available online @ www.grcmc.org

and tickets will be available at the door.

Open House booths include:

• Mrs. Asparagus ‘89 and Mrs. Asparagus Runner-up ‘89
• Brick Road Pizza samples – asparagus pizza
• Electric Cheetah samples — asparagus bruschetta
• The Sparrows samples—asparagus crepes
• Amy Sherman of Slow Food West Michigan samples—asparagus soup
• The Winchester samples something delectable
• Art of the Table—store products related to gardening & I heart asparagus “schwag”
• West Michigan Co-op will promote local farmers
• Literary Life Bookstore— featuring books on asparagus and local eating
• Local First – a presence to promote Local First’s foodie members
• Food for Thought magazine will hand out free copies of its local foodie magazine
• Asparagus preservation demo by Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence

…and more to come!

Join us – it’s a great way to experience local food & fun & education all at the same time! And supporting the WSBA isn’t a bad idea either!  Hope to see you there!

Inspire me!

In about a week, I’m taking off for a land I’ve never before visited.  My husband goes rather frequently for work and has thoroughly enjoyed his jaunts to China in the last few years.  He is again going for work and insists that I will love this place too.

After some hesitation over it, I arrived at some ways in which I could use this trip as ‘work’ for me.  Before his work begins, we will be traveling to Hong Kong to experience this ‘foodie’ paradise everyone speaks of.  Then because I can’t resist the experience, we will be going to the Canton Fair, one of the larger housewares shows in the world.

I am not a big fan of the Chinese import stuff, though we do sell some, I’m actually going to experience this show as just that, an experience.  To know what’s out there, how it’s done – because I’m in no position to start buying containers of stuff!  I’ve been there, done that on someone else’s dime!

Further, I’m going to a cooking school while there and learning some Asian cooking techniques.  Apparently this ’school’ is in a home and taught by a well respected expert in Hutong cuisine.  I can’t wait.  We’ll be going to a market with her and then learning techniques, cooking food and the best part?  Eating it!

Tonight I took a peek at one of the blogs I love to read and it talked about a cookbook we sell entitled the Asian Grill.  I’m pretty excited to start cooking out of it when I come home from China.

Watch my blog over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to keep you posted from China on store happenings AND China!!

The book I used solely

In my life as a store owner, I’m usually pretty busy – my staff and husband might say that’s an understatement! This weekend was exceptionally busy.  Besides working at the store…

Friday night I had the honor of being the wine pro at a friend’s wine tasting of South American wines.  The hostess bought the wine from the store, made all the food and we paired different Chilean and Argentinian wines.  The favorites?  The Terra Andina Reserve Chardonnay ($12.25) was tops on many palates in the white category, and the Ben Marco Malbec ($23.75) from Mendoza, Argentina displayed beautifully!  If you haven’t tried these two shelf selections, I encourage you to do so!

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Saturday night was a charity dinner for eight at our house – an annual event for the highest bidder at our church’s auction.  This year the theme was Italian, therefore my/our job was to create a 7 course meal, pair it with wines and serve it.

Being the kamikaze cook that I am, I pulled Maxine Clark’s Italian Kitchen book from the newest cookbooks at the store and pored over it, selecting every one of my recipes for this dinner from it.  Then in true Amy style, I didn’t test any recipes, yes, I made them all for the first time for the dinner.  It’s interesting the reactions I get from people when I tell them I trust recipes and make them for eight hungry guests without knowing exactly how it will come out.

Somehow this doesn’t scare me much.  I did sort of end up ruining the soup; instead of a creamy spinach, egg & cheese soup, we heated the broth too much and though we were cautious about our addition of the egg, it didn’t work out well.  Yes, it curdled.  In fact, we renamed it Italian Egg Drop Soup.  It didn’t taste bad, it just wasn’t creamy and perfect.

Besides that and the smoking of grill pan of eggplant (loaded with olive oil, lemon & mint) the dinner was awesome and featured the book’s Grandmother Cake for dessert.  Our favorite recipe from the book was entitled “Warm Lentil, Mushroom, Tomato & Arugula Salad”…you should try it with the Maculan Pinot & Toi ($15.50) white wine.

Finally, the winning wine of the night? Il Molino di Grace Chianti Classico 2001, ($28.50) straight from the hills of Tuscany and beautifully aged for the last 8 years!  Steve and I visited the winery last year and their wines are awesome anyway, however, this vintage of this wine – a 2001! – at this moment in time is stunning and perfect.  I didn’t get a chance to sip & enjoy like I should have, so sometime soon I’ll make a point to get another bottle to linger over!

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I decided to take a little time to relax on Sunday and I had some other amazing tastes from our friends over at the Electric Cheetah, the soon to open bistro on Wealthy.  Cory, the owner, arranged a 12 hour marathon Puzzle Bee to take place yesterday in order to ‘wallpaper’ the bathroom with various puzzles.  There had to be around 100 puzzlers there throughout the day making puzzles of choice.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting in touch with my puzzling side once again and I enjoyed trying Cory’s creations from the kitchen throughout the day.  My favorite? I give the veggie breakfast burrito two thumbs up!

Always so many great things to taste -

Amy

Today I started my day at my usual time (early) but instead of the gym, I beautified myself and headed off to work.  Armed with my daily homemade latte, I welcomed Fox17 Live in the store along with the two guys who started a vanilla company locally ~ Beanilla.  Worlds different from Godzilla, Beanilla is run by two GVSU grads and they are, as Tim Doty from Fox 17 said, “Not Old!”  It’s true.  They’re 22 and 26 years old respectively and running a seemingly cool business!

They have located and sucessfully brought forth a line of vanilla beans & other vanilla based goods that are stunning.  Besides four origins of beans, there is sea salt blended with vanilla, vanilla sugar, extract as well as vanilla paste.  They’re plump and smell great – and besides they’re relatively inexpensive beans!

They’re in stock now, check it out…

and watch the webcast of the three live segments from Art of the Table here!

So we all know that the holiday that just passed (or passed some of us by) was that one where you either embrace it greatly and celebrate the one you love with all your heart and soul – or you just don’t make a big, hairy deal out of it.  I just try to love my Valentine, Steve, on a daily basis and we forego all the hearts and flowers on the holiday.

This Valentine’s day was a brisk one at the store and I thought I’d muse about a good friend and vendor of ours, Patty because I’m consistently flabbergasted by the deliciousness of her chocolates.  And I’m amazed at the following she – and we – have established in two short years.

Today I’ll call her queen of  local chocolate, because she seems to be!  We sell a smattering of Patricia’s Chocolate every day of the year, yet when it comes to holiday weeks, especially Valentines Day, we sell loads.  And I’m talking about days like this past Saturday when we sold over 500 pieces of her chocolate!

Here’s part of the reason why we had so many people again this week – many “new” Patricia’s Chocolates converts were won over by articles and local press about town all last week!  Just look at who picked her up – it’s serious!

Food for Thought magazine (her article is not yet online, only in print – FREE copies around town including here!),

I wrote a Rapid Growth article about her,

Fox 17 went to her chocolate kitchen LIVE Thursday morning,

and Jaye Beeler of the Grand Rapids Press managed to squeeze in an online article too!

As if this kind of local press isn’t enough, Patty was also featured on an website called The Nibble that did a feature article on artisan chocolatiers across the nation!  We keep telling Patty that pretty soon she won’t even remember us she’ll be so famous!

Congrats to Patty and her growing business.  We’re proud to be partners with her!  And if you haven’t tried Patricia’s Chocolates yet, you just might want to do that!  I’m heading out for a bite of my new favorite, the Lemon Cardamom right now!

exotic spice

What does a 12-person all male choir and Corez wine bar have to do with anything?  Last night, my hubby, Steve and I along with 8 other family members went to hear Chanticleer at Calvin College.  And I won’t digress too much on the Chanticleer subject but if you’ve never heard them before and you’re fascinated with music, you should hear them. They are quite amazing.  Men singing as low and high as I have ever heard.  Crazy.

So the 10 family crew headed to Corez Wine Bar for a nightcap after the concert.  Being it was Corez’s third night open I wasn’t sure what to expect – giant crowds? or would we be doing them a huge favor by bringing 10 whole people?  Turns out there had been about 150 people in over the dinner hour and there were still quite a few lingering when we arrived after 10pm. (There were still people there at 1:30 when we finally left!)

We started ordering -

First a carafe of the “house red” to share around the table.  For $15 we had a great little wine – they will always have a red and white “house wine” at $15 a bottle.  that’s pretty cool.  one doesn’t need to drop a ton but can try something new. Last night’s was a Sangiovese blend that did just fine thank you.

then we all went our separate ways tasting things.  they offer 2oz pours or 6oz pours of 20+ wines; whites, reds, cava, pank! (which in Mike Dombrowski language means pink/dry rose).  I can’t tell you how many wines they offer by the bottle…it has its own list and with all the activity around me there was no time for deep perusing.

They offer nice cocktails with unique labels of spirits (similar to many of ours at AOTT – different, not necessarily top-shelf expensive but really good) made by bartenders that really know what they’re doing.  My dad, a martini purist tried the Saffron Martini – not up his alley but my mom loved her Manhattan made with Bulleit Bourbon.

We weren’t really hungry but decided on ordering a smattering of small plates for the table, the most popular items were those off the charcuterie list; from cheeses (from their supply partner Art of the Table) to house made pate, they were all impressive.  The favorite small plate was the escargot with chunks of roasted butternut squash, garlic and thyme cream.  Delightful little snails they were!

The place is coming together nicely.  The night was relaxed, our waitress, Heather, was great.  They all seemed to be putting their best foot forward.  Sitting anywhere near the door proves drafty and it’s a little on the loud side, but really for their third night, they have me excited to return and try some really cool wines at a decent price.

Why was it significant I recalled where we had been prior?  Because at the end of the concert, we handed my business card to one of the members of Chanticleer.  On the back of the card I wrote “Your Chanticleer fan club will be at Grand Rapids’ newest wine bar, Corez.  919 Cherry SE, open til 2am”.  Some of them showed up.  That was pretty cool too.

It’s really a pleasure for me to work with ‘people’.  It thrills me to find people who make products that are beautiful or delicious and I can say “I’ve met the person who makes that ___ product”

I love that Patricia’s Chocolate is one of our absolute bestselling items of all time.  And I love that Patricia will drop anything and drive in a dreadful snowstorm to meet me with more chocolate because we were out.  No delivery fee, no whining, no waiting.

Then there’s Barbara of the Dancing Goat Creamery and the Koeze people and the Grassfields people and the Glass Formations lady and Pearl the Potholder girl…

One of the newest creations I’ve discovered is from Miami.  Her name is Jennifer and her homemade line of flatbread, a thick but flaky cracker with real rosemary inside and with ample sea salt on the top.  And Jennifer was overjoyed when one of my customers emailed her directly to say, ” I’m sitting here savoring your rosemary flatbread! It is just the BEST!  So this is a thank YOU and a Happy Holidays!  I purchased your delicious product at the best store in Grand Rapids – Art of the Table!  We all love this store and having your flabread there is frosting on the cake!”  And Jennifer emailed her right back and said “You made my day!”

I love stories like that. They make me very happy.

New to the store today is this New Years’ ultimate easy appetizer – In the NEW refrigerated case we have brought in another lovely food from Healdsburg, California. All natural and made in small batches at the Jimtown Store – we think it makes a tasty for sandwiches or fabulous dolloped atop a cream cheese and ‘party toast’ for a hors d’oeuvres, and can be subbed in anywhere olives are requested – though they suggest NOT in a martini. Too messy. Fresh and $6.50, it will take you a long way…enjoy!