This is just the beginning of an extremely busy week for me.
Today is the first day of the 4 day Fine Food Australia trade only show which alternates each year between Sydney and Melbourne. This year is Sydney's turn to host it @ the ICC Darling Harbour.
Between 10 am and 6 pm for the first 3 days of the show and between 10 am and 4 pm on its final day everything related to food and drink catering hospitality baking chefing etc is on display for people in these related industries to see touch hear smell and taste on levels 1 & 4 of the ICC.
Firstly I have to mention that one of our suppliers of kitchenware does not have a display at this show this year. In the past this supplier has had quite a visual stand at this show. Yes this is one of several work related trade shows I attend annually.
Secondly I find it a little annoying that the visitor registration and badge collection is on the 4th floor and not the ground floor upon entering the ICC exhibition halls unlike Melbourne where it is all on 1 level. I would hate to imagine what the queues were like earlier to opening this morning on day 1 of the show.
Now that I have collected my badge, it was time to look at the floor plans and grab an information brochure with the floor plan and what's on for the 4 days of the show.
The view of one of the exhibition halls from above
Where and what to see first. Since I was already on the 4th floor I decided to start and make my way around this exhibition hall aisle to aisle before making my way down to the exhibition hall on the ground floor and doing the same. It may not be the most relevant hall to start with but due to how unprepared I was and how large the exhibition halls are I didn't want to waste too much time on my visit today.
The things I was targeting today were kitchenware tableware baking supplies packaging and culinary (sweet and savoury) skills demonstrations.
As I walk into the exhibition hall on level 4 I am unsure where to start as I am overwhelmed by the size and amount of exhibitors. How was I ever hoping to find what I was looking for? I decided to logically walk up and down each aisle from one end of the hall to another so I don't miss anything.
I arrived around 12.30 pm therefore it was lunch time. I did not have time to grab something to eat - fortunately it was a food and drink trade show so there was plenty of food and drink to sample. I tried to keep the food sampling to a minimum as I was not attending the show for this reason. I suspected there were a quite a few people that were there just for the free food and drink samples - this year the conditions of entry were quite clearly specified on large signage board around the exhibition centre which were :
trade only
no children or strollers due to OH & S
limit to 1 bag of samples when exiting - any excess bags of samples will be placed in a bin and donated to charity.
Eat your way around the world by visiting the first half of international pavilions in the level 4 exhibition hall. I have forgotten what I actually sampled today but I do remember visiting a company that goes all out every year with their display which is rather large and extravagant full of exotic cheeses and charcuterie. I sampled some yummy matured and flavoured cheeses they had on display followed by joining a queue to sample an open sandwich on offer which I was more interested in photographing for my blog rather then tasting - it was too pretty to eat and usually I don't touch charcuterie but ended up sampling this open sandwich twice today ( once at lunch and again for dinner towards the end of the day). The open sandwich was a piece of sourdough or cabatta topped with some slice of cured/dried meat sundried tomato and rocket. There was probably some dort of sauce or cheese on it as well - whatever the combination of toppings were it was super yummy!
Photos below from Day 1 of Fine Foods Australia
First a taste of Europe & the Mediterranean including Austria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain
Next a taste of Asia including Srilanka, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore & Japan with a bit of Asian Australian fusion thrown in - so many companies producing dumplings I've nick named this aisle "dumpling lane" at the show. The China Pavilion was probably the largest and spread between level 1 & 4 exhibition halls however I avoided this given the country's current situations. Nobody seem to be interested in visiting the China Pavillions
You've got to love all the Japanese sweets and snacks on offer!
Celebrity chef Kylie Kwong demonstrating how to stirfry
Then there is Australia & the Pacific including Fiji
Finally there was the USA Pavillion which I also did not spend much time at. Trump Food Interesting name for a company who have a stand every year at Fine Food Australia
Tuesday 10th September 2019
Final Jazz Express class before the Bridge Run this weekend between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm - it was a more challenging routine today. I wore my pink pants and a very oversized long sleeve gym top along with my navy stretchy woven fabric sneakers - so uncomfortable - the pants were not letting me stretch and I looked like a member of a K Pop group! My sneakers were too sticky on the soles but I didn't bring my jazz shoes. I ended up tasking my pink pants off during class and just wearing my black compression tights that were underneath.
After class it was off to visit day 2 of Fine Food Australia @ ICC Darling Harbour again. Since I was in the city I thought why not - I felt I had missed something at the show but could not figure what. I had another took at the baking section and sat to watch another dessert making demonstration.
OK time to concentrate on why I am here at the show for .
First stop tableware, glassware, kitchenware, bakeware, and packaging - photos below.
Packaging - wouldn't you love to have your lunch looking like this in these microwavable disposable bento boxes everyday?
Large commercial tableware companies QCC and Trenton have large displays at this show every year however one of our suppliers Tomkin was not present at this year's show unfortunately
I love this company's products however found out later from my manager that the owner of the company I work for avoids them whenever they are at a trade show.
demo how to make a fancy strawberry jelly roll
I bumped into Victor & his wife Olga from Deli Hub St Ives screaming behind me " You shouldn't be here!" It took me a while to turn around and realise who was yelling this out and to whom. I don't believe there was a Russian Pavillion at the show so I asked Victor if he had visited the Chinese Pavillion - he had but tgat was not the reason for his visit to the show eventhough he looked as if he had sampled everything posdible on offer at the show - he was looking at gelatos as he was thinking of putting a gelato bar in his deli.
Speaking of gelatos, ice creams, soft serves, dairy free alternatives & yogharts - this is a very competitive market! Speaking of which towards the end of day 1 of my visit to the show I decided to test how lactose intolerant I actually was so tried quite a few samples of gelato and ice cream some in the most unusual flavours created. I did limit myself to just a small coffee spoon sized samples but did sample a small tasting tub of apple pie ice cream which I could not finish and found a little sweet. I also loved the cucumber and lemon gelato and tried flavours like charcoal and then there was unicorn - everyone is making this flavour but what does unicorn flavour actually taste like ? Curious I sampled it and this is what I thought it tasted and looked like - must be pastel multicoloured and a bit similar to berry or bubble gum in flavour.
Sasha The Talking Robot was roaming around the exhibition hall and I was curious of what she could do to assist people. She introduces herself but does not respond to my interaction. Inside her front clear sliding cabinets are her id tag and some empty cardboard coffee cups. The first time I followed Sasha around she had a numeric touch screen keypad with a small counter counting down in the corner of her screen and like a naughty kid pulling the tail or smacking the behind of an oversized roving mascot, I started punching in random numbers trying to guess the security code thst will open one or both of her cabinets to steal the stuff inside them but all I got was a smiley face followed by an angry face. Bored with playing with her I walked away but returned later to try again this time her screen had changed and no longer displayed a touch screen numeric key pad. After interacting with her the cabinet doors opened - should I put my hand in and take something out or will I risk getting my hand caught in the doors shutting suddenly - I was unaware that one of her programners was actually sitting nearby with his laptop controlling her movements. The cabinet doors close. I had a chance to speak to her programmer who had uploaded a map of the exhibition hall and asked him questions of what she could do - she can avoid poeople and obstacles in her way but when I asked her if I could have a coffee she could not respond because no voice recognition had been programmed into her yet so she could not respond to my voice commands.
photos below
Belguim sweet potato fries yum
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