Good Food Festival & Market, etc.

Sunny day, good food, I can’t ask for more!

I’ve eaten so much food in the past 2 days!
Friday night, went to Korean town for Joons. After the kimchi fried rice, pork bone soup, seafood soft tofu stew, the must-have “cooked-on-the-table” spicy chicken rice cake, sweet potatoes and cheese, and 2-3 bottles of soju, total came to about $13 per person. Not bad. After that, eight of us then walked to Future bakery for coffee/beer. Chilled and chatted til 2am. Gosh I couldn’t believe that I felt hungry again @ 2am and finished the remaining Korean walnut cakes!

On Saturday, we went to the 15th Annual Good Food Festival & Market @ International Center for lunch. When we arrived at 1:30pm, the place was already quite packed. I heard that the first day (Friday) was even worse! Everyone seemed to be there for lunch (that’s what we were doing too). Paid $9 for the tix (Thanks KL for the discount), had a taste of everything, what a good deal!

Eggs, chicken, turkey, beef, garlic bread, baguette topped with sun-dried tomatoes, microwaved pizza, fresh strawberries, baby mum mum, chocolates, different kinds of juice – 100% fruit juice (not from concentrate), antioxidant blueberry juice, smoothie, cheese and crackers, Indian food, Niagara wine vinegar & jelly, sweet and salty peanuts, veggie dip, grilled mushrooms… Gosh, you name it.

One thing that I noticed was that there were a wide variety of yogurts – soy yogurt, mousse style, even the usual ones that you can get at supermarket. Most of these companies are very generous and give you a whole cup. This one below is made from soy – tasted pretty good though!

Of course, you would also find various food seminars and shows on how to cook good food, what tools you should use, or even how you can eat healthier. There were shows sponsored by Food Network, Canadian Living, and Quality Milk, just to name a few.

Beside the big show, there were also some mini presentations done by those that sell cookware/tools. Looked very pro.

The BIG mushroom tent – that’s where they cook locally-grown, fresh mushrooms… The ones for tasting was portabella grilled with sun-dried tomatoes vinaigrette. Quick, easy and tasty. I like it!

Came across this Italian bread booth, the lady standing beside me bought a lot of breads. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get any until the staff asked. I ended up getting 2 baguettes and 1 huge loaf of whole grain wheat bread for $2. That was cheap! (But later I found out those breads are expiring in 4 days.)

Rubicon, this name rang a bell. I remember driving by the office of this fruit juice company in Richmond Hill. Somehow I could feel that people tend to treat you better when they see that you’re taking pictures. I don’t know what was in their mind. Maybe they thought I was with a press or… I was a writer? I don’t know. I tried the pomegranate juice. It was ok. I noticed that pomegranate seemed to have become more popular in the past couple of years, but personally I’m not very fond of it.

It’s always a good opportunity to reach your customers/potential customers. One way is of course to do a survey. One of the company actually cooked their products there and had people filling out the survey after they have tasted the dishes. I really like that idea… maybe it’s also because I’m in the market research industry. Instead of via the internet/phone, doing survey this way is so much more interesting!

When I went in the hall, the first booth that I stopped by was this Niagara Wine Vinegar company. Last time I went to Niagara-on-the-lake, I was tempted to buy the wine jelly. However, I wasn’t too sure about the taste and how it should be best tasted, so I didn’t buy it back then. This time, I tasted 3 different kinds of jelly – Mediterrean style, blueberry and cinnamon. I liked the Mediterranean one best so I got a jar for $7.

Everything there was no-tax, and compared to the normal price you get at grocery store, the food there was cheaper. It was a good experience overall. I remember in my previous visits to the Food Expo in HK, there wasn’t a lot of food for sample. This Good Food Festival, one the other hand, was FILLING! By the time I left @ 3:30pm, (after 2 hours of eating), I was so full…

BIG FAT MARZ then went to Vaughan Mills and got a cup of Starbucks latte (obviously I didn’t get enough sleep the previous night) and the Fries Supreme from Taco Bell. (Crazy!) Then, at night, a HUGE dinner with lots of good food again – cold crabs, curry stew, BBQ pork, veggies, chilly shrimp + Vermicelli, abalone chicken soup…

Yah, I know I know I know… I’m getting fat. I’ll cut it down during the weekdays.