On Saturday my friends, my daughter and I attended the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show at the DC Convention Center. It was a gorgeous day for an outing and no outing is complete in my book without food and wine! The food show was well publicized and we were looking forward to seeing our favorite chefs, learning new cooking techniques, and sampling food and wine.
I was excited for all that and couldn't wait to get there! I also had two special reasons for going -
I was searching for a restaurant quality pepper grinder and,
I wanted to meet funfreak who was taking part in the event!!
THAT was more exciting to me than anything else! My first Thoughtster meeting after nearly two years of blogging on Thoughts.com! BIG smile! Joanne and I had spoken on the telephone several times and I was very excited to finally meet her after enjoying her blogs for so long. More on our meeting in a bit...
I have to tell you, though that the food show was a bit of a disappointment :(
I would have called the Show - The Metro Condiment and Celebrity Chef IF you are willing to fork out more money to see the major names like Paula Dean, Giada de Launentiis and Bobby Flay Show.
As if these celebrity chefs aren't making enough money on shows, books, TV, DVDs, and plastering their names and faces on food and products! Goodness...
There were lesser known chefs giving cooking demonstrations, restaurant owners and wine experts talking their stuff at regular intervals that were free to the public that I enjoyed watching and listening very much, but the extra money to see the mega cooking stars really left a bad taste in my mouth! Good ol' American greed at work in my book...
For those not willing or able to fork out more cash for a glimpse of the Cooking Queen Paula Dean (Hey! Where were Rachel Ray and my personal favorites Jamie Oliver, the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garden, btw?!) there were aisles and aisles of booths featuring chocolate, crackers, biscotti, jams, jellies, BBQ sauce, spices, rubs, flavored oils, and vinegars AND A BOATLOAD OF SALSA!
Aisles and aisles of every type of salsa you can imagine. Booth after booth selling salsa, sometimes side by side. Dried tomato salsa, chipotle, pesto salsa, hot, mild, sweet! How many different salsas could they display? Tons! I suppose if I were to sell a food item, it would be something easy to make like salsa, but enough was enough!
This show reminded me of a Christmas fair with holiday gift ideas just in time for the holidays. There were no major cutlery, cooking utensil or cookware companies exhibiting which I found disappointing. My search for a professional quality pepper grinder met with a bit fat zero. So, I guess it's back to my online search.
As for meeting funfreak, it was wonderful! My friend found her booth right away and when I walked up to her, she was sitting at a table filling out some paperwork. I peered around her laptop and said hi! We recognized each other instantly. Joanne immediately got up from the desk, came around and we shared a great big hug!
Funfreak is lovely and very warm which didn't surprise me one bit :) She was exactly like I thought she'd be! I introduced her to my friends (H was walking around with her girlfriend at the time), we talked for a bit and within minutes, the laughs began! She is animated, fun, and exudes a wonderful energy. I couldn't wait to spend more time with her and get to know her better!
We decided to meet for dinner that evening, but I got held up by a surprise call from A which led to him coming over for a LOOONNNGGG talk which was cleansing, cathartic and ended quite well, actually. More on that in my next blog :)
So Sunday evening, funfreak and I made plans to meet at the bar in her downtown hotel for a drink before I was to meet A for dinner. Well, A left his house much earlier than planned, so it turned out that he and I drove to meet funfreak together. She got a two for one! LOL!
A and I really enjoyed getting to know Joanne. She is engaging, witty and open, much like you'd expect her to be from her blogs. We talked about everything under the sun and laughed a lot. My kind of gal :) We spent two hours together and then, she joined her friends for dinner down the street. It was great!
Joanne and I will definitely see each other again :) With A there, we couldn't really have 'girl talk', but I expect we'll do that in the near future! It was a wonderful experience for me to finally meet one of my favorite bloggers in person. I LOVED meeting funfreak and I am happy that our lives intersected :)
Peace and love.
E
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