2011 Summer Fancy Food Show, Day 2

Holy cow, we're back in the hotel. We made it through pouring rain, boring people, and roaring reporters. And readers? It was a fantastic exhibition. Honestly. If last year's Fancy Food Show was a smashing success, this one is easily twice as good. If you're around tomorrow, we highly suggest you attend. It's totally worth it. Special thanks to Louise Kramer for facilitating our press badges and making sure we were happy and enjoying the show.

This morning, our plan of attack was to cover the third floor of the show, the smaller of the two rooms. This was clearly the party floor. Why? Well, let's see.

For one, there were mobiles. Meat mobiles. We were not allowed to bite the meat mobiles, despite insisting that it was one of the duties of the press to bite them.

For another, an automatic pitching machine with oranges, lemons, and limes instead of baseballs, and slicing instead of pitching. Okay, so that last one was a stretch. But it looks like an awesome and potentially dangerous vending machine.

You want mascots? They had mascots. They made our panda friend look like a cuddly, harmless beast compared to Banjo McFurryPants over here. Yeah, I still gave him a hug.

Mexico bequeathed us with black pepper watermelon cocktails...

And Beemster gave us a gigantic cow cheese wheel. We watched it being carved as well, and it was gorgeous. I think their mascot liked it, too...

He gave Swagger a pretty awesome fist bump.

One of the definite trends of this year's show was the surge of naturally colored nectar, juice, and sauce. In eye-popping colors and clear packages, it really captured our attention and tastebuds. This was just one of many differently colored treats.

But the third floor was definitely a wild card. We were surrounded by things like...

Energy drinks for children!

New chocolates and old books from Vosges!

Rick Bayless and salsa by Rick Bayless!

Chocolate fracturing!

Scary popping rice cakes!

Nitrogen blowing ice cream!

And while we weren't walking around and being amazing, we were eating meat sticks and checking out glowing towers of sparkling fruit juice. Loved those towers. Notice how Swagger rocks the Myspace angle shot and I resemble a very happy Laborador Retriever.

Of course, that's not saying that the first floor wasn't just as awesome as the third. After all, the third floor didn't have a food truck with wonderful ladies handing out lunchtime necessities.

And it certainly didn't have gigantic, baseball bat sized hot chocolate stirrers or the newest product from Honest Tea.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in case you haven't figured it out, we love the Fancy Food Show. We love the friendly photos with Natalie's Juice people...

And we love the anxiety-inducing potential of imbibing naturally black water and quickly vomiting it upon realizing that there is a distinct possibility of us (yes, US) making an appearance on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. The Dalai Lama would be proud. The two least Italian or New Jersey-looking people ever.

GTL stands for grenache, tamarind, and limoncello, ya n00b.
Washington, DC is a beautiful place with beautiful people and wonderful memories. We're proud to have been a part of this year's Summer Fancy Food Show and are definitely coming back next year, hopefully with Miss Love. Thanks again to everyone who facilitated and cheered us on, including, but not limited to, Keepitcoming Love, my mother, Rodzilla, FF, the Dalai Lama, Louise Kramer, Kristine Heine of Global Communicators, and anyone else who let us in or pointed us on our way. This is just the beginning of many wonderful experiences with both Foodette Reviews and Fighting Varietal.

See you next year! We're sad to go!
Don't leave just yet, because tomorrow we're going to recap our two events from today, an epic olive oil tasting and prosecco drinking with the one and only Bill Marsano and dinner at the Embassy. We're heading home tomorrow with treats in tow! This definitely isn't the last you'll be hearing of the Fancy Food Show...