First Comes Love, then Comes Fage, then...

BREAKFAST: 10-11:30am, various chocolates, cookies, small moz and tomato panini, brownies, 5 shots of various Manhattan Special products, 2 little cheese cake cups, a bit of duck sausage, 2 little wedges of Batali pizza, some things I forget..., 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Spent the morning at the Fancy Food Show at Jacob Javits, officially on school business for the second year (last year I was in culinary, this year management), but I hope to be able to swing this every year -- all the new products, some established products, different countries showing off their culture, all on overload, most wanting you to taste a sample or talk about what they do.

Highlights: Manhattan Special had a booth, a company really hard to wrangle as a product buyer at the restaurant. I had some words with them, they promise to make some calls. Low and behold they have a whole line of different sodas, but I would of never known because no one ever tried to sell me on them.

Then there was the Metromint people from last year, which was quite shocking -- various mint-flavored mildly-sweetened waters. I almost barfed last year when I tried it, because I thought I was drinking some one's toothpaste backwash. I was sure they would be out of business by now.

Batali's brand was hawking a new pizza sauce, which tasted exactly like a thousand other jarred sauces. They were making pizzas on soft pita-like shells and baking them in a toaster oven. The only good thing about the sample is that it was heavy on the sauce, usually shitty pizza is heavy on the cheese.

In other pizza-related things there, there was a booth for a horrible nightmare some company is trying to bring to the freezer aisle:

Pizza in a cone, baked in your microwave in a box that keeps it upright. In the literature, one of the selling points is "acceptable taste and aroma", I kid you not. Yikes!

It was nice to see a booth/pavilion for Fage yogurt, what I call the "good" yogurt. I was happy to see it, and felt compelled to take a picture not because I'm a huge fan, but because it's one of the few foods me and B eat and love (though she eats the crappy fat-free version), and I remember when I was wooing her, we'd go food shopping in her neighborhood, like a trial run as a real couple. When ever we'd go, we'd always end up buying some Fage, and also talking about the prices of the stuff in various markets in the neighborhood. The foundation of my marriage was cemented thanks to Fage!

DINNER: 6:30pm, big green salad, homemade farro and sausage, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Made a recipe from c-school, one I really loved and was a joy to make again. Basically: brown sweet Italian sausage in olive oil, deglaze with white wine (my added step), then soften diced Spanish onion. Add a whole mess of tomato concasse, diced fresh fennel, cubed Idaho potato, a pound of farro and cover in chicken stock. Simmer for 30 minutes, add a pound of cooked red kidney beans, simmer for another 15 minutes. Finish with salt and red pepper flake. The fennel gives a nice flavor, the starch from the farro and potato thicken the remaining stock into a nice sauce, the farro itself a nice grainy flavor to contrast with the pork and fennel, all brought together with that wonderful mouthfeel that a proper stock gives.

Went a bit too far with the pepper fake, and can probably add more salt. Should have broken the sausage into smaller bits before I threw it in the oil.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, chocolate cookies n' creme ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5