We had a great time at this year’s Restaurants Canada Show.
While we were there, we connected with three of our clients who were exhibiting. Twisted Leaves produces vitamin-enriched teas. Celtic Gourmet produces Celtic-style pork products, including bangers, rashers, and puddings (the sausage kind). Golden Gate makes magic with margarine, making it vegan, gluten-free, and relevant for today’s consumer.
In terms of interesting finds, a couple of experiences stood out:
We tasted Mexican smoked salt with ground grasshopper, or Chapulines.
Grasshopper salt is crunchy - in case you’re wondering - with a lovely smokey flavour. Eating these grasshoppers is common in some areas of Mexico, whereas it’s still relatively new to North America. But that’s changing. There’s actually a growing number of grasshopper farms in Ontario, which is pretty exciting, especially since they’re organic.
We were thinking about applications for the salt.
Maybe ... to coat the rim a Margarita glass? A chipotle martini glass? Salted grasshopper compound butter for steak? Grasshopper dusted fish tacos?
“Liquid bread” is a poetic German idiom for beer.
We also stumbled upon a very interesting German gluten-free baker who has started making gluten-free beer. Talk about a perfect example of product synergy. Beer and bread are heavily dependent on the mastery of yeast, among other ingredients that Germans are passionate about.
Watch for it at The Beer Store, which has agreed to sell it.