Today was really fun.
We went to the McCormack Center and walked through the exhibits first
and had a few tastes of food items for breakfast like tea and apple juice and
chocolate twills and Louisiana Seafood Association’s shrimp. Then I went to a session on franchising. At 11:00 a.m. I went to the wine and beverage’s
association’s brunch where they gave statistics on alcoholic beverage sales and
trends for "adult beverages" for last two years for an hour and served an egg ramekin with
vegetables with a tomato coulis, fresh fruit and cheeses with crackers, and a
yogurt and granola parfait and a bloody mary and a glass of champagne. Voila.
After lunch I met
Suzette in the technology area where we visited Lavu and tried a few more food
items like Kronos Baklava. Then I returned for
another franchise session and finally at 3:00 I joined Suzette in the wine and
spirits hall for drinks. I tried lots of
wine and spirits. Particularly
interesting was Cognac Pitaud's Rose Pineau and several French Fronton grape wines from
near Carcassone.
Then we visited the Bulgarian wine booth and the Macadonian
wine booth and Valdemar German wines such as Joseph Prüm and ended our visit to
the area at the Quady booth were we tried all three of their Vya Vermouths and realized
that we had only visited two of six aisles. I promised myself I would return tomorrow.
We returned to the hotel and lay down for a while and then
at 9:00 p.m. went the Elizabeth and Anne Sesler
to the Rock the NRA party at the Castle.
There was food and music and all the alcoholic beverages you could drink
thanks to the beverage sponsors. l
ordered a whiskey sour made with Templeton Rye whiskey and later changed to
Negra Modelo.
Then I came to a realization. All the stuff we eat, all the food and
beverages and stuff to prepare them with and the stuff to serve them with and
on is a huge worldwide business and most of the folks who produce that stuff
were in the same room as I was.
That realization came at the party just a few minutes before
Anthony Bourdain helped judge the Star of the Bar best mixed drink contest to
determine the best bartender in the U.S. as if I needed any further evidence.
Bon Appétit
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