I Did A Bad Thing

So...I did a bad thing. Well, kind of bad but not really. I feel badly about it. This past Sunday, Marshall and I were lucky enough to attend the Fancy Food Show which is basically an adult-foodlover's Halloween-ish event (without costumes). There were over 2400 exhibitors and almost all of them had samples of a food or drink. Before I got to the event, I already knew that I was going to love it. My imagination failed me because it was ten times more glorious than I could have ever imagined. Wall-to-wall cheese, smoked meats, crackers, bread, cookies, brownies, tea, liquor, soda, olives, biodegradable cartons of water, sparkling water, sake, Aloe water, fried elbow pasta snacks, rum cakes, dried fruit, mezcal, applesauce in pouches, hot pasta, hot pizza, cheese, cheese cheese, and did I mentioned they had a lot of cheese? Here are a few of the items that I really enjoyed (I wish I could post the hundred that I tried and enjoyed):

-Icebox Water - it is water in a biodegradable carton. I would love for schools to order these to get kids to drink water and for them to get use to using another container other than plastic water bottles.

-Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams - Splendid indeed. This ice cream is a must-not-miss if you are at the show. Their samples blew my socks off.

-Beanitos - Chips made of beans. I think that is pretty cool.

Six hours later, Marshall and I stumbled out into the sunlight loaded down with heavy bags of samples. We crossed the street to the Passenger and relieved our weary legs by sitting on stools and drinking beer. It was an awesome day.

That night, I started getting tweets that asked "Did they search your bag?" and "Did they let you out with stuff?" I was only slightly confused and figured it was only paranoid friends.

Today, my friend Cecilia got out of work early and attended the show and sent me a picture of the sign by the doors that read: ATTENTION EXHIBITORS - The removal of samples from the Exhibit Halls is prohibited. All product sampling must be done on the show floor."

Whoops.

I promise you that I didn't see those signs. I was blinded by the attractive food displays and all the cheese (and my greed)! But seriously, the goods I took off with were not nearly as amazing as the products I tasted inside the exhibit halls. No word yet if the Fancy Food Show will be coming back to DC but if they do, I will gladly pay the registration fee and attend (though I guess I would have to also ask that extended family member who actually owns a business if I can go as their rep since this is an industry only event.)

The last day to attend the Fancy Food Show is tomorrow, Tuesday, June 19th. I also wanted to mention that my new goal in life is to be a food buyer for a major grocery store. :)