The Gourmet Experience 2011

The inaugural year of The Gourmet Experience was a well-organized, extremely fun event for gourmands and people into 'lifestyle' accoutrements. Read about last year's event here. This year, only its second, it was even better.

Favorites like last year's cooking demo stage and a scaled-down version of the "That's the Spirit Pavilion" made reappearances, while new things, like a cake-decorating competition and a kids' area with cooking demos, cookbooks, and utensils geared toward kids, popped up.

My biggest complaint from last year was the lack of substantial food available...we were surrounded by things to appeal to our finer tastes, but when it came to a real meal, only the crappy fair food was available for purchase. This year, that was remedied.

Inside the pavilion, things like sushi and cobbler were for sale. What's more, the whole outside area in the front was surrounded by food booths, food trucks, and an "Outdoor Grilling and Entertaining Pavilion" in which they presented a competition with the exciting name Fish Taco TKO Throwdown. Seven local restaurants known for their fish tacos were pitted against each other. Each chef made tacos for the panel of ten judges, and the winner was Juan Munoz of The Fish Shop. I'll be visiting them my next trip south!

There were many familiar products and brands from last year, but just as many new ones I was pleased to discover. Some of the most notable were:

PORTAFARM- Available for indoor or outdoor use, the PortaFarm is an 'aquaponic', portable garden. The fish tank below the garden floods the base of the veggies several times per day with its 'nutrient rich' (aka fish-poop-filled) water, quickly growing any variety of fruits and veggies organically and with little maintenance.

ELIXIR- All-natural, delicious mixers for any number of uses. Available in four floral flavors, each bottle comes with its own cocktail recipe booklet. You can also add them to champagne, sparkling water, yogurt, ice cream, desserts, even butter for a flowery, tasty treat. A fabulous, unique gift idea, too.


SALTY SISTERS- Delicious, all-natural salted toffee and caramels handcrafted in small batches. Island Style Macadamia Nut Toffee, Salted Milk, Dark, or White Chocolate Caramel, and Pure Salted Toffee Bliss are just a few of the delicious flavors you can order.

LUWAK STAR COFFEE COMPANY- One of the rarest coffees in the world, this sweet and mild Indonesian coffee is eaten by civets- sort of a mongoose/cat type mammal- then, um, passed through its digestive tract and harvested after it has been partially digested. Don't worry, they wash it thoroughly.


SISAR CREEK OLIVE OIL- Pretty self explanatory, I think. Delicious, organic olive oil.

KING FROSCH WINERY- Known for the low sulfite and histamine levels of their wine, they're known as being a "no headache wine." I love their semi-sweet and sweet wines. My favorites were the SemiDry Dornfelder, SemiSweet Dornfelder, NobleSweet Merlot, Ortega TBA, and Scheurebe Icewine.
PALOMAR MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER- I'm not usually a sparkling water person, but their sparkling water was phenomenal. Not overly bubbly, it was just completely refreshing and delicious. Too bad they're not yet available in L.A.

M5 CORPORATION- Though to me the name connotes hired assassins, M5 Corporation is actually a family-owned business of food importers started by people who love to travel and eat, just like I do! Their quality foods support local farmers and families in the regions the food comes from. The olive jam kinda blew my mind.


FUSION GLASS- They carried a large variety of glass products for a large variety of budgets, from simple pendants to embellished cutlery. I, naturally, have impeccable taste, and fell in love with some thousand dollar necklaces...

PACIFICA CULINARIA-I bought some of their oils last year, and needed more. Their deliciously infused avocado oil is healthy and delicious, with a higher smoke point than olive oil. I especially like their Toasted Onion and Key Lime infused flavors.

BARI OLIVE OIL- Their oils, both plain and infused, were delicious. The thing that made them stand out to me most, however, was their Tandoori flavored olive oil. Yum! I didn't see it on the web site, but the rep told me it was a new flavor.

This foodie experience is just the 'appetizer,' if you will, to the BIG San Diego event, San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, happening November 16-20. Visit their website now for a complete list of events and tickets. Read about last years event here.

The Gourmet Experience
Del Mar Fairgrounds
Escondido, CA