Tag Results: fine food fair

Is it a sin?

As we know, greed (aka Covetousness - an unreasonable desire for what we do not posses) is a grievous sin.... a deadly sin in fact. But here's some great news! It doesn't apply to Peanut Butter!!

I've wanted to taste this peanut butter ever since I stumbled across it online - Peanut Butter & Co. is an independent deli in New York's Greenwich Village. Basically it's a foodie temple dedicated to all things peanut butter related and they have put together their own brand that to a British PB fan like me, is completely irresistible.

Their Dark Chocolate Dreams is a look into my own PB obsessed mind - the physical manifestation of all my deepest peanut buttery desires. I must, must, MUST have it!

But... wanting it and getting it have been mutually exclusive terms where this product has been concerned. Though it is available online via the Peanut Butter & Co. web site, they are unable to ship outside the US. The product is available via, I think, one Amazon Shop - some department store in New York, but to have three tubs shipped over to the UK so that I can indulge my secret shame in the privacy of my own home, would have cost just under a hundred bucks!! I do want to taste this peanut butter, but I'm not actually insane!

But the more it has proved impossible to get this stuff, the more determined I am to get it. Then, a stroke of luck! I attended the Speciality Fine Foods Fair last year at Olympia and who should be there exhibiting, but the Peanut Butter Guy himself, Mr Lee Zalben - a big, ebullient American, intent on bringing his product to us poor peanut butter deprived Brits, who have been raised on mere "Sunpat" - a trusty, but IMHO, a tired brand to say the least. I button-holed the Peanut Butter Guy, finally got to taste this divine product in all in delicious incarnations - and it didn't disappoint, each one a heady, peanuty, mouth-watering delight to be savoured. But... the PBG said he was here to find a distributor and North Star (being a single independent) could not do business direct, given that we'd need to order a container-full to make the enterprise cost-effective. Not even I could eat that much, (though I'd be willing to try!). I did however persuade him to part with a jar of each flavour, though he said that I'd have to come back the next day to pick them up, as he needed them for his display right to the end of the exhibition. "Come back just as we're packing up tomorrow and you can take away whatever you can carry!"
So, a night of Dark Chocolate Dreams followed and I altered my plans for that day to fit in a return journey to Olympia. I made room in the boot of my car and readied myself to bring my prizes home. And what happened? My damn car got broken into ten minutes before I was due to leave for Olympia and I got embroiled in police, car hire and insurance matters! My Dark Chocolate Dreams were shattered. Clearly a peanut plot was afoot!

However, a year later at the IFE (see my earlier entry), I found a supplier for this product. Hoorah! And, as I write, their container, full of my Dark Chocolate Dreams, is not far from landing on these shores and should it sink or run aground, I will know that there's a plot!!

All being well, the product will be available at North Star from some time in May, in all its glorious flavours. So come and join the peanut butter party before it all gets eaten... by me!