“And the Winner is…”
Okay - it's not the Oscars, perhaps, but North Star has been nominated in two categories in this year's Manchester Food and Drink Awards! Far better for us than an Oscar would be!
We're up for Best Coffee Bar and Casual Dining Venue and Best Food and Drink Outlet and we're very chuffed to be nominated along with some really great foodie places. Note that Chorlton features heavily!
We'd be even more chuffed to actually win - but for that to happen, we'll need your vote. You'll see a box on the right hand side of your screen with the festival logo - give it a click while your here and follow the links. We really appreciate your custom and your support.
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What The World Eats
Once again via Boing, Boing (that superb repository for endlessly fascinating things) this wonderful link to a series of photographs at Time.com depicting the weekly grocery shop for various families all over the world. These photographs are from a book called Hungry Planet: What The World Eats
What is particularly striking is the extraordinary varience in packaging used in the different parts of the world - there's no doubt we use far too much here in the UK.
Above is my genuine favourite of the sixteen pics featured in the link - The Batsuuri family of Ulaanbaatar - all this food, feeding entire family for an entire week for just over $40.00 USD (or 41,985.85 togrogs!). Given the projected profit margins, I'm forthwith cancelling our expansion plans for a Mongolian branch of North Star!
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Credit Card Cutlery
Via Boing, Boing this innovative gadget which, I think, lies somewhere between inspirational and insane. Perhaps a credit card coffee cup will follow?
Available via the online shop at New York's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
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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!
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JB @ IFE
Last month's IFE is a HUGE trade show that takes place every two years at Excel down in London. I guess the acronym stands for "International Food Exhibition" but it might just as well stand for "I'm F***ing Exhausted"!!
It really is huge... hugely huge. Two huge aircraft hanger type exhibition halls full of supplier and distributor stands which, after a few hours all blend into one. Some exhibitors are pushy, shoving samples into your face as you traipse by them. It becomes a skill to navigate through - time after all, is precious and it's not a good policy to waste it with people you've no intention of doing business with. Saying no and escaping with tact isn't always possible - often "no" must suffice on it's own!
I've been covering these shows for North Star for four years now and tradition now dictates that I attend with my best pal Russell who tags along under the guise of "Consultant". I love going with him, not least because he's a long-time vegetarian and it's fun watching him refuse the many and various bits of cured animal that get proffered.
Then there's "Trade Show Belly" - an ironic condition, given that everyone there is a foodie of sorts. Basically, think of the worst combination of foods you can possibly imagine and then imagine eating it all day. As you make your way down the aisles, you'll eat an olive or two, followed by some Parma ham, then you'll be offered some chocolate or rapeseed oil, a pickle, some dried fruit, a piece of cake, some coffee or highly sugared drink, more olives, some mustard, some honey, something honey-mustard, more olives, some fudge, a donut, a milkshake, some salami, cider, olives, olives, sorbet, some sticky concoction which tastes like old socks, cheese, a boiled sweet, cheese, an olive or two, pickled garlic, chocolate, cheese ...and this cycle repeats itself endlessly - literally ad nauseum - for the entire day. Not exactly what can be described as a balanced diet - and of course, no chocolate in the world tastes that nice when consumed straight after a pickled onion!
All this aside, the IFE is a fun, if exhausting day and, of course, it's essential that North Star attends when this extravaganza comes to town. Just as it is for all who attend this over-facing, bloated festival of food, it is a chance for us to do business, to meet and shake the hands of the suppliers who look after us, and of course to discover new suppliers and exciting new products. This last thing is really the main reason we make the trip.
And, inevitably, I did indeed come across any number of wonderful products that I'm hoping to stock in the deli - and I'll be using this new web site to bring news and offers over the coming weeks as this new stock arrives and is put out on our shelves - so check back for update regularly, won't you?
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