GOOD MORNING, Junk Food Nation.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up and saw sunlight BLAZING in from the windows.  Daylight Savings is over! So…it’s gonna be sunny at 7:00am again, and start being pitch black around 3:30pm.  Ugh.

As we settle into a Football Sunday, last week I went 9-5 in my NFL picks, which puts me at a grand total of 67-51 on Moneyline picks this season.  NOT BAD, if I do say so myself.  Let’s keep the ball rolling.  This week, I’m taking: Chargers (that’s SO Kansas City), Broncos (Peyton on a mission), Ravens (yes, it’s roadie, and CLE is better than I thought, and BALT is dinged up and…I’m gonna stop talking now), Packers (AZ QB situtation is awful), Bears (BEARS SUPER BOWL ALL THE WAY), Colts (STILL not a believer in Miami), Skins (CAM SCAM), Lions (Better…and facing Blaine Gabbert), Bills (GULP…never bet against the Bills?), Seahawks (Minn is a fraud), Bucs (Bucs better than anyone thought), Giants (looking like the team to beat in the NFC), Falcons (Rollin’), Saints (Vick won’t get healthy here).

Let’s talk about yesterday, though.  The 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show was held yesterday, and is ongoing today, at the DC Convention Center.

2012 DC Metro Cooking Show is different than the Summer Fancy Food Show.  The Summer Fancy Food Show was closed to the public and mainly an event for vendors or buyers – companies were trying hard to get store reps to sell their products.

The 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show IS open to the public, and here, products were actually on sale, available for everyone to purchase and take home!  Also, there was (as the name would suggest) a huge emphasis on cooking – lots of great sauces, cutlery, cooking supplements, etc.  Less candy, chips, cookies in general.

Thanks to my friend Jill (THANKS JILL!) I was able to attend the 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show on a media pass to see what was going on with this show.  In addition to the exhibitors, there were lots of celebrity chefs scheduled around the clock to give cooking demos!

In fact, if you look to the verrrrry back of this picture, you can see a large blacked out audience area and a bright illuminated stage where chefs like Jeff Mauro and Giada De Laurentiis would be putting on a show.

2012 DC Metro Cooking Show also featured small chefs generally, at individual booths, putting on cooking demos.  I walked the aisles CONSTANTLY smelling great grilled meat and sizzling sauces.  Needless to say, the line to watch/taste as some booths was looooooong.

Need some new knives or cutlery? You can find that at the 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show, NO PROBLEM.  Yeah, it didn’t worry me at all that such large knives were easily accessible to the public hand.  Nope. Not worried one bit *shimmy off to the side hurriedly*

There were some funny moments (to me, at least). Here we see pictured a number of people sitting in rows of chairs – facing a display set of pots and pans. I want to think there was some show or demo that necessitated the chairs…but I didn’t see one.

The 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show also had a beer and wine area…which my media pass did NOT get me into.  ZOUNDS!  Foiled.

Let’s get to the important stuff, though – some highlights of things I tasted or tried!  This Herlocher’s Dipping Mustard was great – smooth, sweet (it’s salt free), and full of mustard flavor.  If I had a box of Pretzel Rods, I could eat this whole jar.

Kaldi is a great olive oil and sauce company, and they had some yet-to-be-released-or-produced white balsamic vinegar to try – and it was awesome. You know how white grape juice tastes as compared to regular grape juice?  This balsamic vinegar had that same almost-citrus-y fruity sharpness to it – really good.

Being from Upstate NY, you guys know I LOVE maple sugar. This Lilly’s Gourmet Maple Butter was the first maple sugar I had in a long time, and it was spot on.  They suggested to eat it on pancakes or waffles. My mind exploded with the idea of such sugar shock.

There were lots of salsas on display, and my favorite was this Deception Salsa.  I of course went for their hottest they had, their I DARE YOU – made with habaneros but with no fruit, the salsa was sweet, fiery, and definitely left a GREAT burn.  Good stuff!

Lindt Chocolate was there, but had no samples to eat 🙁 BOOOOO.  They were pimping their three new Fall Flavors, however: Creme Brulee, Coconut, and Caramel.  Someone buy me some Creme Brulee to review!

Tom’s Roid-Rippin’ Hot Sauce was definitely my favorite hot sauce of the day.  I tried their second hottest (plain Habanero) hot sauce, and was left nearly incapacitated.  I started hiccuping and coughing – always a good sign!

Miss Lillian’s Original Sauce was a barbecue sauce that has a cream-base and garlic and plenty of spices.  I couldn’t really tell a difference, personally, between the mild and the spicy, but that could have been because my lips and tongue had already been scorched by the salsas and hot sauces I’d already eaten. Still, this sauce was TASTY of the chicken they were serving.

Bitter moment of the day: SUCH COOL FLAVORS OF POPCORN ON DISPLAY….but no samples to try. BOOOO – missed opportunity to gain a fan!

DC threw its hat into the ring at 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show with its very own Mumbo Sauce.  The tangy barbecue sauce has long been a favorite of mine, ever since I went to my first carryout four years ago. The Hickory Flavor was particularly good on this day.

My friends at Peanut Butter & Co. were at the show, and I stopped by to say hello!  I’ll be doing some more reviews of their products in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

One of my two favorite things at the 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show was this Bonfatto’s Spice Cream – essentially ice cream infused with peppers!  There were three flavors: Sweet Peachy heat Wave, Rolling Berry Blastoff, and Jumping Jack Apple Splash.  The vendor told me the Apple Splash was the spiciest, so I gave it a shot – AMAZING.  Not spicy in flavor, per se – instead, you got a really nice apple ice cream that left that spicy burn in your mouth.  REALLY cool sensation.  Almost like it was carbonated!  I’d eat this again and again.

My absolute favorite item at the 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show was this Liberian Hot Fried Pepper Sauce, however.  A sauce made entirely of habanero peppers, tomatoes, and onions, it was smoky, spicy, and full of such amazing flavor.  Definitely the item of the day where I backed up and said, “Wow, that is truly unique.” Thumbs up, Olga’s!

I ended my day by attending a cooking demo put on by Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons of Top Chef fame.  They chatted amiably, and took questions about filming Top Chef and weathering the recent storm in New York City (Tom actually commented that his restaurants were all under water – yikes).  Best moment of the demo: when Giada De Laurentiis crashed the party to get up on stage and taste the rabbit Tom was preparing.  They did give some awfully good tips on cooking, including how to get restaurant-style-steak-flavor from a home cooked steak (25-50+ day aged beef and a thick cut, cooked on medium heat to reduce the occurrence of the Maillard Reaction).

All in all, the 2012 DC Metro Cooking Show was a success – I walked away satisfied. Hope you enjoyed walking around with me!

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy