Candy at the Winter 2017 Fancy Food Show

Nassau Candy had a huge display of their many candies. I took a lot of pictures, but they mysteriously disappeared from my phone and I couldn't find them in the cloud, either. Their website doesn't list their customers, but they carry many name brand confections and other products, so I'm sure you're buying from their customers, especially if you live near a distribution center, as Tea Time does. Take a look at their website for pictures of everything. You might be inspired to try something new.

Ghirardelli featured their caramel chips. Tea Time makes our own caramel, but this beats cutting it up into tiny pieces and rushing to mix them into our cookie dough before they spread!

I don't remember anything about these, except that they were delicious!

Doscher's Old-Fashioned Candy Canes are the best!

Unfortunately they don't make crushed candy canes, but these pieces are a start. A plastic freezer bag and my hammer and I'll have peppermint marshmallows. The French Chews are good, too, although not suited for inclusion in cookies or marshmallows. Also available as bars.  Just eat them. They'll keep you from finishing off the marshmallows as you cut them.

Fun packaging for the holiday season

We still miss Toffee Talk, and thought we'd have to make our own. Then we discovered Enstrom's.

  

Gerrit Verburg was back with my (and the Doctor's) favorites:  Jelly Babies and Licorice Allsorts, plus the rest of their lines. You can find their candies (plus much, much more, including old favorites) at The Candy Store in San Francisco.

Jelly Babies, Licorice Allsorts and Gumbites from Gerrit Verburg

More Licorice Goodies from Gerrit Verburg

Dagoba, a formerly local brand now manufactured by Hershey's (along with Scharffen Berger chocolate) gave me the most amazing press kit of the show.  A cute little shopping bag was filled with three full-size products:  cocoa powder, chocolate drops, and a xocolatl bar! See an update from Beth, our expert on spicy things, here. Angela and I are not fond of anything too hot. I was so amazed by this generosity that I forgot to ask for a press kit from the Scharffen Berger folks at the other end of the counter!

Amano Artisan Chocolate, a Tea Time favorite, had their own booth this year. With some artisan chocolatiers, we have to taste everything to find out which bars we like, but not Amano. We like everything they make.

This is the current selection of Amano bars at Fog City News in San Francisco, where you can find artisan chocolate, greeting cards, and calendars in addition to a great selection of magazines and newspapers, and also load your Clipper Card.

Handmade by Huffkins

I met the folks from Huffkins at the Fancy Food Show, where they were introducing their excellent fruitcake to the United States. This is not your usual doorstop fruitcake. This is cake with fruit, in several different combinations: Apricot & Almond, Cherry & Pecan, Chocolate & Orange, Date & Walnut and Cranberry and Cointreau. My favorite, of course, is the Chocolate & Orange, but really, they're all delicious.

  

Excellent with a cup of tea

Eat Real Festival 2016

I volunteered with setup for Eat Real Festival 2016 but this time I stuffed vendor badges instead of goodie bags. This was much easier and didn't end with washing and drying all the cookware for the chef demos.

I returned for lunch on Friday. I usually case the whole festival first, but couldn't resist a crab cake near the entry. It was served on a bun, with slaw.

  

Mozzeria was there, with their fancy pizza truck, but Tea Time occasionally eats at their brick-and-mortar location in the Mission.

After checking out the rest of the offerings, I decided on a poke bowl. This looked so good that I forgot to take a picture of the truck.

And for dessert, I again had a chocolate fudge popsicle from Fat Face Popsicles.

The Eat Real Festival is on for the whole weekend, and there are more vendors on Saturday and Sunday. More Festival-goers, too, which is why I go on Friday, but if you don't mind crowds, you will be rewarded with a wider choice. There are also exhibits and free samples, which vary from year to year. This year Clover was giving away yoghurt and Toyota was giving away plants in pots that could be decorated on the spot, among other swag.

Lobster Me

I was searching the food court at the San Francisco Centre for something interesting to eat when I spotted Lobster Me, a fast food lobster restaurant. Lobster Me serves Maine lobster in many different forms. And they are really fast! My lobster roll was ready in less than five minutes.

You can see the menu more clearly on the website,
but some items are not available in some locations

I'm from Connecticut, so I like my lobster roll with butter, not mayonnaise. The rolls are served with coleslaw and house-made chips. The platters at Jimmies of Savin Rock come with cole slaw and fries, but Jimmies is a little out of my trade area these days. Lobster ME provides the closest to an authentic experience as I'm going to get, and I will definitely  be returning. Besides, if I'm in Connecticut in the right season, I order the soft shell crab platter at Jimmies.

And for dessert, a scoop of Belgian Chocolate at Haagen-Dazs. This flavor is available only at Haagen-Dazs shops.

UPDATE:  Belgian Chocolate is now in stores as part of the Destination Series. If you don't see it, ask your shopkeeper.

U Matcha–by the Republic of Tea

The Republic of Tea gave us each a very generous press kit (it included samples of several of their teas–Angela's Mom found her favorite Red Velvet tea via a sample) at the Fancy Food Show, then emailed to ask if there was anything else we'd like to try. We chose the U Matcha Charcoal, which is so tasty we built an entire lunch around it.

Angela cooked rice with U Matcha in the water and topped it with smoked salmon plus veggies. A simple salad of greens with U Matcha in the dressing was a perfect accompaniment. Just add 1-2 teaspoons of U Matcha to your regular vinaigrette dressing recipe and shake well.

Tea Time does not consider a meal complete without dessert (actually, we sometimes consider dessert a complete meal), so J.K. made marshmallows the night before. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to cut them in the morning, so she brought the whole pan.

The marshmallow syrup was as green as the salad dressing, but after 15 minutes in the mixer, the whipped product was only slightly tinted. Whip it!

 That changed, of course, after we dusted more matcha over the powdered sugar coating.

When making marshmallows, cooking spray is essential. J.K. sprayed her mixer bowl, whisk attachment and bowl scraper. Also the foil lining the baking pan, and the knife she used to cut the finished marshmallow. Any spray oil would work, this is just the brand we had on hand.  After we cut the marshmallow into blocks, we got to work on the truffles.

This recipe for rustic truffles is quite simple. Pick your favorite type of white chocolate chunks  (about one cup), and melt with a bit of heavy whipping cream (two tablespoons) in a double boiler over medium heat. Angela added a tablespoon of U Matcha to the melted chocolate, stirred until incorporated and  stuck it in the fridge to chill. Once the filling was cold we hand rolled balls quickly. If the filling gets too warm, simply chill again.

nudie matcha balls

 We rolled them in the matcha/powdered sugar and dusted them with cocoa. These soft truffles should be kept in the fridge and served cool. Otherwise they will begin to melt at room temperature. If you want to keep them around longer you can simply take a page from J. K.!

dusted and ready for eating

Later, J.K. was dipping dried fruit in tempered chocolate to take to an Oscars-watching party, so she dipped a few truffles, too.

Due to the powdered sugar and cocoa, the truffles weren't quite coated after dipping, so she dipped them a second time after the first coat set.

The perfect creamy filling!

Tea Time isn't sure if turning U Matcha into dessert still counts as a detox, but that's okay. We'll split the difference and just call it "healthy dessert."

Chocolate Garage

Do you live in the South Bay? Are you looking for a place to get unique chocolates? Check out the Chocolate Garage! We ventured down the coast on Caltrain one day to host a Meetup event during their open tasting event. Several bars were available for try and the employees were happy to help curate the tastings. Plus guests could bring wine, turning the event into a Chocolate Happy Hour!

Light to darkest was the suggested tasting menu.

There wasn't a large group for our event, but the little garage bustled with guests making purchases and enjoying coversation. Currently the Chocolate Garage is open for general tasting on Saturday mornings, but you're welcome to call and schedule a private group tasting. A tasting event could be a lot of fun for a birthday or bridal shower. The Garage is a very easy walk from Caltrain, so no excuses from the SF contingent.

SF Swappers Event 10/15

Fall's a swappin'! It's been a while since Tea Time has adventured to a Swap together. SF Swappers slipped this event in just before the craziness of the Holidays begins. Everyone was happy to stand, chat and sample the evening away at the Sports Basement. Let's mosey among the offerings, whaddaya say?

J.K.'s gingerbread cookies–Halloween themed of course! Two big cookies for swapping and mini shapes for tasting.

Also on the offer from J.K. Chocolate cake in super cute shapes.

Homemade chocolates hit the spot, Bon Bons and Bars in several different flavors.

A little spice is nice... there always turns out to be a semi-theme among the goodies on offer and this October we're all ready for our food to feel the burn.

Two flavors of hot sauce–fruit gives the bottles on the left their lovely color.

Do you know about Togorashi? This spice can have a little kick. This version is perfect for onigiri (the food, not the game) and the samples of it sprinkled on rice showed that off to a T.

Perfect homemade tortillas are always a most popular item. Especially if you feature them in a homemade taco as your sample/potluck contribution. Delish.

Hostess Aimée offered up a savory treat of crumbly sesame bars. Tea Time suggests that if you were lucky enough to swap for some that you let them crumble onto your ice cream and then drizzle a little caramel on top. Or you could simply stir them into Aimée's other swappable treat–homemade yogurt!

Angela came back to the swap with big ammunition. Four options!
Left to Right, cashew butter, medium spice salsa, drunken cherries, fresh raw almonds
Sample Sample Sample, plenty of crackers to try them all.

Pickled grape tomatoes? Don't mind if we do... Or if you're feeling cheesy, check out the parmesan dip.

Here comes our theme again, featuring Hot Pepper Jelly. (Feeling smelly? try some homemade soap) Samples of hot pepper jelly were on the potluck table, poured over cream cheese with bread on the side.

So many spreads at this swap, good that there's a bit of bread to take home too.

Who could resist homemade crackers and pimento cheese spread? This was a popular and tasty item which turned into the perfect snack instead of dinner for Angela one night.

A last minute swapper showed up with a big bag of these North Bay Heirloom Apples. Scavenged from his Mom's tree just for SF Swappers.

That's quite a hunk of cheesecake! Or if you're in the mood for savory there's Jalapeno Cheddar Bread, tomatillo salsa or even a fruity nectarine salsa.

Somehow we misplaced our photo of Co-hostess Stephanie's Walnut inspired goodness, but rest assured our resident Chef had an inspired recipe to share. Have you ever attended a Food Swap? The Holidays are coming and this is the perfect time of year for a cookie or dessert swap. Everyone brings a few dozen cookies in bags and everyone gets to take home some of each kind. A perfect mix and match.