IMPRESSIONS FROM THE 18th ANNUAL
NATIONAL FIERY-FOODS & BARBECUE SHOW          Page  1 of 2   Go to Page 2

MARCH 3-5, 2006          Photos and story by Harald Zoschke 

Groucho Marx said: "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."
Hard to believe it's been five years since we started the first hot shop in Germany!
While many of the products we’re offering come from around the globe, we find a good deal of our merchandise at the Annual National Fiery-Foods and Barbecue Show in Albuquerque. So here we are again.

As announced on the official show shirt (right), the venue moved to a new location, the classy Sandia Resort & Casino Events Center, located at the base of the magnificent Sandia Mountains - a much nicer location than in previous years -- very convenient, including plenty of free parking space, and rooms with a gorgeous view. 

With about 200 booths in the Sandia Events Center, this little report can only be a sampling of all the exciting stuff at the show. After 18 years of Dave DeWitt's venue, it is amazing that vendors and manufacturers alike are still coming up with new product and packaging ideas.

 Thursday before the show, Dave took Renate and me to 94 ROCK, the radio station that was one of the show sponsors. All week long, Dave brought products and people to radio jock TJ's popular Morning Show to promote the Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show.

TJ (right on the right picure) was interested in those buyers coming from so far away, and he could hardly believe that demand for hot stuff got so huge in the (former) "land of the bland"  - Germany, that is.

We sampled various products to be exhibited over the weekend and had a great time with the entertaining radio team.

 With us at the radio show that morning was Lori from Amour Chocolates. We met Lori again at her booth and sampled choc-covered Pecans and Almonds, spiced up with New Mexican chiles - yum!

Pecans grow well in Southern New Mexico, and the New Mexican Pecan Co. also had kicked-up versions of the state's signature nut. 

From the Hot Continent

 One could tell that Eddy Segbeaya from Togo had a great time, dancing all day to music he supplied at his booth. The name of his West African condiment line is "Ebesse Zozo", which means "Hot Pepper" in Togolese.

More heat from the black continent: CapeFood's Clifford Hodson presented a line of South African Peri-Peri sauces and peppers. 

Hot Tamales

One unique kind of food in Mexico and here in the Southwest are tamales. Tamale is a vegetarian or meat filling enclosed in masa (corn dough), wrapped in a corn husk and steamed. In Mexico, tamales are also part of the holiday season, traditionally served on Christmas Eve. Many Mexican or Southwestern-style restaurants serve tamales.

 Preparing the treat on a larger scale can be time-consuming. That's why Charles Beavers invented a tamale machine, marketed by his own company, Tamale King.

After loading the device with the filling, tamales are made by simply pulling a lever, then folding the corn husks shut.  

We never saw Charly without his Bluetooth earset, by the way.

 For tamale fans who would like to enjoy the tasty treat at home, Tamale Connection from Colorado had vacuum sealed  tamales that can be either refrigerated or frozen.

Their offerings in corn husks include Shredded Pork Tamales with red or green chile. Wish they'd be available here in Europe, too...  

Note: find a tamale recipe on fiery-foods.com here.

Peppered Personalities

Back to the saucy stuff...

 A different kind of tamales were Three Hot Tamales from New Jersey - Jodie, Lisa and Kristie (l to r). Quite some characters, and their tasty products include "Make Me Moan Mango" Hot Sauce, "Cry Baby" Hot Sauce as well as "Rub Me The Right Way" Spice Rub. Hot, Hot, Hot!

Danny Cash and his buddies are another interesting gang, and it was great to see the spirit of the early days of the Fiery Foods Show is still alive. 

Danny's sauces include "Radical Heat"
and "Bottled Up Anger".

 No gathering of peppered personalities would be complete without Mr. & Mrs. Tahiti Joe from Florida.

Renate and I have known them since our Floridays back in the 90's, and was is great to see they're still in great shape, and as always with some uniquely named products like Camel Toe Hot Sauce, using  unusual ingredients like clam juice and parmesan cheese.

A Budweiser beer concession stand came in handy for cooling down from too hot samples every now and then.

 Also from Florida, and a long-time buddy of ours, is Buddy Taylor. His servings of spicy shredded pork sandwiches at Fiery Foods Shows are legacy by now.

His Gator sauces were appropriately displayed.

Buddy told us that he lost about 40 pounds of weight since last time. Renate and I probably gained at least 4 pounds during this New Mexico stay...

Barbecue and unusual Products

 While on the subject of meat, High Plains Bisons from Seattle gave out samples of their tasty bison summer sausages and steak nuggets.

Since I'd never seen bisons in real life before, I was thrilled to spot some on a ranch north of Albuquerque and thought I'd share the picture here. Good to see they didn't become extinct but are making a great comeback.   

From meat to barbecue...

 We tasted some great sauce at Daddy's Louisiana Sauce, curiously from New Mexico.

All the way from Virginia came Willard Ashburn, maker of Willy's Sassy Luau Sauce, the 2006 Grand Prize Scovie Award winner. Ashburn's BBQ sauces are quite tasty as well. 

 When it comes to barbecue sauce, Big Rick is a classic. Besides his traditional sauces, Rick's offerings included a sweet BBQ sauce that's suitable for diabetics and dieters. Very thoughtful. Just wondering why they call him Big Rick ;-)

In 2005, its was Grumpy's first time at this show, and the enormous success drove him back this year, Jeff Greenberg told us.

We also found various new barbecue hardware. At Kabob-It's booth I wondered, "Why didn't I think of this?"

 Jimmy Jones invented a reusable flexible stainless steel skewer. The handles stay cool, and since it bends, it makes better use of round grills. It also allows to marinate meat and veggies right on the skewer, and you can use it to roast peppers for peeling.
Cool tool!   

Cinful Chili

At every show we discover new food items we've never seen before. 

 Like "Firecracker Glitter" by Sailor Girl, an edible spicy food decoration, available red or green. It can be sprinkled on cakes and cookies or used for fancy margarita glas rims. They also showed it on bite-sized party snacks.

New chile uses are made possible by Pecos Valley's Sweet Green Chile. Tasty!   

As always, chili (con carne) was another big ticket at the Fiery Foods & BBQ Show. 

  Cin Chili has  two 1st place trophies from the Terlingua International Chili Champion-
ship and also won a 1st Place 2006 Scovie Award for their Chili Con Carne, based on their Dry Mix.

I envied them for their Terlingua trophy shown to the right, as it is such a nice visualization of my own site's name, Pepperworld  

We're Jammin'...

 There was an abundance of prestigeous awards on display all over the show, like these for Slap ya Mama's Cajun seasoning blends at Walker & Son's booth.

Besides hot & spicy stuff, there were also refreshing samples of Tequila & Margarita Mix, served by Southern Wine & Spirits of New Mexico. Guys: If you look long enough, you'll notice the Margarita sample cups. 

Judging by the number of offerings, chile pepper jams and jellies are also becoming increasingly popular.

 Heidi's Raspberry Jam from New Mexico had a delicious spread that combined raspberries with red chile and ginger.

Three Angel Farm, from NM as well, combined raspberries with chipotle, also a refreshing alternative to conventional jams. 

 Talking about chipotle, the smoked chiles seemed to be  one of the most popular flavors at the show. Ann Shawver of Apple Canyon Co. would get my vote for the best-looking packaging of her Holy Chipotle sauce line.

Chipotle Texas, manufacturer of all sorts of dried pepper products, had a stylish booth, themed like a south of the border mercado. 

Industry Issues

Somehow, all those sauces need to be packed and labeled. Various exhibitors offered interesting solutions.

 Like A Packaging System's semi-automatic, two-piston filler line. Wish we'd had that setup back in our sauce-
making days in Florida.

Or the digital color printers by QuickLabel Systems, suitable especially for smaller jobs and private labels. 

Labels, banners, T-shirts, and other items of company identity need good graphics. 

Two distinctive designs that caught my eye were "Frog Ranch" and "Wicked Tomato".

All those peppers used in sauces and salsas must come from somewhere, and the show featured some suppliers as well.

 America's Harvest grows, packs and ships not only various kinds of chiles, but related items like okra, eggplant and tomatillos as well.

That's not all, folks!
Still to come:

More Exhibits...
Bring in the Crowds...

Cooking Demos...
Sizzling Sightings...      All on Page Two!