Stream of Consciousness..: Slow food nation

We were in food heaven on Sunday, August 31st,a day at Slow food Nation. It was a culinary adventure, a feast to our eyes and our palate. Every pavilion was designed with a lot of thought, we loved the pickles and chutney pavilion with the floating "mason jar lid canopy" the best.There were about 15 pavilions in all, chocolates, wines, spirits, pickles, bread, ice creams and more.

A few months ago, when I did a TV demo of Vegetable Upma, Michelle was watching me do the demo and she was keenly looking at the lemon pickles I had on the side for upma. She tasted it and fell in love with it. She enthusiastically asked me if I can help her make some pickles for slow food nation and I was thrilled to be a part of this prestigious convention in a very small way. The recipe was a combination of Manisha's and my mom's and the result was fantastic. Folks who tasted the pickles loved it and even came for seconds. Mind it people, this is not samples that you get in Costco for free, you pay each time you sample it with slow food dough (a coupon with 20 credits, each sample needing 1 - 3 credits). Almost all of the pickles were homemade.

Michelle was the curator of the pickles pavilion was awesome in managing the entire show. She was never tired of patiently naming the pickles or chutneys that folks queued up to sample, the sampler consisted of a plate of yogurt rice with lime pickle, carrot and raisin pickle, pappads tomato and date pickle, 4 chutneys . We were blown away by the different kind of pickles that were showcased. Japanese pickles,Dill,Cucumber, carrot & raisin, Tomato & date, our lemon pickle to name a few. I volunteered to be in the pavilion on Sunday and can I forget volunteering Rajesh too? He came with his camera and clicked away and people made way for him, when they saw him with the camera..not fair!!!!

Shankari making batches of Raitha, with Carolyn Kumpe of East bay resturant supply.