ON A RECENT visit to
Hong Kong, we guests
of the Hong Kong
Tourist Association did
not only visit
restaurants and
experience the cooking
competitions (HK
International Culinary
Classic '99),
demonstrations,
award-winning dishes,
etc. We were also invited to visit Hofex, the Eight Asian
International Exhibition of Food and Drinks. Both events were
staged at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, a
giant building in seeming flight (which irreverent residents call
''the flying roach'') in Wanchai, where once were the little bars
Hollywood made movies of.
Hofex brought together dealers of food products and cooking
equipment, promotional teams from different countries, all for
the purpose of attracting dealers in other countries. Individuals
(restaurant owners, journalists like us, foodies) ambled through
the halls, tasting (one could get full meals by just tasting demo
food), and in my case, learning.
New fruit
Peppadew. My favorite discovery was peppadew, a small bright
red fruit between a cherry tomato and a red capsicum pepper in
taste and appearance.
It was discovered four years ago in Africa, growing on a
chest-high bush. It is believed to be a native of Central America,
of the capsicum family called Picante, which moved to South
Africa in the mysterious way fruits travel.
Now commercially grown on the farmlands of the Tzaneen area
in the Northern province of South Africa, it is bottled and sold
under the trademark Stoney's Peppadew as the ''first truly new
fruit to be launched on the world market since kiwi fruit over 25
years ago.''
How is it eaten? In pizzas and pasta sauces, stuffed with dip
mixtures, chopped into soups and sauces, casseroles and stews,
curries and paellas. I tasted it from the bottle and loved it--like a
tomato, but with a light pepper tang. I hope a Philippine dealer
will take it on. How often in one's life can one taste a ''truly new
fruit''?
Aloe Vera. We know it as a plant, a cosmetic for the skin, an
admixture into shampoos and such, but a food? Aloe Vera
cubes are translucent, somewhat like nata de coco, but cooling
and not sweet. The dealer, Azuma Foods, suggests that it be
used in salads, blended with yogurt or fruit for ''smoothies,''
used in an ice cream topping, mixed with tropical fruits like
mangoes, papayas and bananas, etc. Maybe in halo-halo too?
Frozen Japanese food
Frozen Japanese Food. At the Azuma booth, the president
himself, Toshinubu Azuma, supervised the tasting of his
products. More people crowded around his booth than
anywhere else, tasting the tobikko and masago (flying fish roe),
orange, green or black; the ''sea salads'' of seaweed and sesame,
inch-long baby octopus with chili, mountain vegetables and
shiitake mushrooms, seven kinds of seaweed (wakame, kikurage,
akahimenori, aohimenori, kelp and agar-agar), scallop trim and
sesame, sea snails and capelin roe, etc.--all available packed for
shipping (shelf life: seven days). Also mixed and ready to ship
and sell are frozen lunches (sea eel stuffed with deep-fried tofu,
shiitake with carrot, foie gras of the sea (monkfish), etc.).
Moonshine. To novel readers and Western movie fans like me,
moonshine is not soft lunar light but no-brand whiskey from
homemade, usually hidden stills. Illegal, therefore, and made
only by the light of the moon. I especially remember Truman
Capote's ''A Christmas Memory,'' in which the young boy and
his older cousin must buy illegal whiskey from an Indian named
Hoo-Hah, who owned a secret still.
Moonshine at Hofex is flavored vodka, with its own legends in
three flavors: Grapefruit Schnapps, Melon Vodka and Fruits of
the Forest (''exotic berries from forests across five states'') and
Vodka. It is called a ''Spirit Aperitif,'' and comes in a frosted
bottle.
Soup from a blender. The blender, which many a mother has
blest for its proficiency with baby food, juices, soups,
milkshakes and the like, has gone up in the world. At a booth
promoting the Vita-Mix drink machine, I tasted a wonderful hot
soup from a blender (carrots and more). It was not pictured in
the brochure, which suggests that one make creamy frozen
cappuccinos, frozen margaritas and daiquiris, fruit and/or
vegetable smoothies, lemon ice and sorbets. It was the
on-the-spot invention of the young chef, whose card I have,
alas, lost.
American offering
I also met an American offering, a taste of sliced jellyfish (the
kind you find in the cold plate at the beginning of a Chinese
meal) from the United States. ''Selling American jellyfish to the
Chinese?'' I wondered. It was his first attempt, he admitted.
Other US firms were offering salmon (skin off or on), swordfish,
Pacific halibut, yellowfin tuna, baby shark, cuttlefish, crabs,
sand lobsters, etc.
A brochure for kiwi fruit cited a study (American College of
Nutrition Journal, 1997) that ranked 27 of the most popular fruits
by their ability to provide recommended amounts of nine
essential nutrients. Mango ranked No. 11, orange No. 12,
papaya No. 14, and Kiwi fruit No. 16.
Every time I needed a drink of water, I tried a different one. It is
not easy to differentiate between waters, but my attention was
caught by 02 Super Oxygenated Water, super-saturated with
oxygen.
The result: oxygen-enhanced performance in athletes (fast
running times), and enhanced wellness in others. Note: because
of threats from pollution and of infection, bottled water is today
not a luxury but often a necessity.
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