North Market Grillmasters Festival
Much like the Peppers at the Beach show, I will be sending in pics to someone to post on the thread here, as well as reporting the comings and goings of this little Festival in Columbus, Ohio. There is a nice handful of hot sauce, salsa and bbq sauce vendors. A lot of them are the same from the North Market hot sauce show from February that we debuted the website with. Nevertheless, seeing friends again is the reason I am taking the 6+ hour drive on a much traveled weekend. Thanks goes out to Joe and Linda Levinson of www.thehotzoneonline.com who are letting me stay once again under their roof for the weekend, and to CaJohn for letting them know about my financial dilemma. Thanks guys! I look forward to sharing the event with everyone who can’t be there.
Scott update: Day One! Buddah has sent me some photos of CaJohn’s and Sue’s offices in their new digs plus scrumptious looking food from the North Market.
Click the thumbnails below to see the full-size images:
Left to right: Delizio’s Pizza in Quaker City, OH; In front of CaJohn’s office; Aged Barrel Chocolate Hab Sauce; Dedication to Buddah.
Left to right: “Wicked” Wanda Sue’s office; CaJohn’s office; CaJohn’s chef Steve cooking up wahoo fish tacos and being interviewed by Jason Nowland; Grilled wahoo and pineapple.
Left to right: Grilled wahoo; shredding the wahoo; finished fish tacos; BBQ pork on a cheddar biscuit topped with a pepper cabbage raspberry gorgonzola slaw.
Left to right: Patter Fam’s Jamaican Cornish hens with spicy tomatillo glaze; Cornish hens with cheddar cheese potato slabs AKA “Patter Slabs”; Patter Fam on the Grill; Buddah’s strawberry-banana foo-foo drink.
Ole Ray birthday celebration.
Scott update: Day Two!
More photos from Buddah:
Left to right: North Market; Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire advertisement; Ole Ray’s booth; BBQ chicken taco with key lime plantains by Chef Brian Cook.
Left to right: CaJohn throws bananas on the grill; cooked bananas; CaJohn grilling veggies for the chili; CaJohn with his big pot of chili heating up on the grill.
Left to right: CaJohn’s chili; Baddalicious Salsa takes 1st place in the salsa contest.
I know it is hard to believe for those that know me, but I can be speechless sometimes. One of those was yesterday at CaJohn’s new factory. When I was here back in February, when the plant was more of a hollow cave than it is now, a partially intoxicated CaJohn had me sign “Buddah” on the wall right next to a future supply room. When his wife Sue saw that she just shook her head and wondered why he would have me do that. Well months later they both showed me that spot which now had a picture of me with a Buddha statue to go with my signature. I do not know why I got such a dedication, but I am touched by it. I don’t even remember what I said or if I mumbled any kind of thanks, but I am very grateful to be their friends. Then on top of that they treat me to dinner.
Also on my list of thank yous is Joe and Linda from http://www.thehotzoneonline.com who are letting me stay with them for the weekend. If some people sit at home and think, hey that seems like fun, maybe I should go to the next show, well the reason I keep going is not just the hot sauce and salsa, it is people like Joe and Linda. The chilehead community is a unique Brother and Sisterhood, and it often translates to seeing family again. I often think back at the great times we had smacktalking on http://www.tastethefear.com, I really miss that and the great people I met from those times not long ago. The community has changed a bit and many new faces have come onto the scene, but that hasn’t changed the friendliness I get from meeting up at these events. I look forward to today for that reason more than anything else.
Of course, I do have 2 entries in the bbq sauce contest and might make salsa for tomorrow. I hope to get some feedback from the judges and maybe get a prize if they are good enough. The bbq sauce contest is at 10am, so I will report back later if someone I know wins. I just starting making bbq sauce a week ago, so I do not think I have it where I want it yet.
I will check back later with more thoughts when I get a chance.
hey buddah, we’ll be rolling in around noon today. The plan is to spend the night but that’s not set in stone. Like you said, it’ll be good to see friends again. See you in a few!
This sounds like e GREAT weekend. I wish it wasnt so far away for me. Have fun Buddah, and say hi to John and Sue for me.
Well said, Buddah-man – what? No Buddahmole?? Have fun! I’m looking forward to meeting that group at WOF:)
Have fun this weekend. See everyone at the WOF.
So I guess that would make me your older brother and Cajohn would have to be the big daddy!
If you miss the smack talk I could possibly throw a little more your way. Check your phone…..I just sent you a little brotherly love!
Well folks Day 1 at the show is done. It started with a little veggie fruit breakfast treat from CaJohn and his chef Steve. Then we moved onto the bbq sauce contest. I only had 2 other sauces to beat with my 2 sauces, but I finished 3rd and 4th just a point away. One of the judges failed to give me an overall score in my 3rd place sauce and unless he gave me a 1 to tie, I should have had 2nd place. The other guy was happy to get a prize so I didnt fuss over it. Nevertheless the 1st place sauce was well made.
I filmed a few grilling demos to share with you sometime next week when I can edit them down to 10 minutes. Chef Steve’s was my favorite, as he made wahoo-pineapple fish tacos.
The vendors didn’t seem to be doing so well, and it was quite hot to boot.. The North Market is surrounded by a lot of bars, and they had Crawl for Cancer going on. It seems to be a drinking Cancer drive where groups of people wearing like colored shirts go bar hopping. A lot of singing and screaming was often heard. Looks like fun.
The Hudds, Bwana Bret and I headed to Whole Foods to get salsa ingredients for the contest tomorrow.. Now we are headed to dinner at Fiesta Jalisco, very good Mexican Restaurant we have been to before.
Sound fun, good luck with the salsa contest. Hopefully a first place is in the works! 😀
I just posted some photos above that Buddah sent me. Even though it’s 11:30 pm as I type this, the grilled food looks really frickin’ good and it’s making me hungry. 😆
Thanks Scott for posting pics, and Mark B for the good salss wishes. After dinner we went back to Cajohn’s factory, and I got a chance to make my salsa while others got to check out the factory. Between diinner and the tour there was sogood laughs. Not much to add for this eveninhg Niite all.
I was real tired when I wrote that last nite so I am sorry it is a bit garbled. I am a bit tired now, so who knows how much I get out before I hit that point again. Today’s event started with the salsa contest, and I am happy to report that yours truly won. Eventhough there was only 3 people I will take the prize. The good people at the North Market made up for the error in the bbq sauce judging and gave me the 2nd place prize money. I felt the Jewish guilt in having ever brought it up in the first place, so I gave it to Bett, Hudd’s wife as a consulation prize. It really was the great caramels she made me. Bestest ever.
After the contest we watched some grilling. The first was Chef Cook of the Columbus Brew House with an awesome plantain chicken taco. Then CaJohn made some new things he never tried before. Grilled bananas with condensed milk and cinnamon. It was a really sweet dessert treat that was suprising how yummy it was. While that was easy to make his main dish was time consuming but well worth the effort- Grilled Chili. He grilled all the ingredients- bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, beans, tomatoes, and skirt steak marinated in Oaxacan. Topping it off with some cilantro and it put the chili over the top.
Once the event was over we had a gathering over at TheHotZoneOnline compound where Joe and Linda played host for some spicy chocolate covered desserts and cocktails. It is sad it is over, but it was fun while it lasted. Thanks to everyone who made my trip a memorable one, especially Joe and Linda who let me stay with them and their boys Ari and Josh.
I know the Hudd crew had a great time. Always do hanging with you guys. Can’t wait to do it again at Jungle Jim’s.
I bet those fish tacos were awesome! Yum!!
Oh yeah. There were quite a bit of really tasting morsels grilled at the show.
What’s in them fish tacos?