Can "Show Food" Be "Slow Food?"One Artist's Efforts to Eat Smarter at Shows and Fairs
Show and fair season. I absolutely love selling in person at shows. I love the set-up, the merchandising, the chatting, and certainly the selling itself. What I don't like is the tendency to eat a bunch of junk for 5 to 8 hours. Or, even worse, the tendency to skip eating and have nothing at all. What to do?
I've really been trying to figure out a good solution to this problem. Unlike packing an ordinary lunch, there are other points to keep in mind. Obviously I don't want to eat something messy, dripping all over the place. Preferably, the food should be a little light on the onion and garlic thing for obvious reasons. It has to travel well in a cooler and can't require heating in almost all cases. And of course I want it to be reasonably healthy. Hm.
So far, the best options seem to be fruit salads with or without a yogurt-type dressing; possibly an easy-to-eat couscous salad with veggies, chicken, and a lightly seasoned dressing. Maybe some type of chickpea spread for a sandwich with veggies?
The other part of the challenge to eat smarter during shows is that I always try to have my "trial run display" up in the living room and I tweak it until it looks just right. This can go on for hours and leaves no time for standing around in the kitchen at midnight, the night before a show, chopping carrots and pureeing chickpeas. So, I guess I will have to start setting up the trial run a day early and try to devote more time to making sure that "show food" is more "slow food."
I welcome all thoughts, comments and helpful hints (and recipes) for this situation. If you're an artisan and you do many shows, what do you do to eat healthier and save money (as well as time) while doing shows?
5 comments:
I don't do many shows, but the last time I went, I brought fruit along (apples and bananas) and a container of nuts and seeds. That, along with plenty of water is fine for me. Like you, I don't like eating while working and need to take tiny bites in case I need to talk suddenly.
I did struggle with having to watch people walk by constantly with their huge Bloomin' Onions - it was soooo tempting, but bad on many levels ;-)
I've only done a couple of craft shows and have been so nervous that I barely ate and when I did it was certainly not healthy, love the idea you came up with though and will give food some thought next time I decide to do a show.
Yes, it really is a weird and sometimes inconvenient situation. I'm thinking of maybe packing a couple of smoothies made with yogurt, fruit, wheat germ, etc. because like Doris said, sometimes you have to speak to someone quickly and don't want to talk with a mouth full of food.
for my own reasons i tend to eat very little while at shows. like, just enough not to get sick. so i opt for things like Luna bars which i can take a small nibble of between customers. and something like a homemade smoothie or Naked Juice. so it's healthy enough stuff but really not enough to sustain you - especially if it's a 2- or 3-day show.
That's usually how I prefer to eat as well. I'm a big fan of Babybel cheeses; so convenient and so good.
I try to pack a lot of nutrients into a small amount of food since I'm usually so busy. And then there are the times when I suffer from boredom eating during the slow spells.
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