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?
