This past week was a road show out west — a day spent walking the Natural Food Show in Anaheim, MILKimchi launch and tastings at in LA and SF.

Being a newbie to specialty food trade shows, I’m never quite sure what I’m missing… I spent one of the three days walking the Expo-West, a natural food show. What I realized about this show was how BIG the natural food category really is and how much big dollars are behind many brands. I did have a chance to talk to industry veterans in food biz and did some walking around to meet interesting folks from a variety of foods and do some ever important socializing. We even had a big group of us ‘industry folks’ go eat at my mom’s famous sulungtang restaurant in Garden Grove.

With tastings scheduled to launch our newest account in west coast — Surfas in LA, The Pasta Shop in Oakland and Bi-Rite Market in SF, but I was unsure what to expect. Rather than risk the uncertainty of shipping proucts from LA to SF, I made sure that it had to arrive with me on my luggage… imagine my shock when my mom gave me old baby blankets! Yes, there’s something hilarious and appropriate about it all, they all arrived in one piece.

It was such a warm, welcome reception — not only did Californians know about kimchi but were so receptive and warm. I even did my first-ever tasting on the sidewalk on Guerraro Street in front of Bi-Rite Market. What a little piece of heaven and tasting frenzy of kimchi lovers!

I am so excited to a have MILKimchi and share it with so many people — now at three different regions in NYC, LA, SF… it’s like living a dream… a home coming and the bi-coastal genesis of MILKimchi has a wonderful new following of Californians.

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