The Mexico City World Trade Center, just a block away from my apartment, was advertising "ExpoPan"... a bread exposition. Alejandro and I imagined that there would be stands from all the bakeries and pastry shops in the city and beyond... all selling their tasty wares. We had visions of eating our way through the exposition and not having to eat any supper that evening.
We went to "ExpoPan" on Wednesday, and it was not at all what we had imagined. It was a trade show, and most of the stands were for professional baking equipment and utensils.
For making really big batches of bread!
At one corner of the hall there was a cake decorating competition. The theme of the contest was obviously children's cartoons.
There were a few stands that were selling food products. There were several chocolatiers, and I bought a box of chocolates to take home as a gift.
There was also a stand selling Mexican vanilla. I needed vanilla for when I make fudge at Christmas time. Fortunately they had a bottle small enough to be permitted in my liquids bag in my carry-on bag on my flight home.
We finally found the kind of vendor that we had been expecting. A bakery was selling large loaves of "pan de muerto" (bread of the dead). Alejandro bought one to take home to his family.
We had to go out to eat afterwards, but we both bought something at the "expo" so it wasn't a complete waste of time.
Brings back memories of participating in a Trade Show at the WTC in the 80's. It was not open to the public but was all kinds of businesses related to the hospitality industry. CANIRAC, the national restaurant assn of Mexico was the sponsor along with the US State Department. In the past, it was very difficult to find the kind of equipment in Mx that you saw at your show the other day. Good news.
ReplyDeleteThe show was not really open to the public. We had to fill out a form before entering, and we put down that we were baking students. That should have been our clue that this was a trade show.
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