Two Frys: Atlantic City Food And Wine Festival

Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29, 2012

Atlantic City Food And Wine Festival The Grand Market - Bally's

The Grand Market, lobby area

Allen attended The Grand Market at Bally's on Friday for a bit before he headed over to the Define "Cheese-Steak" event. We attended the Saturday session from 12:00 - 4:00PM with my brother and sister in law and had a great time. Allen and me also went on Sunday from 12:00 - 4:00PM and I took most of my pictures this day and did our shopping.

Chef Diane Henderiks

The Grand Market features food oriented companies selling everything from hot sauces, chocolate, brownies, peanuts, pecans, peanut butter and much more. Some restaurants from the Atlantic City casinos offered samples, and many wine and spirits companies had samples available for consumption. There were companies selling cookwares, knives, kitchen cabinet companies, etc. This year The Grand Market took place in three rooms back to back in the 6th floor of the Bally's Ballrooms. The Grand Market is one of the festival highlights and there were four sessions so people could squeeze a session or more in with other scheduled events.

Allen with Beverles Jenkins from Hot Wings On The Run

Hot Wings On The Run

At The Grand Market you get to sample many kinds of food, desserts, hot sauces, taste wines and spirits and shop for many things. This year I was so happy to see more food vendors and I had a great time shopping.

Chef Ron Duprat With Allen

Chef Ron Duprat's Gourmet Hot Sauces

Some Yummy Fritters We Tried

When you entered The Grand Market, the first room featured a stage for chefs to do food demos and seating. On Saturday, we watched Chef and Nutritionist Diane Henderiks cook up fish tacos with tilapia and a nice pico de gallo salad.

Orchid, One Hot Mama's Sauces

Hank Sauce

We loved Hot Wings On The Run and had a great time tasting several of their hot sauces and speaking to owner Beverles Jenkins. Allen purchased Hot Wings On The Run BJ's Green Hot Sauce, Smoked Honey Barbeque Sauce and Trini Hot Pepper Sauce. We cannot wait to cook up some recipes with the sauces!

Baker's Southern Tradition Peanuts

"Top Chef," season six contestant Chef Ron Duprat sells a variety of hot sauces and we enjoyed tasting them and bought Chef Ron Duprat's Gourmet Hot Sauces Pineapple Curry, Papaya Scotch Bonnet and Peppa Sauce.

Peanut Butter & Co

I was happy to meet Orchid Paulmeier from season seven of "The Next Food Network Star," and owner of One Hot Mama's American Grill, Hilton Head, SC and her line of sauces and BBQ rub. There was always a long line here to meet her and try her sauces. Orchid was a sweetheart and let me take a pic of her. I bought One Hot Mama's Original Recipe Backyard BBQ Rub Down, One Hot Asian Sauce and Perfect 10 Sauce.

Brownies Squared

Heavenly Dips

We really liked the hot sauce varieties at the Hank Sauce table and Allen tried a bunch of samples and bought Hank Sauce Camouflage Hot Sauce which is sweet, tangy, and zesty. This sauce had a hidden heat that creeps up on you but is not overwhelming.

Rex And Allen

The Story of Rex

Rex-Goliath Wine

We are big fans of Baker's Southern Tradition Peanuts and it is our third year in a row buying their products. Allen bought Lightly Salted Southern Blister Fried Peanuts and Devilishly Hot Ghost Pepper Peanuts (yikes). I bought Milk Chocolate Covered Peanuts, Dark Chocolate Covered Peanuts, White Delights White Chocolate Covered Peanuts and ChocoScotch Covered Peanuts. The Baker family run a peanut farm in North Carolina and they make the best peanuts we have ever tried. They ship so you can order from their fine selections online. See link at the end!

Duck Cooking From Maple Leaf Farms

Speaking of peanuts, we love peanut butter and sampled many of the selections available from Peanut Butter & Co. We bought White Chocolate Wonderful, The Heat Is On and Dark Chocolate Dreams.

Allen Loved The Lobster Bisque From Fin, Tropicana

I loved the brownie I tasted from Brownies Squared in Mays Landing, NJ. I bought some Coconut Macaroons, Fudge and a Brownie Pop.

The Melting Pot - Yummy!

I am a fan of 2 Chicks With Chocolate from meeting them last year and had to get my chocolate fix. I bought a box and got to choose 25 different chocolates to indulge in. I also got 2 bars - Dark Chocolate Coco Loco Bar! and Solid Dark Chocolate.

2 Chicks With Chocolate

I am crazy about Coconut and we tried samples of Coco Life Coconut Water. I prefer the one without the pulp. Yum!

Coco Life

Pecan Jacks

The Melting Pot A Fondue Restaurant in Atlantic City was a favorite table. The sample plate had melted chocolate to dip cake, rice crispy, chocolate and coconut marshmallows and brownie bites.

Lovely Salad From Harrah's

Gourmet Blends Barrel Aged Balsamics & Oils

Maple Leaf Farms were selling Duck and the lady I spoke to was cooking duck when I was there and it smelled so good. They were giving out samples but when I was there they ran out and were cooking more duck.