Gourmet Lady Blog

Ginger!  I have a saying about ginger.  "If it's got ginger, I have it, or I want it!”  Having always been a fan of ginger, the ginger products get a lot of attention from me.  While at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show earlier this year, I literally visited every booth - 1,200 in all – looking for interesting products.  “Do you have anything with ginger?  What about wasabi?”   No matter how much fun it sounds like, tasting your way across two city blocks is hard work.  But I"m very dedicated to my profession as The Gourmet Lady!

 A few days ago, a young family visited the store.  The daughter was looking a bit bored.  We started chatting and the topic of ginger came up.  She became more animated, but not about the kind of ginger you eat.  She said her dog’s name was Ginger and added, “we call her ginger-vitis!!” 

 One corner of the store has a huge cupboard filled with ginger products.  I call it my “shrine to ginger.”  Awhile back when I rearranged the shelving in the store, the ginger cupboard moved from a center wall to a corner where there was much more room to display the numerous products.  Regular customers would come in the store and walk to where the ginger cupboard used to be, and stand there looking stunned.  Seeing them stutter and stammer, I recognized that these ginger aficionados were frightened that the ginger was gone.  “Don’t worry, the ginger is still here!  It’s just moved!” 

 The shop is located in a great, old, funky complex that has many levels.  From the parking lot you go up stairs, walk a ways, go down a stair, walk a few more steps, and then there’s one final step before you reach the front door.  Despite painting bright yellow stripes where the levels change, folks were still missing that last step and would stumble into the shop.  Last summer I saw a number of sweet little old ladies reach the point just before that stair, pause, and look into the shop.  The first table had a big display of afternoon tea items, and the clotted cream would catch their eye.  “Oh my!  Look!  Clotted cream!”  And they would head into the store missing that step.  Clotted cream caused many a stumble.  I was forced to relocate the clotted cream, double Devonshire cream, and lemon curd to a less distracting location.  Some nice dignified jams took their place and caused no more stumbles.