By Heather Kuklin
Back in October Artisanal LA was held on the 2nd and 11th floor in the LA Mart building. I love that place! So many studios and showrooms, you could spend days wandering around. We started on the 11th floor until we realized that the food was on the 2nd floor. We quickly went back downstairs to the grub after grabbing a coffee from Verve.
Pretty much the second we got downstairs we ran into my friend Ducky, a fellow food lover, photographer, and rad chick (you’ll find out more about Ducky when she photographs and curates my “LA ice cream tour” for FGFS).
Let me start off by saying that this place was insane. It was totally fucking overwhelming. Booths upon booths upon booths upon booths. It was all stuff I was interested in, which was the super amazing part. From raw vegan cashew cheese to fierce lady butcher demos, Artisanal LA had it all. I renamed it, “The hipster county fair.”
I think the highlight of the day was the butcher demo from Lindy & Grundy. They’re an absolutely epic lesbian couple that own the best meat market in town. They’re located in West Hollywood and I wish they would open up on the east side but they’re worth the schlep. Check out their website and get to know them better. They made butchering a pig look so fucking cool I almost signed up for their apprentice program. I could follow in the footsteps of my great grandfather, who was a butcher.
As I bid adieu to the real pig I approached a booth that made coconut bacon. It was vegan, gluten free, and delicious! I was pleasantly surprised. I bought three bags.
I decided to mix it with my Nary Dairy cashew cheese. Raw, vegan, gluten free, and soy free cashew magic. Okay, Nary Dairy is MIND BLOWING!!! Seriously, I’m their biggest fan, for real. It tastes like cream cheese, like for real cream cheese, I mean it! If I could jump into a pool of Nary Dairy, I would. My two favorite flavors are the smoked and the garlic. In my world, there is no such thing as too much garlic. The family that started Nary Dairy, Allen and Lois, are like, the cutest things ever — I’m totally biased because I also work with them at the commercial kitchen we both use to manufacture our goods. I was hooked from day one and it’s only gotten better, if that’s even possible. I wish you guys could taste it. I need to stop talking about it because I’m out of it right now. I ate almost two tubs while walking around yesterday.
There were so many different booths it is hard to remember them all. Baked goods, meat, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, succulents in cute glass containers, coffee, confections, clothing, art, kombucha, beverages other than coffee, and probably a lot more stuff I didn’t get a chance to get to. After about 4 hours we were spent. I am so glad I decided to not have a booth and just be a spectator. If you’re in LA next year for Artisanal LA I highly recommend going, totally worth it.
Fat Girl Food Squad 