As soon as Rogelio Martinez appeared with a trayful of taco bites, a line formed to get them.
The crisp, golden brown rolls were stuffed with Oaxacan cheese and jamaica flowers and drizzled with sweet jamaica syrup.
Martinez owns the Casa Oaxaca in Culver City and Restaurante Mestizo by Casa Oaxaca in Santa Ana. His food was a big attraction at the recent Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, a trade show of food products, machinery, uniforms and other equipment for the restaurant business.
Martinez was in the Sabor Latino Pavilion, which wasn't really a pavilion but a corridor of booths.
The State of Yucatán was there too, with products such as Cascam's honey produced from flowers in the community of Baca, Yucatán. They are, from left, Xul, a light amber honey; Dzidzilché, an amber honey, and dark amber Cadzin.
As attention-getting as the honeys was the exquisite regional dress on the woman at the right. Entirely handmade, even the embroidery, it looked like a museum piece.
La Meridana showed a collection of hot sauces based on the habanero chile, including red and green sauces and others brightened with the tropical flavors of banana and mango. The company is based in Mérida, Yucatán.
Restaurants can buy fresh corn kernels packaged this way, ready for the corn salad esquites and other dishes. The corn is from Agro Kiin, which also distributes habanero chile paste. Its products are packaged in Mérida, Yucatán.
And here are miniature esquites, set out by Cacique as a way of showing off its cheeses. The sign in front amounts to a recipe you can use at home.
Cacique also introduced its new line of flavored sour creams--jalapeño, chipotle and cilantro lime.
Debuting at the Expo was Anna's Lime-Limón, dehydrated key lime juice from Mexico. Diluted with water, the product makes a serviceable substitute when fresh limes aren't available.
Fresh products included these Hatch chiles from New Mexico.
Dulce de leche comes in many forms, including a thick stabilized version that doesn't spread during baking, another stiff enough to pipe onto pastries, a traditional version and Mexican cajeta. There's sugar-free dulce de leche too. All are from El Ombú in the city of Querétaro.
People who don't live where Mexican ingredients are available can get their fix through My Cajita, a subscription service that sends out monthly Mexican-themed boxes.
Above is a cocktail box, complete with salt for rimming glasses. The glasses themselves are made in Mexico.
A coffee and chocolate box features coffee from Oaxaca.
A rep at a Mexican avocado booth said high avocado prices might come down "after Super Bowl," but it wasn't necessary to wait that long to taste delicious guacamole. This was prepared by El Torito for Culinary & Cocktail Clash, a competition that wound up Expo's opening day.
That party was a benefit for the California Restaurant Association Foundation and its high school culinary arts program and provided the most sought-after giveaway of the day--colorful straw sombreros embroidered with the names of Mexican restaurants.
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