Some of our in-store tasting ...

SOIL ASSOCIATION ORGANIC FESTIVAL: Bristol 6-7 September 2008

This is first time we participated in the Soil Association Organic Food Festival, the biggest organic show in the U.K. When we got our banner, we thought it was huge until we saw those of the other stands- ours was about half the size of those of most other stands. Never mind. We made up with our cookery demonstrations and tasting at our stand which proved to be very popular. We are convinced that many  visitors to the show have " extra" sensitive senses- every time we start cooking, a "crowd" of visitors suddenly appears from nowhere!.

Sue's cookery demonstration at the Millennium Stand on both Saturday and Sunday drew a huge crowd. The audience were amazed  how easy it was to make a delicious stir-fry using our sauces in less than 5 minutes - no exaggeration - audience were invited to do the stir frying and their dish was tasted by other audience with approval. 

We didn't know what to expect as it was our first show but it turned out to be a great success. We run out of stock of most of the flavours. A buyer for a prestigious brand contacted us after the show. Apparently her colleague who visited the show told her that we were one of stands that stood out from the crowd! Highlight was a little boy who tasted our products and then brought a jar of Sze Hot. Its so good to see young kids liking good food.  

As Nature Intended- Chiswick: May 2008

Back for the re-launch of Chiswick store. Good to see Pat and his great team as well as Emma from Balham store. Really busy today with other companies also doing tasting. Met a lovely couple from Suffolk (their London friends brought them to the store) who loved the stir-fry. We told them that they might soon be able to buy our sauces nearer home. On Monday, we got an order from Jimmy's Farm (as seen in BBC series) in Suffolk!

(10 days later we received a parking penalty notice from Hounslow Council, only by examining the "photo evidence", we realised that it is because we stopped by the roadside, got out to assess the car boot for our bottle of water and a pear  - we were so busy in the tasting we forgot our lunch. We certainly did not parked there - even the photo clearly shows the passenger car door was wide open! But would Hounslow Council actually care? I think not.) 

Field to Kitchen: May 2008

It's our 2nd tasting at Field to Kitchen. We were more prepared this time. Some of the customers remembered us; one lady told us that she tried to buy more Beijing Tomato & Coriander stir-in sauce last time but it was sold out - wasn't sure whether this was the same customer who tried to buy a Bejing Tomato & Coriander stir-in sauce for her friend in Wales who was intolerant to gluten. This flavour is again proving to be popular with the children as well. A couple of children come back for seconds and a little girl tried to come back for a third portion but her mum stopped her.

OHO: April 2008

Birmingham's biggest organic store run by two lovely guys- Ashley and Anthony. 

Many of the customers were eager to re-create the cashew nut stir fry we cooked and went back into the store searching for cashew nut. It seems Brummies like hot and spicy foods from the comments we had for the Dan Dan Chilli. The Thai Coconut was the ladies favourite and the kids (as well as their mum/dad) loved the Beijing Tomato. We saw one little boy come back into the store 5 minutes later with his dad- his dad said that he was pestered into coming back to buy a jar of Beijing Tomato!

Field To Kitchen: March 2008

This is our first tasting at this store so didn't know what to expect. However, we soon realised that we had grossly underestimated the number of people interested in tasting our products. We ran out of everything and had to finish earlier than expected.

During the day, one of the customers took over the stir-frying (he was rather good) and got a round of applause from the other customers! One lady was so impressed with the taste of our wheat & gluten free stir-in sauces that she wanted to buy another jar of Beijing Tomato for her friend who lived in Wales and who was intolerance to gluten. Unfortunately, we had sold out.

Riverford- Starverton & Kitley: Feb 2008 

When setting up, a customer told us that she had try our Sweet Ginger & Blackbean the night before and thought it was delicious. Positive start!

We were well prepared with our thermals for the February British spring. It was pretty cold at first but we soon warmed up. Great comments from the customers and staff to our stir-fries. Even the children were eager to try. No comments from the kids but I took it that they liked our stir fry when they returned empty pots.

One customer used to live in Singapore and was not quite sure about our sauces at first since she's used to eating authentic Chinese foods. After she tasted our stir-fry, she was won over.

As Nature Intended- Ealing, Chiswick, Balham & Hale: Feb 2008

Zesame's first in-store tasting. Thankfully, the induction hob was great for stir-frying and everything went smoothly.

At Ealing, a gentleman (who said he owned a business just across the road) was sceptical about organic foods as he had been disappointed in the past. He tried our stir-fry and was impressed. Hopefully, we have gone some way to convincing him that not all organic foods are tasteless.

At Chiswick store, I think its fair to say that Pat and his staff enjoy our stir-fry - some staff brought a jar to cook at home.

Our piece about stir-frying with tofu on our website was inspired by Emma at Balham store who told us that our stir fry sauces would be great with tofu (one of the popular items in the store) but many people don't know how to use it in a stir fry. At the store, a customer really enjoyed our stir-fry. He went out and brought back his wife who after tasting our product, brought in her friend to try our product - that's what I call "word of mouth"