Many readers of the Official PiercingMetal Blog are aware that we cover some entertainment related conventions like the Comic Con, Toy Fair and even Book Expo America but even they must be scratching their heads at my inclusion of the 1st Annual Hot Sauce Expo. Generally speaking, the food aspect of this particular event would find me posting this on my PiercingKen.com site but with a number of Heavy Metal and Hard Rock greats all having a hot sauce of their own found me putting the story here for the PiercingMetal fan base. Read on.

The event itself was the brainchild of Jimmy Carbone and Steve Seabury. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Seabury, or “Buckshot” for a number of years from the Metal scene and watched him perform on the stage and eventually launch his now super popular High River Sauces brand. That being said, it was time to explore the event and lend some support. Here is the sign that greeted me as I wandered to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

One of the many event sponsors were the cats from Empire Biscuit and they were baking biscuits and serving them up with a couple of kinds of gravy. While I didn’t manage to snag a photo of those tasty treats I did snap their bag of spiced walnuts and their outrageous gumbo. It was a warm but windy day and that made it chilly at times being on the waterfront. This gumbo was the perfect thing. I will be hitting their restaurant when it opens in the summer for sure.

Jarlsberg cheese was also on point as a sponsor of the expo and they had a number of different cheeses to enjoy. As a lover of cheese I paid several visits to their table. They were also serving up some grilled cheese sandwiches and I don’t think I have to tell you that I made sure to have one of those as well.

Now let’s get into exploring the 1st Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo……The event was listed as private because part of the space where it was had a small beer garden setting and its adjacent to a public park. Despite the warning, the event was very reasonably priced so many curious folks came in to see what it was all about.

Here we see Mr. Seabury walking around with some Food Network people. Pictured but not facing us is Miss Kelsey Nixon, she has a show of her own. It’s just completed five seasons according to research.

Here’s Mr. Chris Caffery of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Savatage with his friend Tim Cain. Tim also used to be one of the TSO a few years back. Chris was here to support his High River Sauce “Tears O’ The Sun”.

Here’s Chris with his own creation for High River Sauces. He currently has “Tears O The Sun” and “Grapes Of Wrath”

Hey check out this display. Does the name ring a bell? It should because its none other than Eddie Ojeda from Twisted Sister’s own brand of hot sauce. Its a cherry habanero blend. An interesting mix for sure but was done right according to my taste buds.

Next up was the table by Evil Seed Sauces. I actually met them at the previous night’s “Metal Alliance” show at Irving Plaza. They surely had a sinister blend going on and each of the sauces that I sampled were very tasty.

No your eyes are not deceiving you. One of these sauces is indeed black. Talk about a Metal sauce.

This charming lass was one of the folks showcasing a news website called DNAInfo.com – Check them out when time allows. I enjoyed speaking to them this afternoon.

Sadly I did not win the drawing. Too bad. I would have finally gotten my hands on an iPad if I had.

Now onto the table of Melinda’s Hot Sauce.

Inside the building where I first started my adventure there was a contest for the best Bloody Mary. These ladies were part of the pending spectacle and kindly posed for a moment for me.

I was getting overrun by hot sauce and nothing much else in my stomach so I headed back to where I heard some chicken nuggets were being served. Talk about something that hit the spot just in time. Yes I brought them back out to the expo and put some hot sauce on them.

I’m not the biggest Bloody Mary fan but there was a popular mix available for purchase.

Now let’s take a walk over to the booth that was being manned by the one and only Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal of Guns ‘N Roses. He had several sauces on hand, some more lethal than the others…..I took a few photos of him since he was so awesome in his pitch and to talk to today.

Bumble warned me to only use a tiny bit of his Bumblef**ked sauce and so I did. It tasted very nice but had a clear kick to it. After a few minutes I felt my entire mouth go numb for a good ten minutes. Yowza that is hot. I recommend it to you fans of the hot stuff but be warned, it is not for the timid.

Ron’s wife Jennifer has a sauce of her own and its called “Bumblebabe”. It’s a sweeter mixture and has a chocolate ingredient to it and its a little less lethal than the previously discussed sauce. The awesome thing about this sauce is that every sale finds a portion of the proceeds being donated to Women’s Shelters.

Now that the television recording spot was done, I caught up with Steve Seabury and asked Kelsey Nixon and him to pose for a shot. I hope I can catch the segment when it airs on the Cooking Channel. I should start watching more of that particular network as I am getting tired of making the same old easy dishes.

Here’s the lovely miss Cassandra Sotos. We met her for the first time at the Hot Sauce Expo, but caught her performing twice with Tony Harnell’s band. She plays the electric violin and rocks it for sure.

Here’s an NYC centric sauce. Its name “NYC Hot Sauce”.

There were some other food vendors serving up some treats for a modest stipend and while I did not take too many photos of the brisket table or the ice cream ones I did get passed by a young lady bearing gifts in the form of macaroons. The green ones tasted like thin mints while the white sprinkled ones tasted like cereal. In a word awesome.

I ran into these two guys at a Wizardworld Comic Convention a couple of years ago. This is Brimstone and one of his heroic associates Luscious. Apparently not only is Brimstone the star of his own comic but he is a chef and the main brain behind a line of sweet sauces. Sadly I did not manage to sample any of these today.

As they were close in proximity today I made sure to snag a photo of these two guys.

A quick walk a few aisles down found Brimstone and Eddie Ojeda posing together with each others branded sauce.

We heard some vintage Metal playing at the table for Defcon Sauces . They had some nice stuff and we sampled one of their medium intensity flavors. Wow it was righteous.

As I was heading to the Paganfest later that evening I was tempted to borrow his gauntlet. Of course it might have been hard to shoot the camera with that on I think.

Here’s the one and only Eddie Ojeda and Chris Caffery. I’ve been honored to know both of these guys since I first started PiercingMetal and I always enjoy seeing them in musical action.

Three of the main dudes together in a single shot. Glad I got this one.

This young lady was at the Ojeda booth. I shot the photo because she had an awesome sweater on.

So that is all we have my friends. An interesting and tasty way to spend the afternoon. Now it was time for me to head back into the city to properly prepare for the Paganfest show. I guess it would find Duke’s on my radar along with a couple of ice cold beers to help cool down the raging fires that were now going on in my stomach. This was a really fun thing to have attended and I look forward to attending next year to lend some support. Kudos to Buckshot on an event well run.

Official Websites:
NYC Hot Sauce Expo: http://www.nychotsauceexpo.com/
High River Sauces: http://highriversauces.com/
Bumblefoot: http://www.bumblefoot.com/
Cassandra Sotos: http://www.cassandrasotos.com/
Chris Caffery: http://www.chriscaffery.com
Defcon Sauces: http://www.defconsauces.com/
Eddie Ojeda: http://eddieojeda.com/
Empire Biscuit: http://empirebiscuit.com/
Evil Seed Sauces: http://www.evilseedsauces.com/
Hound Comics: http://houndcomics.com/
Melinda’s Hot Sauce: http://www.melindas.com/store.html
Murph’s Famous: https://murphsfamous.com/
NYC Hot Sauce: http://www.nychotsauceco.com/
Rippin’ Red Sauces: http://www.rippinred.com/

If you don’t yet own a copy of “Mosh Potatoes” you can order one via the handy dandy link below, and also take a peruse of another Metal themed cookbook and some of the sauces that were featured in this very narrative. Bon appetite….