Sponsor: Nana Pasta Sauce

[NanaFoods]

Villa still has their 2 for 1 deal going on. Yesterday I picked up 2 bottles of Amatriciana and 2 bottles of asparagus for under 200 baht.

Villa Pattaya, OUT OF STOCK. I bought the last two.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Villa seems to be not-so-on-the-ball regarding stock management.

At one point they kept ordering and ordering until they were overstocked.

Now, apparently, they are stock-out (at least in Pattaya).

Will try to resolve the problem ASAP.

Again, thanks so much for reporting this.

At least now we can get our newest lot of Artichoke on the shelves there (resolved the issue of slightly low salt).

[NanaFoods]

BTW, I finally found my empty jar of Agnesi Amatriciana.... It seems there is no English on the jar... but as I suspected (and probably for the very reason of supply assurance) they have listed in Italian, "pancetta affumicata" - smoked bacon - in the ingredients, and not guanciale.

there you are, toldya guys not to eat prepared sauces in jars lol on a serious note, again Bacon is something different altogether, Pancetta is a cured pork belly, season with spices and dried for a few months. It can be smoked but people prefer it unsmoked. I'm surprised that Agnesi ships products meant for the Italian market (no English label) and shoddy work from the Thai importer not to provide one locally. If word goes to the Thai Food & Safety Authority they can face fines and product recall from stores.

My internet service has been down for a couple days.

RE Arancini - We only make pasta sauce at the moment, although I have thought much about future expansion into frozen foods... but we need an anchor first, so that's a bit far off.

Ok, we can discuss that later in more details. Btw, I've seen you have in store demo booths, can you explains how do they work?

- customers get to sample / taste sauce off the jar

- could you get permission for a cook up from the stores? - pasta + sauce cooked at set times in front of customers

- is there any promotion for the day / demo booths duration?

- where and which stores these booths are located?

- is the staff behind the booth employed by the food stores or ad hoc trained people from temp agency?

- any literature / recipe booklets provided?

Also can you tell us if your sauces are going to be listed in new extra stores (not yet listed in your webpage). Which is the best selling stores, that displays the full range?

We operate the demo booths on occasion, not always.

When we do, we serve heated sauce over cooked pasta in a 2-oz cup.

We train and employ the servers when we are allowed to.

Tops only allows a monopoly demo company in their stores, and we don't have much control over them.

We did it once at Tops and weren't satisfied with their service, which was ridiculously expensive as well.

We cannot go in and do it ourselves at Tops, but we can at Central Food Hall (same owner, Central Group), and we had much more success with that.

We have available English and Thai literature (brochures) as well as small recipe booklet in Thai.

We try to promote our website to farang, as Thais seem to be averse to using the internet, though we do have recipes in Thai as well, but no so many hits on the Thai website.

At Rimping, during the morning, I personally even cooked up omelets with portobello mushrooms served with our pasta sauce on top to try and demonstrate alternate uses. Then our employee served pasta the rest of the day. Worked out quite well. We sold about 30 cases in 10 days in 3 stores. This was during the introductory period when we first signed on with Rimping.

Edited November 9, 2008 by ChefHeat

[Chuckler]

I have been a semi-frequent user of the Nana brand pasta sauce, and have nothing but praise. Nice job Chefheat.

[BangkokHank]

This is by far the best bottled pasta sauce I have ever tasted - and at a price much less than the imported ones. I also very much appreciate the fact that it is not overloaded with sugar like the sauces intended for Thai consumption.

As others have mentioned, I would also love to see a cream-based sauce, but that's another matter entirely and doesn't detract from the fact that the tomato-based sauces are delicious.

I also thought that it would be a good idea to sell the sauces at Foodland but if they charge so much for shelf space, I'm quite willing to walk up the street a bit more to Tops.

Anyway, thanks for a great pasta sauce. It has had a positive impact on my quality of life in Thailand!

[Tatler]

Chefheat,

Would TOPS in Nakhon Sri Thammarat stock your sauces?? If not would you do a special order?? One of the cons of living out in the sticks is that I miss out on all this great food that is easily purchased in Bangkok

[NanaFoods]

Thanks Chuckler and BangkokHank for your wonderful comments!!

Your words fill my heart with joy!!

Chefheat,

Would TOPS in Nakhon Sri Thammarat stock your sauces?? If not would you do a special order?? One of the cons of living out in the sticks is that I miss out on all this great food that is easily purchased in Bangkok

Not sure... it depends store by store and their customer base.

Its worth a check, but if you cannot find it, PM me, and perhaps we can arrange something.

[Buckwheat]

ALL of the delicious Pasta Sauce provided by Nana for the Thaivisa Anniversary party vanished.

A great party for Thaivisa members provided by our great sponsors.

You can read the comments HERE

Thank you Nana!

[Tatler]

Thanks Chuckler and BangkokHank for your wonderful comments!!

Your words fill my heart with joy!!

Chefheat,

Would TOPS in Nakhon Sri Thammarat stock your sauces?? If not would you do a special order?? One of the cons of living out in the sticks is that I miss out on all this great food that is easily purchased in Bangkok

Not sure... it depends store by store and their customer base.

Its worth a check, but if you cannot find it, PM me, and perhaps we can arrange something.

No Nana Pasta sauce in Nakhon Sri Thammarat special delivery??

[Susan25]

I'm from down south too. Up until now I have made my own sauce. I am sure that it is nowhere near as delicious as Nana's sauce even though I have never tried Nana's sauce. I'm more of a farmer than a cook. I am interested in purchasing some sauce. I'll let Tatler sort out the details. Also, what is the shelf life like? If I like it and buy a couple of jars how long will they keep?

[Jingthing]

Mr. Chef, I am curious as to your recommended dosage serving size (as a percentage of one bottle) for one adult size pasta serving (with the pasta dish as a main course). Thank you, Mr. Chef.

Edited November 12, 2008 by Jingthing

[Sarge]

ALL of the delicious Pasta Sauce provided by Nana for the Thaivisa Anniversary party vanished.

A great party for Thaivisa members provided by our great sponsors.

You can read the comments HERE

Thank you Nana!

who did the cooking at the party?

loads of positive feedback from satisfied customers, Kirk's got it right with recipe formula and manufacturing processes. Good on ya mate, said w/o irony

just of curiosity, you guys (who buy nana sauces), which pasta shape do you usually cook with those sauces?

[bonobo]

just of curiosity, you guys (who buy nana sauces), which pasta shape do you usually cook with those sauces?

Penne!

[thaigerd]

Papardelle

[Buckwheat]

ALL of the delicious Pasta Sauce provided by Nana for the Thaivisa Anniversary party vanished.

A great party for Thaivisa members provided by our great sponsors.

You can read the comments HERE

Thank you Nana!

who did the cooking at the party?

loads of positive feedback from satisfied customers, Kirk's got it right with recipe formula and manufacturing processes. Good on ya mate, said w/o irony

just of curiosity, you guys (who buy nana sauces), which pasta shape do you usually cook with those sauces?

Crowboy and I did the cooking. (Slow smoking the ribs....Nana cooked the pasta sauce...we just heated it)

We used Agnesi #3 spaghetti for simplicity since we were cooking enough for 179 people.

There wasn't enough Nana pasta sauce left over to fill 1 jar after it was served.

[NanaFoods]

I'm from down south too. Up until now I have made my own sauce. I am sure that it is nowhere near as delicious as Nana's sauce even though I have never tried Nana's sauce. I'm more of a farmer than a cook. I am interested in purchasing some sauce. I'll let Tatler sort out the details. Also, what is the shelf life like? If I like it and buy a couple of jars how long will they keep?

Our sauces are rated for 2-year shelf life.

Yes, I will work something out with Tatler.

[NanaFoods]

Mr. Chef, I am curious as to your recommended dosage serving size (as a percentage of one bottle) for one adult size pasta serving (with the pasta dish as a main course). Thank you, Mr. Chef.

You should be able to get 2 servings per jar, if used simply as sauce over pasta.

But please see our recipe page on our website for alternate usages

[bkkjames]

Had the Amatrica..mlasdfw one last night. Excellent.

[Sarge]

Penne!

that's one of my fav shapes too. An alternative (if can be found in Thailand) would be

Rigatoni married with funghi sauce

[Sarge]

Papardelle

another good one. If can be found in Thai food store's shelves, you may try this one also:

Reginette partnered with

[Sarge]

Crowboy and I did the cooking. (Slow smoking the ribs....Nana cooked the pasta sauce...we just heated it)

We used Agnesi #3 spaghetti for simplicity since we were cooking enough for 179 people.

There wasn't enough Nana pasta sauce left over to fill 1 jar after it was served.

that's a lot of sauce for a lot of people, assuming everyone had a small portion of pasta, say 80g cooked and using the standard 1:1 ratio, you'd get appx 4 pts out of a jar; so that makes over 40 jars. Which sauce(s) did you use at the party?

p.s.

the smoked ribs sounds delicious

[NanaFoods]

Villa still has their 2 for 1 deal going on. Yesterday I picked up 2 bottles of Amatriciana and 2 bottles of asparagus for under 200 baht.

Villa Pattaya, OUT OF STOCK. I bought the last two.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Villa seems to be not-so-on-the-ball regarding stock management.

At one point they kept ordering and ordering until they were overstocked.

Now, apparently, they are stock-out (at least in Pattaya).

Will try to resolve the problem ASAP.

Again, thanks so much for reporting this.

At least now we can get our newest lot of Artichoke on the shelves there (resolved the issue of slightly low salt).

OK. Villa Market, Pattaya, should have new stock on their shelves for several days now.

...And they got our newest batch of Artichoke. For those who tried it, please let me know if you feel it is improved. Thanks much.

[Sarge]

OK. Villa Market, Pattaya, should have new stock on their shelves for several days now.

...And they got our newest batch of Artichoke. For those who tried it, please let me know if you feel it is improved. Thanks much.

so anyone with a feedback on artichoke sauces? I guess this is a busy time for manufacturers, ramping their production lines to cope with the increased demand at Xmas. Any special promotion in store at the mo?

[NanaFoods]

OK. Villa Market, Pattaya, should have new stock on their shelves for several days now.

...And they got our newest batch of Artichoke. For those who tried it, please let me know if you feel it is improved. Thanks much.

so anyone with a feedback on artichoke sauces? I guess this is a busy time for manufacturers, ramping their production lines to cope with the increased demand at Xmas. Any special promotion in store at the mo?

We have some gift baskets available here and there, but only in the smaller markets -- its just too much hassle to deal with SKU fees and such with the big stores. Basically it's a small wicker basket with 2 jars of sauce, two small bags of pasta (2 types), a recipe booklet (in Thai), and little packets of parmesan and chili flakes.

Busy - Yes!! I have been rather busy designing a new and more international label set, as I seem to have a serious overseas prospect. In fact, I like my new label design much better than my current one, and may employ as many aspects of it as possible (given Thai label restrictions, requirements, and random bureaucratic idiocy) in future printings for the Thailand market. Also been working out the details of ramping up for this prospective customer... exciting!!

[NanaFoods]

Susan25,

I got your PM, but cannot open it - but I did see the gist of it in the PM alert.

I think there's a problem with TV server regarding PMs...

Please email me directly at [email protected]

Thanks.

[NanaFoods]

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

*** New Hua Hin Villa Market to carry Nana Pasta Sauce ***

We are shipping out today, so it should arrive in a few days.

Pattaya Villa Market can't seem to keep our sauce on their shelves, so they've doubled their normal order. Hopefully this will solve their stock-out issues. Many thanks to all who helped create this very positive problem

Cheers

[NanaFoods]

I would like to get some folks opinion on my newest label design concept...

Please let me know how you think.... below are a few examples.

Thanks

Edited November 30, 2008 by ChefHeat

[Sarge]

I would like to get some folks opinion on my newest label design concept...

Please let me know how you think.... below are a few examples.

Thanks

Kirk, this is an improvement over your current labels, however I'd suggest a few tweaks:

1. Titles and names should be on the same background colour of label

so no to divert attention from the main message; that is ingredients snapshot

2. Reduce numbers of background and text colours

can get confusing and overload visual effect

3. Not sure about black background label colour

I'd use pastel tones that harmoniously marry with main theme

4. Too detailed info ingredients snapshot

just use main ingredients for any given sauce: i.e. Olive Sauce, only tomato & olives needed to be represented

5. Text fonts & positioning

you may want to use a different text font & positioning to convey a specific message; i.e. Pasta Sauce (w/o Tomato) engrossed diagonally on the right side of the label

Also, are you changing the bottles shapes, glass texture and lid? Those changes could have an overall impact on the sensory perception of consumers. Btw, are you now using Pancetta Arrotolata for the Amatriciana sauce?

[Sarge]

Also been working out the details of ramping up for this prospective customer... exciting!!

I'm glad for you that avenue has finally opened up, it'll be a spring board to ramp up production. Thus lowering your costs and increasing profitability, once the initial capital outlay has been recouped

[NanaFoods]

I would like to get some folks opinion on my newest label design concept...

Please let me know how you think.... below are a few examples.

Thanks

Kirk, this is an improvement over your current labels, however I'd suggest a few tweaks:

1. Titles and names should be on the same background colour of label

so no to divert attention from the main message; that is ingredients snapshot

2. Reduce numbers of background and text colours

can get confusing and overload visual effect

3. Not sure about black background label colour

I'd use pastel tones that harmoniously marry with main theme

4. Too detailed info ingredients snapshot

just use main ingredients for any given sauce: i.e. Olive Sauce, only tomato & olives needed to be represented

5. Text fonts & positioning

you may want to use a different text font & positioning to convey a specific message; i.e. Pasta Sauce (w/o Tomato) engrossed diagonally on the right side of the label

Also, are you changing the bottles shapes, glass texture and lid? Those changes could have an overall impact on the sensory perception of consumers. Btw, are you now using Pancetta Arrotolata for the Amatriciana sauce?

Indeed, some excellent points worth considering.

Thanks for taking the time to add your critique.

Below are my comments regarding each point above:

1. Agnesi and Barilla do not do this... I was sort of following the pack on that point, albeit with my own style of font and banner so as to differentiate. However, I can certainly test and see how changing this looks...

2. Not sure how important that is - I've basically tried to choose the font color that is easiest to read given the background, and to differentiate between flavours.

3. Barilla and Agnesi both use pastels in the background. In fact, both have blue background with red brand-name banner and white brand-name font. Both have background-matching blue lids (this is important to the overall "look")

Actually, I really think the black background works quite well with our black lids. I'll post a jar-and-label mock up for you, once I can take a decent picture, and then you can perhaps see where I am coming from, and then comment further.

4. Over-representing too many of the ingredients did cross my mind.... now you've convinced me. I'll work on simplification. Thanks.

5. I put "tomato" in the banner as a set-up for other type of sauces. Like, I'll put "creamy" in place of "tomato" for a cream-based sauce, or "tomato-cream", etc. I'm afraid I may have a problem with Thai FDA if I don't. They made me do some really stupid things last time.

After all was said and done, they made the label look jumbled with all the added Thai words and added English words to my original. It seemed like they wanted to write a novel on my tiny little label. But I had to go along or delay our product release. -- I am having a hard time picturing the diagonal part of your suggestion.

Again thanks much for your recommendations.

[Sarge]

Indeed, some excellent points worth considering.

Thanks for taking the time to add your critique.

glad to see you found my comments of interest. The way you answered point 1 makes me think that perhaps I should have added extra details to make myself clearer - and on point 2 you missed the message completely. There were further points and comments but I think that is enough for free advice today let's hope some of the self styled food experts and food writers seen loitering here, take the ball and add comments & recommendations on how to refine the new labels.

Again thanks much for your recommendations.

so where is my 3 months free pasta & sauces supply? I'd like to donate it to children in need here in Mahasarakham (get 'em acquainted with the taste and turning 'em in future consumers)