Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Fancy Food Show ---New York







The Fancy Food Show ended last week and took with it the pleasurable tastes in my mouth. 54,000 exhibitors came to New York to show off their products and new, thankfully, tastes. It was my first Fancy Show but not the last one. I attended only two out of the three days, and I had a lot of food! In an effort to try pretty much everything, even things I don't always eat, my stomach was full at the end of the day and all my senses satisfied. Here is an informative list that foodies or interested in food industry individuals will find interesting:


Wasabi is here to stay: Not only as the super spicy green sauce that accompanies our sushi but as an indispensable element of cooking success: now you can get wasabi wave with chocolate habanera, ginger wasabi Teriyaki marinade, Wasabi, ginger and lemon sauce and also chocolate bar with wasabi.


Hot and sweet tastes mixed together: candied ginger and pistachio, salted caramels with chili and pecan, Aztec Chili bittersweet chocolate tiles, cashews and peanuts coated with mango and papaya, are some of the sweet/hot products I personally tried and definitely recommend.


Peri-Peri sauce, my favorite: the well-known hot sauce that comes to us from South Africa. If you can’t take the extra hot peri-peri, you can opt for the mild or medium so no complains! I was particularly happy to find out that my favorite restaurant and peri-peri producer Nandos is also moving to New York. I couldn't hide my joy and the very friendly Nandos stand representatives, offered me a big jar of peri-peri sauce!


Gluten-free products: very powerfully present. Amongst others, I saw the Mary’s Gone crackers, gluten free cookies and crackers, wheat free ice-cream cones an even a luxury butter fudge with no gluten.


Flax seeds and oils together with avocado oil: flaxmax cookies, the whole wheat blend with flax, the exotic rice toast with Thai red rice and flax seeds and the heart shape flax oils. Except for flax seeds, avocado had a first class seat as well with plenty of avocado oil companies to offer generous tastings.

I was impressed with the chocolate made from coffee beans instead of cocoa. It was bitter as coffee but tasty and unconventional. So, if you don’t want your Joe liquid, you can now get it in the solid form of chocolate! Visit their site for more information if you like: http://www.acapelalfoods.com/

Some snacks pitched as good for you with very friendly names so they are unforgettable:
Foudshoudtastegood: snack chips (and very tasty indeed) and prescription chocolate!

Other amazing products I tried were: the Blackwell's organic raspberry sorbetto, an amazing refreshing sorbet made from raspberries, the salty butterscotch dessert sauce, and the hibiscus champagne!

Except for the trends and the new tastes, I had the chance to visit the country stands: I attended the reception at the Chilean stand, and visited extensively all following countries while eating their foods: Greece, Cyprus, Peru, Italy, France, Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan and Spain. But my favorite was South Africa, an amazing presence with excellent tastes.

Finally, some food companies can't forget about the upcoming US elections so they try to make the most of it. In particular, the well-known hummus company Sabra presented sculptures of Sen. Obama, Hilton and McCain (I believe they were made of hummus!).

Yes, I had a lot of fun in the show. I can't wait for next year or I might even visit the one in San Francisco early 2009!

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