I'm not quite sure where to begin — just like how it felt to walk into San Francisco's Moscone Center to a sea of booths, food, things that merely resembled food, beverages and tons and tons of people. The overwhelming sensation of it all was mind-blowing.
Not only did the event feed your taste buds, but exhibitors went all out to also make their booths and products the most eye-, ear-, and nose-catching. I mean, how can you not stop after walking past the aroma of freshly baked waffles? Or past a wall of sparkly packaged truffles, cookies, and cupcakes so big one could feed a small village?
Despite the challenge, my long legs and I powered through all the aisles in a matter of six hours. And sadly, after a while, even the most delectable of chocolates became hard to stomach with a belly too full and rather confused with its contents. I swear I heard it ask me at one point, "What the hell do you want me to do with this brownie-on-a-stick chased with watermelon wheat beer?"
Regardless, the results are in! Having walked away with eight pounds of fair trade hot chocolate, several t-shirts, a six-pack of smoothie drinks, several bags of falafel chips and countless chocolate bars (can you tell it was the expo's last day?), here's my 35th Winter Fancy Food Show total recall.
One of my general observations of the show was that you could barely walk one aisle without seeing some tea, specialty spiced dips and sauces, a snack food, fancy chocolate and unique beverage (it's not just water — it's deionized water). Plus, I couldn't help but think that a lot of these "fancy foods" wouldn't quite qualify as food if Michael Pollan were in charge.
Personal favorites
Beer tasting
Probably the biggest crowd I saw all day was standing around the booth of 10 American craft brewers (including one of my personal favorites, Dogfish Head — definitely try their Midas Touch if you can!), each sampling generous tastes of 4-5 beers. If you had the time to schmooze and stomach to drink, you could have easily hung out there all day and gotten sufficiently buzzed.
Sweet potato crackers
They sound weird, but these crispy baked delights from Polka Dot Bakery surprisingly caught my palate's attention. The savory with a tease of sweetness paired with a crispy bite is such a tasty sensation. Loving sweet potato, butternut squash and pumpkin flavors year round doesn't hurt, either.
Quinoa in chocolate
Instead of using rice to make the insides crunchy, Alter Eco threw in quinoa from their fair trade farming cooperatives in Bolivia. Genious! Not to mention delicious.
Chocolate peanut butter
If you like Nutella, Justin's is a must. It simply tastes better! Instead of tasting a processed and creamy sugary substance, you can actually taste the nuts in Justin's, giving it an authentic flavor you can relish in. Unexpected bonus: they come in 100-calorie squeeze packs! Self-control is hard to find inside a nut butter jar — whether it's almond, peanut or one of the two mixed with honey, maple or chocolate — but the little packets are the perfect answer. As one who eats many an apple-and-peanut-butter during the day, I'm totally sold.
Sparkling tea
Burnt out and running on fumes near the end of the day, I grabbed a small Dixie cup full of the Golden Star White Jasmine Sparkling Tea in passing. So refreshing. Perfectly bubbly. Sweet without being too sweet. It delivers a taste your palate hangs on to long after your last sip. And hey, for you non-drinkers out there, it'd make a great alternative to wine and champagne!
Fairytale brownies
Belgian chocolate brownies — moist and uber chocolatey. 'Nuf said!
Butternut squash pasta sauce
I wasn't kidding about the squash flavors. And this sauce from Dave's Gourmet, a San Francisco-based company, is absolutely to die for. So much so that it won the gold sofi(TM) award (the National Association for Specialty Food Trade's product award) for outstanding pasta sauce last year. I grabbed a taste of it on a whim, not knowing what it was, and it kept me salivating and thinking up potential recipes the rest of the day.
Show Mind-Benders
Java Rocks
Chocolate-covered espresso beans are nothing new to foodies, or even to the everyday consumer. But Java Rocks actually look how you might think they would — like dried, crumbly bits leftover from a volcanic eruption. And their texture in your mouth also tastes like such. But hey, the flavor's right if you love coffee and chocolate!
Freeze-dried fruit (a.k.a. commercial space food!)
These were probably the "healthiest" snack I saw all day, but with the weirdest texture. It's fruit, really ... if you can set your mind to it when your teeth are blazing through the whispy, crispy and lightness of each piece of apple, pineapple, strawberry, what have you. The good news? You can go through a whole bag of these things without feeling guilty (55 calories or less!), if you're up for eating like astronauts instead of, say, going down to your local farmer's market to grab the real thing.
Coolest booth people
Sweetbird
Maybe it was their British accents. Or the fact that they have the most darling logo ever. But these people laughed freely (especially after calling them out on labeling their cocoa powder as "fat-reduced" when it's naturally that way), had an open booth area toward which it was hard not to gravitate (a plush carpet, a makeshift bar fully equipped with stools, and no barricading walls of product), talked frankly about their efforts to break into the US markets after having done well in Europe, and of course, made us sipping chocolate.
What are we going to see in 2010?
A panel of food experts from the show narrowed it down to the top five trends:
1. Good-for-you foods. I guess we're in for another year of superfruits and food products screaming "Eat me! I'm good for you!" Some of them, as it turns out, actually are, like the vegan (yup, all dairy-free!) chocolate from Chocoveda that's "infused with an Ayurvedic rejuvenating tonic that has been used to relieve stress, anxiety and insomnia for thousands of years." And who knew? It's also good for your skin. But remember: IT'S STILL CHOCOLATE. It's not kale or broccoli, people.
2. Coconut. Coconut water is already on the rise, but be ready for it to get even bigger. And be on the look out for coconut essence in your biscotti, in your truffles, and the dipping sauce around which everyone at your next dinner party will be huddled.
3. Gluten-free everything. From cookies to crackers, bread and mouthwatering chocolate, more and more products are tuning in to the rise in gluten intolerance and perhaps to others' general desire for a healthier lifestyle without it.
4. Exotic citrus, like Yuzu, a sour Japanese fruit about the size of a tangerine used in juices, salad dressings and marmalades.
5. Nostalgic foods. For one person, it might be a hearty pot roast sauce. For someone else, it might be a stroganoff. But foods are working on taking you back to that happy place through your eating experience. Brace yourself.