Memoirs of a first-time attendee of the Fancy Food Show and all the creative new foods that were tasted.

“Ok, you go over there and I’ll meet you at Brazil!” yells a woman to her friend as she heads towards Italy.  No one bats an eye at these women traipsing across the world in the span of an hour because it’s the Fancy Food Show, and the Javits Center in New York City is packed to the gills with 5,000 exhibition booths all showing off their wares.  Some of the vendors were familiar with expansive displays (think names like Chobani or Jelly Belly) and others stood at quieter booths and wowed with their products.  Picking these new “wow” products in the sea of thousands is harder than it sounds, and I hope by now it sounds pretty hard.  I ate delicious goat cheeses, including a goat cheese cheesecake, goat cheese caramels, and goat cheese in olive oil.  I ate the only organic Manchego cheese from black sheep almost gone extinct and honey lavender fromage blanc with a raspberry on top.  The chocolate was amazing, rows and rows of chocolates from pure single origin dark chocolate to chocolate with blood orange, ginger, salt, and even honeycomb.  I tasted Citriburst, limes the size of kumquats that are filled with beads of lime juice; Kelp Caviar, which tasted similar to how it sounds and was more concept than taste; and duck bacon, a chewy idea that probably won’t overtake the turkey as the leading bacon substitute.  I ate more ginger than I have in my entire life, tried countless BBQ sauces and salad dressings, and sample products from plenty of jarred baking mixes (some of which are even packed by disabled veterans).  I tasted peanut butter and caramel sauces, pickled goods and granolas, banana-flavored desserts, and yogurts from around the world.  As you can see, it’s impossible, to sum up, three days of stuffing my face and encountering thousands of products into a concise list, but some of my findings are listed below.

The full article is available on our next digital edition, and it will be published shortly.