Fancy Food Show

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week the Fancy Food Show was held in San Francisco on Moscone Center. It is one of the largest food shows in the United States. I have always wanted to attend this event. What could be better than to be surrounded by more than 1,500 exhibitors from 35 countries displaying a total of 50,000 products? And the best part.....every vendor at the show had samples. I officially broke my diet this week!

It was great to get to attend the first day of the show with my Mom! We both share a love of food, but because she is normally the babysitter, we very rarely get to attend things together.

This show is attended by supermarket buyers (I saw Lucky's and Safeway), large airlines (United) and retail locations both big and small (Cost Plus and World Markets). I will no doubt be seeing these products on their shelves. Besides the big Wheelers and Dealers, there were a lot of smaller restaurant owners and retailers like MagPies.

It will take me months to go through all the information I collected and I will continue to share things with you as I do that. However, I can tell you the trends I saw......lots of cheese (from all over the world), Indian Food (Yeah!), Organic Chocolate (with everything added to it, including smoked applewood bacon). I saw lots of beautiful teas (loved the blooming tea) and drinks/flavored water in great flavors (mango, lychee and rose).

I was particularly pleased to see that there were a large amount of organic/natural vendors. The show organizers situated these vendors all together. It was great to taste and investigate so many healthy and natural alternatives that are now becoming available to us. Even though I felt overwhelmed trying to visit all the vendors, I got lots of inspiration from the show.

There was very little related to baking pies and tarts but I came away feeling energized by the passion of so many in the food industry.

As I was leaving the show I overheard two gentleman talking about and upcoming Candy Show? Candy.......ummmm! Maybe that is one for next year's calendar!

Saturday Deliveries - January 24th

Savory
Shallot and Garlic Tart - Roasted Shallots and Garlic in a crusty Tart Case $4 tart (4")

Chicken, Leek and Tarragon Pie - A compliment of lemon and tarragon
gives a touch of freshness to this chicken pie $5 pie (5")


Sweet
Pear, Pomegranate and Caramel Pie - $5/piece
Goat Cheese and Banana Pie - a baked pie with a cream consistency - $5/piece
Red Bean Squares - A Japanese take on a favorite bar cookie. $4/square


Soup
Carrot and Coriander $5/quart