{"id":2550,"date":"2016-07-11T18:58:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T22:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/?page_id=2550"},"modified":"2021-11-24T18:15:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T23:15:30","slug":"specialty-food-associations-summer-fancy-food-show-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/?page_id=2550","title":{"rendered":"Specialty Food Association’s Summer 2016 Fancy Food Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)<\/em>
\n\"Show<\/a>To some, it is America\u2019s largest food and beverage trade show playing host annually to 2,670 US and international exhibitors who this year presented 180,000 specialty foods to over 47,000 industry professional buyers, distributors, brokers, and the media.<\/p>\n

To me, it is Xanadu.<\/p>\n

And not only because of three days\u2019 worth of opportunities to sample some delicious wares. The Fancy Food Show affords the chance to hob and nob with other professional foodies, see what products and brands are trending and poised to make a breakthrough, and get a sense of what the industry thinks the marketplace is craving. (I lost count of how many products had Krave in the name.)<\/p>\n

To clarify, \u201cspecialty foods\u201d \u2013 as contrasted with staples \u2013 encompass cheese (easily the largest category); cured meats; caviar, smoked, and other seafood; baked goods and mixes; candy and chocolates; nuts; condiments including sauces and marinades; oils; snacks; jams and jellies; beverages and more. The show highlights three major areas: a formidable presence of national manufacturers, a panoply of international pavilions proffering provisions from Peru to Pakistan, and a section organized by state populated by artisanal entrepreneurs trying to catch a foothold in the national marketplace. (Incidentally, it would seem that Brooklyn has seceded from New York since they were ensconced in their own area.)<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the international food representatives are a major inspiration for my annual hajj to that stately pleasure dome known as the Javits Center (although my unbridled passion for cheese does vie for first place). Case in point, my quest for argan oil. Made from the kernels of the nut encased by the fruit of the argan tree, its flavor is rich and distinctly Moroccan. Want a tip? Use this awesome product in your cooking or even just for dipping bread, perhaps with a sprinkle of dukkah<\/em>. After chatting up the folks in every booth in the Moroccan subsector, I was able to consummate my crusade upon meeting the delightful and generous folks at TVT Trade Brands<\/a>, an importer and distributor of spices and more from around the world.<\/p>\n

Back in the main area, I couldn\u2019t resist snapping a few photos of some over-the-top displays of cheesy elegance…
\n\"\"<\/a>
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…along with an example of fun and exciting things you can do with Serrano ham. (Take that,<\/em> Lady Gaga!)
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A booth promoting Pichuberries\u00ae, Mojo Tree Farm\u2019s trademarked name for golden berries (aka physalis, husk cherry, cape gooseberry and others \u2013 and not to be confused with true gooseberries) provided an example of something relatively new to the marketplace.
\n\"Pichuberry<\/a>\"Pichuberries\"<\/a>
\nIf you\u2019re near a great farmers\u2019 market, you can find ground cherries in late summer but they\u2019re unlikely to be perfectly ripe (look for orange, not green), and Pichuberries are far more reliable in that regard. The fruits, about the size of a marble, are sweet, tart, and a little earthy \u2013 delicious, and a worthy addition to any salad. Mojo Tree Farm<\/a> provides a number of recipes (like a pico de gallo <\/em>that looks wonderful) on their website.<\/p>\n

Of course, one can easily find the usual suspects like the baked goods wannabes: the brownie that eats like a cookie, the cookie that eats like a brownie, cookies masquerading as muffin tops, donuts masquerading as brownies, and brownie bottoms masquerading as cookies \u2013 \u201cthe best part of the brownie!\u201d one company boasted. <\/p>\n

One artisanal sausage maker bragged about how their product had no casing so there wasn\u2019t that annoying \u201csnap\u201d when you bit into them. Yeesh. Ah well, one man\u2019s meat is another man\u2019s poisson, I guess.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere was a little more homespun down in the States level: Virginia peanuts, Vermont maple products, Brooklyn hipster artisanality, you get the idea. Certainly there was a passel of good ol\u2019 boys invitin\u2019 all y\u2019all to come on down and taste what they just whomped up in the basement. Retired gramepaws, bless their hearts, sporting straw farmers\u2019 hats, who instead of traveling opted to sink their entire pension into bottling their secret family BBQ sauce recipe, beckoned to passing attendees as their granddaughters, aspiring Future Spokesmodels of America and dolled up in gingham, offered samples. Gotta love it.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s all about marketing, and that\u2019s the only aspect of the show that saddens me a bit. Not that I have anything against marketing per se. But all of these companies have done tremendous research into what America wants to put in its mouth, and it seems to me that it\u2019s really about what America doesn\u2019t<\/em> want to put in its mouth. It felt like practically every product crowed about some mix’n’match variation on:<\/p>\n

gluten-free, salt-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, trans fat-free, soy-free, egg-free, butter-free, tree-nut free, peanut-free, caffeine-free, no msg, no GMOs, no hormones, no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives, no additives, no high fructose corn syrup, no cholesterol, high protein, low carb, low fat, low calorie, vegetarian friendly, vegan friendly, paleo friendly, diet friendly, heart friendly, non-irradiated, pastured, macrobiotic, probiotic, antioxidant, raw\u2026handmade, fair trade, A grade, cage-free laid\u2026<catching my breath> and, of course, the ever popular and stupefyingly meaningless All Natural.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We want our handcrafted, small batch comestibles to be organic, sustainable, artisanal, locally-sourced, farmstead, snout-to-tail, farm-to-table, field-to-fork, and even (in the case of chocolate) bean-to-bar.<\/p>\n

Eagerly extending trays of samples, exhibitors intoned, \u201cGluten-free all-natural!\u201d never making it clear what they were offering let alone whether or not it might taste good. I think I saw biodegradably packaged gluten-free natural spring water. Gluten-free water? But I was pretty tired by then.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong; I applaud lifestyle choices and would never mock a creed someone holds dear. But sadly, nowhere did I see labels proclaiming ambrosial, appetizing, delectable, delightful, divine, enticing, exquisite, heavenly, luscious, mouthwatering, rich, savory, scrumptious, tasty, tempting, toothsome, yummy, and certainly never delicious. Why can\u2019t we strike a balance?<\/p>\n

And again, to be perfectly clear: the show itself is fantastic \u2013 a veritable Disneyworld for enthusiastic food professionals.<\/p>\n

I just wish America\u2019s relatively new-found romance with food were less about how it might kill us and more about how it might thrill us.<\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.) To some, it is America\u2019s largest food and beverage trade show playing host annually to 2,670 US and international exhibitors who this year presented 180,000 specialty foods to over 47,000 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3336,"featured_media":0,"parent":12453,"menu_order":110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2550","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2550"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16093,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2550\/revisions\/16093"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}