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I just walked in the door from the NASFT Winter Fancy Food show. I've been going since I was a kid, and look forward to the intense craziness of it each year. The show comes to San Francisco once a year and fills the North and South halls of the Moscone Center with exhibitors presenting over 50,000 different cheeses, jams, jellies, salsas, teas, chocolates, wines, olives, spices, and other edibles to the trade. If you've ever been to Moscone, you know how absolutely huge the place is, and for this show the convention center is packed.

It took us 5 hours to walk up and down all the aisles. I took some notes along the way, and made up a list of my favorite things from today, day one. The show lasts three days, and I will probably go back tomorrow with Carolina to make note of all the tasty treats and ingredients that I'm sure I missed on first pass.
At first glance, I can sum up the trends for you pretty quickly....

Big in 05: drinkable chocolate, fruit pastes (quince paste, pear pastes, etc), there must have been 300 tea booths, organic wine, small batch products

Missing from past years: low-carb, guacamole

Here's the list, my personal "Best in Show"...Even if you don't make it to SF this week you can order products direct from producer websites (most have them).

Dalmatia Fig Spread with Orange
(Pictured above). I've been in love with Dalmatia Fig Spread since I had it recently at a friends brunch. When I got to the Fancy Food Show, I specifically sought out their booth to see what other products they had. I buy the Dalmata Fig Spread with Orange from the Whole Foods here in San Francisco, but you can also order it by the case from their website directly. It is that good, and you get a nice break on the price. It is made from hand-picked Adriatic figs and can be used a thousand ways; with your favorite cheese (I like it with a creamy brie), as a filling for a tart, cake, pie or pastry, on crostini, or as a spread on a grilled panini. While at their booth I also sampled their delicious Green Olive Tapenade and a perfect Red Pepper Spread. I can't say enough about how good these products are.

Belfiore Cheese
Berkeley-based Belfiore has a new Farmer's Cheese with Golden Raisins. Delicious. Slightly tangy with a pop of sweetness from the fruit. Perfectly spreadable. Would be great drizzled with honey - on crackers/bread, on a morning bagel, as a tiny tart filling, etc. I think you can get it at many Whole Foods. It is 100% natural, they use non-animal rennet, and are kosher-certified.

Big Tree Farms
I got really excited when I stumbled on this Wildcrafted Balinese Long Pepper. With the domestication of the peppercorn, wild long peppers sort of dropped off into culinary obscurity for the most part. I put some of the ground long pepper sample in my palm and took a cautious sniff, not wanting to trigger a fit in the middle of the convention center. It was wonderfully floral and spicy, warm and complex - not at all jarring. I want to use it in homemade tart shells, and fresh baked crackers. As far as purchasing, it looks like that section of their site is under development, but you can also buy it here, at Zingermans.

Laloo's Goat's Milk Ice Cream
Ridiculously delicious ice-cream delivered in perfectly cute packaging. This is slow farmed ice-cream made from goats living the good-life in Sonoma County. I had the Black Mission Fig, and it was unbelievable that an ice-cream this rich, creamy, and delicious was low-fat. I had no idea until I started reading their materials. The goat milk used in Laloo's is low-fat, low lactose, and contains no growth hormones. You can order it by the pint from their website, and it looks like Laloo's is available primarily in Bay Area specialty grocers like Rainbow Market, Bi-Rite, Dean and Deluca, and the Sonoma Market.

Dagoba Organic Chocolate
I sampled their Xocolatl bar. It is dark (74%) and spicy - and I don't mean subtly spicy. This bar has kick and is a lot of fun. It is great straight out of the wrapper but per some of our previous conversations, I can't wait to make these brownies with this chocolate bar. I also enjoyed some of Dagoba's new single origin chocolates (all 68%) - I wanted to take home some of the Pacuare Costa Rican bars. Like many of you have been telling me, keep an eye out for Dagoba in stores all over - bonus points to them for all an all organic line, as well as offering up the widest range of Fair Trade certified chocolate and cocoa products out there.

Gelato & Sorbetto Classico
These guys make a mean Blackberry Cabernet Sorbetto. It is rich, refreshing, beautiful to look at, packed with fruit, fat-free, and all-natural. Really delicious. Jeff Hren, who is the (really nice!) chef charged with developing new flavors of gelato and sorbetto, says they are also playing around with some new flavors, including some of the following which I'll list out below. I encourage you all to try some of Jeff's creations, they were delicious. They have a retail locator here on their website so you can find their product locally :
A few new flavors in development; Roasted Fig, Goat Cheese with Ripple of Pear and Walnut, Pomegranate, Tangerine, Kiwi

High Desert Foods
Delicious, all-organic conserves made from fruit grown in the red rock country of the Southwest. Nice clean, modern packaging. The Sour Cherry Conserve was my favorite. They even make it easy for you to buy online. Trust me and try the cherry.

Bear Naked
Bad jokes and punning aside, I enjoyed my stop at the Bear Naked booth. Granola all around. I sampled their Fruit and Nut granola which I was really into. Most importantly it didn't scratch up the roof of my mouth which is what normally happens when I eat granola. They have a new Banana Nut flavor, and I look forward to munching my way through their entire line-up - they also have a recipe for Bear Naked Cookies on their site. You can buy online, or use the store locator on their website.

The Perfect Bite Co.
I'm not normally a fan of commercially made frozen hors d'oeuvres that you pop in the oven 10 minutes before your guests arrive -- but The Perfect Bite Co. has really stepped it up a notch as far as pre-made party fare goes with their Pastry Kiss line. These bite sized delicacies are made from scratch, from recipes chef Teri Valentine has been using for years in her catering and restaurant businesses. They come in savory, sweet, and seasonal varieties. I tried the Caramelized Onion & Feta and it was a knock-out. A nice puff pastry base baked golden. Warm feta. Sugary dark caramelized onions. Not greasy. Yum. They come in 12-packs. More information here on their website.

Elsa's Story
I have a weakness for shortbread and butter cookies in general. Pair them with nicely designed packaging, and I'm a pushover. Elsa's Brown Sugared Butter Cookies taste good and are packaged cute. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that. I remember a year or two back, Elsa & Co had your standard tradeshow booth and display, but this year they had a huge footprint on the showroom floor three or four times your standard size. They are also offering up preserves and gift packs that I didn't have a chance to look too closely at quite yet. Cute stuff, tasty, nice for gifts. I think you can buy it at Dean and Deluca (def. NYC).

Planted by the River
If you've actually read this far, this is your payoff. The gem of the day. At the end of five hours of walking, sampling, and small talk - I literally stumbled into a booth filled with a medley of Hawaiian products. In a zombie-like state I stood standing - staring, at a wall of curds. The name of one caught my attention: Lilikoi Curd with Li Hing Mui. So I took a little spoon and tried it -- sometimes I don't like curds, they have too much of an egg-y flavor. Not the case here at all. Someone made this curd just for me - it was one of the best I've tasted.Turns out the man who makes it was standing next to me, and he kindly told me it was passionfruit, the curd was a passionfruit curd. I've already thought of about 10 things I'm going to do with this curd when I get my hands on a few jars of it. You can order online here.

-Sondra Bernstein from The Girl & The Fig was nice enough to slip me a copy of her cookbook (thank you Sondra!). Her booth was mobbed by people curious about her new line of Fig Food products. I'm going to read through her cookbook tonight, and will post a recipe from it soon.

I'm sure I'm missing other great finds from the show, so if any of you were there, let me know what to check out, and what I missed.

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