2014 Summer Fancy Food Show: Part II--The Best Finds

A wonderful part of the Fancy Food Show is discovering new products and finding what most tickles your palate.

Or in this instance, “pickles”! Who knew that spiced watermelon pickles would be so surprisingly good?

 

 

Best soy sauce and most exciting item at the show. Healthy Boy Brand’s Black Soy Sauce. Sampled it with noodles and rice—and it adds a really wonderful sweet flavoring. It’s been the number 1 soy sauce in Thailand for 60 years, and it’s available in Asian food markets all across the U.S. It’s Kosher and contains no MSG. And on a side note, the reps noticed that I was such a fan that they actually gave me a Healthy Boy apron along with a bottle of their Black Soy Sauce! Joy!!!

 

My #2 Rated Sauce. Tsang’s Black Cherry Chili sauce goes wonderfully well with beef.

Best bacon. Maple Leaf's Duck Bacon. You know it must be good, if, at a Food Show where free sampling of food is abundant, there are long lines whenever they are serving the duck samples and people are specifically querying the time for the next serving sample when there are only offering their pork bacon. Found the Duck Bacon to be thicker than pork bacon and the meat is just as, if not more than, moist.

 

Best instant noodles. Sun Noodles. Their noodle samples were delicious. Totally puts Ramen noodles to shame. They even handed out doggie bag samples of their fresh noodles and miso sauce with instructions on the bag. I made the unfortunate mistake of not cooking it right away (weather was way too hot and humid for hot soup!) and the fresh noodles spoiled. My friend did cook her noodle sample though and she said it was very good, especially the soup base. I don’t feel too regretful, as the noodles will be launching at Whole Foods this fall. Hurrah! Plus, there will be two servings in a package. (Will write up an in-depth review then.)

 

 

Most exciting concept. Cup Rice. Same idea of Cup o’ Noodles, except for rice. Looking forward to rice in a cup that’s ready to eat in less than 5 minutes.

 

Best seaweed snacks. Choi’s1 Original flavor (also comes in Wasabi, Teriyaki, Natural, and Hot & Spicy). They gave me a sample to take home, and it’s so much better than chips. Plus, it’s awesome with sticky rice.

SW Sea  Crunch was also a great tasty snack to satisfy a salt craving.

 

Best dessert. Divino! Divino! Divino! Gelato-filled fruit. Need I say more? Sampled the Roman Kiwi. Awesome! And I did not mind the seeds. It’s gluten free, mostly fat free, vegan or vegetarian, and contains no GMO or preservatives.

 

Best promotion for preservation. Each purchase of Three Twins Ice Cream sandwiches (“ice cream for acres”) buys land to preserve endangered species. And who doesn’t love an ice cream sandwich?

Best tasty “healthy” drink. There are a ton of drink products out there promising you more energy, weight loss, etc., and now IQ is joining the market encouraging you to “Live Life Smart.” I sampled their “Memory” drink. Can’t attest to whether it actually improved my memory, but will say that it was tasty.

Most fun “healthy” drink offering. Amazin’ Amazon guava. I was smitten with the colorful polka-dotted pitchers. Perfect summer drink!