At every Fancy Food Show, I run across a few products or trends I could do without. Here’s a look at this year’s candidates.
Enough already!
- Single origin chocolates. OK, there’s such a glut of SOCs that now even the origins are getting origins. Amano – whose chocolates are superb – tells us which valley in Madagascar one bar is from, and the river basin where another is sourced in Ecuador. What next? Legendary chocolate growers? Sacred mini-plots?
- Is there ANYPLACE that doesn’t produce olive oil these days? Australia’s into it in a big way – and now Chile is getting into the act, too. There was enough olive oil displayed at this year’s show to turn vast Moscone Center into a huge Slip-n-Slide. Now THAT would have been fun!
Soooo Last Decade
- I remember being bedazzled by fancy colored salts when they first showed up a few years back. But for the most part, I’m no longer excited. Salt is pretty much salt, once you put a small amount on your food.
- Would you people PLEASE stop making candy with wine in it? Thank you.
- I don’t care whether you’ve put a straw in the lid or charged it with “intention” (Melavia) bottled waters are bad for the earth, unless you live somewhere that doesn’t have clean tap water.
Dept. of Wha???
Cupless Joe is capsules filled with instant coffee. So when a cup of coffee is just too hard to find (or make), you can pop four of these and get the equivalent buzz. Right.
Wild & Crazy Names
Anything to get attention! There’s no end to the cheeky products trying to lure you with whacky names…
- Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi. Not sure whether this is a tribute to the maker’s mother-in-law or a comment on her spicy tongue.
- Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning. When I asked these folks what their mama thought, they said it was her recipe, and their dad named it. Hmmm.
- Mary’s Gone Crackers
Another “Death to gluten!” product. Perhaps eating gluten is what sent Mary over the edge?
- Bone Suckin’ Sauce
Please insert your own naughty joke here.
- Bermuda Triangle cheese
Maybe I shouldn’t pick on this one. It tasted good, and at least the shape is appropriate. But on the other hand, I fear it might disappear when I close my fridge door.
- Very wily! Now here’s an entertaining name! I never would have guessed that Wile E. Coyote had a booth at the show!
Check back tomorrow, to meet some interesting people whose personalities are the secret ingredient in their products. Like what I have to say? Subscribe to my RSS feed and spread the word with Twitter!
Lowell Thomas Award-winner Gayle Keck has sipped fermented mare’s milk in Kyrgyzstan, dug for truffles in Italy, crafted wine at Napa Valley’s “Crush Camp” and munched her way through every continent except Antarctica, which seems far too focused on frozen food.
She has written for Gourmet, National Geographic Traveler, Zagat San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants 2010, and is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post and other major newspapers.
Gayle has visited 49 US states (sorry, North Dakota) and more than 40 countries – though her favorite trip was a flight from Chicago to San Francisco, when she met her future husband on the airplane. She also blogs at Been There Ate That
