Greunbroecker blue cheese is amazing: when it’s sliced the white sections turn yellow in a few minutes, signaling it’s ready to eat. Distributed by World’s Best Cheese, so I’m hoping I can get my friends at Putnam Market to order some. Spotted at the 2019 Winter Fancy Food Show.
Once again the Winter Fancy Food Show was a garden of earthly delights. They’ve remodeled Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, taking out whatever separated the North and South Halls, so the venue seemed even more forbiddingly enormous than on my last visit.
Plant based everything!
The biggest trend was definitely plant-based everything, typically derived from obscure medicinal plants cultivated by various native peoples, often with probiotic benefits. I did an interview with the CEO of Kuli-Kuli, the moringa people, and will report on them separately. Baobob and Yaocan root also in evidence.
As always, I found a few oddities lurking in the outer aisles, like Salted Egg potato chips. Why not? They tasted like eggs, but salty.
Salted Egg potato chips
Several vendors offered rustic flatbreads… robust doughs mixed with lots of seeds and dried fruits, then rolled or extruded thin and baked. Gave me some ideas for my own baking projects: make some sourdough then put it through a pasta roller.
Rustic flatbreads
The Japanese pavilion had on display some of the most ridiculously marbled Wagyu cuts I’d ever seen. You would need a note from your cardiologist to try these, but fortunately they were not offering samples.
Heart attack on a plate
Azuma Foods International, a foodservice distributor of Japanese seafood salads, had an interesting display of seaweed salad: tinted neon green (the way we usually encounter it), with natural colors and untinted, side by side. Tasted exactly the same, of course.
Seaweed salad comparison
The first day at the show I developed some kind of flu-like feverish symptoms and powered down the Immunity hemp elixir shot from Lumen (which, unlike most CBD products apparently, is pressed from the whole hemp plant rather than made from extract). I felt surprisingly restored the next morning. Then tried the Restore which had me shaking as if I’d downed a fistful of amphetamines, so I guess it’s not a placebo.
Lumen hemp extracts
Then there were the mochi ice creams from several sources. I’m not a fan of this bean cake masquerading as a dessert, but have to admit it tasted better frozen than at room temperature.
There were some grumbles from exhibitors about supply chain problems due to the current trade wars, but attendance was good and the hall was close to full, so the 2019 Winter Fancy Food Show can be deemed a success.
Mochi Ice Cream
Note: click on any thumbnail to see a much larger rendition of the visual.
In our next post: ridiculously high-end (and expensive) artisanal chocolate.
