Burnt My Fingers

Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi at Summer 2017 Fancy Food Show (that’s the actual MIL on the right)

Korean! That’s the food trend that is about to come into its own, if the many Korean-focused exhibitors at the Summer 2017 Fancy Food Show are any guide. We will finally replace sriracha with gochugang, stock our fridges with two or three varieties of gut-healthy kimchi, and rub our ribeye with custom spices to turn them into bulgogi. It’s about time.

Jerky was everywhere at the show, including an inspiring kelp version from Beyond The Shoreline. (They’re about to launch a kickstarter-like funding drive on Pieshell.com, which says it is “crowdfunding for food+beverage”). Also everywhere: cold-brewed coffee, including on-tap versions that are infused with nitrogen for an extra wake-up boost.

Cold Brewed Coffee was everywhere.

Fat Snax is a high fat cookie developed at the CommonWealth Kitchen in Brooklyn. They replace sugar and carbs with just more fat for “keto and paleo friends”. Tasted okay… but I think most commercial cookies are already pretty high fat. Developed at the same incubator, and possibly less healthy, is Boonbox. It starts with jerky then adds freeze-dried or dehydrated veggies and fruit for a complete meal you can eat in your cubbie or bunker. Tasted good, but I wanted more food right after.

On the completely unhealthy but delicious side, Laceys are a product I would definitely buy myself. If your problem is deciding between cookie and toffee… why choose? These guys offer “crisp toffee wafer cookies sandwiched with deliciously rich melted chocolate.”

Bursting Boba!

Perhaps, like me, you have been taking the bubble tea phenomenon for granted. But somebody has to provide the equipment and the training to make the little nuggets at the bottom of the drinks. That would be Goleadway.com. Most bubbles are made of chewy tapioca in a different flavor than the tea. Their new Bursting Boba is hollow, created through the alginate spherification technique, and bursts with flavor (“like caviar”) when you bite into it.

On a side note, I highly recommend the Sheraton Four Points on 40th St if you can get a good rate for a stay. It’s within walking distance of Javits (much faster to walk than travel on a shuttle bus) and has had a recent renovation. Across the street is the imposing, but not scary, Port Authority bus terminal and there are many places to eat wihin steps on 9th Ave. I paid $135, not including tax, which is a great rate for summer in NYC. Note, there is another Four Points nearby but stay at this one—much more interesting neighborhood.

The floor at Summer 2017 Fancy Food Show (this photo encompasses about 2/3 of the top floor, and there’s another floor below)

It was easy to spot the predominant trend at last week’s Fancy Food Show in New York: aggressively healthy products as in paleo (minimally processed, in the tradition of our hunter/gatherer forebears), probiotic (promoting a healthy gut, usually through fermented ingredients), superfoods (rich in components to fight disease) or all of the above. Such items have appeared in years past but they didn’t taste very good and retailers didn’t seem eager to embrace them. This year, perhaps we’ve reached a tipping point.

Snow Monkey founderS with their dairy-free iced dessert

Snow Monkey is a good example. Founded by three female athletes who met at Boston University, it reinvents ice cream without the dairy, using pureed bananas and apple as a base to which goji berry or cacao are added. It’s packaged in pints that reminded me of Ben & Jerry’s. I told them it tasted like energy bars turned into ice cream. I liked it. They took the chance of renting an expensive booth on the main floor (most startups are in the basement) and were attracting lots of traffic.

Desiree Parker of Ireland’s Foraging Fox, showing Beetroot Ketchup

Beets are a thing… in smoothies, as a nutritional powder, and especially in Foraging Fox Beetroot Ketchup from Ireland which is really, really good. (They’re looking for a US distributor. Above link goes to their importer.) And so are bees… not to eat per se but as bee pollen or honey products to drink, rub on your face or cook with. We love bees, so let’s support them so they don’t die out. And coconut… lots and lots of coconut made into ice cream, energy bars or just sold as coconut water.

Bees were everywhere at Summer 2017 Fancy Food Show

Water is, by the way, the fastest growing category according to analysis presented by Gary Lockwood from Mintel. And there was lots of it on hand, including Nothing water from Norway that… tastes like nothing, which is their main selling point. Mintel says local, non-GMO and eco-friendly are the three attributes consumers say they want most in their foods. Organic and fair trade are not on the list, but maybe it’s because people think those will come naturally if a food has the other desired characteristics.

Nothing Water

And gluten-free? Consumers didn’t mention it in their top five, which may be a problem because producers surveyed said gluten-free would continue to be a growing category. Can we hope a shakeout is finally coming? I respect people with true celiac concerns, but also spot pandering in the many “grain free” products at the show. Some of these truly were different (like Siete tortilla chips, made with cassava and coconut flour) but others contained flaxseed and chia which are seeds, i.e. grains, like wheat.

On a side note, as a baker I was irritated by the many “ancient grains” products which don’t specify exactly which “ancient grains” are included. To me, this concept describes einkorn, emmer and other (gluten-containing) grains which are wheat in its ancestral form, before genetic manipulation began. But flaxseeds and oats are often included in the mix. Consumers think they’re getting something that doesn’t really exist.

Next time, a few micro-trends and discoveries that don’t relate directly to heath.