FANCY FOOD SHOW, 2008

 We went to the New York Fancy Food Show yesterday and, like every other person there, ate our way through it. I must say, however, this year was a bit of a disappointment. Just too much candy, dessert, chocolates and sweets. After a while, you craved something savory. Another trend, flavored bottled water, with mint, with caffeine, with vitamins...and bottled teas. I would have thought there would be less emphasis on plastic bottles and certainly not as many new entrants in this field but I guess I was wrong.

You see us at the booth of Tom & Sally's, a hand-made chocolate company in Vermont. Their Skinny Bars tasted good, were the right size for our customers and are a strong contender for this year's holiday fare. That's Jacque, our Tea Room Manager in the middle, with Rodney, our Director of Operations on the right, and me on the left holding up one of the Skinny Bars.

After walking through 2 floors and over 50 aisles of foods from all over the world and tasting olives, salsa, cheese, pastries, fudge, pasta, chocolate and our favorite, a mushroom/walnut mini puff pastry, we were ready to call it quits when we found a new section, The Organic and Natural Pavilion. There we found an organic and fair trade tea-infused chocolate supplier under the brand 'The Tea Room'! What could be more natural! We also sampled some local products from Mt. Kisco and Yonkers, NY. Do-Goodies, are a single-serve chocolate-brownie partnership between Ben & Jerry and Greystone Bakery in Yonkers. Profits go to Greystone and help many through local projects. Not only was the cause exemplary but the brownies were delicious! From Mt. Kisco came Dina's Organic Chocolates, another surprise right from our back yard.

Our happy job now is to sort through each company, find a good range of products and price points and introduce them to you by late Fall.