Oof. We're back home and recovering from our weekend, filing and checking out our snack hoard, and taking our pork vitamins again now that we're back to suffering a proscuitto deficiency. And in terms of awesome new products to show you, this is easily our craziest year yet. We're talking bubblegum in chocolate, fruity potato chips, and a few condiments that will knock our your teeth.
Due to the sheer number of chocolate bars alone that you need to see, we're bringing back chocolate week- or should I say, Fifty Shades of Chocolate? Eat your heart out, Mr. Godfried.
Yesterday, we started munching bright and early in the second room of the exhibition. Our first stop was the ever-popular Mexico booths, because where else can you get free avocado oil and salsa verde cocktails at 11AM? Oh, and cocktail atomizers, for the airplane. Doi.
Some of our favorite companies were there, like Askinosie, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Serendipity, and Frontera. Also in attendance were some terrifying Peruvian energy drink pushers, cheesemongers aplenty, and even a few cheese mice.
This year, there were so many different booths and new companies to scout out, we weren't able to attend any of the seminars. Fear not, though- we got our fill of fascinating products.
The gummies above were a scant sampling of the 640 square feet of awesome that Buyer's Best Friend brought with them- we finally got to meet our West Coast pals!
We took a break from eating and crowds to go to another room to eat and vote for the sofi award winners! Our favorites included bacon schnecken from Queen City Cookies and an amazing whole grain mustard from American Spoon. Also included was this gorgeous tea packaging from Le Hammeau whose booth dictator, oddly enough, adamantly refused any photos of his booth during the entire show.
After our brief respite and flirt with tamale pie and Korean hot sauce, we were ready to tackle the show once more. It seemed like many companies were enjoying the marketing opportunities that came along with 2012 being an election year- Dave's Insanity had these funny adjustable hot sauce bottles, with adjustable opinions for Mittens and adjustable origins of birth for Obama. Nobody was safe!
Vosges had some badass chocolate displays, as they always do, featuring new flavors like carrot ginger and milk chocolate and smoked banana caramel. Both were eccentric and refined, as Vosges typically is. Also featured were the new Wild Ophelia bars, which we've reviewed here before.
It was another fantastic day at the Fancy Food Show, made even better by the events and after-parties we checked out afterwards. This definitely felt like one of the best shows yet, and seeing DC again made it an even better experience and mini-vacation. Although it will be much easier to bop over to Manhattan next summer, this was a great way to take a break and see a new place.
Tomorrow we'll be racking up our Top 15 Sweet/Savory Snacks and give you a recap of the after-parties we checked out.
From there, it's back to your regularly scheduled Foodette programming, with plenty of product and restaurant reviews and a shake of snark thrown in. Thanks for bearing with me over the last few weeks- I know that the last 14 days have likely wreaked havoc on the site and that new readers now have the impression that I'm a jet-setting, globe-trotting, chubby Carmen Sandiego. Actually, that's kind of awesome.
In any case, thanks for your patience! You guys are swell. I'd feed you all if it weren't so expensive. Incidentally, I will soon be feeding three of you- go to my Twitter page for details on how to win a $25 gift card to Quizno's. I have three of them for the first three people to guess my favorite new Quizno's item via DM.Labels: dinner, lunch, news, snack
