Top 10 Finds at the 2010 Food Fete
The younger, hipper cousin to the Fancy Food Show, the annual Food Fete is a gathering place for foodie types; a showcase of the newest products across the world of cooking, dining and drinking; and an all-around schwagfest. Obviously, we bit. Here are the coolest new products we spotted at this year’s fete.
10. Sous Vide Supreme
Remember last year when I got high on Top Chef and bought that Thomas Keller sous vide cookbook but then realized you need a couple grand worth of equipment to sous vide food at home? Well some clever market researcher must have realized there are a lot of d-bags like me out there, because SousVide Supreme now has an at-home sous vide machine designed for the average joe. OK, at $450 maybe it’s for the slightly above-average joe, but still, getting closer! Everyone must sous vide! UPDATE: Endless Simmer tries out and reviews the SousVide Supreme.
9. Glace de Veau
Ya’ll know we don’t usually hype pre-packaged sauces and such here at ES, but when the supermarket starts carrying roasted veal stock reduction, I have to digress from the norm. Yes, yes, I can hear Anthony Bourdain carping on about how every cook should have their own homemade veal stock in the freezer and how it only takes 172 hours to prepare so what’s your goddamn problem? Well you know what? I’ve had your book on my shelf for two years and still never made any damn homemade demi-glace, so I’m going with this. In stores this fall.
8. Box ‘o EVOO
I think Lucini was actually there to show off the taste of their olive oil, but I was more impressed by the packaging. I don’t know about you all, but I’ve always found those tiny 6-oz. jars of oil woefully inept at keeping up with my usage, and the large bottles too heavy to lug home from the grocery store. Solution: an ungodly amount of extra-virgin olive oil, packed into a plastic bag in a cardboard box. It even comes with a spiggot, just like boxed wine! All I need now is the self-control not to drink directly from the spout.
7. Green Garlic
This is a tasty green product that I’ve never seen in stores before. California-based Christopher Ranch is expanding their garlic repertoire by harvesting the stuff while it’s still young and green, and selling it with the leafy, scallion-like stalks attached. The green part of the garlic offers a less intense garlick-y bite, and you can still use the bulb, or even fry up those little strands at the root and sprinkle them on top of a dish. Coming soon to a Fairway or Whole Foods near you. Downside: shipped across the country in plastic packaging — I’d rather see them at the far mar.
6. Design-Your-Own Chocolate Bar
Chocri is a small business from a young Berlin-based entrepreneur, and a pretty neat idea, too. You can go to their website and create your own chocolate bar. Start with milk, dark, white or a white-milk combo (all fair trade), then add any of their 100+ extras, from jalapenos to Rice Krispies to goji berries. Yeah, if you thought make-your-own salad was a tough assignment, this one’s a doozy. Chocri gets extra points for featuring samples that look like they were actually designed by six-year-olds. On the other hand…they look like they were designed by six-year-olds.
5. Moody Blue Smoked Bleu Cheese
If you think it sounds too funky to take a bleu cheese and smoke it over fruit wood for that extra double-funk flavor, well trust me, you’re wrong. Roth Kase‘s creamy, Wisconsin-based concoction, Moody Blue Cheese, is a revelation for lovers of things stinky. I literally cannot wait to spread this cheese over burgers on the 4th.
4. Sun Cups
A new product for all you peanut-allergic folks (god, how I feel for you poor, poor people), these “don’t call it a reese’s” cups are made with sunflower butter subbed in for the pb, then encased in organic dark or milk chocolate. Plus, they’re gluten-free, and the wrappers are 100% compostable. Maybe they can talk to the green garlic guys.
3. Milk Vodka
Winning the award for most Vermont-y product ever (sorry Ben & Jerry), the Vermont Spirits company have somehow figured out how to make vodka out of both milk sugar and maple syrup. I don’t understand how they do this, or even why alcohol from either of those sources is considered vodka, but I like it.
2. The Hummus Bus
Sorry, I had to do it. Not exactly a product per se, but we’re not known for our Top 9 lists. Tribe Hummus threw a killer after-party to launch their new product, Tribe Origins. The new Tribe is completely de-chunkified — smooth, creamy and, dare I say it — just like Sabra. Those Sabra folks must be seriously killing it in the hummus market because this is the second brand I’ve seen recently adapt that smooth, creamy style. It’s delicious. Death to chunky hummus.
1. Bacon Soda
Those crazy scientists over at Jones Soda have come up with their most blog-baiting flavor yet: bacon soda (no actual bacon used). There’s also pizza soda (no actual pizza used) and both taste impressively like the real thing. Unfortunately these two aren’t on the market yet, but I might have to start a petition drive to make sure they start selling these — the people must drink bacon!
Bloggers — did I miss anything great? Feed us back in the comments!
A huge thanks to Sara for her great food fete photos.
No need to worry about the packaging for green garlic! You can grow it in pots (or garden) at home. Break up a head of garlic and plant the individual cloves (ponity side up) about 1-2 inches down in the soil, about 2-3 inches apart. They grow really easily in a few months and you can harvest them when they look like scallions. Seriously, my garlic store sells green garlic starts. They also inform you that the same results can be obtained by simply harvesting your crop at the scallion stage. If you do have outdoor space, garlic can be planted in the fall before the ground freezes. Then it pops through the ground in the spring and you have…SPRING GARLIC waiting for you.
Rogue Creamery in OR has been doing the smoked bleu for a while, though I’m not sure its available outside OR… http://www.roguecreamery.com/product.asp?specific=120
Makes a great steak topper and amazing twice-baked potatoes!
hey! i didn’t know you were supposed to eat the green garlics! i did it just because i’m cheap (and carless) and it’s in the garden, so i often end of trying to just eat what i have. like… um… blending tomatillo with chives to substitute “onion” (it worked OK in marinade!).
also – and maybe this is me missing the exciting point of this – can’t you just melt chocolate and pour it over whatever you want and save a lot of money over this silly “invent your own chocolate bar” thing? i’m missing the point, right? it’s just more exciting if someone else does it, eh?
i have no idea where to find chunky hummus, that must be an east coast thing.
and btw… can’t remember if you guys had blogged about this or not, but the Tofurkey flavored Jones soda looks much much nastier than bacon flavor.
http://www.jonessoda.com/files/tofurky_2009.php
The big thing in sous vide cooking is Sousvide Magic, which makes any cookers (rice cookers, slow cookers, deep fat fryers, ,,,, etc) in your kitchen into a sous vide bath.
Thanks so much for the mention! I’d love to see the bars you design – I’m sure they would be even more beautiful!
Carmen from chocri
Thanks for the recognition! We actually promote the packaging as a benefit. Without it, the product would only be available to consumers with access to local farmers markets for just a few weeks out of the year. The bag enables us to maintain freshness and ship it to garlic lovers nationwide so more consumers have the opportunity to enjoy it beyond the limited spring availability at farmers markets.
Isn’t the green part of the garlic called a scape? I’ve tried pickled scapes at a Garlic Festival and they’re delicious.
Thanks so much for including Vermont Spirits Vodkas in the Top 10! The base of all vodkas is sugar. Where the sugar comes from is the diffentiator. There are vodkas made from wheat, corn, rye, grapes, potatoes, etc. All of these base ingredients are first fermented to break down the sugars and then distilled. Vermont Spirits produces two expressions of vodkas: Vermont Gold which is distilled from maple sap and Vermont White which is distilled from milk sugars. Yes, it comes from a cow!
Again, thanks so much!