This year’s show was the biggest in history with 140,000 quality specialty foods and beverages from 73 countries and territories. Each year this show gives us a good idea of what to expect in stores for the coming year. Each year at Food411 we get a bit better with our strategy of how to “attack” this massive showing of foods without making ourselves sick from all the samples. We were extremely selective with the items we chosen to sample – only putting into our mouths foods that really stood out, and using the smallest amount of cracker, etc to taste all the dips, sauces and oils. This show is the ultimate food fest – and we took on the challenge!

Walking down the U.S. aisles of the Summer 2007 Fancy Food show one would swear that the American diet must consist of salsa, dips and hot sauce, along with tea and olive oil! It seemed like endless aisles of these items. "All natural ingredients," "preservative and hormone free" and "USDA certified organic" were the buzz words on many of the products and to address the growing trend of “eating local” foods, many products are trying to look “local” by having labels that incorporate the word “farm” or a person’s name to suggest that they are homemade. Clever marketing at work.

Trends that you will see in the stores include: single origin chocolates (chocolate lovers have become very interested in cacao’s place of origin and regional flavor nuances), many new energy and “healthy” soda’s and waters, super fruits and berries such as pomegranates (yes, many more products will incorporate them), Acai ( wild harvested palmberry from the Amazon rainforest packed with antioxidants and all 3 omega fatty acids – great for smoothies) and goji berries ( from Tibet) and Carica ( fruit from Chile).

Here are the products that caught our eye and taste buds:

Tamaya’s Chilean Carica - This is a rare fruit that grows in Chile . It’s flavor is a combo of pineapple, mango, apricot and peach . It is a beautiful yellow color and has a crunchy texture. It can be used in desserts, salads or many entrée dishes.

Fra’ Mani’s – Very delicious artisan Italian-style salumi (this was their first showing on the East coast, however we included them on Food411 as while back as soon as they had online ordering!)

Demeter’s Pantry Honey & Nut spread – an addictive mix of raw pine honey, tahini, nuts and evoo. What a great breakfast spread this makes ( also would be terrific with cheese)– this will give you natural staying power all morning!

Harvest Song’s – Baby Walnut preserves – very exotic, very delicious. All their preserves are wonderful and they are all natural and organic direct from Armenia.

Vermont Butter and Cheese - Known for their wonderful goat cheeses and cultured butters, they won Best Cheese for their Bonne Bouche, (ash-coated aged goat disc that has a very rich texture)

Wine Cellar Sorbets - It was an incredibly hot day in NYC for this show, Wine Cellar Sorbets offered just the right fix. Cool and complex flavors of wine sorbets – you read this correctly, these are made with finished wines ( they can contain up to 5% alcohol and are only sold to over 21’s!). Very clever confections and a wonderful treat. Our pick is the Sangria rojo – complete with a slice of orange on the top of the pint. They use a spicy, dry blend of Rioja and Tempranillo imported from Spain.

So as another Fancy Food Fest (sorry, we meant Show!) passes, our tummies are full and we can rest easy that we will be seeing wonderful products in the markets for the coming year. But, you, our Food411 readers have a jump start – as always we have included the links to all the company’s web sites and should your taste buds be calling you can just simply Point. Click. Eat. Enjoy!