The more time I spent at the Winter Fancy Foods Show at the Moscone Center, the more callous I became. In a convention center full of hard-working sales reps and people who've broken through their fear of failure and sunk their life savings into a passion project, I found myself triangulating between samples of cheese, looking for the line of least resistance. Because "taking it all in" exposes you to the possibility of too many unwanted sales pitches, it's easy to miss stuff. And my stars, are there a lot of specialty teas (and infused olive oils) to distract you. But here are the five tastiest things I found, most of them local.
I'm slightly wary of my own reaction to Revive Kombucha because not only was the booth among the handful that played music, it also had the most seductive, bass-heavy beats. But damn, the Up Beat coffee kombucha (created with Blue Bottle Coffee and housemade cacao bitters) was quite possibly the best thing I tasted at the entire show.
Another taste sensation was B. G. Reynolds' line of cocktail syrups. I must confess, I've noticed how impressed people are at parties when you inform them that you made the ginger-mint simple syrup in the cocktail they're drinking— as if boiling sugar and water were some dazzling work of alchemy— but that doesn't mean I'm about to concoct my own falernum or orgeat, either. Compared to the quantities you typically find in store-bought syrups, the $11.99 M.S.R.P. is respectable, too. And bonus points for being one of the rare booths to give out free booze, too (bourbon, in this case).
It's probably no surprise that food shows have lots of pickles (and truffle popcorn, and Sriracha- or chipotle-flavored everything). I tasted more than a few that were puzzlingly mild, but just because Brooklyn Brine Co.'s Damn Spicy pickles list red chili flake as the last ingredient doesn't mean I didn't feel the burn. Better still was the Off Centered Beer Pickle, a collaboration between the picklers and Dogfish Head Brewery, which sends them an enormous quantity of 60 Minutes IPA on the regular for them to pickle with.
I was also enchanted by what Black Garlic can do with the fermented allium, particularly as they were able to press it into a syrupy liquid that brings out the molasses tones from all the sugars. I drank two little cupfuls and while it's very intense, my breath did not become the least bit vile. The Magic 8-Ball prophesies big things for this trending oddity, which Taoist philosophy claimed granted immortality.
Since certain booths reek of desperation, it's always nice to see someone selling something on the merits. Don Bugito, a "Prehispanic Snackeria" that's part of La Cocina, is hardly an obscurity — it's got a kiosk at the Ferry Building — but I don't remember ever trying so many types of insects and larvae all at once. Without exception, they're great, especially the new chocolate-covered salted crickets and the superworms.
This is just a handful of what was available; no mortal could possibly try all the samples. They say there's no such thing as a free lunch — unless you're a food writer and you don't mind getting most of the day's caloric content in tiny cups or attached to little toothpicks adorned with Union Jacks.
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