2008 NYC Fancy Food Show

Pictures and Text by Rachel Nash Perlow

The annual summer NASFT Fancy Food Show was held this past Sunday-Tuesday, June 29-July 1, 2008. I was only able to attend on Monday, but my quick perusal found a few definite trends. Obviously, with OffTheBroiler’s current focus on healthier eating, I was looking for items that fit that bill — not that I didn’t sample my fair shair of cheese and chocolate! Which reminds me, my mom asked what it’s like at the Fancy Food Show, “it’s like a really good sample day at Whole Foods or Costco, only it’s the entire Javits Center,” was my response.

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Anyway, when I mentioned I was looking for healthier products to the various vendors, many touted the “gluten-free” status of their products. “But you’re marketing potato chips! I don’t think there’s any gluten in potato chips?” Apparently, there could be gluten in some chip flavorings, so gluten avoiders: beware! However, gluten is not our main concern. I was mostly looking for products that were advertising low fat, no sugar, low glycemic index, whole grains — stuff like that.

There were at least two flavored waters, with no sweeteners of any kind.

MetroMint‘s waters are in various flavors combined with mint. My favorites were the chocolate-mint and lemon-mint.

Hint flavored waters are in interesting combinations. I really liked the Mango Grapefruit and the Hibiscus Vanilla.

Hummus was well represented as well. The big draw at Sabra‘s display was The Great Hummus Faceoff, busts of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain made out of the chickpea spread (the picture above the fold). The sculptor, John Gowdy aka Mr. Sandman, was present. They aren’t solid hummus (is there such a thing?), but sculpted over a wire frame.

On the other hand, Tribe, featured individual snack packs of hummus. With only 3.5 grams of fat per container, it would be a handy item to toss into a lunch bag with a baggie of crudite.

In the multigrain category, I sampled some very nice 8-Grain Crisps from Sensible Portions.

Dina’s Secret Recipe from Almondina feature Flax and Bran in gourmet cookies.

And, of course, an abundance of sugar free products are featured, such as this large assortment of treats from Go Lightly.