“When the train’s late, when the day sucks, when I’m feeling sad…I simple remember the Fancy Food Show, and then I don’t feel so bad”
Ok, I changed some lyrics, but it works! Sing it if you know it. And I’m not sad, I just laughed when I was thinking about “my favorite things” from the Fancy Food Show this year and it fit the song! I know it’s been a few weeks, but you know how quickly time flies by when you’re busy. The show was great, of course!! Thousands of vendors, tens of thousands of things to see and taste. Of course you can’t try everything you want to try, it’s impossible even over all three days of the show.
So I’m going to start with my favorites of the condiment variety – spreads, sauces, and syrups. They’re also alliterative and you know I like alliteration.
One of our first stops was the French Farm booth. This is a distributor of numerous French artisanal food purveyors, and a couple goodies definitely caught my attention. In particular, the basil Dijon mustard by Edmond Fallot was my fave (so basil-y) and the spreads in a tube, especially one with truffles, were great! I’m not generally a huge mustard fan, but I’ve come to really enjoy some of the creative ones like these.
These mustards could be a dip or a marinade. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get samples of them from the show to try them out in dishes, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them in stores.
They also had mustards with wine flavors, which were really cool. The Pinot Noir Dijon was delish!
My next favorite in the spreads category was Beekman 1802. These jams totally jam. The blueberry Bourbon jam was probably my favorite, but their others were also delicious. I can’t wait to dive into this at home. I also have one of their more “out there” jams – a black coffee infusion – which I’m saving for the right moment. 
Sauces – lots of BBQ sauces came to party. I like a thick, sweet, smokey BBQ sauce that can stand alone against any meat. I have a confession – when I was young and wanted a snack, I sometimes just put a little BBQ sauce in a small cup and ate it. Yeah, that sounds weird. Oh well. Anyhoo, here’s one I really liked and can’t wait to ‘Q with it. Meat Mitch’s Naked BBQ Sauce. 
Got a sample bottle, so stay tuned for the grilled goodies “how to” to go with this one! Items with booze always seem to catch my attention, no idea why, and it appears Budweiser has tapped into the BBQ sauce market. Not bad at all, Bud!
I tried several other great BBQ sauces at the show, such as Rufus Teague BBQ and Bone Doctors’ BBQ. Now I’m itchin to grill!!
There was no shortage of fine maple syrups at the show, which was great cause I’m really getting into them in my cooking and concocting. I, of course, gravitated toward my trusty Runamok Maple.
I use Runamok all the time in my cooking, as you know, and they have such a fine, reliable, pleasing product array. I love their pecan wood smoked maple, and I recently cooked with the Makrut Lime Leaf infused syrup; it was yummm! Their newest release is a ginger-infused maple syrup, of which I was able to score a sample, and I cannot wait to try it out in my dishes, so stay tuned!! I’m thinking shrimp.
I also found one of my other trusty syrups at the show that I regularly use in my kitchen, Sugar Bob’s Finest. He makes one variety and does it so well – a smoked maple syrup and it is so delicious. Syrups were a big thing this year at the show. New on the scene and beautifully packaged was a Bourbon barrel aged syrup by Mount Mansfield Maple Products. You know how packaging can catch the eye – look at how pretty!! It also tasted great!!
Another fine syrup that was awesomely packaged was 29 Fevrier. You can’t go wrong with maple syrup on tap!! Is love to have this on my counter.
So these were my stand outs in the spreads, sauces, and syrups categories. There were so many other wonderfully delicious items, but it’s just impossible to capture them all!! Stay tuned for Part Two, which will either be drink mixers or oils and vinegars.
Eat, Drink, and Go! 