Junk Food Nation, Happy Fourth of July!  In this great nation of ours, I get to write a blog about junk food and actually convince people in this world that I am now part of the “media.”  SUCKERS!  WHAT A COUNTRY!

Finally, after a couple of days of sleeping, drinking smoothies, and eating nonstop fiber…I feel well enough to recount my 2013 Summer Fancy Food Show experience for you.  Going into the show this year, I had a plan: (a) Pace myself.  (b) Wear comfortable shoes (I wore flip flops last year…bad news).  (c) Take pictures of my favorites. (d) Don’t waste valuable stomach space on useless.  (e) Get moving through the aisles, because the show is HUGE, and I’d never finish in time unless I MOVED.

In the end, I only followed the comfortable shoes rule.  And my feet STILL killed.

The 2013 Summer Fancy Food Show was at the Javits Center in NYC, as opposed to DC like last year.  Day 1, I didn’t realize there were shuttle buses from Times Square and Penn Station to Javits.  The Junk Food Gal and I walked the four avenues over to the convention center in the blistering humid NYC heat.  Upon arriving, there were companies ALREADY outside, through samples at people, and telling people to take coupons, etc.

This girl was from a company called The Crispery.  She had nice legs.  I have no idea what she was selling.

Right off the bat, we ran into some old friends – the awesome people from Justin’s!  I’ve reviewed plenty of their products in the past (here and here) and hosted a Halloween contest with them as well (here).  They had plenty of their candy and nut butters available for tasting.  I may have eaten the equivalent of a jar of nut butter before their reps chased me away 😉

New for Justin’s this year was their bagged candy.  I’m a huge fan of their peanut butter cups, and they’ve made it easier for people to have them on hand for Halloween.  Each bag contained 12 individually wrapped peanut butter cups.  You know how if you’re baller, you give out full size Snickers instead of mini-Snickers for Halloween?  Well, if you’re really awesome, you’ll give out WHOLE BAGS of these individually wrapped cups.  DO IT.

Let me tell you, it was hard to walk by the Natural Nectar stand and NOT grab a stick of delicious gooey nom-nom to stuff into my craw.  They made everything from hazelnut spreads, almond choco butter, speculoos (Biscoff-like) spreads, and more.  All of it is fair trade, rich and creamy, and easy to spread all over my face.  I mean, easy to eat.  Cough.

Sanders Candy had a HUGE presentation, full of ALL their various confections, but the thing that jumped out at me the most were the chocolate dipped potato chips.  These were nice and salty and messily dipped in milk chocolate – SO GOOD.   Someone commented that they prefer their potato chips FULLY dipped.  I SAY NAY!  The exposed chip allowed for the taste of the potato to really come through with all of its salty salty salty flavor.  I crave these.

These Hunger Games chocolates by Wild Ophelia were hilarious – each flavor based on one of the Districts from the movies/books.  What *I* was surprised about was the names of these districts.  I mean, I read the books a while ago, and I knew that one district was Mining, and another was lumber, and I can see District 1 being Luxury…but what District produced Transportation??  That must be one of those nubby districts that they didn’t bother to flesh out…like 6 or 7.

Skillet is a Seattle-based food shop that has a diner and a shop full of goodies.  This year I tried their bacon spreads…. Skillet had two different spreads – regular bacon and fennel black pepper bacon. This isn’t like bacon jams I’ve had in the past…this wasn’t bits of crunchy bacon and caramelized onions in a jar.  This was more like shreds of pork in a nice creamy spread.  I know it sounds odd, but it was taaaaaaasty. The fennel one especially – full of great sausage-y flavor and smoky taste.

Yep, Duck Bacon.  Maple Leaf Farms, where have you been all my life? It was delicious. It didn’t taste like duck, however – and I’ve had plenty of duck in my life.  But it was still smoky, meaty, bacon-y goodness.  And with 57% less fat?? Sign me up.

I LOVE Cabot Cheese.  I’ve eaten it all my life, and I always pick up a huge block whenever I’m at Costco.  Their new offering was this HOT Habanero Spreadable Cheddar. Woooooo buddy.  This cheese had some KICK.  It was creamy and savory…and then the burn came, fiery and explosive.  Made me cough.  REALLY very good blend of creamy and spicy, two things which typically neutralize each other, but here, decided to team up to attack my brain.  I will DEFINITELY be buying this if I see it in stores.

You know what’s NOT junk food? This Cucina & Amore Artichoke and Truffle Sauce.  You know what I want to be buried in when I pass? This Cucina & Amore Artichoke and Truffle Sauce.  Truffle flavor BURST off of the little tiny cracker I had this on.  WOW, is all I can say.

Clearbrook Farms made these jars of tart filling that you could spoon directly into their pre-made tart shells and serve immediately.  I had the caramelized banana filling. After one bite, I wanted to tip the entire jar into my mouth and run away giggling.  The banana flavor was fresh and sweet, and was sugared and pureed into a smooth consistency. Looks like adult baby food?  Then call me a baby and get me a case of this.

A random favorite of mine during the day were there Jan’s Farmhouse Crisps. At first, I saw these laid out with cheese on them, and I thought “Oh, what kind of cheese is it?” ….then I realized they were marketing the crisps.  “These look dry and boring,” I thought…and then I crunched the crisp and was IN LOVE.  A crispy crunchy multigrain cracker, these Farmhouse Crisps contained bits of cranberry, flax, pistachio, pumpkin seeds, and more…it was like an explosion of crunchy flavor all in one cracker.  Super thumbs up here.

LOTS of companies did dried fruit this year; my favorite were these offerings from Crispy Green. Freeze dried, these fruit snacks had the consistency of space ice cream – dry and brittle but then melted in your mouth into pure flavor.  The Tangerine-variety was especially good.

The fine people at Sabatino made the best truffle snack of the day, I thought – their boxed Truffle Mac & Cheese.  FULL of mushroom-y flavor, this mac & cheese tasted better than some mac & cheeses I’ve had from restaurants.  No joke.

Hernan Mexican Hot Chocolate was tasty – chocolate-y and full of that great Mexican hot chocolate cinnamon flavor.  Then the spokeswoman told us to mixed it with some coffee-flavored Patron, and the party REALLY started.  WOWZA.

Of all the Mochi ice creams, Bubbies Mochi Ice Cream was my favorite.  Soft, yet not melted, Bubbies gave the best consistency and most standout flavors of all the mochi ice cream I tried.  Did it hurt that I was served my samples by a super hot Asian chick? No, no it did not.

You guys know that I love Talenti for my Gelato…and I typically default to Haagen-Dazs or Turkey Hill when it comes to my ice cream.  Well, add another favorite company to my frozen dessert list – PHIN & PHEBES.  WOW.  With some crazy-unique flavors, this company does EXACTLY what I want an ice cream company to do – state a flavor, and deliver on it.  SIMPLY. AWESOME.  No simple chocolate or vanilla here, you’ll just have to make do with Banana Whama and Coconut Key Lime. Possible my favorite new product (well, new to ME) of Day 1.

Quick Mexico Drink Lab Break!

The Mexico Drink Lab was a favorite spot for me, the Junk Food Gal, and Jen.  I drank a TON of those little cups.  Mezcal, tequila, passionfruit, lime, avocado – you name it, I DRANK IT.  Definitely a favorite spot at the Summer Fancy Food Show.

The day ended running into some old friends from last year, headlined by Jesben Slow Cooker Sauce. I talked about them last year as one of my favorites from the “New Products” row at the Fancy Food Show. Well, they were BACK this year, NO LONGER part of the “New Products” row, but as a full fledged operation!  I was so happy to see them and happy to see they were doing so well!  Still one of the best ideas I’ve seen – spices, liquid, flavor all in one jar.  Add to meat, set the slow cooker, and walk away.  Result – SLOW COOKER MEAT PARADISE!

That’s it for Day 1!  Tune in tomorrow for Day 2!

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy