A Visit to the Fancy Food Show

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

As you read this, I’ll be in my comfy shoes, notepad and iPhone in hand, trekking through San Francisco’s Moscone Center, well into my second day at the Winter Fancy Food Show. More than 200,000 square feet of exhibit space have been dedicated to 1,300 exhibitors showcasing 80,000 food, beverage and related products.

Of course, it would be madness to try to see the whole show. Despite my best efforts, I’ll just touch a small sampling over two days.

I’m looking for interesting food products to tweet, Instagram and blog about for Special Fork. I’ll be nibbling on cheeses, paté, and prosciutto. I’ll be tasting sauces from around the world, condiments, meal kits, exotic grains, salad dressings, vinegars, cookies, chocolates, frozen treats, seasoned nuts, fancy snacks…and more.

Specialty foods all seem to come in beautiful packaging at premium prices. But it’s hard to know which ones are best without tasting. Next week I’ll report on what I tasted and what I recommend for you to try.

Special Fork is all about 30-minute prep recipes for busy households, and specialty food products can play a key role. They can enhance the flavor of simple dishes with seasonings like miso, mirin or sriracha. Or make them easier to prepare, as when you substitute naan bread for a pizza crust or go with jarred oysters instead of shucking fresh ones.

Here are some Special Fork recipes from our recipe database that call for some of the specialty ingredients found at the show:

• Lori Powell’s Grilled Mediterranean Pizza is made with a base of naan bread and topped with specialty food items like roasted red peppers, kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. You can have dinner on the table in under a half hour.
• Oyster Po’ Boys, a recipe from Marilyn Hunter, is easy to make on a weeknight, with oysters in cans or jars, dredged in cornmeal and flour, fried, and stuffed in rolls with a splash of Louisiana hot sauce.
• Miso Salmon, gives salmon steaks a quick marinade in white miso and mirin (Japanese cooking sake), before broiling.
• Asian Beef Sandwiches with Slaw, a Southeast Asian-inspired sandwich, was a category prize winner at the National Beef Cook-Off in 2011; it uses Asian sesame dressing, seasoned rice vinegar and Asian hot chile sauce.

Special Fork is a recipe website for your smartphone and PC that solves the daily dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now! Our bloggers blog Monday through Friday to give you cooking inspiration. Check out our recipe database for quick ideas that take no more than 30 minutes of prep time. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Related posts:

1. A Visit to the Fancy Food Show
2. A Taste of the Fancy Food Show
3. Fancy Food Show, Part Deux
4. At the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco
5. Chef Tim Luym on Filipino Food