Winter Fancy Food Show

Thank you to everyone who participated in our contest last week.  I drew names from a hat...                    

and LeighAnn won!

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Now, let me tell you about my recent trip to San Francisco....

If you follow me on Twitter, @EqualOppKitchen, you probably saw some of these pictures. While I was in San Francisco, I attended the Fancy Food Show.  The show was massive, with over 1300 exhibitors from more than 35 countries.

The show was a feast for all of the senses.  Common foods were antipasto items, cheese, olive oil, cookies/cakes and various drinks or powders to add to drinks.  But, the selection was remarkable.

Canada was well-represented at the show, with an entire pavilion area devoted to Canadian exhibitors.

Here are some products that I found particularly interesting:

These products come from a Canadian company, La Ferme Martinette.  They have a great selection of maple products that can be ordered online.  We made good use of some of these products for pancake brunch today.

This Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit seems like a really approachable first step to homemade fresh mozzarella cheese.

I wish Kugel Co's sweet kugel were available in Ottawa.  Every now and then I get kugel cravings.  Maybe it's time I bite the bullet and make some of my mom's recipe.

I'm kind of a sucker for interesting syrups.  Blackberry Patch has quite the selection.  I was particularly taken with the Sweet Potato syrup.  Not something I ever expected to see, but apparently it's a versatile syrup.

I was thrilled to get a couple of Tahitian Gold samples.  Vanilla is one of my favourite smells and ingredients.  I've already had some of the vanilla sugar sprinkled on strawberries.  I think I'm going to order a bunch of vanilla to be sent to Giz while she's in Palm Springs because it's quite expensive to buy in the stores here.

I also really like the idea of pairing wine and cookies.  Wine & cheese or wine & chocolate is great, but I think it would be a lot of fun to have a group of girlfriends over to talk about our favourite wine and cookie pairings.

I was also quite taken with these clear packaging options for baked goods.   Makes me want to bake cupcakes and candy apples, just so that I can give them away in cute packaging.   I think they would be great for made-by-hand wedding giveaways.   

I think I'll stop there for now.  But stay tuned for more fancy food posts and travel posts about the rest of our trip!