Wow! I've just returned from my first visit to the Fancy Foods show and I am still amazed.  For those of you who haven't heard about it, the Fancy Food show is a 3-day event where more than 1000 specialty food companies exhibit their creations.  That's a lot of food and a lot of eating.  I think I've seen and tasted more variations of olive oil, olives, tea, chocolate, sauces and spreads than I ever imagined possible. The sauces and spreads, with so many diverse tastes within each, quickly overloaded my senses. 

The show also had an enormous variety of cheeses but since I am particularly drawn to cheese I did not mind at all tasting so many. Many of the cheeses were outstanding.   Two that were my favorites include one from Ireland and one from Wisconsin. The Irish cheese is Cashel Blue, a cheese I’ve wanted to try for a while. Blue is probably my favorite cheese and this one did not disappoint.  The Wisconsin cheese, from Sartori Foods, is a domestic Parmesan called Sarvenccho Parmesan. Generally, domestic Parmesan's do nothing for me and are often simply not good. As a result, I generally will not buy domestic Parmesan.  The Sarvenccho Parmesan, however, was exceptional and surprisingly had many of the characteristics and flavors of the imported Parmesans

A few of items simply caught me as particularly tasty.  Among these were some new all-pork sausages from Niman Ranch.  First, I must admit I didn't know Niman Ranch produced sausage but now that I do I want more!  The new sausage products included a Gouda-cheese apple pork sausage and a spicy cheddar sausage.  I wish I had more of the Gouda sausage - it was so well balanced it practically melted in my mouth. Yum - hopefully it will be out soon so we can grill it once the weather turns. 

While a lot of sauces and spreads were present I was drawn to Sting 'N' Linger.  The creation of Ken Smith in Tempe Arizona, they  have a variety of salsa's and you can really see and taste his passion in them. 

The last item I want to mention is a candied nut with a twist,  from Nutorious. It is called Cha Cha Chipotle and consists of a walnut, almond, and pecan mix encrusted with a Chipotle confection.  It did not overpower either in sweetness or heat and I really liked it.

Looking back, the show was great.  I not only got to taste some really good items but I also learned a lot. Sadly, I probably also missed some really neat and great things because at some points I got tired of tasting! I know, hard to believe a Foodie who can't eat but I do think the show got the better of me in that respect.  Well - I'll just have to practice so next time I last longer...