I spent three days exploring and tasting at the Winter Fancy Food Show, and I barely scratched the surface. How do I know? Because every time I bumped into a colleague and asked them what THEY liked, I heard about something I never even saw, let alone tasted. To put it bluntly, the show is overwhelming. Sadly, much of what is on offer is nothing special at all, but the lure of finding the good stuff keeps me going back for more no matter how tired, bleary eyed, and palate fatigued I get.

In past years I've written about trends, but this year I didn't really get a sense of trends. Sure, there were plenty of new products using super antioxidant ingredients and lots of chocolate, especially single estate and exotically flavored varieties. I also saw noticeably fewer salts, but more teas than in years past. But none of that seems earth-shattering news. What struck me this year were what I'm calling "the good ideas." Without further ado, here are some of my top picks for items I hope indicate potential trends in the future.

PB Loco's Peanut Butter with Asian Curry Spice. I love peanut butter but get awfully tired of all the sweet flavors. I can see a lot more possibilities with a delicious savory jar like this one. I hope they introduce more because right now plain and sweet flavors dominate the shelf.

Apparently bakers and pastry chefs have known about LorAnn for years. LorAnn makes bakery emulsions which are flavorings that are not alcohol based so they don't "bake out." Available in flavors like almond, rum, buttery vanilla and more, they are bright and true, and very reasonably priced at about $5 for 4 ounces.

I'm excited to see that chocolate is being grown in Hawaii. Original Hawaiian Chocolate products are not quite as good as the best chocolate from Venezuela, but it has its own character and it is better than what is typically used for that local confection, chocolate covered macadamia nuts. I'm sure it will only improve over time.

If you've been to Barcelona, or seen Anthony Bourdain's Spain episode of Without Reservations than you just might know something about the quality tinned seafood from Spain that is more highly prized and more expensive than even fresh seafood. Hats off, or perhaps sombreros off, to Conservas Gallega for importing these conservas into the US.

The Spicy Gourmet spice blending sets. The best spices are whole, freshly toasted and ground. How do you get people to toast and grind? Sell them top quality spices paired with a grinder. I wish this company much success in their worthy endeavor.

Yuzu, yuzu kosho, sudachi, and kabosu. If you don't know much about these Japanese ingredients, with any luck, you will soon. WA Imports is bringing beautifully packaged pure Japanese citrus based juices, jams and pastes to market under the brand name Yakami Orchard. These are not the adulterated products you find on the market today and they are great for desserts, sauces, marinades.

Head over to Cooking with Amy to check out some of my favorite international products from the show.

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade put on their 34th Winter Fancy Food Show this week, allowing for exhibitors from around the world to do precisely that-- exhibit themselves. Thousands of vendors and merchants descended upon the Moscone Center in San Francisco from January 18 to January 20th for a fancy food frenzy.

I'm not sure I would agree with the term "fancy"-- it's always been a troubling word. As a noun, the word "fancy" connotes a liking formed by caprice rather than reason. As a transitive verb, it is an action of mistaken belief, of pure imagination. As an adjective, which is how, in this case, it is applied, the word suggests that the food exhibited at the show is "of particular excellent or highest grade."

Fancy is, naturally, open to interpretation. Much of the food-- the hundreds of olive oils, cheeses, and cured meats, for example, are just that-- excellent and of the highest grade. But does this term also apply to the likes of, say, Fartless Chili and frozen pizza? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It is simply a matter of prejudice. Yet products were snatched up by buyers from France to Fresno.

Since this was my second food show, I was able to learn from my previous mistakes, which included: feeling obligated to try everything, trying to see everything, and making actual eye contact with vendors while wearing a press badge. Armed with experience, I was able to roam the floors with a vague, pleasant eye that managed to avoid the dull and zero in on what was, to me, at least, of interest.

The following are a few of the more interesting items found at the Fancy Food Show. They are selected according to my own delights and prejudices. Since this was an international event, I gave no preference to the local, which is my normal custom. Some of the products are odd, others unfortunate, while others are just plain good. Enjoy.

When I first arrived at the show on Sunday, a woman in the press room gave me a few suggestions for booths to visit. One of those was Brent's of Napa Valley, where I got my morning off to a good start with their Firey (sic) Beer Brittle, made with Red Tail Ale, Spanish peanuts, and chile de arbol as the key ingredients. It was, to put it mildy, fantastic.

I was determined not to spend my day candy-sampling as I had done before with unfortunate results. I stuck to my vow of avoiding the hundreds of cracker and olive oil offerings and stick with what was new and interesting, faltering only occasionally at a cheese counter that gave up samples of Wensleydale. Three times.

I did, however, feel bound to visit the Vosges Chocolate booth to sample the suggested Enchanted Mushroom bar, made with Reishi mushrooms. While the chocolate was excellent, I had forgotten that I had been granted permission to photograph the product the previous day by a kind woman, but neglected to remind the staff of this matter. My fault. But the Harpy that descended upon me at my re-appearance turned the pleasant chocolate-umami taste in my mouth bitter. So no photo. What I never have understood about this convention is that these vendors are here to exhibit their goods. There's no hiding at an exhibition, no magic Keebler Elf-like factory, so why was she so guarded about her product? There was too much else to see and do to worry about it too much. I mentally flipped that gorgon the bird, but reminded myself to be more careful about taking photographs in the future.

On with the show...

A very enjoyable booth-- perhaps, one of the highlights of the show for me-- was the one belonging to Bacon Salt, home of Baconnaise and, incredibly, Baconnaise Lite. The pleasant irony of all their bacon-related offerings is that there is no bacon involved in the making of any of their products. And that they are, in fact, vegetarian. This is typically not my style of food. Fake anything has no general appeal, but oh, their give-away bacon-flavored lip balm. They gave me two. I think what I was so taken with was the good-guy frat boy feel I got from the creators. And I mean that in the best sense. The Fancy Food Show is, in its own way, a fraternity of food vendors. Nowhere was the party atmosphere thicker than at their booth. They even asked me if I wanted one of them to put on the bacon suit hiding under the front table so that I might have a photo taken with it. The hospitality industry, in my opinion, at its best.

My next notable stop was at the Tur-Duc-Hen booth. I'd never had the much-blogged-and-Twittered-about holiday fad food, nor had I ever had any real desire to. Not being much of a coprophage, I find it difficult to imagine that any food beginning with the letters t-u-r-d could be much good. Sean Timberlake of Hedonia remarked, upon my mentioning the product, something akin to "Great, they've managed to take three birds and turn them into one, flavorless dish." I could not have agreed more.

With all the sugar, processed food, and unnaturally-formed proteins already ingested, I needed a bit of gustatory help. Fortunately, I found myself in front of the Seis Natural booth, with their bee bread, royal jelly, and Aguijon-- a libido-increasing, honey-fueled sex potion. Intrigued by the bee bread, but not wanting to increase my sex drive at a gigantic food show, I sampled the Vitalmiel, which promised to "power up my globules." It tasted of honey, of course, but contained a difficult-to-describe acidity which balanced the sweetness. Perhaps it was the mere power of suggestion, but I found that my globules-- especially the ones I never knew I had-- were indeed powered.

Close by, I was offered a daily dose of Yakult from Japan. I had accepted the sample expecting some drinkable yogurt made from yak's milk, but what I got was a jolt of about 8 billion probiotic bacteria swimming around in a surprisingly delicious, tangy, citrus yogurt drink. I mentally set them to work on the tur-duc-hen.

One more reason to love Japan was the discovery of Hello Kitty pancake (pictured in the top photo), brownie, and cupcake mixes. All in Spanish. Much to my disappointment, the vendors explained that their current licensing extends to Mexico, but not, as yet, to the United States. So for those of us looking to add a little extra kawaii to our mornings, we'll just have to wait a little longer.

Among the more personally irritating offerings at the food show was the Iron Chef wine collection. The wines are produced in Italy, a country with a reputation for creating some of the most sought-after wines in the world. And some of the worst plonk. Though Iron Chef wine, at least the Sangiovese I tasted, would not fit neatly into either category, I would place it closer to the latter than the former. To me, it is marketing at it's worst. And don't get me started on the packaging.

After two days of wandering, talking, and tasting, my feet ached and my globules were fading. Fast. I had seen enough good, bad, and, for the most part, boring food products to last me the rest of the year. I would have given anything for a smart, new cocktail on offer, but I couldn't find one, though I know they must have been around somewhere. I was just too brain dead to put the effort into navigating a map.

As I began to make my way out of the North Hall of Moscone Center, I spied a little stand-- nothing of special interest at first glance. Natural Directions Organic. The banner suspended above the booth promised, "All Natural, All Organic, All The Time." They sold sparking, organic juice. What caught my attention was the woman standing beneath the sign. She was, to put it bluntly, anything but natural. If she was the representative of natural direction, I felt the company had taken some unfortunate turn off the highway several miles back and had gotten hopelessly lost. From a distance, I could just make out the swollen shape of her collagened lips saying a little something to a prospective customer. As she smiled, her forehead remained motionless-- as stiff as the naval captain's cap she wore at a cocky angle over her bleached-blonde hair. She was, at the very least, fancy.

I moved closer to her, wanting to make certain she was, in fact, a real woman. As tired as I was, I felt the need to find out if she was a drag queen, which would have been a stroke of ironic marketing brilliance, in my opinion. I chatted her up a bit, asking about the products she was selling because I wanted to hear her speak. As I did, I looked into her eyes. Or, rather, just above them, to the false eyelashes that had been put on at an angle almost as jaunty as her hat. She suggested I try the pomegranate soda."That's the best one, if you ask me," she confided. "It tastes even better with a little vodka in it."

"Well, what doesn't?" was the best I could reply.

And then it hit me-- this woman, who a mere five seconds prior I had viewed as oddly unreal, was, in fact, the most honest person I had encountered at the show. Not that the others were especially dishonest. It was simply that all I had heard from people for two exhausting days were talking points about the greatness of their products, which was understandable, given the venue. But here was this wonderful woman-- suddenly lovely in my eyes-- who decided to tell it like it was.

It was just the refreshment I needed.

Pity there was no vodka.

I arrived at the Moscone Center yesterday morning at 7:30. I was, it seemed, the only person in the North Hall who wasn't either sitting quietly in a registration booth or scurrying about with boxes of food, portable gas burners or Chinese musical instruments. Cursing myself for unnecessarily missing an extra half hour of sleep, I approached the Press Registration Booth slowly, not wanting to look over-eager. I found this attitude a difficult one to strike since, being the only non-employee in the building, my mere presence there at that hour betrayed me. The woman at the press station smiled and, as if not to wake me or herself said gently, "Good morning. Why are you here so early?"

"Oh, I thought I'd just beat the crowd." Having said that I then realized that, unless one is a baker of bread or breakfast pastries, food professionals are not typically known for rising early and shining. I thought it best to say nothing more before my already-tenuous claim to a press badge was revoked. I left the building, got some coffee and returned, casually, at 8.01.

Crossing over into the South Hall, I managed to snag a second row seat to hear Eric Schlosser's Keynote speech: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal. Before his arrival, an ex-nurse warmed up the audience-- at least, those of us lucky to have been within earshot of her-- by condemning those still practicing her former profession. I did my best to not get sucked into conversation with her, looking forward instead to being profoundly depressed by Mr. Schlosser's speech.

Upon arrival, Mr. Schlosser's first action was, in fact, to offer an advance apology for delivering such a depressing talk so early in the morning. In reference to his best-selling book, he said it was not so much fast food that interested him as it was the nation itself.

"Food is the bedrock of society. It defines us as a nation."

"The selling, sourcing, marketing and production of food all have a great impact on the nation," he continued. McDonald's, his primary example, has not only dramatically changed the way America eats, but the way it farms and sources labor. The fast food industrial system is not reliant on the individual-- it seeks uniformity, conformity. "One taste worldwide" is the alarmingly appropriate slogan for McDonald's.

Schlosser continued by explaining the ways in which McDonald's markets itself. One example I found very grim. Noting that brand loyalty can be developed in human beings at as young as two years of age, McDonald's has targeted children in its advertising, assuring itself future generations of loyal customers. Schlosser claims that one in every three toys recieved by a child in this country comes from McDonalds. This information alone was not terribly disturbing, but the studies he cited linking the habitual eating of fast food to childhood obesity (one in three American children is considered at-risk), diabetes and heart disease killed my caffeine buzz.

"Can we market healthy brands to children?" He asked.

From here, Schlosser's talk took a more positive turn. He noted that the fast food culture that had its beginnings in mid-20th-Century southern California is gradually giving way to a more thoughtful way of eating that has its roots in the Bay Area. "People are starting to read labels." People are beginning to care again about what they put into their bodies.

In closing, he commended the Food Show attendees for their efforts at getting healthier, more natural foods out into the marketplace and hoped that, someday, "fancy food won't be considered fancy anymore."

My general sense of culinary doom for this country temporarily soothed, I made my way to the convention floor.

I thought I had prepared myself. Previous attendees offered advice like "Get a game plan" and "Just pace yourself." I now know that one can never be too prepared.

The show lasts three days for a reason- it's huge. Trying to take it all in over the course of one morning and afternoon like I did is like trying to take in all the sights of Western Europe over one holiday weekend. By 3 o'clock, both my belly and my brain were full. How much chocolate, cheese and hot sauce can a one take? I cannot recount everything I saw there, we'd all be in tears, though yours would most likely be shed due to boredom. Instead, I will limit myself to sharing a few highlights-- and low.

I thought a bit of hot chocolate might be a good way to start the day, though the initial sight of what I thought was a booth caught on fire made me want to start for the exit before I'd barely gotten underway.

Over in the Australian foods section, I sampled hot sauces with a man from Redback Chili Products, whose Horrible Haggis's collection of chilli (their spelling) sauces caught my eye. The following label depicts dominatrix nuns whipping a bare Bill Clinton while a cigar smoking Monica Lewinsky looks on. Another sauce label in their collection suggests using their product for testicular massage. I admired their ballsy marketing.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the show was encountering food items I'd never heard of before. My hands-down favorite was the Carica from Chile. The fruit tastes similar to a mango, but with softer, almost pear-like notes. The syrup from the jar would be great for mixing cocktails (attn: Stephanie).

The Yumberry is, as I was told three times in the two minutes I visited the booth, not a lychee nut. The flavor of the juice was good, almost cranberry-like. I was just skeptical of its name. I suspected a Chinese-to-English "sounds-like-a-good-idea" marketing ploy. Being a techno-and- marketing-savvy fruit, it has its own website. You can read the "The Legendary of Yumberry" there at your leisure.

After spending enough time sampling detoxifying fruits and their juices, I came upon a stand that was offering precisely the opposite. I thought a cocktail might take some of the edge off the convention. It (they) didn't. I was disappointed to see mostly Cosmopolitans, the I-lack-any-sort-of-imagination-so-I'll-just order-what-everybody-else-is-ordering cocktail of yesteryear and it's new replacement for America's hopelessly sheep-like drinkers, the mojito. I sampled a bloody mary mix that was so unbelievably salty (and I love salt) that it sent me running back for more Yumberry juice. Remind me never to trust a company that doesn't care about spelling.

One of the last booths I visited was also one one my favorites. Fish-in-a-tube by Mills from Norway. The smoked salmon and mackerel were very tasty and, I would imagine, very good to have on hand. I took some samples and plan on putting one in my medicine cabinet.

My energy sapped, my brain and belly full, I resolved to leave. On my way to the exit, I ran into Pauline, a regular bar patron at my place of employment. In a lovely and much needed-by-me reversal of roles, she offered me a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. I thought this was most likely the best way to end my day at the 32nd Annual Fancy Food Show. We chatted for a few minutes until I had finished my wine, I thanked her and then left.

I praise my own ignorance for much of the enjoyment I experienced at the show. Apparently, photography is frowned upon. Surprisingly, only two people asked me not to take photos. I thought it was because their products were so horrible that they were possibly ashamed. Now I know better.

If taking photos is frowned upon, taking product samples is definitely taboo, which is why the FFS only offered conventioneers clear plastic bags. Though completely ignorant of that fact at the time, I am glad I put the bottle of ouzo that a lovely woman from Chios gave me in my messenger bag. Efkharisto for that.

Though, at the moment, I never want to see another bottle of olive oil or new, exciting tea beverage in my life, I understand what a great resource the Fancy Food Show is for everyone involved. The opportunity to sell one's product and make money is there to be certain. So is the chance to spot trends (like the exploding interest in teas), get inspired (though the pina colada flavored cheese straws need some work) and generally connect with the rest of the food world-- and I do mean world. I would happily go again, knowing now what to focus on (trends, ideas) and what to avoid (stop eating so much cheese).

The convention lasts until tomorrow, January 23. Perhaps by then the more seasoned veterans of the show will have exhausted themselves with all the eating and schmoozing and selling and buying. They will go back to their hotel rooms (or, if they are particularly good at schmoozing and selling, someone else's hotel room) sated, finished with the convention and San Francisco for another year. Or should I say two years? The 33rd Annual Winter Fancy Food Show will be hosted in San Diego.