Fancy Food Show Winter 2010

The super bowl of food shows is the Fancy Food Show produced by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) since 1955. NASFT awards the Sofi Award, Oscar’s foodie brother, during the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City.

Lucky for me, the winter show is held right here in San Francisco at the Moscone Convention Center. I've now attended this show five times but I still find it impossible to fully describe the experience of attending this glorious show. Imagine a huge convention hall filled to the gills with 1,300 food purveyors enthusiastically showing off 80,000 specialty foods from 35 countries. Imagine all them vying for the attention of 17,000 food professionals attending this food fest. This creates the perfect storm for thousands of food tastings!

Social Responsibility and Eco-Awareness

Predictably, in this harsh economic climate, these numbers are considerably less than last year’s. Fewer exhibitors meant that there was a lot more elbow room, especially for the big name vendors. Could they have gotten a special deal from the organizers? It would make sense to offer some bonus space in favor of a sparse-looking convention center. As pleasant as it was to have more breathing space, samples were doled out more carefully, and it was sad to hear some of the vendors fighting more desperately for their market share.

Social responsibility and eco-awareness are not considered a fringy topics any more. All day long I hears the words “sustainable”, “recyclable”, and “humane”. When I asked vendors about fair trade practices in previous years, I often got looks as if I grew another head. Now vendors proudly show off their fair trade certifications without being asked.

Bambu offers a beautiful line of sustainable bamboo serving trays and a dual-sided spoon and fork which would make a perfect light-weight addition to a picnic basket. I loved the random-shaped pebbles, made from the scraps resulting from their manufacturing process. These would be a great design element to add to a table décor.

Glacia offers icebox water in a five-liter (1.32 gallon) biodegradable box with a convenient spigot for dispensing. This is a great alternative to the flats of individual plastic bottles that snack-moms often brought to soccer and baseball games.

Reusable shopping bags are hardly considered novel any longer, Go Green Bags offers customizable bags.

Foie gras arguably sparks the most controversial debate about the humane treatment of animals. Hudson Valley Foie Gras extends an open invitation to anyone who would like to visit their farm in New York.

Click here to see the bad boy of the food world, Anthony Bourdain, visit this farm. What do you think? Would you eat foie gras after seeing this video?

Corn-based additives

I’m thrilled to report that corn-based additives like modified food starch and maltodextrin are disappearing from ingredients lists. Fingered as one of the root causes of the obesity crisis in the United States, this trend is a welcome change. Thank you, Michael Pollan! Good old-fashioned sugar is making a come-back and agave is now the darling sweetener:

Gluten-free

With the increase of Celiac Disease diagnoses, Gluten-free products are on the rise. If a vendor doesn’t offer a gluten-free version of their product yet, they often quickly add “but we will by March” or “we are working on it in our kitchens right now”.

Next post I will talk about flavor trends.

Tech Awards 2009 – The Intel Environment Award Laureates

In my November 20th post I promised I would tell you about the Tech Awards Laureates. Travel and a very bad cold that kept my head in a fog prevented me from making good on my promise until now.

The Tech Awards were granted in five categories: environment, economic development, education, equality, and health. Each of the Tech Award Laureates received a beautiful trophy: a crystal globe on a silicon ingot and one winner in each category received a $50,000 cash award from the sponsors.

Today I will tell you about the winners of the Intel Environment Award.

Cows to Kilowatts

The top award in this category went to Dr. Joseph Adelegan’s ingenious Cows to Kilowatts project in Nigeria. Adelegan deviced a means to transform slaughterhouse wastewater into energy ranging from electricity to cooking gas.

Image: Environmental Health Perspective

Not only does the project prevent air pollution and diseases borne by untreated wastewaters, the technology uses a zero-emissions method to produce organic fertilizer and clean-burning methane for low-income farmers and families.

LeafView: An Electronic Field Guide

Dr. Sean White enthusiastically demonstrated the LeafView gadget that can take a picture of any leaf and then automatically identify it by using computer vision algorithms and its extensive electronic field guide database. White developed the human-to-computer interface together with Columbia University, University of Maryland, and Smithsonian Institution.

Photo: Columbia University

The tool then records the leaf and its contextual data, like GPS coordinates, to the living record of the world’s plants. Botanists are in a hurry to populate this database because the world is loosing species faster than it can record them.

Photo: Columbia University

White hopes to recruit more volunteers so that he can complete development of the iPhone application. The ubiquitous availability of this tool can contribute to the world’s digital herbaria more accurately and exponentially faster than ever before.

GRUPEDSAC: Ecotechniques Toolkits for Self-Sufficiency

I had the great pleasure of meeting Lilly Wolfensberger who accepted the award for GRUPEDSAC, the organization in Mexico who dispenses eco-friendly toolkits to rural families who live below the poverty line. The toolkits include, cisterns for collecting rain water, prickly pear natural paint and waterproofing resin, a solar dehydrator, a solar water heater, a wood-saving stove, a wind/solar generator, a rope pump, an electricity-generator bicycle, and a solar oven. The recipients of these toolkits also receive training and guidance to ensure that the communities can become self-sufficient while preserving the environment.

I hope to tell you about the other laureates as soon as possible.

Tech Awards 2009 - Al Gore Awarded the Global Humanitarian Award

Like last year, my husband and I attended the Tech Awards Gala at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center last night. For the last nine years, fifteen Tech Awards Laureates were recognized for “profoundly improving the human condition through the use of technology”.

Each year I am amazed and inspired by the passion, creativity, and spirit of innovation each winner possesses. I am particularly impressed that the award criteria is based on the impact the technology has in improving the human condition rather than the technology itself. The technology does not need to be leading edge technology to have measurable benefit. Sometimes it is very simple or even ancient. I recall a retired couple from Menlo Park, CA who won The Tech Award years ago for building pulley-based bridges across rivers or ravines to give access to schools or medical facilities in rural areas of the world.

Photo: Globalgiving.com

These Nepalese school girls do not have to use a dangerous, makeshift trapeze contraption to go to school any longer. By the way, if you are looking for a terrific humanitarian gift for this coming holiday season, a mere $15 will buy a chaka (wheel) for this bridge. Requests for more bridges like these are overwhelming. Click here to donate.

Mike Splinter, Chairman and CEO of Applied Materials, presented Former Vice President Al Gore with the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award for his contribution in raising global awareness of climate change.

In his acceptance speech, Gore spoke of his college professor who over forty years ago foretold the imminent sequence of events that would result in the Earth’s climate change. Over the years, as he saw the professor’s predictions unfold, he was inspired him to take action from the first time he was elected to public office.

Gore told the 1,500 attendees of the plight of the people in Bangladesh who are direct victims of the rising sea level. The Bangladeshis used to have to rebuild their lives because of flooding every twenty years. Now, they have to rebuild every 3-9 years.

He acknowledged that it is difficult to relate how the rapidly melting ice and snow in the Himalayas might affect us. But when he said that the seven great rivers of Asia, like the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, all originate from the ice and snow of the Himalayas, it became very clear.

Australian firefighters are fighting fires that are hotter than they’ve ever experienced before. In a moment of epiphany, they realized that the best way to fight fires is to be on the forefront of affecting public policy to stop global warming.

Gore closed by saying that “we have everything we need to solve the problem with the possible exception of political will. Fortunately political will is a renewable resource.”

Next post, I will tell you about the Award Laureates.

Brown Pelican Delisted from Endangered List

Yesterday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially removed the Brown Pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis) from the endangered species list of the federal register after being on the list since 1970. They were almost completely wiped out due to habitat loss, hunting, and pesticides like DDT and dieldrin. The pesticides caused the pelican eggshells to be so thin that they were not viable. Their numbers plummeted down to 10,000. Louisiana, known as the Pelican State, had no pelicans left and there were only a few nesting pairs left in its neighboring state Texas. The government’s ban on the use of DDT in 1972 helped restore the population to its current thriving population.

Though the smallest of the pelican family, it is still an impressively large bird with an average wing-span of 6-8 feet (2-2½ meters), and weighing in at 6-12 pounds (3-5½ kg).

There are five subspecies:
P. o. californicus (California Brown Pelican)
P. o. carolinensis (Eastern Brown Pelican)
P. o. occidentalis (Caribbean Brown Pelican)
P. o. murphy (Pacific Brown Pelican)
P. o. urinator (Galápagos Brown Pelican)

Galápagos Brown Pelican

My family and I were most fortunate to see brown pelicans nesting during our trip to the Galápagos Islands in 2007. There are about a dozen nests on this beachfront hillside…

…with a million dollar view of the Pacific Ocean which they shared with the Galápagos Fur Seals:

These two nest mates got the penthouse:

As most animals we encountered in the Galápagos Islands, they were completely unperturbed by our presence. Touching was strictly forbidden but we were allowed to approach an animal provided we did not change their behavior:

They have a transparent third eyelid called the nictitating membrane:

The juveniles were brown all over. This one was drying his wings in his nest:

California Brown Pelican

Last month, I went to Carmel with my book club for our annual Fall Adventure. We went kayaking in the Elkhorn Slough and saw this flock of white-headed adults and immature all-brown pelicans quietly resting on this rock.

They didn’t seem to mind sharing the space with cormorants:

The weather was perfect for kayaking and wing-drying:

Let’s hear three cheers for the Brown Pelicans because they beat the odds. Their removal from the endangered species list is a great tribute to the conservationists who fought to protect their habitat and create legislation banning the pesticides that harmed these beautiful birds.

Seeds of Inspiration

The midterm assignment in my European Floristry class is to create a floral wall hanging. We must explain our inspiration, the flowers must be easily swapped out, and we must use skills and concepts we learned in the class so far. Recycling is one of the key concepts we learned about in this class. This is what I submitted.

The ability to set our ideas in print is a concept unique to our species. It began as cavemen depicted their conquests against the mammoth or bison on the walls of their dwellings. Fast forward thousands of years and we see Egyptians scribing their daily lives on papyrus scrolls. Medieval monks illuminated the hand-lettered manuscripts of religious ideals in exquisite detail. Gutenberg transformed the printed page by inventing the printing press with the use of movable type. The fonts of the movable type were stored in drawers like these; each cubbyhole holding a letter or punctuation mark. The printer would select the letters and string them together forming words, then sentences, then ideas. These drawers held the seeds of inspiration, waiting to be expressed onto the printed page. With the advent of electronic typesetting and the vanishing printed page, font drawers are a relic of the past, relegated to flea markets and dusty antique shops. How many seeds of inspiration have they held?

What if this drawer is repopulated with new seeds of inspiration?

***

I’ve owned two font drawers for close to ten years now. In the summer I like to fill them with many different kinds of seashells and in the autumn I love to fill them with findings from my walks.

I lined each cubbyhole with yellow cardstock which were left-over response cards from my wedding invitation. I chose yellow because it showed the best contrast to the stars of the show: the seeds. Most are held in place by tension alone, others are tacked down with glue dots. Most of the seeds are newly collected this month but some I’ve had for a few years. Only one item was purchased for the purpose of this project. One cubby has a non-seed item. The seeds are secured with either Elmer’s glue or glue gun. The fresh berries are in water tubes.

This pavé design uses an analogous color scheme, ranging from green to yellow then orange and red. The color is distributed along the diagonal, providing a line of movement, with brown neutrals in opposing corners. The seeds are loosely grouped by genus while striving to achieve good contrast in texture and color between neighboring cubbies. The repeating acorns and berries provide rhythm to the piece.

I’ve always wanted to hang these drawers on the wall and have the ability to change them easily with the seasons, so I thank you for this assignment.

Click on the photo to see a partial list of the seeds used.

In the spirit of recycling, this post is also submitted for Blog Action Day. With the exception of one very large, hairy acorn, all materials used for this project were either found objects or materials I already had on hand. Won’t you join me and close to twelve thousand other bloggers in sparking a discussion about climate change?

Earth Mosaic 2009

THE RED WHEELBARROW*
William Carlos Williams

     so much depends
     upon


     a red wheel
     barrow


     glazed with rain
     water


     beside the white
     chickens

Lovely Tara of Paris Parfait sent me an invitation to join the Flickr group Earth Mosaic 2009. Members of the groups are asked to submit a photo on Earth Day, April 22nd from where ever in the world you may be. Tara submitted two great iconic images of Paris. I chose to use a local photo taken right here in Palo Alto. Our friend James Witt is a homebuilder here in town who lives in a neighborhood called Barron Park, where his garden is adorned with objects he found on the properties he purchases.

It seems that every lot he buys has at least one leftover wheelbarrow. Rather than tossing them in our overflowing dumps, he leans them in an elegant, purposeful manner against his garden fence.

His tool shed is a still life composed of old tools and other curiosities. It would be nice to sit around a campfire, and listen to tunes strummed on the old guitar. Imagine the stories the tools could tell of their life's accomplishments before their well-earned retirement.

James placed these bottles on this beautiful flatbed cart precisely where they can catch afternoon sun.

 

I’m sure some of you car buffs out there can tell me what model car this is; I have no clue (Packard, Studebaker?). Its rusty patina blends beautifully into its surroundings..

Update: Thank you , James for telling us that this is a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster. 

What I appreciate most is how James gives real meaning to the phrase “trash to treasure”. Is there a better way to celebrate Earth Day?

_____________________
* Many thanks to George of Transit Notes for posting the wonderful poem by William Carlos Williams!

“Stone River” by Andy Goldsworthy

I’ve walked by it many times without realizing it was there because its ridge is level with the ground.

In summer, the sandstones are perfectly camouflaged into the color of the dry golden grass and dirt.

And then one day, when tangobaby and I had a conversation about the genius of Andy Goldsworthy’s art, she told me that one of his works was right here in my own back yard.  I’m talking about Andy Goldsworthy’s 2001 sculpture “Stone River” , a 320-foot-long sandstone sculpture set in a 3 ½ foot channel in front of Stanford University’s Cantor Center for Visual Arts.

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor who uses elements of nature and shapes them into art that fits perfectly into its environment. All his works are beautifully documented in his books and his DVD "Rivers and Tides".

Some of his art is impermanent, meant to be melted by the sun or washed away by the waves of the sea or rush of a river. Other works, like “Stone River”, are permanent. He supervised eight experienced dry-stone wallers from Great Britain while they worked six days a week, eleven hours a day, for three-and-a-half weeks in August 2001. In the mean time, Goldsworthy himself created a temporary sculpture of grasses and leaves just a few yards away. He describes:

 "The ephemeral work is the soul of my art. That is the food. All these other things that I do -- the permanent pieces, the installations in museums -- are like breathing out.” [1]

All of his art echoes the shapes of nature.  This wall reminds me of a rattle snake I might see the in the hills not far from here, swishing back and forth in sinusoidal waves, as it propels itself through the dirt. It is hard to remember that this “creature” is made entirely of inorganic materials, yet it conveys so much life and movement.

Goldsworthy used sandstone from a repository of materials salvaged from Stanford University buildings damaged in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes to create “Stone River”. The fact that he only uses found materials makes this “boneyard” the perfect source for this project.

"The idea of stone that was once a building returned to the ground, back into the earth, for a work that is about flow, movement and change, it was perfect. It was really perfect.”

His goal was to achieve “the ridiculous edge” as the spine of the wall.

His unflagging dedication to his work is legendary. He lamented that he had to interrupt his time with the sculpture in order to be guest of honor at the inauguration of the sculpture.

"I've stayed here watching it the whole day. I've seen incredible changes (now) there's a gap in my understanding of the piece… If you had to describe my work in one word, it would be 'time'."

I have to admit that I understand his frustration a tiny bit. The first photos I took of this sculpture were in July, 2007, when the sculpture looked arid and hot, like it had just risen up from the dirt, barely differentiating itself from its surroundings.

 

Then when I recently happened to drive by the location after a good rain storm, when the grass was bright green, the sculpture took on a completely different nature. It looked cool and lush, complementing its environment rather than melting into it.

I’m not sure if Goldsworthy has seen this piece in this blossoming state, but if he saw the dramatic changes, he would be want to be here year-round to get a fuller understanding of the piece. Hmm, that might not be all bad; maybe he’ll be inspired to do another work of art.

Flickr set here.

---

[1] http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2002/january23/goldsworthy-123.html

White House Victory Garden

Victory Garden Poster

Ruth at synch-ro-ni-zing inspired me to post this item she found at Slow Food Nation.

Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural history of Four Meals” and Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote an open letter to the President-Elect Obama last October. He outlined many of the food-related challenges Obama will face as president and proposed a strategy to tackle them. One suggestion that will not cost billions of dollars of taxpayer money is to use five of the eighteen acres of the White House lawn to plant an organic fruit and vegetable garden. Eating locally shortens the food chain which can reduce our dependence on foreign oil. 

This is not a new idea. In 1917, President Wilson ordered a “war garden” to be planted at the White House to grow vegetables for the Wilson’s meals.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a “victory garden” at the White House In 1943 , spearheading a movement that inspired over 20 million home gardens that supplied 40 percent of the produce consumed in America.

San Francisco’s victory garden program was one of the nation’s finest. The first victory garden was planted in 1943 at the Civic Center site. Every park in the city had gardens, Golden Gate Park could boast over 250 garden plots, and many vacant lots were used for growing vegetables.

To hear Terry Gross' Fresh Air interview with Michael Pollan click here.

The Obamas could inspire millions of Americans by their example.

Even More Fancy Food Show – Winter 2009

Photo from Bottled Water Store

This is the final installment of the Fancy Food Show miniseries.

Most Beautiful

I already told you about the beautiful California Wine Wafers; here are some other beautiful products.

Hannah’s Delights displays their goods in the same corner of the convention hall every year. I can always count on seeing their spectacular display of hand-pulled hard candy along with their collection of Sofi Awards. It’s heartwarming to see a company keep this lost art alive.

I wish I remember which booth Jodi and I saw the most beautiful pita bread ever. The vendor of this booth told us that they unleashed a couple of florists with their products and they came up with the creative idea of making roses from pita bread.

Photo by Jodi

Stephanie found some gorgeous macaroons from Cocola Bakery from nearby Redwood City, CA:

Photo by Stephanie

Photo by Stephanie

We all howled when we read the label of this pasta:

Before there are any ruffled feathers, I just want to go on record that I adore my mother-in-law.


New Unusual Products

Obama Cookies Since it was two days before the inauguration, our favorite, most apropos, new product is the Obama-Biden bag of cookies by Parker’s Crazy Cookies. We all promised to bring our bag to Dakota Angel’s inauguration breakfast, but I’m not sure any of us remembered.

Parker will custom-make a cookie based on any photograph and he also offers a line of holiday, celebration and university cookies. Can sports cookies be far behind?

Spice Rub Sheets or Seasoning Blends? There was one product line that truly divided us. None of use can remember the product or vendor name, but it might have been Flavor Magic.

Photo from flavormagic.net

When I sent out an e-mail to my co-reviewer saying that I thought it was the worst product of the show, I had a mini revolution on my hands. This product offers various spice blends fused to sheets of plastic. You then place your moistened meat, fish, or poultry on a sheet, cover, and then let it marinate. The seasonings will fully transfer within 30 minutes to two hours and then you can throw away the plastic and cook as usual. Many of us thought it was a clever convenience because everyone can choose a flavor and it is a very tidy means to apply a rub.

I personally object to the use of throwaway plastic when there are lots of delicious ready-made spice rubs on the market that you just shake out of a glass jar. Lesley Elizabeth makes over thirty blends of spices (my favorite was the Mango Fruit Salsa – just add fresh mango cubes).

Edith Schneider likes to blend her own spices thus she was not interested in either product.

Qzina Pastry Spoons Dakota Angel and Edith discovered Qzina’s pastry shells shaped like spoons that were neutral in flavor so that you can serve either savory appetizers or sweet desserts in them.

Photo by pastrypost.com

San Gennaro Cheese Grits Linda enjoyed some Southern style cheese grits patties by San Gennaro Foods
.

Photo from polenta.net

Minglirs Stir Sticks

I was grateful that Minglirs handed out samples to try at home. My mother and I tried a hazelnut-flavored stir stick in our coffee this morning and we were amazed how much flavor was imparted and how good it tasted! They also offer caramel and vanilla flavors for coffee and cinnamon, peppermint, and raspberry for cocoa. I personally would like to try the cinnamon in coffee. This is a great travel product – no liquids involved.

Photo by Minglirs

Minglirs uses birch wood and also offers seasoned skewers, flavored grilling planks. Beverages We each had our favorite beverage products.

Rishi Tea

Photo by Stephanie

Stephanie was delighted by “the great variety of teas offered by Rishi Tea from Wisconsin, of all places. The owner sources all his teas directly from small growers in Japan, China and India. They had an incredible variety of green and black teas, plus rooibos ‘red tea’, which is caffeine-free, and Japanese genmai chai with roasted rice.”

Photo by Stephanie

Drinkable Vinegar Dakota Angel’s favorite beverage was a drinkable vinegar drink from South Korea. She didn't get the vendor name, but it might have been this.

Photo from Asia Food Journal

It is recommended that you drink this with a straw because vinegar is not kind to your tooth enamel.

Aquadeco

Linda, my favorite water snob friend, loved a Canadian water product in a gorgeous 8 oz. art deco bottle, see top photo, by the aptly named Aquadeco. She recalled, “The package was wonderful, but a bit overdone on the plastic/non biodegradable topic for only 8 oz. Someone returned the sample in protest of same and told the rep that the company should be ashamed of itself. I agree, but the water was good.”

Their website says that their plastic bottle is recyclable and that they do offer a 750 ml. glass bottle. My research tells me that the bottle is blown in Slovenia and is priced at a whopping $35. That would make it the ultimate prestige water. It would make a beautiful gift, especially for a budding florist who could use it as a vase and amuse herself for many hours coming up with deco floral designs. Sence Nectar Linda also enjoyed a delicious drink by Sence Rare European Rose Nectar, also in a beautiful glass bottle. According to her it is a “wonderful drink flavored with the essence of a rose which only blooms three weeks a year. It would make a great wedding favor.” Their website says the nectar is made from the Kazanlak rose which is grown in Bulgaria. They claim that Leonardo Da Vinci drank nectar from the same rose; both hot as a tea and chilled. They also recommend pairing the nectar with champagne, vodka, rum, gin, sake and many cordials.

Photo by Sence Nectar

Tasmanian Beer I’m not a big beer drinker but I truly enjoyed a Tasmanian beer as a welcome palate cleanser. When I remarked that it was nice and clean tasting, the exhibitor beamed and waxed on about how clean the water in Tasmania is. He said it is one of the four places in the world where scientists use the water as a control against which all other waters are measured. Good to know. I wish I remembered the brand, I only remember a dark label. hi*ball energy

Photo by hi*ball

By the end of the day our palates were spent and vendors were begging us to make an exception and please taste one more thing. Four of us made an exception and tasted one more beverage. I’m grateful we did. We tasted the ten-calorie, orange- and grapefruit-flavored energy drinks by hi*ball energy ; they were both delicious and a great way to end five glorious hours.

Thank you to all of my co-reviewers for venturing out into unknown food worlds, for your feedback, your photos, and a lovely afternoon.