OK, Junk Food Nation – time to recap my 2013 Summer Fancy Food Show experience: Day 2!  When we last left off, I was leaking truffle oil from my pores…

Day 1 was a shameful shameful gluttony gluttony affair.  Say what you want about eating cheese and meat and dessert all day, it certainly FELT like work by day’s end.  But, after a good night’s sleep – my spirits were UP for DAY 2!  I do like stuffing my face with Doritos, but I was prepared to stuff much much more into my face that day.  After all, Day 1 the Junk Food Guy team only covered one floor – there was literally still TWO OTHER EXHIBITION AREAS to walk through.  Oof.

Part of the fun of attending the 2013 Summer Fancy Food Show is the awards given out for Best Frozen Food, Best Drink, etc… I usually mark them all on my floor map and make SURE I hit those.  After all, they GOTTA be good if they are nominated, right?  One of the nominees of the “Best New Product” category was this Oregon Seafoods Sea Fare Pacific Seafood Bisque – bisque in a bag, straight to heat then to bowl then to mouth.  It was my first bite of the day – and it was KILLER.  Let me tell you, for fish in a bag, this was some of the freshest tasting seafood I’d had in a while.  Combine it with an amazing bisque broth, good spices, salt ratio – BAM!  If I find this in stores, I am buying it.  Absolutely.

You guys KNOW I LOVE Q Drinks.  I had a contest back when I reviewed their Ginger Ale, and I’ll be having another one soon with their Q COLA.  Really tasty stuff.  This year, the artisan drink line had ANOTHER addition – fruit sodas!  Orange, Grapefruit, and Lemon.  They were crisp, refreshing, and like other Q Drinks, NOT loaded with a ton of sugar.  A review of these will be coming soon.  Thanks to Q Drinks for being such a great partner with this blog!

Q Drinks wasn’t the only soda I tried at the show – I was also pretty impressed by this Bruce Cost Ginger Ale.  Focusing primarily on Ginger Ales, this company featured ginger ale flavored with jasmine, pom and hibiscus, and passionfruit.  REALLY tasty.  The look sort of reminded me of Orangina. Did not taste like Orangina – tasted WAY better.

The Puerto Rico section of the show is always one of my favorite places. Nice people, great products!  Last year, I raved about the Seven Deadly Zings – a series of AMAZING hot sauces.  This year, it was the above series of fruit infused rum drinks.  These were DANGEROUS.  Dangerously delicious.  Zangria, passionfruit, mango flavors, and more! Yummy yummy yummy.

OK, look, I’ll admit – I BARELY know what bitters are.  I know it’s something that is mixed into drinks.  I do not know what this “something” is.  But Hella Bitter has changed my awareness.  This Brooklyn company started by three dudes used their homemade bitters in lemonade, cooked on shrimp, in whipped cream for strawberries – very cool stuff.  Gimme bitters or give me death!

There were a lot of people making pancakes and waffles at this show, but my favorite was Shortstacks by Southern Culture Foods.  The mix resulted in light, fluffy, really good tasting pancakes!

…of course, it also helped that they were being served with candied bacon pieces that I ate inside the pancake like a fold-over sandwich.  DELECTABLE.

A favorite from last year, Ciao Bella, was at the show again!

I don’t have great pictures of their booth this year, but they were highlighting their gelato sandwiches, which I’ve reviewed here and here.  A great product, and I know I heard MANY eating at this booth muttering in approval.

Another favorite from last year, CHUAO CHOCOLATE!  They make some of the coolest chocolate combos around; I’ve reviewed some before here…I especially LOVE their Firecracker Bar.  Chocolate with Pop Rocks in it??  OUTSTANDING!

Their newest item, Popcorn Pop, FEELS like popcorn is popping in your mouth as you eat it!  I swear.   A larger review of this item is coming soon.  But trust me – it’s pretty mindblowing.

Liddabit Sweets is a new-ish Brooklyn-based confection company that had some cool, homemade candy bars that knocked my socks off.  Their takes on a Milky Way bar were really tasty, and their Almond Joy -like bar that had a lime zest kick?  Superb.  Plus, one of their creators, Liz, was super energetic and made me happy I was eating her candy!  A review of their items is forthcoming too.

Jeni’s claims to have some of the world’s greatest ice cream.  I’ve had their stuff ….and I’m not inclined to DISAGREE, necessarily.  It is some simply perfect stuff.  And this year, they’ve upped the ante:

HONEY BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE AND SALTY CARAMEL SAUCE??? YOU KIDDING ME?  I grabbed a wooden spoon to take a sample and photograph it…

…BUT TOO LATE, I ATE IT!  It was some smooth, sugary, salty sauce, man.  GREAT stuff.  Jeni’s and Spoonable (below) REALLY opened my eyes to caramel sauce.  WOW.

Oh yeah, and Jeni’s also had ridiculous ice cream sandwiches they were pimping.  Oh don’t mind us, rolling out ice cream sandwiches in hazelnuts.  It’s only SPECTACULAR.

Spoonable is a Brooklyn company that ALSO made caramel sauces, and they got it RIGHT.  Their signature salty caramel STILL haunts my dreams to this day, and they had more than just that flavor!  Spicy Chili, Chewy Sesame…

…Flowery Lavender, Peppered Orange and Brooklyn Butterscotch!  I had them all, and then died happily.  Ice creams need this sauce.

Among all the decadent confections, I DID eat some protein.  These Pollock Filets from Freskot were some of the freshest frozen fish bites I’d EVER had.  Crispy, juicy, they rendered me dumbfounded.  If you like fried fish (WHO DOESN’T) I would buy these in a heartbeat!

Crunchamame falls into the category of “healthy snack foods that I could eat barrels of.”   I’ll be reviewing their whole line soon, but just know that I was uber impressed with their flavors and selling points – vegan, gluten-free, yet more protein than other soy nut-like snacks.  Sign me up as influenced.  I need to eat these every day.

The show stopper for Day 2, for me, was definitely these Baked Organic Cheese Puffs, or OrganicaSaurus, from Good Boy Organics! Not only were these puffs super-tasty, yet healthy, the company is based in HORNELL, NY!  UPSTATE IN THE HOUSE!  I’m going to review a lot more of these products soon – stay tuned!

And of course, I ended my day at the Mexico Drink Lab, again…

I like how Instagram made my skin tone really weird in the above-photo.  Or maybe all the stuff I was eating was slowly turning me green.  Ah well.  Day 3 tomorrow, folks!

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy