Our Favorite Products from the World’s Fanciest Food Show
Coconuts with pop-tabs, fermentation kits and more.
Image: Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images
The annual Summer Fancy Food Show is an occasion for specialty food producers to come together and share their creations. The Food.com team took a trip to the industry-only event on Monday to put our expert tongues to the test—and left with heavy bags of samples and some very sore toes.
These were some of our favorite products—the tried-and-true and the brand new—in no particular order.
Hank’s Cilanktro & Honey Habanero Sauces
Two Food.com editors took these sauces home for July 4th and came back with the same conclusion: Hank is dank (in the good sense, of course). This writer will never be able to eat guacamole again without a dollop of Cilanktro sauce, while Food Editor Hannah Petertil reportedly poured Honey Habanero “on everything.”
Buf Creamery’s Buffalo Mozzarella
Buf Creamery makes its fresh cheese—a mozzarella that could almost pass for a softer burrata—exclusively from buffalo. Those buffalo also happen to be grass-fed while roaming free in Colombia. That could explain why it has more grassy flavor than other mozzarellas we’ve tried. This perfectly-salted cheese is available in three sizes.
Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Fermentation Kits
Do you believe in being the brewmaster of your own beer destiny, but you don’t know where to go to achieve enlightenment? You’ve gotta start somewhere, so might as well give it a go with a starter kit. The Brooklyn Brew Shop’s various kits are available on Amazon, and include both the best-selling “Everyday IPA” kit and a hard cider kit, for those who try to avoid the gluten. Accessible chemistry for the masses!
Casa Calvillo’s Guava Marmalade
The guava marmalade was sweet as sunshine (on a not-humid day, please) and the chunks of fruit made for a nice textural contrast when served, as they were at the show, with mini pancakes. Pour this stuff all over your vanilla ice cream, or just skip out on the ice cream and eat the marmalade straight from the jar.
Pain Is Good Gochujang Sauce
With a brand name like that, Food.com was wary at first. But after trying the Pain Is Good gochujang—which some call “Korean ketchup”—we were checking our calendars for our next barbecues, because this stuff needs to get itself on a steak, ASAP. The brand’s harissa sauce, however, is worthy of the term “pain.” Delicious, delicious pain.
Brooklyn Brine Co.’s “Damn Spicy” Pickles
There’s nothing quite like a dill pickle. So when you add some spicy to the mix, you better know what you’re doing. The “Damn Spicy” deli pickles were a damn success, with enough of a vinegar kick to keep us coming back for another bite. The Brooklyn Brine Co. also knows how to handle its liquor, so they add it to their whiskey sour pickles and their spicy maple bourbon pickles.
Trois Petits Cochons’ Pâté Basque
One of the newer additions to Trois Petit Cochons’ classic line of charcuteries, the Pâté Basque is flavored with Espelette pepper—a subtly-spicy Basque signature, which is reminiscent of paprika. Particularly rich and decadent when sliced into thick cubes and eaten on a cracker. It’s also certified USDA Organic, which is never a bad thing.
Genuine Coconut’s Whole Coconuts
If only you could put down your machete and open your coconut the same way you open a can of seltzer… Oh wait, with the Genuine Coconut, you can. The simple pop-top mechanism exposes the coconut water to air for the first time ever, so you get it as fresh as it comes. You’ll never want to go back to drinking the boxed stuff.
Acornseekers Pork
“This is pork?” we asked incredulously. Red and Wagyu-like when cooked rare, only with a thousand times as much flavor as your average cow. Acornseeker’s “Ibericus” pigs (Iberico pig that were brought to the U.S.; get it?) are raised in Texas on a binge diet of acorns. Nutty and soft. We helped ourselves to another sample, hot out of the pan.
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