Here's a mini-trend I noticed while walking around at the Fancy Food show this past weekend: Tonic water! Yes, that combination of sweet, bitter, and fizzy, so beloved in our summer gin and tonics, has drawn the attention of some small-batch soda makers. Apparently there is a lot of room for improvement in tonic water. I tried three different varieties, and all were significantly better than the big brands I usually drink. One of them is even from Brooklyn! More

I am at the Fancy Food show in New York City this week, wandering through miles of aisles, inspecting cheese and yogurt, gawking at the incredible variety of vinegars on display this year, and tasting a "relaxation drink" called Slow Cow. (More on that to come).

This show is the primary place for all makers of gourmet foods (sauce, oil, cheese, dairy, pastry, chocolate...) to show off their wares to potential distributors and retailers. It's quite a zoo of food, but there are some gems to be found in the packed, crowded halls.

One such gem that intrigued me is this organic ghee, made from organic, grass-fed milk in upstate New York. I love cooking with ghee, and having a local and organic source of this clarified butter is wonderful. More

No, I don't mean caviar and chocolate covered strawberries, at least not necessarily. The Fancy Food show is a bi-annual event sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade and it just ended here in NYC. I started going two years ago when I went to speak about food blogging. All you need to know is that it's a gigantic trade show (football fields' worth) and that I try to go each year to find a few new gems for cooking. Here are my top ten finds from this last show:

More

I'm back from sunny San Diego with slightly pinker cheeks, jeans that are just a bit more snug, and a bag full of business cards and media kits. Hello, trade show!

I went to the Fancy Food Show (sponsored, since 1955, by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade) to speak about blogging and new food media with Beth Kanter and Nina Simonds. After that was over, I spent the next 36 hours pounding the 477,00 square foot floor of the San Diego Convention Center: more than 1,000 exhibitors showing more than, my official show directory tells me, 80,000 food products.

Let me begin by saying I did not eat 80,000 things. More