Best Bites of the 2011 Fancy Food Show

Imagine a giant cocktail party – an event so big you’d need a map to find your friends. Everywhere you look, people are nibbling things off toothpicks and licking stuff off spoons. You can’t turn around without someone waving a squeeze bottle of hummus at you.

Oh, what fun Hieronymus Bosch would have painting the Fancy Food Show, a carnival of eats that takes place twice a year. The event brings new products to the attention of retailers, but it’s also a chance for the press to put on badges and gorge.

I have so many wheels and wedges to show you and so many celebrity cheese visages to honor that I will split this post in two. First, an overview. For my next post, the complete cheese redux.

Trends & Observations

It’s certainly the Year of the Goat. Everywhere I turned, someone was waving a goat’s milk caramel. I must have sampled a dozen kinds. The best was Happy Goat caramel spiked with Scotch.

Bacon is still hot, and now you can find it in popcorn and chocolate. I think I am hitting my limit, except for a new Skillet Bacon Spread. It was terrific with cheese on a cracker.

Cherries are the new pomegranate.

The rice cake is not dead. Everywhere I looked, machines were spewing out popped grains and pressing Styrofoam-like cakes into forms. Say no to rice cakes drizzled with chocolate and topped with streusel.

 

Purple sweet potato ice cream exists. And fyi: it’s delicious.

 

Cheese and artisanal chocolate will take over the world. I sampled nib after nib and wedge after wedge. Beware: Lots of new chocolate packaging looks like Vosges knock-offs. Vosges debuted a chocolate-chip cookie mix, and the samples were bank.

Bye bye chai, hello boxed hot chocolate. No loss there.

Crackers are undergoing a renaissance. So are cheese straws.

Bamboo. Bamboo. Bamboo.

Adult sodas, with less sugar and labels that call to mind bath salts, are the new Snapple.

Behold boozy jams and savory spreads that pair well with cheese and charcuterie.

On the fringes: buffalo-based snack bars, grow-your-own-mushroom kits, and honey in handpumps.

 

Best Bites

Best Blue Cheese: Flora Nelle, Rogue River

Best New European Cheese: Lord of the Hundreds

Best New American Cheese: Reading Raclette

Best Cracker: Pan Forte Crostini from Rustic Bakery

Best cheese combination: Halloumi with Meyer Lemon Relish, Bella Cucina

Best pickle: Lavender White Asparagus, Brooklyn Brine

Best Spread: Fruit Caviar, The Fine Cheese Co.

Best Chocolate Novelty: Askinosie Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Best Cheese Display: Cypress Grove's “Cheese Cake”

Pepito and the Last of the Radishes

 

Sometimes the earth makes my head spin, like when I cut open this giant Beauty Heart Radish from our community garden and the cleaved halves looked like a pair of pink lungs.

This radish was spicy. Almost too spicy to eat, but I couldn’t stand the thought of it lobbing so much beauty into the compost bucket. So I found it a mate, a hot-headed companion: Pepito.

Pepito is made by Yellow Springs, a goat dairy in Chester County, PA. The recipe is based on a traditional Italian cheese, called Pepato (meaning “with pepper”), a Pecorino speckled with whole peppercorns. It’s not a fancy dancer, but it has some can-can. When you need a kick, Pepato – or Pepito --  can be a frisky addition to the cheese plate. It's also great with a crisp, summery beer.

This particular Pepito landed in our fridge via the goat cheese CSA I signed up for this summer. Look at that rind – it almost looks like the surface of a root vegetable. You know I like a little surface mold. It’s the sign of a healthy cheese. A living cheese.

The taste of this cheese is sublime – it’s fudgy and clean-tasting, not at all tangy. The only zest comes from the spicy peppercorns, which add a springy, almost floral note.

This is the key to cheeses with “flavorings” or spices. They shoudn’t overpower the milk. Next time you nibble a flavored or smoked cheese, see if you can still detect the milky taste of the cheese itself. If you can’t, that’s a flaw.

For an example of this balance, try Marco Polo, a sharp cheddar from Seattle, dotted with green and black peppercorns. The company, Beecher’s, just opened a cheese omniplex in New York. It's worth making a trip for a wedge.

Or, grab a hunk of original Pepato.

Cheese at The Ritz

My mother, an inveterate traveler, loves hotel lobbies and college bookstores. Whenever she has downtime on a trip, she pops in to lounge on a sofa or peruses shelves for interesting course lists. Have I inherited this penchant for frugal high-brow-ism? Perhaps.

Last week, I found myself seated on velvet, nibbling a $5 cheese plate, at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Philadelphia. The recommendation came from local site uwishunu.com, publisher of all things euro-obscuro. Was I curious about the best hotel happy hours in the city? Yes, somehow…uh, I was. Musta been Maman’s gene. Ordinarly, I am more hostel than Hilton.

Props to The Ritz. Friends of Madame drank liberally (ask about the $5 wines from the regular wine list, avoid the sugary Bacardi drinks) and enjoyed a nicely curated cheese plate. Granted, it was mouse-size, but for $5 this was a great way to taste some unusual cheeses with a few lovely sides.

The plate came with bread, spiced walnuts, a wee jar of quince jam, and a hunk of honeycomb. Glory be!

Would I return? Yes, and yes again. I have gone twice now, just to be sure the deal was legit. Charcuterie fiends, the cured meat plate is delightful, too. I am all for affordable child-size portions of wedge and beast.

Kudos to Chef Jennifer Carroll for picking some unusual selections. This is not your amateur hour cheese plate. Oh no, here's a list of last week's dairy hits.

Ritz Cheese Plate Primer

Port Salut (far right) - A French cream bomb with orange rind. Originally made by Trappists

Moliterno - Aged sheep's milk, peanutty and grandfatherly.

Ibores - Spanish goat's milk, tangy and caramely.

Rogue River Smoky - Think canoe trips, sweaters, smoldering. From Oregon.

Happy hour at the Ritz-Carlton's bar, 10 Arts, runs from 5-7 p.m. on weeknights. Select wines and small plates are $5. The vibe is Gaga, but the tribe is casual suede. See below.

Cherries and Cheese

Now that it's cherry season, we can do the unthinkable. As you can see, I have gone off my rocker by adding blue cheese and cherries to home-made chocolate pudding. This combination isn't for everyone, but if you love these three flavors, the tastes go together surprisingly well. Sweet, tart, and salty -- my best friends.

If you spot these Corvette-red sour cherries at the farm stand, don't walk away from a great potential cheese pairing. Cook the cherries down into a compote, and keep them in the fridge to garnish Bries and blues. They also come in handy when you want to make a cracking good Manhattan. The recipe below is glorious, and you don't need any Red #5.

Last night, I tucked some of these cherries into blintzes with a bit of farmer's cheese, and oh didn't we all cry our eyes out from joy? Let me tell you, one jar of tart cherries has turned our hot, hot house into a pleasure dome. Every time I open the fridge, the red glow of the cherry jar motivates me to cook -- or at least to rustle up a snack plate.

Try this cherry compote with a cream bomb, like Delice de Bourgogne, or a feisty blue, like Roaring Forties.

Cherry Compote

Adapted from epicurious

• 1.5 pounds of sour cherries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 drops rose water (optional)

1. Remove cherry stones by hand. To do this, simply split cherries in half and dig your thumb under the pit. It pops right out. Then put the pitted cherries in a sauce pan with water, sugar, and corn starch and bring to a boil.

2. After 5 minutes, strain the cherries, reserving the liquid. Put the cooked cherries in a tall, clean mason jar and return the liquid to the stove.

3. Reduce the cherry liquid for about 10 minutes, so that the mixture is syrupy. Add rose water, if desired. Then pour the syrup over the cherries and seal the jar. Let cool, then refrigerate.

A July 4 Cheese Plate with Friends

You might think it would be impossible to put together a red, white, and blue cheese board without getting corny. Think again. There are some very fine cheeses that come in multicolored wax. And if you think of "red" in loose terms -- a pimento-studded Basque-aroo, say -- you can pull off a spicy snack plate that fits the star-spangled theme.

For a party in Media, PA, hosted by a pair of world travelers now home-bound with tikes, I plundered the cheese worlds of France, Spain, and Australia for a luxe cheese plate that, lo, even the kids gobbled.

Get ready. Here's the sequence. Truly, this is one of the best little combos ever. Once July 4 is over, I will happily serve it again.

Red

Ossau Iraty with Pimento: This classic sheep's milk cheese is smooth and nutty. With a touch of dried pimento (Piment d'Espelette), which is native to the region, this gorgeous hunk turns into a beautiful Dorito. Sounds slanderous, I know, but I am using the term "Dorito" as a term of endearment. I owe the description to cheesemonger Ezekial Ferguson of Di Bruno Bros. 

As you can see from the photo, the red is subtle. If you only buy one nice cheese this summer, make it this one. It's absolutely delicious -- so creamy, so complex with its nutty-sweet tones, and just faintly kicky.

White

Pave D'Affinois: I couldn't resist a cheese cube, something contained and easy to tote. Kara of Almanac Market introduced me to this little Brie-like number. It's soft and simple, a good foil for cherries. Interestingly, the children of our party took to it immediately and begged for slice upon slice.  

Blue

Roaring Forties Blue: This Australian blue is creamy and fruity, a favorite at every party. I'm always drawn to its blue wax casing. It's made by King Island Dairy, just south of Melbourne.

And now...to the party. To the cheese-eating children.

There he is, the Blue Cheese Brit. Notice the gleam in his eye.

Cheese's Fireworks: Baubles and Accompaniments

It's becoming the summer of high-waisted jeans, so why shouldn't I pull a few surprises out of my back pocket, like this breath freshening spray which is -- guess what?! -- bitters. I am almost embarrassed to tell you how much I adore this little purse condiment from Urban Moonshine in Burlington, VT. Spray the inside of a glass and make yourself a quickie Manhattan, or gack back a spritz after you lunch on a big, spicy cheese. 

If you want a cheese that tastes like fireworks, run your Keds to the closest fromagerie and buy some Delice de Pommard. It's the ultimate summer cheese ball -- mustard-crusted, creamy, and uber spreadable. Everyone who drags a crisp bread through this French triple-creme goat cheese goes absolutely bananas. It's not high-brow, it's not low-brow; it's just really good cream cheese rolled in gourmet mustard. 

Alors! If you want to get uppity, don't go into this weekend without a decent cheese board. I can't tell you how many times I've arrived at a party with a requested trove of smelly beauties only to discover that the host plans to use a stained, old, flimsy plastic cheese board. This is my Mustang, a hunk of reclaimed oak from the Philadelphia-based company Peg & Awl. If you're buying a wedding present this summer, think of me, and make it a cheese board.

So you've got your bitters, your bling cheese, and your board. What else do you need? Bread. Good bread. Go get that baguette today, wrap it well in plastic, then when you want to  reheat it, just spritz it with water and toss it in the ovy at 300. In 15 minutes, it'll taste brand new.

There, pack your hamper, pick up some roadside berries, and you've got Fourth of July. 

                                                                             ~

P.S. If you need a couple bottles of wine, let me recommend my latest fave, Pieropan. Many thanks to PhilaFoodie for dropping a couple bottles down my chimney earlier this year. With its mineral leanings and citrusy undercoat, Soave Pieropan pairs beautifully with a wide variety of cheeses, especially fresh or slightly aged goat cheeses.