The Last Food Expo Blog

I look for trends in food and new products that are being used in food preparation. One very new trend is the use of seaweed. It can be used as a snack or turned into noodles for pasta. It's also popping up in bath products. Many companies are involved in the production of these products
Gold Mine is a company that makes both kelp noodles and sea weed salad. I know it sounds unappetizing, but the kelp noodles are delicious, a little slimy and the color is not all that appealing, but they're great. They are basically NO calories, and come in fettuccine and angel hair cuts. If you dry the noodles (they're packed in a plastic bag with water), then heat them and pour sauce over them, you have a delicious pasta dish for almost no calories. The seaweed salad is delicious. Thin cut dark green seaweed is mixed with sesame seeds, sesame oil and vinegar, for a fabulous salad. Seaweed is also sold as a snack, dark, thin sheets of seaweed are dried. Some are flavored with sesame oil or wasabe. Very tasty for a salty snack. I also tried a seaweed blend that you add to bath water for a relaxing soak. I loved it, although it leaves the tub very dirty!!

A company called Wild Wood sells sprouted tofu, regular and baked. In addition, they make soy yogurt and Pasta Slim, a soy product that makes spinach fettuccine and angel hair, all out of soy.

Labne cheese was one of my favorite products. It's a Middle Eastern cheese, carried at Whole Foods and international markets. Labne is a sour cream like cheese, very tart, which when served with pita is absolutely delicious. If you eat at Sammy's Restaurant you may have had it. It's served there with yummy flatbread. Yanni grilling cheese is another product from the refrigerated section that I just loved.

The best cinnamon bread I've had in years came from Ozery Bakery. You've got to try this. They also make morning rounds, small discs in flavors like cranberry orange, museli and apple cinnamon. These are similar to Orowheat thins, but better. The bread is available at Whole Foods.

Kikkoman panko bread crumbs were another new product. They were sampling them by making french toast covered with panko bread crumbs and grilled. The bread crumbs give the french toast an added dimension that I really liked.

Watermelon kernels, toasted and salted are another new product I enjoyed tasting.

My final product to tell you about is the herbs and spices sold by Dorot. Dorot is a company with farms in Israel which produce all of their product. Garlic, cilantro, ginger, basil, chopped chili, and parsley are all produced in Israel, portioned into small ice cube like trays, and frozen. When you want to use ginger, you just take a small portion, frozen, out of the freezer for your use. I think this is one of the best products to come along in years. How often have you bought basil for a recipe, used a few leaves, and thrown the rest away? If you're like me, you've done that plenty of times. With the Dorot products there is no waste. This is available at Trader Joe's, Gelsons and Whole Foods.

I didn't even touch on the huge natural food pet section, and won't, except to say that pumpkin is in. I brought Captain, my mom's dog, several samples of pumpkin pudding for dogs. She loved it. So what's next in food for humans and non humans? We'll find out next year at the natural food show in Anaheim.