Food Trends From Expo West, 2012 Part 1

I'm not sure where to start with what I saw and tasted at the recent natural food expo in Anaheim. First, it was much busier than last year. That's a good thing. It means more food and beauty industry people are doing business. Next, for the first time some of the booths represented food trucks, not actual food companies. My favorite was Cool Haus, a food truck based in Los Angeles. They have four trucks in the LA area, one in Miami, one in Austin and one in New York City. They sell ice cream sandwiches like you've never had before. They offer five flavors, the most interesting being brown butter candied bacon ice cream on chocolate chip cookies. I was stuffed by the time we got to their booth, but the young men and women I was walking the show with loved this. I know they're thinking of expanding, so look for them in the future in San Diego.

As always there were many, many water, tea, lemonade, natural soda and kombacha drinks. This year lemonade is big. Hansens has a new line of lemonade called Huberts, with many flavors like mango lemon, strawberry lemon, and maybe five others. They're delicious, but a little on the sweet side. Another tea company, Inkos, has nine flavors of tea combos. Go to www.healthywhitetea.com to learn more. The other new addition to the drink market is coconut. Coconut flavored water, plain coconut milk, and coconut mixed with cold coffee. Recently coconut has been touted as a "good" cholesterol, which perhaps explains the reason for the increase in coconut products. I also noticed a coconut spread, by Earth Balance, similar to margarine.

Ciao Bella was sampling their gelato and sorbet. I tried the blood orange sorbet, which was tangy and delicious. They have about 10 flavors of each, and their products are sold at Trader Joes. SO Delicious was a company that must have spent a fortune on advertising at this show. They were handing out samples of soy milk and soy ice cream sandwiches. I found the ice cream icy, not creamy. Their products can be found in most supermarkets.

I have lots more to tell you about expo 2012, but I will continue next week with more products, more trends, more wonderful things to eat. Finally, Phil's company (my son Phil), Evol Foods, sampled their flatbreads this year, which were delicious. They are not yet nationwide (their burritos and bowls are), but if you like Evol's other products, ask the manager for Evol flatbreads at Sprouts and Whole Foods. More to come next week.