Natural Food Expo Part 1

Every March I attend the Natural Food Expo in Anaheim.  It's row upon row of food, beauty and  health products.  It's important to have stamina when attending the food show.  I went this year with my mom and my friend Regina.  Good walking shoes, comfortable clothing, and a pen and paper and we were off  for a few hours of sampling new products and learning about new trends in food.

We first stopped by the Boulder Brands booth to visit with Phil.  He was not there, but we sampled the most delicious corned beef and egg breakfast sandwich, on toasted Udi's gluten free bread.  I've never had a gluten free product that I really liked, but I can't say that anymore.  The bread, at least toasted, was absolutely delicious.  We took off to explore the show, and stopped first to sample Bottoms Up ginger ale.  This is nothing like ginger ale as we know it.  This had a real ginger kick, and was so refreshing.  Right next door was a company called Arjuna, which makes a dynamite ginger bar.  It was delicious, not too sweet.  I guess I could say that ginger is a product that has become quite popular.  Over the course of the day I also saw chewy candies in a ginger flavor, and some lemonade and water drinks flavored with ginger.  Walkers, the cookie company, now makes a gluten free shortbread cookie.  It is delicious, and they've kept the buttery flavor of the cookie, which I liked so much.  The cookie is made with rice, corn and potato flour instead of wheat.

Silver Palate is a company that sells Grain Berry cereals and pasta sauce.  The cereals are delicious and include shredded wheat and cheerios.  The pasta sauce, which we did not sample, is made with special tomatoes (I can't remember the name), and are the only company making pasta sauce from these special, expensive tomatoes.  The sauce is carried at Gelson's.  Regina, who knows Italian food, said she can't wait to try the sauce made with these expensive tomatoes.  I will try to buy some too, and see if I can tell the difference.  Wildwood is another company making what they call "Plant based meat."  What that means is they make meat substitutes from soy.  I tasted the taco crumble and it was delicious.  They also make salsa, pesto and hummus.  Finally, Perfect Sense makes ruby red rice and sprouted rice dishes.  Of course they are gluten free.

I'm not even half way through all the wonderful products I saw and sampled, but this is enough for now.  Ginger was found in many products, and many, many products were gluten free.  I can say with confidence that gluten free is NOT a fad, as some thought it might be.  So many people feel better not eating gluten, and the processing and growing of our wheat today is not what it used to be.  Gluten free should continue to grow.  That's all for now, but I'll  be back with more products and trends that I noticed in the show, in a week or so.