20 football fields worth of food? This is my type of marathon.

On my third opportunity of attending the Fancy Food Show, a culinary spectacle split by food types and nations to exhibit the finest of ‘fancy foods’ and retail favorites that would debut over the coming years, I was hungry. And thrilled, but more so, hungry. Having seen the innovative New York Edition and the superfood infused San Francisco fiesta, I returned to document a few favorites that remained with me will definitely be on my pick of the platters.

Starting things hot, hands down the best bomb packaging, literally, was with General’s Hot Sauce, made from Louisiana peppers and packaged in a bomb glass vial! The all-natural hot sauce also profits support military and veteran families, which is a bonus to being a bonafide success in terms of its taste and visual!

I was happy to return to the resplendent Elmhurst 1925 nutty milks in simple single digit ingredients of walnuts, peanuts, chocolate peanuts, hazelnuts and everything that made me go nuts for a healthy milk load, by the gallon! Their debut into creamers with hemp ingredients was a tasty addition.

The one pasta I cannot wait to try is the Al Dente Pasta, especially the chickpea and turmeric or red lentil and sweet potato variants, sheerly for their innovative and award winning variety! The rise of plant based foods surely has made food technology a winner.

Snackabra cookie cups, with a name reminiscent of Aladdin, were one of my favorite inventions of having a stable cup that was edible, and could be filled with an espresso shot of coffee! Stable for up to 30 minutes, this was an invention that merited a place in every Peter Pan’s kitchen.

The debut of Jack Daniels Whiskey into the likes of saccharine praline pecans, honey pecans, and coffee, as well as a whiskey rendition of a rum cake, with a fairly boozey cake! The cocktail accompaniment snacks were definitely the more savory than the fairly one note coffee. However, the addition of an unpackaged set of bitters sent my cocktail critic mind swirling into ideas of what I could develop on cocktail menus city wide.

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The Maud Borup assortment of unicorn dream cotton candy was a burst of flavor which wasn’t as saccharine as I expected, but their rendition of a drink style bath bomb was a fantastic example of cross vertical marketing. With a fizzy drink bath bomb that exploded and fizzed in water and created a social media experience as well as a fizzy spectacle was a sure shot party winner.

Of the chocolate varieties, the Peruvian Cacaosuyo with quinoa provided a satisfying crunch, as well as the hearty Amador chocolate which tasted like South American hot chocolate in a bar format.

There were a plethora of superfood infused drinks and snacks, or many that focused on cultural elements alongside buzz words. Of these, I quite liked the moringa drink in iced and sparkling format from Superinga, touted as the first think drink of the world, as well as the Pocasville dragonfruit chips which were a crunchy fruit snack with neither the saccharine sweetness nor the sour aftertaste.

On an innovative front were the fig balsamic vinegar by O (originally known for flavorful olive oils), which I found paired well with both cheeses and fruits, and possibly my favorite preserved jams of sorts by Quince and Apple: shallot confit with red wine! Possibly the best morsel I could nibble all day with crackers and sharp cheese.

What’s next on the tasting menu?