Winter Fancy Food Show

 I'm just back from my first day of the Winter Fancy Food show that goes on for three days this week in San Francisco at Moscone Center.

My main goals in attending the shore are to get a sense of food trends and to find products that are sold locally or that I can request that my local Whole Foods or other stores carry.

My general observations are that GMO FREE has surpassed GLUTEN FREE as the current "desirable" feature of many foods. Of course, many vendors proudly display signs that their food is both.

Lots of snack foods are featured this year, mostly chips of all sorts and popcorns, both sweet and savory.

As always, there are many more cheeses from around the world than any human could possibly taste in a month, much less three days.

What several cheese makers are now doing are expanding their product lines with yogurts and ice creams.  

My favorite yogurt from a cheese maker was Tillamook's, coffee yogurt. I'm a big fan of coffee yogurt and have a very hard time finding any brand of this flavor. This one is delicious. Tillamook yogurts are available at Safeway.

Roth Cheeeses was making Reuben sandwiches with their Raclette cheese…what a clever and DELCIOUS idea!

Continuing on the subject of cheeses, I saw many cheeses with spices and added flavors in them. One vendor told me that they take their basic cheese and, with seasonings, wind up with several different products, for many more tastes.

Delallo Italian Foods never disappoints with it array of antipasta, all available for tasting.

I tasted bottled drinks of all sorts. Some have "healthy" additives, others just different flavors. 

Republic of Tea is even introducing a line of High Caffeine Teas!!!

A wine that intrigued me is Stack Wines. I didn't taste the wine, but was Wowed by the packaging: 4 single-serviing plastic cups of wine stacked on top of one another. One Stack is a bottle of wine in a break-proof package, great for taking to a picnic or other event.

I think the entire world is hummuses out. I saw very few hummus companies. While I do enjoy hummus, it's time to move on to some other dip.

But, I did discover several granolas and really liked Gypsy Crunch's granolas, which just so happen to be Gluten and GMO free.

A new ice cream that I'm going to be looking for in stores is Agave Dream, which is sweetened with agave syrup instead of sugar. Agave syrup has a lower glycemic index that sugar so is a better alternative for those wishing to consume less sugar.  In contrast to sugar substitutes, agave has all the desirable sweetness qualities as sugar. I use agave often instead of sugar.

There were many chocolate vendors displaying very very good chocolates from milk chocolate to wonderful dark chocolates.

Of course, Jelly Belly never fails to have a large exhibit and always a new flavor or two to introduce. It is their Draft Beer Jelly Belly that is one of the new flavors of the year…right in time for Super Bowl snacking.

And, the Jelly Belly exhibit would not be complete without a Jelly Belly work of art.

The Bridge Builders: A Photography Exhibit of the Building of the New Bay Bridge East Span

As we get ready for 5 days of closure of the Bay Bridge, while the new Eastern span is connected to the rest of the Bay Bridge, Jim and I calmed our anxiety about not being able to drive over the Bay Bridge over the Labor Day weekend and several days before, by visiting what has to be the best kept secret treasure related to the building of this new Eastern span.

Just a tiny bit of background for those readers who do not live in the San Francisco Bay Area...in 1989, the Bay Area had a large earthquake (Loma Prieta Earthquake) which caused a section of the Bay Bridge to collapse.  The Bay Bridge is the main bridge connecting San Francisco to Oakland and the rest of the East Bay. It has always been a true "workhorse" bridge, carrying huge numbers of drivers every day.

After the Bay Bridge section was repaired, it was decided that the entire Eastern span of the bridge need to be replaced. That was 24 years ago.  The replacement of the bridge has been filled with politics, design debates, and, most very recently, defective bolts used in the new construction.

Finally, the fates be willing, the new Bay Bridge should be operational right after Labor Day.

At any rate, it certainly is about time and I can't wait to drive over it.

The SECRET was revealed to me last week in a letter published in the San Francisco Chronicle, a letter from a woman from Las Vegas who had been visiting San Francisco with her husband. While touring San Francisco's beautiful City Hall, they happened upon an extensive exhibit by photographer Joseph A. Blum of large color photos he took of workers building the new Bay Bridge span.

The woman noted that there were no listings of the exhibit in the San Francisco Chronicle and that every local she spoke to about it had absolutely no knowledge of the exhibit.

Today, Jim and I went to City Hall to view the exhibit.

It has been hanging since June 24, 2013 and will remain in City Hall until September 27, 2013.  It fills most of the basement level of City Hall and there are a few additional photographs in City Hall's North Light Court on the main floor. There is no fee to view this very extensive exhibit and it can be viewed whenever City Hall is open.

Joseph A. Blum is now a photographer, but, for 25 years, worked in construction as a boilermaker, ship fitter,  and welder.  He knows construction and has been chronicling the bridge construction throughout, telling his story through the eyes of the workers.

His photographs are amazing and thrilling. He's right up there with the workers...and so are you, the viewer.  And, he knows the language of construction, so, by reading his photo captions, you, too, will feel like you are right there working on this magnificent bridge and know what you are doing.

These are a few of his photos included in the exhibit.

I took us about an hour to look at all the photographs, While the City was packed with people, we met one other person in the exhibit. She, a San Francisco native, had found out about the exhibit as we had, from the letter last week in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Afterwards, we walked around City Hall a bit; it's a magnificent building.

Then, we decided that we had to go to lunch somewhere with a view of the Bay Bridge.

We wound up at the Ferry Plaza Building

and chose the Ferry Plaza Seafood restaurant for our lunch with a Bay Bridge view. Note, that you can't see the Eastern span of the bridge from the San Francisco side, but we still got our bridge "fix."

Jim had a cup of New England Clam Chowder (they also serve Manhattan Clam Chowder) and half a Smoked Salmon Sandwich.

 I had a spicy Shrimp Quesadilla.

All told, a lovely San Francisco day. And, our next visit to San Francisco...maybe in 6 days...will include a drive over the new Bay Bridge!