Posted by Sheryl Kirby in event reviews, events, indie food artisan, products on October 9, 2008 at 7:27 am

One of the truly fun parts of this job is being able to attend trade shows to check out new and upcoming products before they hit the shelves. There are a few of these throughout the year and the most recent was the Ethnic and Specialty Food Expo held this past weekend at the International Centre.

As the name suggests, the Ethnic and Specialty Food Expo is designed to promote various ethnic foods, as well as specialty products, both local and imported, and these trade and media events are a way for companies, many of which are small, independent business, to promote their products to the media as well as make contact with potential wholesale customers.

Compared to the big boys of the trade show circuit like the Canadian Food and Restaurant Association show or even the Canadian Health Food Expo, this event is smaller than some others, taking up only three relatively short aisles of a hall at the International Centre. But we still managed to find some gems – great products that are either already on store shelves or will soon be, and are worth looking for.

Here’s what we loved…

It was the pin-up girls on the labels at Redhead Pantry that drew us to this line of BBQ sauces and mustards, but the product inside is pretty awesome too. Available in Toronto at Fresh & Wild, Per Se and Harvest Wagon Too.

Evelyn’s Crackers are local artisanal organic crackers were at the show in the Toronto Food Business Incubator section, and they’re a really nice product that we hope does well. Made with red fife flour and offered in a nice array of flavours, we liked these very much. The dal and coconut sticks might just be on the verge of becoming my favourite snack.

Himalaya Gourmet has actually been around for a few years, and we’ve been big fans since we first spotted them at the One of a Kind Show and bought one of everything they sell. Their line of chutneys, pickles and dips are some of the best to be found, and there’s always a jar of their mango chutney in our fridge.

L’Ancetre Dairy was also at the show, sampling their line of organic, animal-rennet free products that includes a variety of cheeses (including a new ricotta).

We tried a couple of products from Davis Imports, a local company that imports items from Mexico. Their agave nectar is a popular vegan sweetener and they were also offering amaranth bars with either honey or chocolate.

And speaking of chocolate, we loved the offerings from Taza Chocolate. This company from Somerville MA offers a stone-milled, unconched chocolate, similar to what Torontonians can get at Chocosol. These are a bit smoother and are hand-packaged as two thin discs instead of the traditional bar.

We’re always happy to try the samples at the Maureen’s Food World display, with her line of hot sauces, chant crackers (these are the awesome!), and amazing Jamaican rum cake.

For the folks who dig the prepared foods, we’re also happy to share the secret about Victory’s Kitchen. This company previously did private label products for a variety of high-end supermarkets and is now concentrating on selling under their own name. Offering a selection of soups, sauces, dips and more, we’re excited for these items to hit store shelves in the coming months.

We’ve written about the shortbread from TeaAura before, but their line of tea-based shortbread is worthy of another mention. Available at Bruno’s Fine Foods and Culinarium.

Another favourite of the show was the line of preserves from Harvest Crafters. Working out of Ancaster Ontario in conjunction with a group of Mennonite farmers, this company makes apple butters, jams, pepper jellies and a new product called wine drizzles that are like a cross between a fruit wine and a sweet balsamic vinegar.

Of course, there were many more products at the Ethnic and Specialty Food Expo, some of them truly fantastic, but as part of the premise of the event is to get local distribution for these items, we didn’t include them because there’s no assurance they’ll ever make it to shelves here. But fingers crossed that the fresh Hawaiian ferns and that really great line of UK condiments will make it to Toronto stores sometime soon.