Food, wine and liquor lovers plan months in advance to get their hands on tickets to the prestigious New York City Wine & Food Festival, presented by Food & Wine. This year marked the festival’s sixth anniversary, with fun, fabulous food events taking place from October 17th through 20th. The festival is not just about eating and drinking to your heart’s content, but it actually benefits the hunger relief programs of Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign. During the festival, attendees have the amazing opportunity to mix and mingle with the world’s greatest chefs, winemakers, spirits producers and personalities, with noteworthy events all day and night long.
This year, Manhattan with a Twist was honored to attend Friday’s Southern Wine & Spirits of New York Trade Tasting, which was presented by Beverage Media Group. This five hour long event gave us a sneak peek of the Grand Tasting, which showcases a whole world of food and drink. The atmosphere was completely overwhelming, with hundreds of booths set up, each offering attendees a taste of what they have to offer. Obviously it was impossible to try everything, but we did the best we could. Out of what we sampled, check out some of our favorites!
Unilever had a huge spread at the event, where patrons were able to sample two of their delicious new products — I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Deliciously Simple and Country Crock Simply Delicious. Both of these new spreads are made with real, simple ingredients, such as canola oil, yogurt and a pinch of salt. What’s so great about these products is that they contain no artificial flavors or preservatives. Throughout the day, their booth was whipping amazing, butter-topped pancakes, bread and butter spreads, and more. We couldn’t get enough! On top of it all, chef Carla Hall was on hand to chat about why she, too, loves these new spreads. Not only is it a great food memory for her, growing up with Country Crock, but she also said that “they approached me because it was all about rocking out in the kitchen and being an inspiration for the busy mom and since I’m a mom and do comfort food, it was a great fit.” Carla recommends making pasta and tossing in some of the spread at the end, giving your pasta a nice, creamy finish. Mmm.
Something I have always been skeptical about is the juice cleanse. It has never sounded appealing or filling! However, after sampling an array of juices from two different companies, I may just have to try one. Suja had so many different juices to sample it was insane. They had nice, cold fresh-pressed juices, with flavors ranging from Glow (apples, celery, cucumber, spinach, collard, kale, mint) to Vanilla Cloud (coconut, honey, almond, acerola cherry, cinnamon, vanilla bean, nutmeg, camu camu, water). They also had some thicker juices, more akin to a smoothie, which were equally delicious, and had flavors such as Mango Fuego and Berrioxidant. Additionally, we tried juices from the more well-knownBlue Print Juice. From the makers of the cleanse, Blue Print Juice has six different cold pressed flavors and they were all surprisingly tasty!
SooFoo is a certified organic grain, rice and lentil blend that is super versatile. The mix is made up of five types of grains, three types of lentils, as well as brown rice. You can serve this hot or cold, in salads, pastas, baked goods and more! The possibilities are endless. Additionally, is comes in four varieties, Original (unseasoned), Hint of Curry, Garlic and Herb, and Moroccan Medley. During the NYCWFF, SooFoo (which is short for super food) was handed out as part of a healthy Lemon Kale Salad and we really enjoyed it.
Tell canned tuna to move over, because Tonnino is bringing you fresh yellowfin tuna in olive oil and spring water soaked jars. For those of you who enjoy tuna, this is a great company, because not only do they have delicious tuna, but they also come in seven different flavors. Choose from jalapeno, capers and garlic, oregano and more. These are great in sandwiches, but also are perfect as spreads, in pasta dishes and more.
A little dessert never hurt anyone and we fell in love with Gourmet Sorbet by the Sorbabes. This new sorbet company is no joke — we had to try every single flavor they had to offer before we could pull ourselves away from their booth. Not only are all their sorbets gluten and dairy-free, but they offer amazing flavor combinations. We loved the Pistachio and Sea Salted Caramel, Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon Streusel, and everything in between! We need more sorbet in our lives.
Of course, no round up is complete without a little wine! While it’s hard to choose favorites at an event like this, we must say we really enjoyed Ken Forrester Wines, which hail from South Africa. We particularly loved their 2012 Chenin Blanc, which was outstanding. Ken Forrester Wines have won numerous awards over the years and it’s obvious why — they are amazing!
