Anaheim Natural Fresh Food Expo

rick I went to the Anaheim Natural Fresh Food Expo to see Rick at Rick’s Picks.  I also got to see Phin & Phebes and Sweet Lorens (two other investments) and for that reason I am really happy I went.  Here is Rick with a picture of him and Durrell Barry who is now playing for Rick’s favorite time, The Patriots.

jacksonsThe event is overwhelming.  When our kids were young we would go every year to Rocking Horse Ranch with a handful of families.  The place is camp for families.  The food is similar to camp slop.  Our friend came up with a little saying about Rocking Horse Ranch that we would laugh about after going every year.  She would sing a little song and there are only four words to the song.  They are simple, the food is gross.  I couldn’t help but walk out of the festival with that song replaying itself over and over again in my head.

quinnThere were a few themes this year.  Non-gmo, organic and gluten-free.  Tons of flavor profiles from wasabi to bbq.  Lots of popcorns, new fangled ice creams, yogurts, health bars, dried fruit and dried vegetables.  I made the mistake of tasting a lot and honestly felt ill afterwards.

phebesOf course I am biased but the only things that I thought were good was the ice cream from Phin & Phebes, the cookies from Sweet Lorens, the popcorn at Quinns (now she is making it in big bags), Jacksons Honest chips (really good) and there was a rice cake/corn cake with a chocolate coating over the top for snacks that I really liked too.

sweetlorenThe flavor profiles are mostly not that good.  The products might be well made but they have to taste good too.

The photos are some of the highlights.

The event had 80,000 people there.  Lots happening in the world of food.  It is good to see healthy products but can’t they taste better?

Comments (Archived):

  1. Susan Rubinsky

    Love the popcorn! It’s really hard to find organic, non-GMO* popcorn. I buy a brand called Himalayan Pink – http://lesserevil.com/ I also drive to a store 20 miles away to buy organic popcorn for popping at home. I want to try some of those brands you posted!*Organic popcorn is almost always Non-GMO

      1. Susan Rubinsky

        Thanks for the link! I will try it 🙂

  2. awaldstein

    Food is still very much the next frontier.Agree, market tastes are changing. Dramatically. $2T wellness market as the driver.The world of perishable supply chains and worse–perishable distribution chains are very much as they were three decades ago.This is starting to change but slowly. I can tell you that working with Whole Foods today is logistically not that different that selling at Circuit City two decades ago. Except for IT improvements.And there seems to be a predominance of what I call the ‘boy band products’, born on the white board to fit market slots rather than born out of passion in the kitchen.Starting to understand, like and get deeper into this field.Love to brainstorm sometime about this.

    1. Gotham Gal

      i will take you up on that when i get back from the west coast.

  3. pointsnfigures

    Food, and the infrastructure that produces it will change big time in the next ten years. Hope that creates better taste!