Kosherfest III

Being at Kosherfest kind of makes me want to go home and take a shower, but there are a number of funny and awesome things about this gathering:

–There is some really good food and great products sprinkled among the usual (and bad) suspects. Holy Cow Beef Jerky looks like it could be good. Nature’s Select Smart Cookies are fantastic. Toobro cheeses are of much higher quality than I ever could have expected, and the KosherKeepers containers are a fantastic and simple idea that many households will want to use.

– Ethnic foods are beginning to make some inroads. There’s nothing really revolutionary here, but I id see some Mexican, Japanese and Indian foods. As these get more popular I think kosher food will get better and more interesting.

–Every kosher meat booth here is emphasizing that they’re organic and all-natural. I don’t know that that means anything, but they all look significantly better than Rubashkins ever did. It seems like a step in the right direction, at the very least.

– The variety of kosher wines and liquors is growing all the time, and is already fairly diverse and interesting.

– There are excellent pickle and olive samples all over the place.

– There’s a shocking number of good-looking people at this trade show.

– There’s a lot of talk about making kosher food healthier and more nutritious (but I think most of it is just talk and nothing else).