Have I got a tip for you. Come to think of it, about 140,000 of them. Invited to New York’s 55th Summer Fancy Food Show, I was a kid in candy store today. And it wasn’t just because of the gourmet candy, either.

From Japanese yuzu marmalade, American chocolate teas, and Korean fermented black garlic to design-your-own energy bars, the annual event is put on by the NASFT, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, a not-for-profit trade organization that matches people who sell gourmet food to people who buy gourmet food to, of course, people who eat gourmet food. It’s where many New York restaurateurs and grocers go to find their hottest, newest product.

Showcasing as many as 140,000 products from more than 2000 exhibitors spanning 75 countries, visitors don’t have a prayer of tasting everything, although some of us tried, making Tupelo-honey beelines to whatever caught our palate’s fancy. In fact, the NASFT’s website extended a special welcome to their twenty-thousand guests, and let me tell you: that guest list made an Indian wedding invitation registry look like little more than a pamphlet. Fortunately for me, I was just a freeloader, invited not to do business, but to have a nosh around. In so doing, I was able to dig a little deeper into why these foodies were here at the trade show at all, why they were in the business, in this difficult business climate, of putting their food on your plate.

Time and again, I was offered the same response. From antioxidant-rich blueberries at “Caviar of Maine” to nut pie crusts from “Village Mixes”, the focus of this year’s food fair seemed to be healthy and health-giving products for budget-conscious consumers. If you’re going to eat at home, exhibitors reasoned with me at every turn, you might as well eat well. “Sweetwater Spice Company” offers an all-in-one brine solution that not only makes it easy to prepare roasts that are normally not easy to prepare, but practically forces you to get a delicious result. I know from experience; I’ve used their product in the discomfort of my own Manhattan kitchenette, and the result was professional, something you’d order at a restaurant that makes its entire reputation on heat and succulence.

Taking it all a step further, and this is where the aforementioned tip comes in, several of these mom-and-pop operations are getting noticed, and with the attention comes greater production scale. And with the bigger scale comes the need for more capital. If, like me, you’re inclined to believe that America is switching from the gravy train to ‘lite’ rail, then you might want to pay a visit to the NASFT’s website for a list of who exhibited at the show.

Of course, not all the products touted corporal altruism; some were downright…well, amusing. “Wow Bacon”, a microwave bacon-cooking contraption, sought to reinvent the supposedly painful process of frying bacon. Better-named, in my opinion, “Why Bacon”, inventors swapped out the frying pan for a plastic microwave pitcher, into which you hang your pork slices on a tiny rack. Another hopefully soon-aborted fad was the salad cocktail shot. An assortment of cauliflower, soybeans, and sweet peppers are squeezed and mashed until they produce a juice of things that were never meant to be juiced.

But really, I can’t complain. Laden with gifts provided by exhibitors from the Himalayas to Texas, I’ll be eating well, and at home, for a long, long time.

Patricia Sexton, New York Correspondent, July 2009