We are titled Gastronomique, and have to once in a while live up to the quiet sophistication of haute cuisine. So we went to the Fancy Food Show with great expectations. These were quickly dashed as we realized the Fancy Food emporium happened to be the convention floor of the Moscone center: it is as refined as plucking hair out of your nose. To make things worse, our plan to use a baby stroller as a wheelbarrow to haul out as much free samples as possible, was smashed up in a million little pieces as well: taking samples outside is verboten, and kids are not allowed, please move on to the day care and hand them the toddler and $10/hour.

With our hopes recalibrated to low, we made a quick dash --kiddie meter ticking-- through the stands. Olive oil, more olive oil, and chocolate, and more chocolate: those are the fancy foods of 2006. Who knew that Jelly Belly beans were fancy? The show is meant for producers to meet with distributors, so that for instance Safeway can choose which cake to bake (they come from Bonerts Slice of Pie in Santa Ana). We sampled the Mediterranean crisp at Olive Street Table which is located on orella street in Santa Barbara, go figure. We tried the pesto at Russo Italian Specialty, it was delicious, and the owner, Chi-Cha, was chi-charming. The scones at the San Francisco-based upstart Joanna's come in 12 flavors in a mix for you to bake home. Right now, you can only find them at the Cal Market on California, but hopefully, others picked it up at the show. We were thrown in a taste loop by the O cassis vinegar: not reading the fine prints on the bottle, we thought we were drinking some crème de cassis liquor. Yuck. But as a vinegar, O Olive Oil's (OOO in short? Oooooooh!) is quite okay.

Fizzy Lizzy has a new flavor! Raspberry lemon, and only 110 calories, yippee! Then there were chocolates here and there and everywhere, and we were hurting for water after a streak of sweet indulgences. Of course, our taste buds were not the only ones being tortured, we had to stand in line at the water fountain. We were still munching on white chocolate covered dried cranberry popcorn when we got to the table of some cheese importers. The smart ass tempted us with "Do you want some manchego with your popcorn?" and a smirk. But we got our revenge right away, when we asked him, "that Idiazabal, it is Basque, right?" "No, it's from Spain!" Eventually he realized that it was not a contradiction and oh, that was sweet.

The Tortuga Rum company gave us a 1lb rum cake with no hydrogenated fat and no preservatives to take home with us, and we are sluts for free cake. And the Bombay Chai Company headquartered as its name indicates in San Ramon, introduced us to the revolution in tea making: the round filter pod to brew tea in your coffee machine. You place the pouch were you would put your coffee filter, fill up the tank, turn the machine on: voila! A tea pot for the 21st century, how did we survive so long without it?

It is not really fancy food, rather home cooking. SFist Rita filled you in on the details of improving your meals based on Pillsbury products and showing off your skillz in a bake-off. But what caught our ears was the what's for dinner commercials on our local KDFC Classical radio. It appears you can sign up to receive free updates and meals idea to whip up in no time in a private, secure email just for you. And this post you just read: it is our private whisper in your secure ear, just for you too.