It happens every year, and 2006 was no exception. Each time I've attended the annual Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center, within a few minutes of beginning to wander down the seemingly endless aisles of food exhibits, I'm experiencing sensory overload. There are more olive oils, olive spreads, preserves, brownies, juices and other types of food, even chocolates, than can be comprehended, much less consumed.

The first time I attended a Fancy Food Show, I sampled with a vengeance. As a result, after an aisle or two, my capacity and my interest were both seriously impaired. Since then, I have tried to rein in my desire to try everything. This go round, I made a real effort to find relatively uncommon or unusual foods.

Some foods, such as pomegranate, that were relatively rare in past years have clearly moved into the mainstream, and mangos were ubiquitous.

Among this year's offerings, in no particular order, were the following.

The peppadew fruit from South Africa, an oxymoronic sweet hot pepper, which was available from several exhibitors. Neither the heat nor the sweet was overly strong.

Litchi seemed to be a coming flavor. I encountered litchi sorbet and at least a couple of litchi juices, including one from Ceres in a box. The flavor was mild, as you might expect, but recognizable.

Danielle Sweet Jackfruit Chips, in the style of crunchy, non-oily, vegetable chips, also had a very subdued flavor, which I would not have known was jackfruit without an assist from the displayed packaging.

Kiwi juice from Sun-Up, among others.

Chilean Carica from Tamaya Gourmet. This fruit, with a firm texture, has a flavor reminiscent of mango, peach and pineapple. It comes cooked in syrup, which can be used as an intriguing flavoring for drinks.

Palapa Azul exhibited sorbets and ice creams based on Latin American flavors. Sweet corn, hibiscus and Mexican caramel were all pleasant but not revelatory. The product line also included cucumber chili frozen fruit bars, which were not available for tasting when I visited the booth.

Granny's Secret Pine Tree Syrup tasted refreshingly piney. My notes don't indicate what one would use it for.

There was a line of avocado oils from New Zealand, flavored and straight, which were being extolled for their health benefits.

For Scottish expatriates and others with a yen for haggis, Stahly Quality Foods had a canned haggis which, for better or worse, definitely tasted like the real thing.

The offerings from Alaska Smokehouse included smoked salmon jerky, which was too much on the fishy side for my tastes.

I found the bison jerky and bison snack sticks from New Grass Bison Co. more to my liking but not, to my palate, distinguishable from beef. They were being touted as the healthy alternative to beef.

Marcel & Henry were serving venison pate, which was less exotic than it sounds, and very authentic tasting merguez sausage.

Bella Bella had a variety of sausages made domestically in the style of foreign sausages, including a creditable blood sausage made with beef blood rather than pork blood.

Panderos's Tapioca Cookies did not provide the expected tapioca texture. Instead, these slightly sweet cookies were based on flour from the cassava root, from which tapioca is derived, and were being promoted for their gluten-free properties.

For anyone with nostalgia for circuses but no access to them, Pure Fun Organic Candy Floss produces cotten candy in a container with a claimed long shelf life.

Flavored chocolates are certainly nothing new, and seem to be increasing in popularity and availability, but one I had not encountered before was KShocolat's Chocolate with Cardamom, which I thought worked better than many combinations which seem to be novel for the sake of novelty.