From the sublime to the ridiculous--a bit of a rant ...(Last Word)(Viewpoint essay)

A friend of mine pointed out that the Fancy Food Show is rather elitist. After all, families with limited income are unlikely to shell out big dollars for esoteric food products and often aren't in a position to afford the organic or natural products. I counter with the argument that a lot of specialty foods exhibited at the recent show in New York are only specialty when viewed from a present-day American point of view. Many of them are, in fact, just part of the regular food mix on their home turf or in the eclectic neighborhoods throughout our country.

It's also true that we've seen many specialty products transition gracefully into American mainstream diets. There …