Entries tagged with 'trends'
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What's shaking in the Houston food scene? A rockstar chef named Bryan Caswell, some Texas-Italian fusion cuisine, and, though they've been around for a while, the pastry pockets known as kolaches. These are just a few of the city's trends—chime in with more that you've noticed. Kolaches Mixed box of kolaches from the Kolache Factory. [Flickr: finna dat] Kolaches, a sort of Eastern European Hot Pocket, are all over Texas. The pastry pocket is a fun food medium—just think of how many meats, veggies, and cheeses you can stuff in there. With such a big Czech presence in central Texas, most of the really good ones are there, but have gradually spread east to Houston (the supposed best are in...
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"Secret passwords and exclusive policies be damned." [Photograph: Robyn Lee] In yesterday's Diner's Journal, Pete Wells writes that Pegu Club co-owner and bartender extraordinaire Audrey Saunders is opening a new place, the Tar Pit, with chef Mark Peel in Los Angeles next month. With this move, Saunders—one of the most talented and influential bartenders in the ongoing cocktail renaissance—becomes the latest New York bartender to spread the craft west of Weehawken. Sasha Petraske, whose New York bars Milk & Honey and Little Branch (among others) helped spur the trend of the now ubiquitous speakeasy-style cocktail bars, played a hand in opening The Varnish in Los Angeles earlier this year, as well as taking his skills to the nation's capitol, working...
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[Image: Food Mayhem] With fried chicken, bacon, and other fatty comfort foods feeling a renaissance, it makes sense that mayo would jump on board too. Nostalgia sells, and Hellmann's, perhaps the king of the mayo brands, is capitalizing on that. As Ad Week points out, their recent ads recall the good ol' days of meat and potatoes and so-called "real food," which includes the gloopy amalgam of eggs, oil, and vinegar. Even Bobby Flay is appearing in Hellmann's ads this holiday season, touting it as an essential part of the Thanksgiving spread, making mashed potatoes mashier and apple-cranberry crisps gooier. Cheeseburger man Kevin Pang of the Chicago Tribune recently called it the underrated condiment and John Kessler of the...
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The Chicago Tribune ran a piece this week about the supposed "ten worst dining trends" of the last decade. We all know top-ten lists are a great way to get people's attention, and a negative list like this really sets people off. But are these trends really all bad? I don't think so. Let's take them one at a time. 10. Fried Onion Blossoms This monster is from Dallas BBQ in Manhattan. Read more here » [Photograph: Erin Zimmer] That's all you got? C'mon, a fried onion blossom is basically just a great big pile of onion rings. Granted, they usually run a little greasy. But who doesn't like onion rings? I'm not recommending you have one of these for...
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"Sometimes people see chocolate and think alcoholic milkshakes." [Flickr: loremipsum] For the most part, those seeking to indulge both chocolate and cocktails have been restricted to the realm of heavy, sugary after-dinner drinks. But as chefs take chocolate more seriously—working with the savory, bitter flavors that cacao can bring to a dish—so have mixologists. As I wrote for last weekend's San Francisco Chronicle, a number of bartenders are getting into the chocolate game, making their own bitters, tinctures, and liqueurs that capture the rich character of chocolate without weighing down the drink's flavor with a palate-thumping load of sugar. Some classic cocktails and 18th century punches utilize the power of chocolate to good effect, playing the flavor against that of...
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You know you're a big deal when you become airline food. Banh mi from Brooklyn's Ba Xuyen. [Photograph: Robyn Lee] If you had any doubt that the banh mi trend had taken off, consider this: Virgin America is now serving banh mi on its in-flight menu. A flat iron steak sandwich with cucumber, lettuce, cilantro, and a daikon-carrot slaw, plus "Asian ginger dressing"—no paté, but we'll take it. Related Customized Banh Mi Shell for MyTouch 3G Phone Serious Heat: The Quickie Banh Mi Grilling: Vietnamese Meatball Banh Mi...
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The moffle is a Japanese snack that's exactly what the portmanteau word adds up to—mochi plus waffle. Cubes of mochi (glutinous rice that's been pounded into a paste) are plopped into a waffle iron (or custom moffle irons in Japan). Panini presses apparently work or—just entertain the idea for a second—a George Foreman grill? The cubes flatten and grow waffle grooves and have a warm chewiness that's somewhere between a bread and a goo. Moffles have one of those textures where you have to chew the for length of the alphabet. They aren't the most flavorful thing in the world—I mean, it's rice paste—but part of the fun is jazzing up the crunchy surface with toppings, whether sweet or...
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More food trends. This time, from Time. Here, a look back at 2008 rather than a fast forward to 2009. 1. Recession Dining: Gourmet meals for 4 for around ten bucks. 2. Nanny State Food Regulations: New York City requires calorie counts on menus; LA legislates fast food joints out of certain nabes. 3. Salmonella Saintpaul: A look back at that nasty outbreak from earlier this year. Poor St. Paul gets saddled with the association. 4. The War on Bottled Water: Carbon miles and wasteful packaging, blah blah blah. 5. The Clover Coffee Maker: Coffee geeks wet their pants over it, then Starbucks buys it. Now it's not cool anymore....
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The prognosticators are coming forth fast and furious with the Food Trends 2009™ listicles. Josh "Mister Cutlets" Ozersky takes the piss out of them, stepping into character as "Gastrodamus," with predictions for the coming year: Chefs with diminishing revenue streams will seek to diversify their incomes by seducing wealthy widows 2009 will be the year of the spork, as restaurants seek to reduce costs by eliminating a piece of unnecessary silverware. In the highly competitive casual dining sector, buckets and troughs will become increasingly popularThe Farm-to-Table will be replaced by the Sysco-to-Table model, once everyone figures out that diners have no way of knowing where their string beans are coming from Heh. More, on The-Feedbag....
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James Oliver Cury looks into his crystal ball: "'Value' is the new 'Sustainable,'" (seems solid) "Peruvian is the new Thai," (for real?) "Smoking is the new Frying" (as if!), "Regional Roasters are the new Starbucks." (I'll buy that one)....
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