10 Trendy Foods That Need To Go Away
We love our food trends - heck, I love our food trends! - but methinks we may love some of them a little too much. Call it overexposure, call it keeping up with the Joneses, Nguyens or Gonzaleses, but whatever you call it, some trends have become so pervasive that it feels like they've overstayed their welcome.
Let me be clear: most of these foods are on this list for reasons having nothing to do with taste or quality. Quite the opposite; many are unquestionably, out-and-out, abso-freakin'-lutely delicious, and I love them to my core.
Rather, the problem is one of volume. It brings me no joy to go "ho hum" when I open yet another menu to see yet another kale salad or fried chicken sandwich. It's even more exasperating when they're dishes you could just as easily make at home for a fraction of the price (I'm looking at you, avocado toast).
I have to take partial responsibility. Since my annual food trends listbegan publication in 2011, it's heralded many of these same foods. So while I'm proud to have been on trend, I also feel a responsibility to say when a trend has jumped the shark, and I've enlisted the help of some of the same experts who helped with the food trends list.
Some might blame chefs and restaurateurs for laziness, but I won't. I mean, they've got to make a living like everyone else, and they're giving the public what it wants.
Instead, let me share a conversation I once had with a very wise chef. He told me that he always has roast chicken on the menu because some customers aren't very adventurous but really like roast chicken. But, he said – and this is the wise part – once they trust your roast chicken, over time they may eventually try something more adventurous.
American restaurants: this is your roast chicken moment. Let's get to it.
And keep reading for a bonus food word that needs to go away.
1 - Unicorn Food
No, it's not food for unicorns, but restaurant food that's so self-consciously outrageous so you just need to post it on Instagram so your friends can comment "Nah, srsly?"
Exhibit A: the Unicorn Frappuccino at Starbucks, which debuted this year, all pink and teal and swirly and tasting like Sweetarts. Just yuck.
"Pretty and visually engaging food is all well and good," says Bret Thorn, senior food and beverage editor of Nation's Restaurant News, "but in my opinion taste should come first, and it doesn't with these things."
He adds: "I think if you were actually to eat unicorn you'd go straight to hell; you wouldn't even be allowed to die first."
Mike Thelin, founder of the Feast Portland food festival, counters that "Purists bothered by this trend need to chill out. True, there’s more junky food trends than ever before, but there’s also more real food than ever. So let people have fun with their pretty food and get over it. Silly food trends only make the great food stand out more."
2 - Avocado Toast
So here's the thing, y'all. Half an avocado costs, what, 75 cents? A slice of really good bread costs, what, 50 cents? You toast the bread (I brush on a little olive oil, what, another 20 cents?), slice the avocado, sprinkle on some salt and pepper, and voilà: avocado toast.
So someone please tell me why it's worth spending $15 on this.
"OK, admittedly, I still love eating avocado toast. At home," says Izabela Wojcik, Director of House Programming for the James Beard Foundation. "I even have a Christmas tree ornament of avocado toast. And if I walked into a local bodega and was presented with this luscious option, instead of the mushy bagels wrapped in plastic wrap, I would say 'don't ever stop serving avocado toast!'"
But she too cites the price versus the ease of making it yourself, along with the "annoying lingo surrounding it (i.e. avo, smashed avo, avo toasties)" as reasons that "perhaps it's time to kiss this trend goodbye."
Mike Thelin adds: "The only thing that has become more ubiquitous than avocado toast is people complaining about avocado toast." He calls it "a healthy-ish coffee shop option something that diners don’t get tired of eating" and says "I’d much rather spend my time complaining about bad muffins."
3 - Coconut Oil
Food journalist Linda Burum calls the coconut oil trend "ridiculous if you assume it makes things healthier." She cites an advisory from the American Heart Association and notes that "coconut oil is 82 percent saturated fat, and studies show it raises LDL – 'bad' – cholesterol as much as butter, beef fat or palm oil. Canola oil, on the other hand, has only 7 percent saturated fat."
"Don’t write this one off just yet," cautions Izabela Wojcik. "It’s become a dairy-free fat alternative in baking, and I do see it having staying power."
4 - Fried Chicken Sandwiches
I'm conflicted about this one. Fried chicken is an American staple and can be out-and-out delicious, and chefs (I'm not talking fast food) have really stepped up their sandwich game with prodigiously crunchy chicken, crusty buns, flavored mayos and really nice slaws.
Izabela Wojcik sums up my thoughts too: "If faced with a choice between a burger and a chicken sandwich, I will always go for the chicken sandwich. It’s the combination of hot juicy meat, crunchy, salty texture and the promise of a vinegary pickle/slaw/kimchi counterpoint that makes it the most satisfying mid-day meal."
The problem is that fried chicken sandwiches seem to be on just about every menu these days. Hard to blame chefs when they're so damn delicious and guests love them, but maybe we could mix it up, just a little?
5 - Everything Served in Bowls
"You've seen these," says Bret Thorn, "bowls with a grain, usually quinoa, at the bottom, topped with different ingredients arranged in neat triangular shapes." Problem is, "They tend to taste boring, as if they were developed by a committee based on their nutritional qualities or trend appeal, rather than by a chef."
"If they don't go away, it would be nice, at least to improve them," he adds.
Izabela Wojcik has a particular problem with açai bowls for breakfast. "I'm from Poland. We eat sausages and smoked meats for breakfast." She likens açai bowls to sorbet for breakfast and calls them "really just sugar bombs. Back to oatmeal!"
6 - Kale
Kale. So innocuous it's hard to hate it. And it's very versatile too, as Mike Thelin says, "it's great for you and stands up to big flavors and high acidity" like garlic, lemon and parmesan.
But I knew kale had peaked when a restaurant in my neighborhood listed a "ubiquitous kale salad" on its menu. Ruh roh.
"I actually groaned the last time I saw a kale salad on a restaurant menu," concurs Izabela Wojcik.
As much as Thelin - and I - love it, he says it's "the Toyota Camry of menu items, reliable, safe, unassuming, resourceful and absolutely everywhere."
The next power green doesn't have to be a Ferrari, but maybe boost the engine a little? Some suggestions: Thelin calls kale "a gateway drug to other sturdy winter greens like escarole, Treviso and radicchio."
7 - Roasted Brussels Sprouts
The vegetable everyone hated as a kid is now everywhere – somehow roasting them has made them unique and wonderful – and now they've become a staple. It's another case of too much of a good thing.
"There is without doubt not a more boring menu item to be seen or had than roasted Brussels sprouts," says Mike Thelin. "Unless you're nostalgic for 2004, best to leave them off the menu. Also, they are much better fried."
Bret Thorn says, "Like with kale, I don't think restaurants get points for having them on the menu anymore."
8 - Fried Egg on Everything
"Enough is enough," says Izabela Wojcik. Yes, putting a fried egg on top of anything "allows one to showcase the work of a great hen and is a nice protein boost to all those seasonal greens and vegetables we are touting." Rather, she faults fried eggs for being all too pervasive, part of the hipsterization of American cooking, as in her home of Brooklyn; depending on where you live, you might think of this trend as more Austin, Portland or Silver Lake. Regardless, she says, "Time to send the eggs back to brunch."
Bret Thorn disagrees. "I will fight anyone who doesn't think fried eggs on food is a good idea. I want this trend to keep spreading."
Fried egg on fried eggs, maybe?
9 - Sriracha in Everything
I love Sriracha, so much that I toured the factory and bought the t-shirt, and - for reals - Sriracha was the first thing I put in my new refrigerator. And I have nothing but admiration for all-American grit and tenacity of the Vietnamese immigrant behind this chili sauce empire.
But nowadays, it's gone from flavoring for pho, through the "hipster ketchup" phase to being served at McDonald's and Subway. "Now that Sriracha has entered the national consciousness and has found itself in all sorts of foodservice places, I do think it’s time to move on," says Izabela Wojcik.
As Bret Thorn says, "There are plenty of great hot sauces out there. Let's spread the wealth a little bit."
10 - Seasonal-Spiced Coffee Drinks
I can condone, even appreciate, the endless egg nog, gingerbread and peppermint fest that is the Christmas season, or the seasonal specialness of a pumpkin-spiced latte from October, say, through Halloween and Thanksgiving.
But the timing, people, the timing! This year I started seeing pumpkin spice lattes in early September, while much of the nation was enduring 100 degree heat waves and devastating hurricanes. At this rate, I double-dog dare someone to go full-on pumpkin around the 4th of July.
On top of that, these drinks are essentially candy in a cup, chock full of artificial flavors and tongue-curdling, sugary calories (over 500 of 'em in one Starbucks grande Pumpkin Spice Latte). But no judgment, man. Actually, I take that back - I'll judge. If you need a sugar rush, be a grownup and eat a Snickers (215 calories).
Bonus: A Food Word that Needs to Go Away
"Yummy"
With so many different ways to describe food, why do fully grown adults insist on using this word meant for the youngest among us?
Mike Thelin says, "Unless you’re teething, learning to walk, or have just graduated to solid food" - or, I would add, if your life involves talking with early elementary schoolers about food and particularly if you're coaxing them to eat - "the word 'yummy' and any variations thereof should never uttered by a human being."
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