Written by 2012 was a year driven by unusual food trends, below are my top 5 of 2012:
1) Rouge Restaurant Reviews
While restaurateurs bemoaned the influence of Yelp and other social media review sites, 85-year-old Grand Forks Herald restaurant columnist Marilyn Hagerty cut through the noise, heaping near rhapsodic praise on the fine dining at her community’s latest chain restaurant, The Olive Garden. All she wanted to do was get to her bridge game, but her review became a must-read sensation.
Meanwhile, New York Times reviewer Pete Wells scored a celeb smackdown when he slammed Fieri’s New York restaurant, Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar, in a scathing 1,000-word review written almost entirely in questions. Wells took heat for beating on Food Network’s bad boy, but the review – which tore across Twitter the instant it was posted – certainly drove hordes to Fieri’s tables, even if only to rubberneck the culinary accident.
2) Twinkies Expire
Twinkies may not last forever after all. Blaming a labor dispute for ongoing financial woes, Hostess Brands decided to close shop this year, taking with it lunch box staples such as Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder bread driving rabid demand by hardcore fans of the brands. The company said it would try to sell off its many storied brands, so maybe there is hope after all for junk food junkies.
3) Pink Slime
Americans learned more than they wanted to know about their hamburgers in 2012. In March, the Internet exploded with worry over so-called pink slime, or what the meat industry prefers to call lean finely textured beef. Though it had been part of the food chain for years, by the end of the debacle the product had all but disappeared.
4) Kale-palooza
Kale was still the reigning champion of foods in 2012. Meanwhile Americans also fell in love with dark meat, after years of playing second fiddle to its lighter skin cousin, consumers finally realized what chefs have known all along – dark meat is where the flavor is.
5) Micr0-Booze
Craft beer remains a growing market, but hipster drinkers know it’s the hard stuff that’s happening. Barrel aged cocktails and micro distilleries are raging hot. But don’t be caught dead sipping coconut water. That’s so 2011.
P.S. – Food Trucks
Yes, Food Trucks are still hot. Any food served out of a food truck or from a restaurant that “pops up” is outrageously better than any other food. And eating it makes you impossibly cool. But, could somebody please, please put an end to the cake pop phenomenon?
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