Culinary trends come and go as quickly as salted caramel melting on a hot summer’s day. So what should you be ordering next time you want to impress? FQ weighs in:
OUT: Mexican
We love a pulled pork taco as much as the next person but after dripping chipotle sauce on our white shirts too often, we’ve decided it’s high time we sought another cheap and equally as cheerful option.
IN: Americana
Chicken waffles, popcorn shrimp, beef short ribs, po boys and baked cheesecakes. Need we say more? Southern fare, also known as soul food, is the ultimate in winter comfort dining. Not as easy to find as tacos, but one bite of crispy jerk chicken will have you hooked.
OUT: Sliders
We admit these mini burgers were a great novelty but with only two bites of succulent snapper and creamy tartare sauce, we always wanted more. Plus, three sliders don’t equal a whole burger, in our hangry opinion.
IN: Burgers
Move over McDonald’s, bye bye Burger King, with the following of homegrown fast-food joints such as Burger Burger, Better Burger and the iconic Ferg Burger in Queenstown, our weekly takeaway fix never looked so good. We’ll take a side of truffle fries too, please.
OUT: Dumplings
If it’s a cheap carb fix you’re after, you can’t go wrong with dumplings, but there comes a point (after dumpling number 15) where enough is enough. Every mouthful, while delicious, is no different to the last 15!
IN: Ramen
Comfort food packed with protein and vitamins; it’s not the stuff of legends, it’s ramen – Japan’s answer to chicken noodle soup. We call it soup for the soul and, with a menu of different flavour combos, you’ll be coming back for many more bowls of goodness.
OUT: Cronuts
Mr Donut and Madame Croissant produced a perfect specimen of sweet delight. Sweet, flaky and oozy, it was a treat that was perhaps just a touch too indulgent. Cue regretful groaning.
IN: Ice-cream sandwiches
Take two large homemade, gourmet cookies, a generous scoop of (homemade, gourmet) ice-cream, squeeze them together and what have you got? A treat you can devour without a stale cone accompaniment, any need for utensils, and with only a crumb or two of guilt.
OUT: Breakfast pancakes
Unless they’re buttermilk, or made with buckwheat or coconut flour, we are done with pancakes for brekky. They’re okay for kids on a Sunday morning but blueberries and banana drizzled in maple syrup with bacon? A bit passé.
IN: Pancakes for dinner
Invest in a crepe pan and dust off your mum’s old French cookbook because savoury pancakes are where it’s at. Chicken, pesto and parmesan, sundried tomato with feta and olives, or just plain cheese; it sounds like late-night crepes are the new pizza to us.
OUT: Raw food
Anyone with digestion issues will tell you that eating a bounty of raw fruit and vegetables may seem like the healthy option, but sometimes that fibre can be a little bit rough on the system. But sure, we’ll take a raw brownie if it’s on offer.
IN: Fermented food
It may sound kind of unappetising, but you’ve been eating fermented foods forever, you just probably didn’t know it. Miso – fermented. Yoghurt – fermented. And in 2015 we’re all about kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi for aiding digestion and banishing that 3pm bloat.
OUT: Froyo
We’ve all walked wide-eyed into those bright, white frozen yoghurt stores, tingled at the temptation of all those toppings, then recoiled in horror as our payment was determined by a set of scales… Plus, froyo is full of – gasp! – sugar.
IN: Coyo
A froyo and ice-cream alternative that not only tastes like it was made by tiny tropical angels but is also 100% natural, 100% dairy free, 100% gluten free and well, basically, 100% guilt free too. There’s no way around it, we’re in love with the Coyo.
