"food trends" news and stories

Salt and Pepper ice cream at Humphry Slocombe. Photo: Bradley Allen, Flickr.

Cold Stone Creamery last month introduced an ice cream that doesn't melt, which has led New York Magazine to say this week that Cold Stone's Jell-O-like dessert is proof positive that ice cream has become the latest playground for culinary innovation.

Indeeed, the world of frozen cream is much changed from those triple-threat Neapolitan cartons of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry many of us grew up with.

Just last month, our editors were smitten by Vosges' new curry coconut ice cream at the Fancy Food Show, Gourmet recently featured the wackiness that is San Francisco's Humphry Slocombe shop (prosciutto ice cream, anyone?) and Jeni's in Columbus, Ohio, peddles Thai chili ice cream alongside not so plain honey vanilla. In New York, Wylie Dusfresne serves a perfect miniature "everything" bagel -- made entirely of ice cream, naturally -- at his restaurant wd-50.

If the answer is yes, then you are considered to be part of a minority, or so claims a recent study of 3,000 eaters by the NPD Group, a marketing-research company. According to an article from the Chicago Sun-Times, the reason why people are not using recipes is because the No. 1 food for dinner in the U.S. is the sandwich. Can this really be true?

Perhaps, a lot less shocking is the trend towards using online recipes instead of cookbooks. Fellow blog, The EpiLog is also surprised by NPD Group's "sandwich theory" to explain the fact that people are not using recipes. The EpiLog states that people may not be using recipes, because they are cooking family meals from a "basic stable of a few standard dinners that are familiar, easy, and keep everyone happy." But, to me, what also seems a huge factor is the little time that people have to devote to meal planning.

Just because someone is not following a recipe that does not mean we should assume that this person just eats sandwiches. Perhaps, people are cooking omelets, pasta and a number of other dishes that do not necessarily require a recipe. Check out the poll below and let us know what you think.

One of the best gastronomic experiences is the gooey rich creaminess of caramel slowly melting on one's palate. Over the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of products, such as Poco Dolce's burnt caramel toffee, adding salt into the caramel equation. A recent New York Times article explains how this extraordinarily sweet and savory combo went from elite chichi Parisian pastry shops to the American mass-market (stores such as Wal-Mart) and the soon-to-be Obama White House.

The article suggests that the financial success of this exquisite pair is due to a fortunate profitable trend cycle. Parisian pastry chefs initiated American chefs' obsession with the caramel-sea salt blend. Then, it ended up in specialty food magazines and food shows. Soon enough, chain restaurants, like the Cheesecake Factory, began selling them. Finally, Wal-Mart picked up on the trend. Of course, it would not have caught on so quickly if it were not for Americans' long-established taste for salty mixed with sweet, a flavor picked up gracias to dulce de luche from South America and Mexico.

As fellow blog Salt News states, the NY Times focuses on the financial and cultural success of the caramel-salt mix without ever delving into the gastronomic sensations it elicits. The title of the article, "How Caramel Developed a Taste for Salt," is misleading since there is never any substantial information explaining how this caramel concoction developed in small villages in the region of Brittany in France. I'm left wondering whether or not caramel indeed activates a desire for salt. Instead, the article gets carried away with Obama's love for salty caramel delights as though it would be hard to imagine. Could you blame him?

All month, magazines and blogs have abuzz with forecasts for the 2009 food year. Some take their roles as psychic seriously, others skewer and flame-broil the whole concept. I, for one, find both approaches pretty entertaining. Whether earnest or facetious, most lists include something about fad diets and sustainability, as well as at least a couple recession-related predictions, whether that means home cooking or casual restaurants. Bacon, yet again, figures into more than one list.

Enough summary. Here are the links:

From the serious...

• Gourmet presents its picks in slide-show form.
• Food and Wine sticks to restaurants.
• Epicurious says what is the new whatever.
• A blog called Eat Me Daily revisits and reviews last year's picks from Epicurious.

To the silly...

• Also from the blogosphere, Fine Furious Life weighs in.
• Serious Eats belies its name.
• Frank Bruni and Kim Severson unknit their collective brow in the Diner's Journal blog.
• Food Marathon, in my opinion, wins the day with their hilarious photo-enhanced shenanigans.

Apparently the world is consuming more chilies. A recent article from the Economist explains that "bland diets of Europe and the Anglosphere" have spent the past 50 years becoming more tolerant towards hotter chilies with the popularity of curries, salsa, and tabasco sauce.

The Economist article mentions the increasing popularity of chilies in nearly every dish from rice and jelly to chocolate. Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain, now sells Dorset naga which rates 1.6m units on the Scoville scale, measurement of hotness. Pepper spray used in riot control scores 2m.

Despite this obsession with the heat of the chili, many connoisseurs argue that the level of heat does not define the flavor profile. For them, it's like judging wine based on its alcohol content rather than its quality. These gourmets are more struck by the presence of chili in many more foods than in the past. It could be due to the fact that chilies have a chemical called capsaicin which causes the release of endorphins that create a natural high. In fact, the more chilies you consume, the better this high gets. Also, the Economist explains that capasaicin excites a nerve that makes us more receptive to other flavors.