The next food trends predicted by travel writers
Climb aboard the food trend train: what’s cool today will be passé
tomorrow. New food trends arrive on the scene every year, whether you’re
ready for them or not. Some will be local foods cast into the spotlight
by changing tastes, novel techniques or a hefty dose of whimsy, but
most will be foreign imports – unexpected flavours arriving from distant
locales to excite and befuddle your taste buds. These aren’t new foods,
in fact they’re typically traditional foods but exported far enough
away that the commonplace transforms into the exotic.
Food trends are easy enough to spot once they’ve become established,
but is it possible to predict the next food trends before they happen?
Could we have foreseen the popularity of gourmet tacos, tuna tartare,
cooking everything sous-vide or matcha green tea before they burst onto the scene?
To answer this, we turned to travel writers, those resourceful
researchers of remote reaches of the world who leave no stone unturned
nor dumpling untasted in their search for the best experiences for
travellers. Who better to spot the next food trends before they land on
your plates back home? On every trip, travel writers uncover foods and
techniques that for one reason or another have been overlooked by top
Western chefs – look for the following foods from around the globe to be
coming to a trendy restaurant or food truck near you.
Island delights
Food lovers have surfed the popularity waves of sashimi, tartare, crudo, ceviche and Hawaiian poke. Maybe today’s top chefs aren’t vacationing in Tahiti and French Polynesia, because the overlooked Tahitian poisson cru
blows the others out of the water with one simple addition: coconut
milk. Poisson cru (simply ‘raw fish’ in French) is a Polynesian twist on
ceviche: fresh tuna, veggies (cucumber, onion, and tomato are typical),
and, just before serving, marinated in lime juice and fresh creamy
coconut milk. ‘I have never met anyone who doesn’t like poisson cru,’
says travel writer and former Tahiti resident Celeste Brash (you can find Celeste’s poisson cru recipe here).
If you’ve been to French Polynesia, poisson cru is as ubiquitous as it
is inexcusably delicious, but finding it outside the islands is next to
impossible. For now.
The next taco?
The taco will forever occupy a fond greasy corner of many foodies’
hearts, but street food trends fly by faster than a taco truck fleeing a
health inspector. What’s next? Taco-loving travel writer Jill Robinson suggests a snack-sized cousin of the tostada: the panucho, a popular food from Mexico’s Yucatan.
‘The dish requires more of the corn tortilla than just sitting there as
a platform for your food – in panuchos, the tortilla is puffed and
filled with refried beans. You may never go back after a taste.’
Or perhaps we should look to the empanada, says travel and food writer Alison Bing,
a well-established food that has yet to receive proper attention – or a
gourmet makeover. ‘Empanadas taste just like home from the first flaky,
savoury bite. Spain named it (empanar is Spanish for wrap); Argentina’s large Italian population proudly points out its resemblance to calzone
(pizza pockets); English ex-colonials credit the influence of buttery
Cornish pasty dough; and fillings with cumin, eggs and raisins reveal
historical links to the Moroccan briouat.’ Not a big deal where you live yet? ‘Count the days before LA food trucks are serving Korean and Thai empanadas,’ says Bing.
Super soups and liquid salads
If Myanmar (Burma) was the travel buzzword of the past year, it’s quickly becoming the food buzzword of 2013. Alison Bing thinks mohinga might be the first Burmese food to strike it big abroad. ‘Imagine Vietnamese pho
noodle soup, only with more tangy sass. Slurping without staining is an
acquired skill, but enjoying mohinga should be easy. The rich
hot-and-sour broth is spiked with ginger, lime, chili and a
savoury-salty hint of fish paste, and the rice vermicelli are
surprisingly hearty when generously dusted with roast chickpeas, crispy
onions and toasted rice.’
Would you like a leafy salad or a liquid salad? If liquid salad sounds odd, Lonely Planet’s US Travel Editor Robert Reid recommends trying a bowl of Bulgarian tarator.
Essentially a soup serving the cooling function of a salad, Reid says,
‘Tarator is the perfect thing to have when it’s hot. Cool yogurt with
cucumber, dill and nuts – in Bulgaria it’s
popular on menus in the summer.’ Other versions in the region are drier
and more recognizable as a salad, but who said salad has to be a solid
in the first place?
Pancakes & waffles
Food and travel writer Andrew Bender flips out for okonomiyaki, a specialty of Osaka.
”Okonomiyaki’ means ‘cook as you like,’ and these thick, savory
pancakes, might come packed with your choice of shredded cabbage, sliced
green onion, corn, thin strips of pork belly, noodles, mushrooms, a
fried egg or pretty much anything else you fancy. It’s all cooked before
you on a hot griddle in the table and topped with tangy brown sauce
like Worcestershire, and mayonnaise artfully squeezed, Spin-Art-style,
from a bottle.’
On the sweeter side, watch for Vietnamese pandan waffles (banh kep la dua)
to be heading your way soon. A coconut-milk-based waffle batter
flavoured with pandan extract, which has an earthy, toasty vanilla-like
scent, and often dyed bright green (unnecessarily – pandan extract is
clear unless food coloring is added), the flavour is as immediately
familiar as it is intriguing. Normally eaten plain, but add some
lemongrass chicken, and – calling all hipster food trucks – you’ve got
Vietnamese chicken and waffles.
New World truffles
Out of Africa
Can you name a food from Djibouti? Travel writer Jean-Bernard Carillet thinks it’s about time you could. ‘Mukbasa
(also mukbassa or mokbasa) is a belt-bustingly good sweet dish served
in Yemeni restaurants in Djibouti. It consists of a purée of honey and
either dates or banana. It’s quite thick but super sweet and melts in
the mouth – very addictive. It’s usually served as an accompaniment to
spicy Yemeni fish, which is high on proteins, which makes for a
perfectly balanced meal. It could well feature on any Western menu in
such a combination. Desserts served after fish dishes are usually
low-key but mukbasa would really be a perfect coda.’
Hot cookies and hot coffee
What would you rather wait for: an individually brewed cup of drip
coffee that is almost imperceptibly better than a standard cup, or a
hot-from-the-oven cookie that tastes like concentrated happiness? Alison
Bing doesn’t understand the waiting for coffee fad, ‘I’m an espresso
devotee, and that never takes 10 minutes. If it does, the barista would
be shamed by the international order of baristas.’
Fergus Henderson has made waves in the food world for years, notably
for his ‘nose-to-tail’ philosophy featured at his London restaurants.
One small but significant innovation at Henderson’s St John Bar & Restaurant and St John Bread & Wine has been largely unheralded: baked-to-order madeleines
(these take 15 minutes, but it’s worth the wait). Coffee shops and
restaurants of the world take heed: if you want to make diners happy, a
baked-to-order cookie as close to a guarantee as you’ll find.
Speaking of coffee, caffeine-loving travel writer Leif Pettersen
is dismayed that the world has yet to clue into one of the best and
most distinctive coffee cultures. ‘Vietnamese coffee can’t possibly
linger in relative obscurity for much longer. Indeed, I’m mystified as
to why there isn’t a Vietnambucks on every trendy corner in the US
already. The enduring genius of condensed milk-sweetened coffee
notwithstanding, brain revving items like coconut milk coffee and Hanoi’s signature egg coffee
are the kind of sweet indulgences that American coffee drinkers have
been inadequately trying to achieve with elaborate sugar and syrup
concoctions for years.’ Now, going to Vietnam, having a cup of Vietnamese's coffee and travel where have a lot of beautiful palace as Hanoi, Hochiminh, Sapa, Halong, Hue, Danang, Hoian
Source: bootsnall.com
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Add: 20 Nguyen Truong To Str, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel : (84-4) 37162149 Fax: (84-4) 37161738
E–mail address: sales@huongviettravel.com
Website: www.huongviettravel.com | http://www.aseantravelandtours.com | http://www.visavietnamonline.com | http://www.huongvietjsc.com
Vietnam Travel Packages | Vietnam Visa | Cambodia Tours | Myanmar Tours | Laos Tours | China Tours
Mmmmmm well thank you for making me hungry hehehe =D Food is the best part of traveling!
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