New Trends in Food for 2009

Host Bee on Monday, January 12th, 2009

Tip of the Week – Keeping Up With Food Trends!

Each year brings us a variety of new trends in dining out and cooking in! What’s new becomes old quickly, but there’s always something to take center stage! Doesn’t it seem like just yesterday that a Panini was something special and now they’re at every fast food spot around? Anyway, so what will be some of the new foods we can look for in 2009? Well – here are a few:

Put an Egg on It!

Seriously – look for an increasing number of traditional dishes that get an update with the addition of a fried or poached egg on top! Pizzas, salads and pastas will all be receiving the rich in protein addition of eggs! If you’d like to give this trend a try in your kitchen, consider Bon Appetit’s recipe for Pizza with Eggs, Roasted Red Peppers, Olives and Arugula!

Fries with That?

Traditional side dishes like rice or potatoes are giving way to more unusual accompaniments like quinoa, lentils, couscous and polenta. If potatoes do make it to the menu, expect that they’ll be specialty versions such as purple, fingerling or Baby Dutch Yellow!

The New Paninis!

Panini sandwiches are receiving an update with piadina, which many consider to be the equivalent of an Italian quesadilla! A piandina is a grilled, flatbread sandwich which can be filled with any number of ingredients, but ricotta, prosciutto and arugula salad are among the more common.

Also on the horizon, as predicted by Bon Appetit’s resident Foodist, is the Vietnamese sandwich Bahn mi. This sandwich was created during the French colonization of Vietnam and combines the best of both cultures! A French baguette is filled with pate (or other meat like pork or meatballs), mayonnaise, cilantro, pickled vegetables, hot peppers and a dash of fish sauce, resulting in a crunchy, sweet and spicy combination!