What was the silliest food fad of 2013?

I don't want bacon in sweets!

Bacon ice cream, bacon scented candles... surely this is the end of the road! or is the 21st century the era of take it and beat it til it's unrecognizable? Maybe 'midwestern food' is the reaction to the trivialization of food/we've had enough frou frou?

Too funny MTM.

I want to preface this by saying that I love bacon, and my lunch has bacon in it...but I knew we had gone too far when a friend showed up at my house with a jar of bacon-flavored mayonnaise that was VEGAN. Too. Much. And my friends and I used to have a running joke that bacon-chocolate-cake was the grossest thing we could think of, and we'd throw it out to each other all the time to make someone go "ew." If only we'd have known then how many menus it would be on now....

"No alterations" policies at restaurants that take themselves WAY too seriously. Father's Office, nothing more than a burger and beer joint in LA, enforces this policy. Want the burger with out cheese? Not possible. I don't understand why everything in the US has to be so extreme!

Yes, juicing is mildly irritating. I mean, if it "works" for you, fine. I don't want to be the food police. But drinking a lot of juice--even veggie-based--is basically drinking a lot of sugar. Bad for your teeth, metabolism, and blood sugar.
I do love kombucha, but all the high-priced kombucha-related paraphernalia could stand to go. Why buy a $50 kombucha kit from Williams-Sonoma when you can get a kombucha mother for free and make your own kombucha indefinitely?

Back to the question at hand - I'd like to add in Kombucha, kabocha and juicing.

Food52 may be ahead of the game on that midwestern food movement. With thirschfeld writing about suppers from his farm in Indiana and fiveandspice telling us what's for breakfast in Minnesota, I think we're all embracing the heartland, at least a little bit.

This thread has taken a nasty turn from silly food fads to snarky arguments about grocery shopping.. Maybe it's just the Polar Vortex.. But maybe everyone should just have a nice hot cup of something...(kindness, maybe?) and move on.

I'll certainly continue shopping at TJ's and Whole Foods. It doesn't appear to me that they've conducted themselves irresponsibly or stored foods in an unsafe manner; unfortunately occasional salmonella outbreaks are a fact of modern life, one not limited to any single retailer, and unless it's conclusively proven to me that said retailer has unsafe practices or has responded irresponsibly to such an issue, I see no reason to change.

Thank you for reposting the link to the previous hotline, Cynthia. As noted, Whole Foods Market also carried Glass Onion products, in addition to other retailers. There are many suppliers whose items appears under the private labels of both Whole Foods Market AND Trader Joe's.

...and I have grown weary of the cooking shows with pros and amateurs "creating" something from the mystery box that contains a fish head, box of quinoa, kale leaves, some streaky bacon and jar of peanut butter. And the shows that feature a prickly haired host that thinks a 6inch high hamburger covered with gravy and jalepenos is gourmet dining. Ohhh, bring back Jacques Pepin and Julia Child - THAT was entertaining ... and educational.

In addition to Pierino's response on Trader Joe's: Unless it has changed recently, TJ's is under the same umbrella of ownership as Aldi's, the discount grocery chain. I believe the owners are two rather reclusive German brothers, one of whom died recently I find the quality at TJ's very similar to what I see at Aldi's. Sometimes you find something decent, but most of the time, it is dicey. I shop at Aldi's but it is out of necessity--the selection of stores in my town is not the best.

The gluten free thing freaks me out cause in Brazil even water bottles must carry the fatidic info,but it took me 38 years to meet one celiac.One!Small detail:her husband owns a bakery!This one I find disgusting:foam...on everything!It seems to be falling into oblivion,but it may come back and we must fight it!Looks like dog barf,and I don't care what it brings to the dish:leave it out!Another one from Brazil:all labels now claim their products are "trans-fat free",OK,good for you...but even olive oil.Now,how on Earth (or any other planet for that matter)would olive oil get mixed with trans-fats?

Now that rabbit and squab are mentioned as future popular foods, I'm wondering why we don't cultivate certain animals for food supply... goats, squirrels, raccoons, badgers, llamas, etc. I am purposefully not putting dogs or cats on that list. Let's not go anywhere near people's pets.

And now I'm wondering what NPR meant by the "midwestern" food movement. Beef? Corn? Soy beans?

And if those weren't bad enough, here's what NPR thinks you have to look forward to in food fads for 2014! www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259788506/eating-tea-and-other-food-predictions-for-2014

For someone who has celiac disease, gluten-free is absolutely essential. Reactivity varies, but an accidental bit of gluten can mean utter, painful incapacitation for 18 hours, illness for weeks. I don't see why some people view celiac disease as funny.

Actually rabbit and squab sound pretty good to me. I'd like to see goat sneak in there too. But for me this will be a year of charcuterie as I have excellent sources.

"frica" may also be spelled as "freekeh"

Well, we have some fun stuff to look forward to in 2014 according to a show I just heard on NPR:

tea leaves (Starbucks is opening its first tea shop which will sell tea leaves not just ready-made)

teff (a cereal grass from North Africa)
frica (another African grain, green spelt)

nuts

cauliflower

professional foragers

goat, rabbit and pigeon (squab)

za'atar, sumac

midwestern food movement

I have to say, I really like Trader Joe's for a few specific things--they have frozen peeled pearl onions; their dried fruit and nuts tend to be good; they have better looking fruit than the other grocery store close to us. They even had persimmons, satsumas, and meyer lemons the last time I was there! It's not all pre-made food.
I have to agree with most of the posts here, though. Banning foods altogether is silly--it doesn't create an effective deterrent and why exactly is the production of foie gras any worse than keeping chickens in horrible conditions? Angels on the head of a pin.
I'm over gluten free as a marketing term for everything from corn tortillas to fruit juice. It's beyond silly, and there's some strange association between being gluten free and being healthy, which I don't think is true at all.
I'm also over the rock star chef phenomenon. It's just another way that cooking culture has been masculinized beyond recognition. Gratuitous tattoo photos, spiked hair, general mindless "badassery." What ever happened to just cooking really good food without all the brouhaha?

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a 'food fad,' but if I never hear another television chef say something takes a dish "to the next level," it will be too soon.

Baby talk: sammies, brekky. Are sandwich and breakfast tongue twisters?

"Probiotics" is on it's way.I just saw a probiotic hot sauce!

There's a foie gras ban in New York?? Hudson Valley Foie Gras is a great firm with wonderful products.

Maedl you've just reminded me of another recent food fad of the last couple of years; the ban on the sale of foie gras in California and in New York. This is ridiculous hippie nonsense coming from otherwise well-intentioned people. It's an anthropomorphic overlay. Ducks and geese don't have the same anatomy as humans. For one thing they don't have a larynx and waterfowl can swallow a whole fish. The fowl actually run to the feeding tube, apparently because they don't have to work to gorge themselves.
Even though it's banned in my state I was able to score some yesterday, over the counter. I'm not going to say where. I asked the woman working the counter, "where did you get this from?". She said, "I don't know". Apparently one of her partners sourced it. I'm not going to ask any more questions.

Duck fat, butter, cream--yes! Real food produced on good farm land!

"Reasonable amounts" is vague and a poor choice of words in a country where obesity is an epidemic. Consumed with other saturated fats at 7-10% of your total daily caloric intake is the recommendation from the AHA, AMA, ADA, AAN.... So why is it being sold by the gallon? Honestly, I agree with you, fats as a nutrient are not all bad, but don't confuse people into thinking they are good.

Maede, your NYT post is nearly 2 years old. A newspaper is not an reliable source for most information, nutrition and health included. Coconut oil is more saturated that butter and as far as those chains of triglycerides go, coconut is 60% MCT, the other 40% is LCT. MCTs don't cause weight loss, just eating less total calories than you need does. Furthermore raising levels of HDLs has not shown, believe it or not, to have an effect on heart disease. Whereas increasing LDLs, is proven to have negative consequences. Cold pressed/virgin coconut and refined are the same nutritionally and chemically. You are better off eating meat as a source of saturated fats, at least you get the nutrients that come along with those fats (protein, iron, etc). But since this is a cooking forum, its great for the vegans out there and people who like the flavors. Bottom line there is no health benefit to coconut oil, still reach for the liquid vegetable oils, nothings proven well except when I put it on my hair, it is a lovely conditioner. Ha, another testimonial!

Coconut oil. It's bad for you. Hopefully the uneducated will get it right in 2014.

Kale shakes! Not only overused but seems like a terrible mistake on many levels.

I am glad to see I am not the only person who ddoesn't think Trader Joe's is heaven for serious cooks. The nuts and dried fruits aren't bad, but the other stuff they sell? No, thanks.

'Awesome' in reference to food is inappropriate. Those using it need to increase their vocabulary. Ditto for 'yummy', 'veggie', and 'scrummy', unless the target readers are in the 4 to 6 years group.

Finally, perhaps we have marketing campaigns to thank for the ubiquity of kale, bacon, sea-salted this or that, but please spare me! Moderation is a good thing--that should be the guide to sensible eating and enjoyment of food, not the capitalistic exercises of PR types far removed from the production of real food.

"Farm to Table". Here in Boston the last 2 years have seen this phrase just used to death. And often thoughtlessly. It's one thing to use it in CA. but if you have a restnt in the north east, Nov to March would be pretty boring if you were truly only farm to table. (Pass the rutabaga plse?)

I have to agree with Pierino re Trader Joes. When they first opened over 20 years ago they were kind of like a food surplus store with discounted and unusual items. Now, I only go to buy Charlee Bear dog treats for my two PWDs. If you want prepackaged food I guess a lot of people love it.

sauerkraut! why oh why is sauerkraut everywhere? and kim chee, and picked everything. sour has its place, as do these traditional foods, of course, but their flavors are too demanding for constant use.

I am fortunate to ignore the marketing hype ever since everything you cooked and served had to have loads of cilantro on it. So, kale slipped by me other than tasting some "chips" at the store at a demo. Yes, salted caramel is everywhere and actually I like it. I don't salt often but when I do...
Quinoa came and went from my larder about 6 or 7 years ago. I got tired of the price before the marketing gurus told us it would save our lives.
I still get upset with restaurants that simply renamed their appee dishes "tapas" which have absolutely nothing to do with Spanish tapa dishes (size, taste, price, etc.) How can yam fries with chipoltle sauce be a tapa !
And, before my rant gets too long, I am tired of restaurant chefs creating "con-fusion" foods...taking a simple decent burger and adding curry sauce to it, just to be different - but not in my mouth please. I like my carbonara with pancetta, not bbq chicken strips ! The end. thanks for listening.

1000X yes to the over use of 'genius'...not just with reference to food, but all over (no, pairing those shoes with that outfit does not qualify as 'genius'...discovering DNA's double helix structure is.) Also to the marketing lalapalooza surrounding kale. I like kale, but enough already! For all the hype, you'd think it was Soylent Green.

This may be more local to NYC, but when I finally tasted the much touted 'Cronut' - meh. Tasty, but hardly worthy of the ruckus. I'd take my grandmother's rugelach over it in a NY minute.

Not exactly a food fad, but a food writing trend . . . the incessant use of the word "brilliant" or "genius" has robbed those words of their meaning. (Kristen gets a bye on this one.) I'd also challenge food writers to cut their use of adjectives by 75% and their use of adverbs by 95%. It would liven up their prose like nothing else. ;o)

for correcting them..

Quinoa, tons of articles praising it and tons more people mispronouncing it. It's Keen WAH not Kee no ah, then they look at me like I am a jerk.. lol

Salted caramel EVERYTHING! Isn't there someone else who likes caramel WITHOUT salt? I spent a long time with a lovely box of chocolates picking the sea salt crystals off the tops! When we get to gluten free, dairy free salted caramel kale chips.. Maybe we will see that the end is nigh.

Kale. I like kale but if I hear the word one more time, I'll... What strikes me is that we're such a consumer culture, we have dissected and analyzed every bit of our food supply, and are desperate to find a plant or ingredient that seems new and marketable.

But I do like kale. I just can't stand reading about it everywhere. It's reaching backfire proportions.

Yours are hard to beat, though I have had a number of friends with real celiac diagnoses this year. One ended up in the hospital before the diagnosis. So, while I hear what you're saying, I'm trying to be tolerant of the intolerant.

'll be just as audacious in my own way and say Trader Joe's. I walk in there, I walk around, and I walk out empty-handed. I just don't get it.