Food trends where you are

[PDH]

In Wyoming the food scene is mostly "You killed it, you cook it."

[derspiess]

Oh, the food truck thing is huge in downtown Cincy.  I don't usually like to break my lunch routine so I haven't tried any, but apparently the Cajun truck has some good food.  Problem is in this weather it would be ice cold by the time I got it back to the office.

Our site manager had a gourmet ice cream truck come out to our building last year.  The ice cream was pretty good but not as great as everyone else seemed to think.  And they had like 5 or 6 people working it-- doesn't seem too efficient when all you need to do is make ice cream cones or dishes.

[Jaron]

The food scene in Provo, Utah is pretty bland. Not a whole lot of adventurous appetites here. There is one place in Provo that seems to try to offer 'affordable gourmet' type food. I think mostly the trick is in their presentation rather than their ingredients.


That said....it mostly appeals to a certain portion of the local college crowd. For the rest of us, its funeral potatoes and meatloaf.

[Jacob]

Oh yeah... the "new and adventurous food truck" scene has some traction in Vancouver too.

[Gups]

Gups, your article mentioned comfort foods but didn't talk at all about any classic American diner comfort foods, like meat loaf and chicken fried steak.  Any of that going on in You Kay, or is all just burgers, dogs, and 'que?

For some reason meatload has never caught on here. I've never eaten it or seen it on a menu. And I've never even heard of chicken fried steak. So, yeak, burgers, dogs, bbq and fried chicken. I'd love to see a trend towards American regional cooking  - po boys, clam chowder etc.

Other  London trends I forgot to mention - ceviche, small plates (i.e. overpriced tapas but from any cuisine), regional, authentic Chinese. 

Pop ups and dining clubs have been going strong for a few years now. The food truck thing was pretty strong as well but most of teh successful ones have moved into their own places. 

[CountDeMoney]

No, I don't want to pay 10 bucks for a grilled cheese sandwich.

http://www.ilovegrilledcheese.com/

We already have 3 locations.

[CountDeMoney]

It's Baltimore.  What do you want.

I want chicken & waffles!!

You want a biggie half n half with that?

[frunk]

We had two frozen yogurt places open... in September.  I didn't get that, wouldn't you want to start in the spring or early summer?

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, thankfully most of those around here have gone out of business.

There were many cupcake shops around? The only one I noticed was the one on Thurlow. I think they have another location on Denman. Other than them, were there others?

It seems like a pretty niche... erh... niche.

Yep, they popped up all over the place.  One even opened up in Edgemont Village but that only lasted a few months.  Two were on Robson at one point - just think about the number of cupcakes one needs to sell to cover that lease payment.

[Brazen]

It's all Japanese where I work. They closed the local M&S Food and opened another one. I may write to my MP! There's also plenty of Italian caffs for budget coffee, past or toasted sandwiches, of which London has a strong history.

Edit: The places I can't afford to eat round here are "nose to tail" gourmet meat restaurants, and those Scandi scavenged type.

My suburb has just discovered Mexican restaurants 25 years after the rest of London. Besides that, it's awash with pizza places. But of all the outlets, it's always Nandos that has a queue of young folk right out the door.

[Gups]

Don't you work in Smithfields Brazen? Loads of good places there. You should try the culinary desert that is the City

[Scipio]

Mississippi is developing an absurd cuisine primarily focused on combining soul food with cajun cuisine.  It produces some really weird shit, including the fabulous fried green tomato BLT with pork jowl bacon.

[mongers]

Mississippi is developing an absurd cuisine primarily focused on combining soul food with cajun cuisine.  It produces some really weird shit, including the fabulous fried green tomato BLT with pork jowl bacon.

I have no idea what that might be or taste like; Two nations divided by an uncommon diet ? 

[Capetan Mihali]

A Japanese ramen place just opened in Porter Square (Cambridge, Mass.) and a friend wanted to go a couple of weeks ago.  A tiny little joint with huge lines out the damn door, constantly; pretty impressive.  Tons of (presumably) Japanese student-types eating there, and wacky Japanese instructions on how to order on the window outside to read while you wait freezing your balls off.  The chef screams in Japanese to ask if you want extra pork fat or extra garlic in your bowl.  It is really pretty delicious, if a little overwhelming in its total pork and garlic experience -- it could never be a frequent place, for this American palate at least.  And not exactly cheap (maybe $13.00 for the big bowl with 5 pieces of pork), but tasty, very filling, and pretty unlike anything I'd ever had before (and extremely unlike Maruchen ramen), so it was worth it and I would go back on another occasion.

Other food trends... Southern BBQ has been a niche market in the Northeast for a while (plus decent chains like Dave's Famous), but I see the higher end stuff getting a lot of attention in Boston.  Even the mid-priced places are always packed when I've been there.  I'm sure the local ingredients/ecological practices/animals struck down with a sacred arrow/etc. concept has got to be pretty popular around here.  I definitely saw cupcakes come and go.  Sour frozen yogurt (a la Pinkberry) hit Philadelphia in about 2009, and by last summer TCBY in Charlotte, N.C. had reinvented itself to do that fro-yo by weight racket... no more giant parfaits like the old days. 

[Capetan Mihali]

In the arena of dubious dietary developments, however, Gluten-Free Living has definitely reached epidemic proportions around me.  I haven't even figured out exactly what food and beverage products contain gluten, but a whole lot of people are getting ready to do without.  It must be just a little bit frustrating for the celiac disease sufferers: while I'm sure they appreciate the new gluten-free options, it's got to be hard to have your legit medical affliction bathed in a sea of lifestyle poseurs.  Like no-prescription glasses-wearers to a much heavier degeree.

And somebody told me, more seriously, that there is no oversight for claiming "gluten free" the way there is for most other nutritional claims, so these options are not necessarily even safe for those with celiac disease.