Korean food, food trucks, and Izakayas; Food Trotter is wrapping up a year’s worth of food trends for 2010. From our tastings and food observations around the world, we’ve come up with the following simple (and non-exhaustive) list. Please let us know about 2010 food trends in your heck of the woods, we’d love to feature it as an article as well!
1) Food Trucks
With a global economy still in a sh$t hole, foodie entrepreneurs have come up with an ingenious way to recover from the slump by reinventing the way street food trucks serve and operate food. It’s absolutely brilliant and we commend these new owners by circumnavigating the common problems that plague restaurateurs: capital cost for a location, immobility, inventory control, branding, and so much more. As a food truck owner, you can move anywhere around the city to find your customers, serve whatever the hell you like, it’ll cost you a lot less than a fixed location or full kitchen. We’ve seen the re-emergence of ice cream trucks, pizza trucks, French fry trucks, and taco trucks! Basically anything can be a food-mobile, so order joyously the next time one of these guys are parked outside your office/home, because they might be here to stay. Interested on learning more of street food trucks? Go on New York City’s food cart walking tour hosted by Urban Oyster.
2) Korean Food
Suddenly everyone has taken an interest in Korean food, with Korean restaurants popping up across cities around North America. It looks like we’re looking for exotic comfort food that comes in stews, meat, BBQ, and Kimchi. Why the sudden interest? We’ve come up with a few reasons: 1) lots of people are going to South Korea to teach English and upon coming back home, they reminisce eating a dish out of a hot stone bowl. With Kimchi running in their veins, they crave it like cocaine! 2) South Korean exchange students are everywhere! And wherever they go, they bring with them a ton of cash to set up a restaurant to serve their Korean countrymen. There’s opportunity here for entrepreneurship, way to go! 3) South Korean immigration is pushing up demand. Koreantowns are blossoming when there were but a few stores decades ago. 4) Korean pop goes global! It’s making a daring leap into our North American pop culture repertoire, from the drop-dead-gorgeous cuties of Wondergirls to the Korean-themed music video by the Black Eyed Peas. Move over Japan, there’s a new obsession in town.
3) Japanese Izakayas
With the sudden emergence for all things Korean, the Japanese haven’t given up their dominance yet! From Japanese sushi restaurants, the trend has shifted to Japanese bars known in Japan as izakayas. You’ve now got an excellent choice of drinks (or poisons) to enhance/finish your night. To say the least, the selection of Japanese alcohol is impressive, ranging from varieties of beer, sake, umeshu, shochu, Chuhai, to unique Japanese cocktail mixes. The Japanese are INTENSE when they drink, so let’s join in with them. Accompanied with a variety of bar snacks that put North American bar food to shame, it’s no wonder that izakayas are becoming immensely popular. Not to mention the special attention izakayas provide to their patrons by yelling loudly at them upon entering/exiting and their impeccable customer service, izakayas are providing you with another place to entertain your drunken state.
4) Burger Bars
With a crashing economy comes the need for comfort food to ease the pain from watching your life savings sink into oblivion. As such, premium burger joints have opened their locations to serve your need for thick meat patties pressed between buns. Let’s face it, the Big Mac just isn’t big enough to wipe those tears away. But when provided with an endless variety of premium condiments/toppings you can add to your burger, they’ll surely soak up those tears. If it’s not enough, you can go to a burger bar and quench that thirst (or pain) with a pint of beer.
5) Local Ingredients and Local Products
Thanks to the organic craze comes a new fondness for local ingredients and products. From reducing your carbon footprint to the heartfelt feeling you get from supporting local farmers, markets, or your own garden, being a green hipster is now cool. Restaurants are featuring local produce from XXX farm and charging a hefty penny. Too lazy to grow your own stuff but want the end results? Ask Young Urban Farmers to help grow one for you. Don’t want to can/pickle your own stuff? Just buy local products at your local supermarket, as products that exclusively use local produce/ingredients are replacing those shipped from Europe or elsewhere. Let’s face it, penny pinchers are now growing their own stuff to feed their families, with the hope of one day feeding their city.
6) Tapas
Can’t afford an entire meal? Get some tapas with your alcoholic beverage. It’s not much of a cheaper alternative, but you get to satisfy your need for exclusivity by partaking at a tapas restaurant. As a result, numerous tapas restaurants have matured all differentiating themselves by specializing in a variety of flavours/fusions: Korean, Japanese, Italian, etc. Basically fitting anything on a spoon will do.
7) Northern Chinese Food
Everyone’s sick of Cantonese food. With a wave of new immigrants from China, Northern-style Chinese food is taking over with force. And as patrons scream for authenticity, the re-emergence of Chinese food will now be enjoyed by everyone. Resulting from tourists returning from China and the Olympic games, everyone now knows that chicken balls and ginger beef are bullshit dishes. Brown sauce simply doesn’t cover every square inch of Chinese food. As such, authentic dishes that reflect how they are back in China are becoming ever more popular, especially among the local Chinese communities.
8) Snout-to-Toe Consumption
As another result from the economic crisis we’re in, penny pinchers are maximizing their every use from animal body parts never considered for human consumption. Nothing is wasted, leaving as little by-product as possible for pink-pasted chicken nuggets. Every part is tasty and carries with them a unique texture, from pork hock, ears, to giblets. The thing is, these parts have been enjoyed all around the world, in Chinese dim sum to Argentinean Asados. It’s only under economic desperation have we reconsidered the foods and parts we eat.
rean food, food trucks, and Izakayas; Food Trotter is wrapping up a year’s worth of food trends for 2010. From our tastings and food observations around the world, we’ve come up with the following simple list. Please let us know about a 2010 food trend in your heck of the woods, we’d love to feature it as an article as well!
Food Trucks
With a global economy still in a sh$t hole, foodie entrepreneurs have come up with an ingenious way to recover from the slump by reinventing the way street food trucks serve and operate food. It’s absolutely brilliant and we commend these new owners by circumnavigating the common problems that plague restaurateurs: capital cost for a location, immobility, inventory control, branding, and so much more. As a food truck owner, you can move anywhere around the city to find your customers, serve whatever the hell you like, it’ll cost you a lot less from a fixed location or full kitchen. We’ve seen the re-emergence of ice cream trucks, pizza trucks, French fry trucks, and taco trucks! Basically anything can be a food-mobile, so order joyously the next time one of these guys are parked outside your office/home, because they’re here to stay. Interested on learning more of street food trucks? Go on New York City’s food cart walking tour hosted by Urban Oyster
Korean Food
Suddenly everyone has taken an interest in Korean food, with Korean restaurants popping up across cities around North America. It looks like we’re looking for exotic comfort food that comes in stews, meat, BBQ, and Kimchi. Why the sudden interest? We’ve come up with a few reasons: 1) lots of people are going to South Korea to teach English and upon coming back home, they reminisce eating a dish out of a hot stone bowl. With Kimchi running in their veins, they crave it like cocaine! 2) South Korean exchange students are everywhere! And wherever they go, they bring with them a ton of cash to set up a restaurant to serve their Korean countrymen. There’s opportunity here for entrepreneurship, way to go! 3) South Korean immigration is pushing up demand. Koreantowns are blossoming when there were but just a few stores decades ago. 4) Korean pop……. It’s making a daring leap into our North American pop culture repertoire, from the drop-dead-cuties of Wondergirls to the Korean references in the Black Eye Peas songs. Move over Japan, there’s a new obsession in town.
Izakayaz
With the sudden emergence for all things Korean, the Japanese haven’t given up their dominance yet! From Japanese sushi restaurants, the trend has shifted to Japanese bars known in Japan as izakayas. You’ve now got an excellent choice of drinks (or poisons) to enhance/finish your night. To say the least, the selection of Japanese alcohol is impressive, ranging from varieties of beer, sake, umeshu, shochu, Chuhai, to unique Japanese cocktail mixes. The Japanese are INTENSE when they drink, so let’s join in with them. Accompanied with a variety of bar snacks that put North American bar food to shame, it’s no wonder that izakayas are becoming immensely popular. Not to mention the special attention izakayaz provide to their patrons by yelling loudly at them upon entering/exiting and mixed with their impeccable customer service, izakayas are here to stay to provide you with another place to entertain your druken state.
Burgers Bars
With a crashing economy comes the need for comfort food to ease the pain from watching your life savings sink into oblivion. As such, premium burger joints have opened their locations to serve your need for thick meat patties pressed between buns. Let’s face it, the Big Mac just isn’t big enough to wipe those tears away. But when provided with an endless variety of premium condiments/toppings you can add to your burger, they’ll surely soak up those tears. If it’s not enough, you can go to a burger bar and quench that thirst (or pain) with a pint of beer to forget your day.
Local Ingredients and Local Products
From the organic craze comes a new fondness for local ingredients and products. From reducing your carbon footprint to the heartfelt feeling you get from supporting local farmers, markets, or your own garden, being a green hipster is now cool. Restaurants are now featuring local produce from XXX farm and charging a hefty penny. Too lazy to grow your own stuff but want the end results? Ask Young Urban Farmers to help grow one for you. Don’t want to can/pickle your own stuff? Just buy local products at your local supermarket, as products that exclusively use local produce/ingredients are replacing those shipped from Europe or elsewhere. Let’s face it, penny pinchers are now growing their own stuff to feed their families, with the hope of one day feeding their city.
Tapas
Can’t afford an entire meal? Get some tapas with your alcoholic beverage. It’s not much a cheaper alternative, but you get to satisfy your need for exclusivity by partaking at a tapas restaurant. As a result, numerous tapas restaurants are popping up, all differentiating themselves by specializing in a variety of flavours/fusions: Korean, Japanese, Italian, etc. Basically fitting anything on a spoon will do.
Northern Chinese Food
Everyone’s sick of Cantonese food. With a wave of new immigrants from China, Northern-style Chinese food is taking over with force. And as patrons scream for authenticity, the re-emergence of Chinese food will now be enjoyed by everyone. With more visitors to China and Olympic games, everyone coming back now knows that chicken balls and ginger beef are bullshit dishes. Brown sauce simply doesn’t cover every dish Chinese food. As such, authentic
Korean food, food trucks, and Izakayas; Food Trotter is wrapping up a year’s worth of food trends for 2010. From our tastings and food observations around the world, we’ve come up with the following simple list. Please let us know about a 2010 food trend in your heck of the woods, we’d love to feature it as an article as well!
Food Trucks
With a global economy still in a sh$t hole, foodie entrepreneurs have come up with an ingenious way to recover from the slump by reinventing the way street food trucks serve and operate food. It’s absolutely brilliant and we commend these new owners by circumnavigating the common problems that plague restaurateurs: capital cost for a location, immobility, inventory control, branding, and so much more. As a food truck owner, you can move anywhere around the city to find your customers, serve whatever the hell you like, it’ll cost you a lot less from a fixed location or full kitchen. We’ve seen the re-emergence of ice cream trucks, pizza trucks, French fry trucks, and taco trucks! Basically anything can be a food-mobile, so order joyously the next time one of these guys are parked outside your office/home, because they’re here to stay. Interested on learning more of street food trucks? Go on New York City’s food cart walking tour hosted by Urban Oyster
Korean Food
Suddenly everyone has taken an interest in Korean food, with Korean restaurants popping up across cities around North America. It looks like we’re looking for exotic comfort food that comes in stews, meat, BBQ, and Kimchi. Why the sudden interest? We’ve come up with a few reasons: 1) lots of people are going to South Korea to teach English and upon coming back home, they reminisce eating a dish out of a hot stone bowl. With Kimchi running in their veins, they crave it like cocaine! 2) South Korean exchange students are everywhere! And wherever they go, they bring with them a ton of cash to set up a restaurant to serve their Korean countrymen. There’s opportunity here for entrepreneurship, way to go! 3) South Korean immigration is pushing up demand. Koreantowns are blossoming when there were but just a few stores decades ago. 4) Korean pop……. It’s making a daring leap into our North American pop culture repertoire, from the drop-dead-cuties of Wondergirls to the Korean references in the Black Eye Peas songs. Move over Japan, there’s a new obsession in town.
Izakayaz
With the sudden emergence for all things Korean, the Japanese haven’t given up their dominance yet! From Japanese sushi restaurants, the trend has shifted to Japanese bars known in Japan as izakayas. You’ve now got an excellent choice of drinks (or poisons) to enhance/finish your night. To say the least, the selection of Japanese alcohol is impressive, ranging from varieties of beer, sake, umeshu, shochu, Chuhai, to unique Japanese cocktail mixes. The Japanese are INTENSE when they drink, so let’s join in with them. Accompanied with a variety of bar snacks that put North American bar food to shame, it’s no wonder that izakayas are becoming immensely popular. Not to mention the special attention izakayaz provide to their patrons by yelling loudly at them upon entering/exiting and mixed with their impeccable customer service, izakayas are here to stay to provide you with another place to entertain your druken state.
Burgers Bars
With a crashing economy comes the need for comfort food to ease the pain from watching your life savings sink into oblivion. As such, premium burger joints have opened their locations to serve your need for thick meat patties pressed between buns. Let’s face it, the Big Mac just isn’t big enough to wipe those tears away. But when provided with an endless variety of premium condiments/toppings you can add to your burger, they’ll surely soak up those tears. If it’s not enough, you can go to a burger bar and quench that thirst (or pain) with a pint of beer to forget your day.
Local Ingredients and Local Products
From the organic craze comes a new fondness for local ingredients and products. From reducing your carbon footprint to the heartfelt feeling you get from supporting local farmers, markets, or your own garden, being a green hipster is now cool. Restaurants are now featuring local produce from XXX farm and charging a hefty penny. Too lazy to grow your own stuff but want the end results? Ask Young Urban Farmers to help grow one for you. Don’t want to can/pickle your own stuff? Just buy local products at your local supermarket, as products that exclusively use local produce/ingredients are replacing those shipped from Europe or elsewhere. Let’s face it, penny pinchers are now growing their own stuff to feed their families, with the hope of one day feeding their city.
Tapas
Can’t afford an entire meal? Get some tapas with your alcoholic beverage. It’s not much a cheaper alternative, but you get to satisfy your need for exclusivity by partaking at a tapas restaurant. As a result, numerous tapas restaurants are popping up, all differentiating themselves by specializing in a variety of flavours/fusions: Korean, Japanese, Italian, etc. Basically fitting anything on a spoon will do.
Northern Chinese Food
Everyone’s sick of Cantonese food. With a wave of new immigrants from China, Northern-style Chinese food is taking over with force. And as patrons scream for authenticity, the re-emergence of Chinese food will now be enjoyed by everyone. With more visitors to China and Olympic games, everyone coming back now knows that chicken balls and ginger beef are bullshit dishes. Brown sauce simply doesn’t cover every dish Chinese food. As such, authentic dishes that reflect how they are back In China are becoming ever more popular, especially among the local Chinese communities.
Snout-to-Toe Consumption
As another result from the economic crisis we’re in, penny pinchers are maximizing their every use from animal body parts never considered before for consumption. Nothing is wasted, leaving as little by-product as possible for pink-pasted chicken nuggets. Every part is tasty and carries with them a unique texture, from pork hock, ears, to giblets. The thing is, these parts have been enjoyed all around the world, in Chinese dim sum to Argentinean Asados. It’s only under economic desperation have we reconsidered the foods and parts we eat.
dishes that reflect how they are back In China are becoming ever more popular, especially among the local Chinese communities.
Snout-to-Toe Consumption
As another result from the economic crisis we’re in, penny pinchers are maximizing their every use from animal body parts never considered before for consumption. Nothing is wasted, leaving as little by-product as possible for pink-pasted chicken nuggets. Every part is tasty and carries with them a unique texture, from pork hock, ears, to giblets. The thing is, these parts have been enjoyed all around the world, in Chinese dim sum to Argentinean Asados. It’s only under economic desperation have we reconsidered the foods and parts we eat.
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Awesome list of food trends. I totally agree with it all!! Although food trucks aren’t as popular here in Japan, you still do see them here and there. In Akiharbara (and Roppongi) you’ll find food trucks selling beef and chicken donner kabbabs and around the city Japanese style crapes. I’m actually very curious to go home to Vancouver to try the very talked about Jap-Dogs!!
Ahhh Korean food…it’s soo delicious!! Makes me want to go to South Korea just to get the food for a very low price. I want some now!!
Oh and Izakayas. What can I say about that?!? The idea of opening izakayas are popping up in Vancouver as I’ve been told by friends, but I’m interested to know if it’s a growing trend in other big cities too.
Speaking of which, I’ll be heading to one come Monday with some co-workers (Tuesday is a National Holiday). The place we’re going to is a chain called Hokkaido. Obviously they serve dishes from Hokkaido. If you’re ever in Tokyo and dint have time to make it up north, you can come to this izakaya and get a small taste of Hokkaido in their set courses.
Izakayas are making big grounds here. In Toronto alone, there’s Guu (that Vancouver franchise) and several other copy cats. In fact, I read that Guu Izakaya is opening a second one as well. It’s such an awesome concept, I love the atmosphere and the variety of drinks you can’t get in stores! The food is always awesome too.
Any thoughts on up-and-coming Japanese food trends or trends in Asia?