University Eats

Food trends come and go almost as capriciously as fashion trends. Some hit it off last year and will continue to be big in 2010, while others have seen the final seconds tick down on their 15 minutes of fame. And, of course, there will be other new ideas I’ve only yet begun to imagine.

I’m sure the eco-trends eating has been subject to over the last few years will continue to thrive. Global warming isn’t going away any time soon, and neither are “slow food,” “sustainable agriculture” or the now-ubiquitous “organic.” These terms all mean slightly different things, but together they represent an ever-growing concern among Americans about how they and their culinary choices are connected to the wider ecosystem.

If the economy continues to struggle in 2010, you can bet we’ll see more emphasis on saving money by cooking more. I’m pretty sure I’ve harped before in this column about how much money cooking your own meals can save you, especially if you emphasize buying in bulk and freezing the surplus. And, with more people out of work, it seems we might actually have time to get all that cooking done!

As a direct result of the first two trends, we’re likely to see more interest in home-grown vegetables, especially urban-based agriculture such as community and roof-top gardening. Maybe people will actually re-learn canning when they need to start budgeting for the long run.

And even if the economy does turn around, my biggest prediction is that frugal and eco-friendly food trends are here to stay.

A lot of foodies also think Korean food will be the next exotic cuisine-du-jour, much like Thai has been for a while now. It’s hard to imagine the strong flavors of something like traditional banchan finding a place among the average American’s subdued tastes, but we’ll see.

It’ll probably be another tough year for my favorite meat – pork. The industry has been suffering since 2007, and a third round of H1N1, plus more focus on regulating livestock conditions and carbon emissions, will create a perfect storm for hog farmers.

And like in years past, the new one will see its share of food gimmicks. Bacon has flourished as a dessert item – ice cream flavoring and chocolate-covered being the two most popular incarnations – but hopefully this terrible trend will fizzle when people realize bacon-infused sweets are actually disgusting.