The two most noteworthy trends in for 2016 have nothing to do with food
Big disrupters are a revolution in high-speed food delivery to homes and offices, and a conversation regarding tipping and pay disparities. Cleansing menus of additives won’t be enough. Why there’s a new obsession with fried chicken, plus at the end of the article you can find the strongest keywords when it comes to food and beverage for the year ahead.
Explore the most significant predictions about the hottest global food and beverage trends 2016 follow.
7. When Heat is not Enough
Pepper heads are (finally) discovering that heat is not enough ... that food also has flavors. So we're watching an interesting shift from just-plain-incendiary ... to aromatic and flavorful spice blends and sauces.
Piri-piri peppers (African birdseye chili) gain notoriety as Nando's Chicken chain expands ... the pepper blended with tamer spices, herbs, citrus peels ... used as bbq rubs or as bases for piquant sauces.
Sweet-spicy gochujang ... a thick Korean bbq sauce ... is made from malted barley, fermented soybean flour, red pepper and rice flour. It is popping up on adventurous menus, especially as a step-up from ubiquitous sriracha in Asian fusion dishes.
Watch for new spice blends from Syria ... a consequence of their maniacal war. Syrian flavors migrate. Arabic, Christian and Jewish influences ... warm, rather than hot ... mixtures include allspice, cardamom, ginger, coriander, cinnamon and black pepper.
Red and green curry blends and pastes are catching on as Thai food sweeps the country. Shichimi-Togarashi ... sprinkled on food ... is a blend red chili pepper, black pepper, sesame seeds, dried orange peel, seaweed flakes and poppy seeds. Also called Japanese Seven-Spice, it starts out hot then shifts to complexity, plus a bit of crunch. Showing up on raw fish, on creamy pastas, as chicken rubs, on burgers ... even on cocktails.
Berbere ... a highly fragrant but hot Ethopian mix ... makes a great rub or mix for braised food: cardamom, hot peppers, paprika, cumin, clove, cinnamon, fenugreek, nutmeg, turmeric, ginger.
Spice-of-the-year: Turmeric ... showing up fresh in health food shops and juice bars, powdered in supermarkets. It's what makes curry powder yellow ... theoretically cures almost everything, and is getting a big play at retail but hardly showing up on restaurant menus ... yet.
