Records, Toasts, and Trends.

Wow, what's this? Four posts, all in the same month? Sadly, that's practically a record for me. You should all join me in a little toast to my minor achievement...

...Speaking of toast, let's talk food! Food trends, to be precise. Anyone who doesn't really pay attention to the food world may not even realize that our overall eating habits move in trends just the same as any other cultural fashion, but trust me, food trends certainly do exist. I wasn't even alive in the 70s, but I've heard many tales of the fondue-filled fun of the 70s disco decade. It wasn't that long ago either, that sushi was a strange and often off-putting concept, rather than a practical standard dish for anyone of decent culture. And I'm sure everyone remembers the scarcity of bread items during the protein-heavy Atkins diet wave. The examples could go on indefinitely...
But it is a few of the modern food trends that are of particular interest to me. First let us discuss the totally tantalizing thistle that adorns my 'food entry' image, the globe artichoke. I know I'm a little bit behind the curve here, as the 'choke invasion has been happening for quite some time now, but I still couldn't be more excited about artichokes. While there are still some of the more rural parts of America that may not get too much exposure to them, artichokes are everywhere these days. It's almost impossible to find a metropolitan restaurant that doesn't have an artichoke dish of some kind. And for good reason - artichokes are hot sellers these days. Heck, even I can barely overcome the magnetic draw given to a menu description added by the simple words "with artichokes." Artichoke dips, grilled artichokes, deep fried artichokes, stuffed artichokes, artichokes in pasta, and on and on.... Artichokes fit into almost any application you can think of. Great news if you're like me and typically shy away from eating most vegetables. Do yourself a favor and try making an artichoke dish or two at home from fresh ones - they're pretty damn easy to handle once you understand how they're put together.
The other food trend I want to talk about is the pomegranate. Man, is this fruit popular right now. It's showing up just about everywhere in every form aside from home kitchens as a raw, whole pomegranate. It's become especially popular in the drink world. Not only is the juice of this fruit touted as nothing short of a super-healthy miracle elixir, the juice has become the best friend for trendy bartenders at upper-casual restaurants. It makes sense though, the super-strong sweet and tart juice pretty much plays well with anything. Pometinis are already becoming a classic, pomegranate margaritas turn the otherwise blasé drink into an exotic treat, and pomegranate mojitos are an ultra-modern marriage of two hype-heavy drinks. Of course it's not just the juice that's popular, but it's certainly the main attraction. Enticingly-crafted bottles of POM brand juice are a common sight at damn near any grocery store these days. As far as I'm concerned though, those bottles can keep sitting there. Talk about expensive! Yes, they're pretty. And yes, they're popular. But really folks, you can get the same damn stuff for literally half the price in the ethnic section of some upper-scale grocery stores, or for at least slightly less under the Archer Farms imprint at Target stores. You also can always just buy your own fresh pomegranates. A good one will have plenty of natural juices ready to leak out on it's own, and it's not too difficult a venture to further juice one - though I will admit that it's not the easiest thing in the world... It'll even share a little secret for getting the good stuff out of the fruit with minimal damage to it:

If you've never seen a fresh pomegranate before - that's what they look like, inside and out. The waxy red outer hull as well as the pale yellowish-white "walls" inside the fruit are both basically inedible, so the trick is to get the red seed-looking pods (they're called arils, and they're actually seed casings around a small hard seed inside each one) out of the fruit while taking as little of the walls with them. If you search online you'll find a lot of different ways to accomplish the task, but probably two the first as well as most common answers you'll come across are threading and submersion. I've never tried threading, and honestly, I never will. The basic idea is that you sew with a needle and thread through all of the arils and pluck them out on the thread, thus leading all the walls behind. I can't think of a more ridiculous waste of time, so no thanks on that one. Submersion is certainly a good idea, so much so that even Alton Brown (a minor hero of mine) recommends it. It's certainly easier - just get a large bowl of water and crack your fruit open while it's under water. Then gently scoop out the arils with your fingers, and don't worry too much about any of the membrane that breaks loose. The membrane walls will float to the top, ready to be skimmed off, while the tasty arils sink to the bottom. Pretty good, and certainly easy enough... but I'm still not happy with it. Why? Because just think of all that delicious juice that normally would be dripping out now being subtly washed away. Okay okay, so without actually breaking into the arils themselves you're not going to get more than just over half a shot glass worth of juice anyway, but that's more than enough for me to want to save it! So I use the speedy trick I picked up watching Iron Chef and a few other professional chefs - the wooden spoon beating. Couldn't be easier. Cut a pomegranate standing up in half horizontally (you should have a top and bottom half, not two sides) and place one half cut side down on top of your left hand, with your left hand hovering just slightly over the top of a large bowl. Now using your other hand, firmly hit the skin side of the fruit opposite your hand with the flat of a wooden spoon repeatedly. Continue until you've gotten all of the arils and juice out, and then move on to the other half. Bam, there you go. A bowl full of arils, juice, and with about as little pieces of membrane as possible. Yes, it is a little bit messier, but if you're careful and you practice at it, it won't be that much trouble. In the end it's all just a matter of preference of course.
Of course there are plenty of other minor and major food trends I could mention here, but that isn't exactly the point of this entry... I just want to draw attention to the existence of food trends as a whole. Not only to help you get excited about what's happening in the food world out there, but also to help you to not miss out. Food trends are like any other sort of trend - no matter how hot they are now, they eventually fade. Sure, we'll always be eating artichokes and pomegranate and even fondue somewhere in the world, but if you miss out on a food trend that may have tickled your fancy, your potential access to whatever it was may suddenly become considerably less. And then there is the potential to see some new food innovations and have an effect on the market - the food industry is willing to experiment with buzz-worthy items to a point of risking loss, but if you find something you love and actively support it, that once-novelty item like pomegranate ice cream may just make the jump into everyday standard! Most important of all though, is just that following food trends, silly as it may be, is a chance to really get excited about food. I don't know about you, but I'm not content to just consider food the necessary means to life... I want food to be a part of actually experiencing that life. Hope you'll agree, and keep your eyes open and your mouth ready for something new! Happy eating!