Clinton News-Record, 1985-11-13, Page 29I Sandra sit Klink
fter heWtinl so Many
r 11Pft9 iac [about k,.you
finaiiy genie)/ a tttxls
for PS '. WhOoPe,
uhiWhoops, Ws
aaetl , ,,. hued out. You
aln your xlmAd palate
to talerale fiery! Me-ttktut food.
That accomplished. it, ton. his
been relegated t0 out status.
What else? Well, depending on
who you listen W, the following
have gone down the sante sad
path: peesto, pasta, mesquite,
prosciutto, wheels of Brie, kiwi,
croissants. Next thing you know,
Thanksgiving dinner will be out.
IWe'te talking trends — what,
for whatever reason, is
fashionable in the mercurial food
world.
To get any kind of grip on the
situation, the amateur food
Ip,eer has to differentiate
n what is just a fad or
what actually sells well
and what may eventually tum
into a classic. Some foods have
their brief moment of glory, then
fizzle and die, Sometimes it's
overkill, simply too much
exposure too fast.
Then, many of these fizzled
items are foods that jolt their
public by being a little bit too
exotic or unexpected. Sun-dried
tomatoes don't look right.
Eggplant shouldn't be white,
Meat or fish with fruit as a main
dish jars many palates.
Miniature vegetables look like
something's wrong with them.
And remember chocolate pasta?
Maybe not; it wasn't around
very long.
With all of these recently
adored items now officially out,
what's in? Generalizations do
not always apply. Variables
include where you live, what
you read (many of these in items
are created by media coverage)
and of course what's available
for you to buy.
American food is now,
seemingly inconsistently, about
as in as you can get: Cajun
cooking, old favorites like
chicken pot pie, pot roast, even
a popular item at
,ernutierS,
ca, a jam-packed
urant in New York.
According to John Baran, a
restaurant consultant quoted in a
New York Times article,
"Grains are in, pasta's out.
Yellow and red peppers from
Holland are in. Green peppers
are out. Roasted vegetables are
still in, So are grilled
vegetables, Grilled meat is out,
Billed fish ill lttr j, fpatiutte #a
out. liishory NS ttlflta l w
are in. New York S °ladder
cheese Iain."
Continuing twhow!), ad*,
"r'tchovies are back in, shallots
are in. garlic is out. Bier la
lick. beer is. big. Sea urchtta
are in. Game is in. Rosesnsry b
in....red meat is hack, pork is
gone. veal has peaked." So.
there you are. Anyone with a
burning desire to be trendy has
plenty to pick from.
But off course, that is New
York, Trendy Capital of the
U.S.A. Today's sweetheart may
be tomorrow's reject. To our
north, a recent talk by Canadian
cookbook writers declared
seafood, pasta and vegetables as
the hot items. They said red
meat is out.
Perhaps the most reliable way
to read a trend that has reached
the next level is to take a look at
those culinary items that actually
sell well, items that have the
potential to go on to become
classics — of a sort.
Take pasta. Although
pronounced out by a number of
pundits, the truth lies elsewhere.
Steve Faas, a Macy's vice
president in charge off its
Marketplace, contends that it has
become the No. 1 convenience
meal for working couples — it's
quick, reliable and better than
burgers and fries for working
couples. Besides, it, with a
salad, can most certainty be
considered nutritious.
Which brings us to another
concern that creates brisk sales
— health. Among the movers in
the supermarkets are their
prepared salads for the
restaurant -weary, overworked
but health -conscious shopper.
Frozen fruit bars, a category
that has grown 500 percent in
the past three years, are
healthful 90 -calorie contenders
to the ice-cream bar, which
weigh in with as many as 200
plus. Senior citizens, and plenty
of others. are demanding — and
buying — foods with fruit and
fiber.
Fresh fish are also popular: 86
percent of America's
supermarkets carry fresh
seafood. And want to pinpoint a
new trend? Look for catfish.
About three-quarters of the
catfish sold now is to
restaurants, Diners love it. "We
are where chicken was 20 years
ago," said Mark R. Englehardt
of the Farm Fresh Catfish
Company. Church's Pried
Chicken is even selling k.
Chngol es bane:cataptaltoti
beyond fid status and have,
earned their floor space at, -gift
items. of as one amateur
food -watcher cone ented, gifts
we often give ourselves..They're
here to stay. As is, to all
appearance$, goat cheese.
Resistance to it drops as more
and more people Mate* and
discover its merits.
But people can be fickle. -A
few years ago, the granola bar
market was zooming upward.
Too many contenders hopped
into the field last year — nine to
be exact — and. as the bars
became marshmallow- and
chocolate -saturated, their
loyalists went back to pretzels,
fancy popcorn and other more
traditional snacks.
The low -calorie frozen meal
market was virtually nonexistent
four years ago. New contenders
are leaping into the fray. Will
these products meet the same
resistance as the granola bar?
Only time will tell.
What is coming up, you may
ask? First, a disheartening
statistic: 94 percent of all new
food products eventually fail.
The food industry has become
"like drilling for oil," says
Jeffrey Beck of Oppenheimer &
Co. A scan around the field
reveals the following items,
carefully chosen from a cast of
thousands. Pick your own
winner from this list: Dairy
Harvest Sea Cream, a
fish -flavored "ice crearn" that
supposedly tastes like Channel
Island double cream; Squirms, a
worm -shaped candy; Sweet 'N
Sour Snakes, an Irish confection;
Smurf Gum, Great Grape Ape
Bubble Gum, Silly Soda.
Wait, this is getting
ridiculous. Before making any
decision, consider some recent
failures: Singles, food in a jar
that depressingly reminded
single people in its ad pitch that
they'll be eating alone; New
Cookery, a line of products low
in everything (salt, sugar, starch,
fat); Wine & Dine, a packaged
dinner that included a bottle of
cooking wine — apparently
consumers thought it was for
drinking; mayonnaise in a tube,
a hit in Europe that fell on its
face in the U.S.
Maybe some enterprising soul
should concoct a roasted yellow
pepper entree stuffed with sea
urchins, flavored with a
rosemary -laced New York
Please turn to page4
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