Tired old Food Fads in LA
Monday, May 7, 2007 13:16
Basil foam as created and invented by Ferran Adria at El Bulli, Spain.
Are you fed up with foam?
All truffle-oiled out?
Deathly sick of soft serve?
During the eighties in restaurants and kitchens everywhere (at least in Sydney), there was such a wholesale preoccupation with sun-dried tomatoes, placing them front and centre in virtually every menu item and featured at almost every dinner party, that the predominance of this overpowering and concentrated flavour soon became overkill.
I avoid sun-dried tomatoes to this day.
Flash forward to Christmas, late 2001, when we were travelling through Europe. It was a memorable trip – Christmas in Paris, snowboarding in the French Alps over New Years Eve, the thrilling debut of a gorgeous and unifying currency – the Euro – and, of course the emergence of a culinary sensation – foam! That strange, delicately flavoured, ethereal and gossamer-like substance dressing your plate in the hallowed halls of haute cuisine.
Well, it’s 2007 and culinary foam doesn’t appear to be fading away any time soon, even though Marcel Vigneron on TV’s Top Chef probably put the final nail in its coffin.
Is there any item or ingredient on a menu that, as soon as your eyes light upon it, instigates a massive yawn?
How do you feel about the prevalence of that rather pungent delicacy known as white truffle oil?
What about the increasingly ubiquitous appearance of sweet potato fries?
Are you heartily fed up with the tapas – aka small plates – fad?
Does the appearance of yet another donut or cupcake bakery fill you with dread?
Can you ever have enough Pinkberry or other version of frozen yoghurt?
Which LA food fads do you think are tired, lame, played out and soooo-five-minutes-ago-dot-com??
By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past ten years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She is completing a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is currently writing two screenplays.
H.C. says:
May 7th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
FROYO FROYO FROYO!!! even though I only had my first (and hopefully, last and only) taste of the stuff about 1-2 months ago. Tastewise, I don’t see what’s so amazing about it.
The cupcakes thing don’t play too well with me either, most are too sugary and I’d rather settle down to a slice ‘o cake with a plastic fork & clamshell box instead.
And finally, Kobe-style beef burgers — even though I still like the ones from, say, Lucky Devil’s, I think it’s gotten way too much hype for what it is — fattier ground beef.
And, as noted on my blog, raw Kanpachi/Yellowtail is on its road to overkill as well.
maribeth says:
May 7th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Boba drinks–it’s icky for me to even think about sucking a chunk of tapioca through a straw.
erin says:
May 7th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I love sweet potato fries, so I’m very happy to see them anywhere, everywhere. However, I’m sick to death of the pear/gorgonzola/candied nuts salad–I like it, but it’s everywhere, and often not done particularly well. I want new salad ideas!!
cybele says:
May 7th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I’ve obviously not going to the right restaurants since I don’t think I’ve had anything with foam on it.
Froyo, though I’m tired of hearing about, is pretty easy to avoid in real life. (Basically, see a long line? Turn and walk away.)
I like the tapas fad, but I’m just a grazer at heart with a short attention span.
The thing that I’m tired of is applewood smoke bacon.
MaxMillion says:
May 7th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
^ Actually I love sweet potato fries too (esp the ones at Father’s Office or at Cobras y Matadors on Beverly) but my sweetheart has grown to dislike their sweetness so I don’t get to order them if it’s just the two of us… (Me + an entire order of fries is not a wise move.)
Hey — I’d forgotten about that ubiquitous blue/pear/nut salad! I’m definitely over that one!!
Erin, perhaps you missed my review of the hands-down-best salad joint in LA?
http://la.foodblogging.com/2006/03/01/incredible-salads-at-healthyca-foods-noho/
Jonah says:
May 7th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Funny, I just had an epiphany last week about calamari as an appetizer. I love it, but it has slowly creeped up as some sort of required menu item. It used to be that if a restaurant served it, I would order it because not everyone had it. Now, it’s on menus from Bistro to Dive.
I do realize that this has been happening for a while and isn’t a new trend, but it creeped up so slowly that I just now realized it.
I too love sweet potato fries, but not when they are soggy and greasy. I like them at The Counter.
I’m only fed up with Tapas when used for bill inflation, rather than for offering a wider array of flavors.
goddess of good housekeeping says:
May 7th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I haven’t had the dis-pleasure of finding food foam & frothing at the mouth about it , but you go girl ! Excoriate, vituperate, lambast and turn up your nose . I was taught to be grateful for every little crumb but I must say, I have a distaste for “tricolore” salad . The bitter raddicchio and reddish leafed lettuce leave me cold.
Another pet peeve is the dreadful stuff that passes for Italian pasta. Usually drenched in some indeterminate red sauce with too much salt , oil and spice .
Will says:
May 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Yeah - definitely foam.
Also, wasabi or gorgonzola mashed potatoes, or anything along those lines.
But what really inspires raised eyebrows as far as I’m concerned is a particular type of menu description at yuppie food / “california cuisine” type restaurants - hard to describe but easy to recognize. This is even worse when a waiter is reciting the description out loud in semi-orgasmic tones. Usually something like “sesame-crusted arctic sole on a bed of radicchio with a syrah reduction, served with gorgonzola mashed potatoes”.
The gf (I suggested some of the items too) wrote a page that randomly generates bogus menu items of this sort:
http://thegamespoilers.com/menu/
Some are pretty funny; some are ridiculous; some are scarily dead-on.
Lisa A says:
May 7th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I think the foam thing has gone way tooooo farrrr!
Best have was at a Gday LA function and the cheff had a champagne foam that he shot onto your freshly shucked Sydney Rock oyster ( or into your mouth after having the oyster!) Wonderful.
Ever since deeply disapointed. I don’t think they do it right??? Perhaps?
The latest thing here that is beginning to get up my nose (mmm) is savoury pannacotta. First one was sooo delicious. I even made a freshly grated tumeric one to go with seared Tuna.
But now they are every where…yukky!
Go girrrl.
FHW says:
May 8th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I have yet to experience foam. As long as it isn’t on my tapas (which I agree is now the most tired food trend… anywhere). Cupcakes, I’m happy to say, never go out of style.
Grace says:
May 9th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Yes, foam, sun dried tomatoes, foam, small plates, foam. Did i mention foam? All these things are so boring they make me want to fall asleep at my dinner plate. Or at least walk right past the offending restaurant in favor of one without foam.
I’d also add cup-cakes to the yawn list. since when did we become so specialized we need individual cup cake stores. Its insane. Sprinkles, schminkles
MaxMillion says:
May 9th, 2007 at 9:44 am
^ HILARIOUS! So it’s not just me……………………
foodette says:
May 16th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
The only place I want foam is on top of two shots of espresso. And, I think I will have to agree with the truffle oil. I had never had, finally did recently, and decided I hate it. Why is it so expensive?
I would like to add one thing that I want to become a crazy-weird LA fad: squid ink! My husband ordered black and white pasta from one of my favorite restaurants, Pizzicotto in Brentwood. Each spaghetti noodle was half white (normal semolina) and half black (colored with squid ink). An AMAZING dish, and it’s a special so it’s not always available.
Anyway, that’s all I will say on that, because I plan on doing a review on that restaurant soon.
Lisa B. says:
May 19th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I’ll never get tired of truffle ANYTHING. I think I’m actually addicted, and I could eat it every day, preferably something like truffle sauce that has actual truffles in it, rather than infused oils. Hubby brought home some truffle salt the other day and just opening the cabinet for a whiff makes me so happy! I also really like sweet potato fries - I don’t care if it’s a trend, as long as it’s good food. Ditto the s.p. fries at the Counter.
I’m pretty tired of the candied-nuts/blue cheese salads that have been mentioned, and - as a vegetarian with sometimes limited options on the menu - the portobello mushroom sandwich has got to GO. The mushroom is always soggy and soaked in vinegar, and I can’t remember the last time I actually had a decent one. There are so many other good veg. options - why must it always be the portobello mushroom?
I also find “towers” of food to be a drag. Hard to cut into, they inevitably fall apart and the pieces scatter all over the plate anyway.
Jumping Black Dog says:
May 21st, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Foam is the most overrated item on the planet. The sheer sight of it makes me gag. It looks like vomit.
Joellyn says:
June 5th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Oh god, Pinkberries everywhere! They’re taking over………..two in my neighborhood already……….oh the humanity……..save us…………!!
Niemeyer says:
June 25th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
I am sick of foam, foie gras on everything, and truffles especially truffle oil
Jessica says:
August 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
What is the culinary term for the “foam”? I can’t think of it and it’s driving me crazy!!!
Homer says:
August 9th, 2008 at 5:13 am
^ Perhaps you mean the general term of “molecular gastronomy”?
FYI - an espuma or thermo whip is commonly used to make foams.