It seems that every year there are food trends that start coming up. Some stick, some fade away. Let’s look at some 2019 food trends that have carried into 2020, and also some popular 2020 food trends that we should all try today.
In the year 2019, there seemed to be a ton of food trends that surfaced; a lot came and went and were forgotten. Let’s take a look at six of the most popular food trends that are still relevant and some popular 2020 food trends.
1. Plant-based meats
In 2020, I’ve seen more places start to introduce plant-based meats to their menus than I did in 2019. Some restaurants that jumped on this bandwagon are Dunkin Donuts (with their Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich), Burger King (with their Impossible Whopper), and KFC (with their Beyond Fried Chicken).
Personally, I’ve tried one of these things mentioned here: the Beyond Sausage Sandwich from Dunkin Donuts. While I thought it tasted pretty good, it still tasted nothing like actual sausage. I’ve also got one complaint about this particular sandwich; if you’re vegan (I’m not), you’ll have to make modifications to the sandwich. Personally, I feel that if you’re offering a plant-based menu item, that it shouldn’t have to be modified to fit into a vegan’s diet. Nonetheless, the sandwich was good; I’d probably try it again.
2. Spiked seltzers
Ugh. Unfortunately, this trend has carried into 2020. Personally, I feel that most spiked seltzers should’ve never even been made. I think they’re waaaay to overrated and have stuck around for far too long. They’re all the same and none of them are very good. Just stick to straight up vodka or straight up seltzer water. There’s no need to mix the two together.
3. Oat milk
This is one of those trends that made me think. I first saw oat milk on a menu at Skipstone Coffee Roasters in Door County (Sister Bay), Wisconsin. I decided to try it in my sugar-free vanilla latte, and boy it was delicious! I now prefer oat milk to regular milk in my coffee. It provided this very, very subtle sweetness that you can’t get from regular milk. Plus, oat milk comes with a number of benefits, such as providing roughly thirty-five percent of your daily needed calcium, and being very heart healthy.
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I definitely think that people shouldn’t knock oat milk until they try it. My personal favorite brand comes from Quaker (the Quaker Oat Beverage in the vanilla flavor, although all three flavors are delicious).
4. Paper straws
Nope. Just nope. This is one of the most pointless things I’ve ever seen. This whole trend needs to disappear just like the straws do in your drinks.
5. Street corn
Upon doing a bit of research, according to Yelp, street corn was one of the number one foods searched for on their website. Street corn in great! In case you don’t know, street corn is a very popular Mexican street food that consists of chili powder, lime juice, and cotija cheese (which is the most delicious part of this whole dish).
While this surprised me as being one of the most popular food trends of 2019, it definitely deserves to be on the list.
6. Zoodles
Noodles made out of zucchini = delicious. It’s one of those foods that will just take on any flavor that you add to it. A few restaurants have added veggie noodles to their menu.
Some that I’ve tried come from Noodles and Company: Zucchini Pesto with Grilled Chicken and the Cauliflower Rigatoni in Light Onion Cream Sauce. The Cauliflower noodles didn’t even feel like I wasn’t eating normal pasta. These types of veggie noodles offer better nutrition than regular pasta, and in some cases, better enhanced flavor as well.
Moving into 2020, let’s look at three trends that have appeared so far that we should all give a try.
1. Cauliflower-based products
Besides the newly discovered cauliflower noodles from Noodles & Company as mentioned above, there’s one cauliflower-based product that is one of my personal favorites: cauliflower pizza crust.
Sure, it’s very crispy and thin, but for the most part, it just tastes like a more earthy version of the typical pizza crust that we all know and love. A great brand of this to try, is the brand of frozen pizzas called Caulipower.
Another cauliflower-based product is cauliflower rice. Green Giant has a bunch of different flavor varieties of this, from cheddar to casseroles. Obviously, it doesn’t even compare to regular rice, but it’s still delicious nonetheless.
2. Intermittent fasting
While this isn’t a food, it’s still something that I feel like a lot of people couldn’t benefit from should they wish to try it. I’m not saying that we all have to go on this sort of dieting, but if you’re looking for a way to shed a few pounds or just to control your eating a bit more, this is something to try.
To explain it a bit more, intermittent fasting is considered to be a pattern of eating in which people go through periods of fasting and eating. The most popular version of this is fasting for fourteen hours and eating the rest; however, another version that might be easier for some people is to calorie restrict on two days of the week and eat normally the other five.
Definitely give this a try if it sounds like something you may benefit from.
3. Bone broth
When doing some research about food trends, bone broth did come up a lot more than I was expecting it to be.
During these crazy times in our world right now, I think that bone broth can actually help a lot of people with its tremendous health benefits. Some health benefits of bone broth include a boost in your immune system (super important right now), rich in collagen which can reduce inflammation, strengthen bones, and keeping your skin and hair healthy.
Overall, trends may come and go, but how long they stick around is up to us. Let us know down below if you’ve tried any of these trends and which you liked or disliked. Also, drop some more trends below that we missed out on (good or bad)!