All around us, trend-spotters are gazing into their crystal balls trying to come up with their interpretation of the things we will be eating, drinking, doing and visiting this year.
Instead, we’ve taken a look back at some of the food and drink trends that were heralded ... but didn’t quite take off as predicted, and some that were – or could still be – an unexpected hit.
DON’T BET ON IT:
1. Single-udder butters. No, not butter made from milk from a single farm. This means butter made with milk from Daisy, the Guernsey, as distinct from butter made with milk from Betsy, the Jersey. New York chef and restaurateur Dan Barber was doing it as far back as 2012, and now it has spread to the UK, but we're not buying it.
2. Restaurant tickets. No-shows are an industry curse, but apart from one-offs and pop-ups, only the very occasional – mostly very high-end – restaurant has had any success convincing would-be diners to pay in advance by buying a "ticket" for their dinner.
3. Edible insects. Nope, we're just not that hungry, thanks all the same.
4. iPad menus. They do address the too dark to read the menu scenario (and the type can be enlarged if you've forgotten your specs), but there's something a bit sterile about swiping and tapping your way through three courses.
5. The domestic kitchen sous-vide. Even the pros are turning their backs on them, in favour of cooking over fire, so what chance did we have (and why didn't we realise we'd need a vac-pac machine too).
6. So-called clean eating. We're so over that one. Bring on the dirty burger, with a side of satisfaction.
SHOULDA SEEN IT COMING:
1. Protein balls. Expensive, and not very easy to transport, but they're very much the snack of choice for the gym bunny (and someone's making a lot of money from them)
2. Sherry. Not the bottle at the back of Granny's drinks cabinet, but the good stuff, given a facelift by a talented gang of Andalucian winemakers whose marketing skills are a match for their oenology and viticulture prowess.
3. Fermenting. It's not pretty, and it can be a bit whiffy, but fermenting has taken the culinary world by storm. You're a kitchen nobody if you haven't got a larder full of burping Kilner jars.
4. Bowls. Of course we need them for soup, and sometimes for pasta eaten in front of the TV. But who could have predicted the inexorable rise of the bowl as the vessel of choice for everything from smoothies to salads.
5. Skyr. The Icelandic cultured dairy product – don't call it yoghurt – went mainstream, hitting supermarket shelves across the country.
6. Turnip chips. Here's one we are willing to bet will be a big hit in 2017 (there's already a commercial frozen variety on the way): Cut a turnip, the big, orange-fleshed sort, into slender – rather than chunky – chip shapes. Douse in good olive oil and season liberally with sea salt and black pepper. Roast in a hot oven, turning them over once, until crisp and burnished on the outside (much easier to achieve than with sweet potatoes), and soft inside.
