15 food trends for 2012

What will you be seeing in restaurants in 2012? Lisa Jennings in Nation's Restaurant News reported that hospitality consultant Andrew Freeman is predicting the following trends:

• More modern Thai cuisine Street-style Indian food including the ultra-hot ghost peppers 
• Grilled cheese 
• Healthful indulgences 
• French fries with dipping sauces and fancy cuts 
• Eastern European food 
• Wild ice creams with savory flavors like bacon and lobster, as well as vegetables and unusual spices, are appearing in house-made ice creams. Grass and horseradish? Douglas fir? Those are just some of the new flavors that restaurants are offering 
• Hand-pulled noodles. Celebrity chef Martin Yan plans to open a new concept in San Francisco in February 2012, where a noodle chef will twist and pull lumps of dough into strands of thin noodles using only his hands. 
• Herbed liqueurs and beers 
• Stroop, a Dutch dark treacle syrup, used in savory dishes such as potatoes with bacon, apple and grilled chicory 
• “Snow ice,” a version of shaved ice cream imported from Taiwan

• Schnitzel sandwiches

• House-made flavored marshmallows (The posting I did on some savory marshmallows back in May 2010 has been one of the most-accessed pages on this site.)
• 
Lamb belly

• Goose eggs




Douglas fir ice cream pop at Atelier Crenn in San Francisco 

• The use of crispy skin, whether from pork, chicken or fish. Chicken skin tacos have gotten a lot of buzz lately, and even the New York Times has featured a recipe for them.