Going out for dinner doesn’t just involve enjoying food anymore – often, going out means an experience and sometimes that experience feels like a stage show. Big milkshakes, gold dishes — almost every dining trend is designed for social media, not taste. These trends in food sound good on paper but don’t really improve the actual experience of eating. Below are 10 of the trendiest dining trends that are less about food and more about looks.
Featured Image Credit: Pexels.
Over-the-Top Milkshakes
Large milkshakes filled with cookies, candy bars and entire slices of cake have become the new norm. Although they’re cute and perfect for Instagram posts, they’re way too sweet and hard to finish. All of those extras are not flavorful – they only make the shake pretty, and it leaves you with more sugar than satisfaction.
Activated Charcoal in Food
Activated charcoal has been added to everything from ice-cream to pizza, giving it a dark look and a purportedly health benefits. But it has very little flavor (if any) and can sometimes disturb the absorption of nutrients. This craze is more about the sharp, black appearance than any true taste or health-promoting benefits.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
Edible Gold and Silver
Gold-plated burgers, gold flake cocktails, desserts drizzled with edible silver – they all look and taste fancy, but they are not. Gold and silver are tasteless. So it’s more of a fancy trim than a culinary upgrade. It’s a pricey, show-topping extra, often of little or no use to the main course.
Rainbow and Unicorn Foods
Rainbow or “unicorn” colored bagels, waffles & lattes are now the fashion of social media. The looks are great. But the foods are usually full of artificial color and do not taste very different from what they normally would be. It is all about the look, not a new taste – so it’s a temporary novelty.
Deconstructed Dishes
The idea of taking apart old classics, such as serving everything in a taco one by one, might seem new. But it also makes it harder than it sounds to eat. Deconstructed dishes don’t have the balance of flavor that traditional ingredients combine – they’re more of a show-off than a real upgrade.
Excessively Tall Burgers
There are places that have burgers so laden with extra toppings that you literally can’t even eat them. These big burgers look awesome, but they’re hard to bite into and usually don’t taste good, because the flavor is drowned out by the pile of food. The layers do not make the burger better, but instead can take away from the enjoyment.
Edible Flowers Everywhere
We put edible flowers on salads and desserts to give them a bit of color and class. Some flowers have a flavor, but most are just there for beauty. Typically, they don’t improve the taste. They can also be a distraction, rather than an enhancement. It’s a delicate touch that does not always make the food taste better.
Boba (Bubble) Tea in Non-Tea Dishes
Bubble tea or boba tea is now everywhere, and some restaurants now put tapioca pearls in their salads, pancakes, and even pizza. Although boba is good in sweet milk teas, it doesn’t always work for other dishes. These chewy pearls may be out of place in many recipes. So this trend is more of a fad than improving the taste.
Extreme Spicy Challenges
Food with super-hot peppers such as the Carolina Reaper are becoming extreme food challenges. Some like to test their own hot tolerance, but that heat numbs every other flavor and barely makes room for the taste of the food. These spicy challenges are more concerned with the thrill than the taste.
Liquid Nitrogen Desserts
Liquid nitrogen to create cold “smoke” effects in desserts is an all-time favorite, especially in ice cream parlors. Liquid nitrogen does not taste any better. It’s just cool to look at. In fact, it can burn small areas if misused. Overall, it’s a trend that’s more about the aesthetic than the taste or feel.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
Read More:
