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Trend-o-Meter

In the past, there have been a few threads that have lambasted “bad trends.”

One trend that’s becoming very apparent: mason jars.

I spotted mason jars last summer at Lillie’s Q (surely not the first place to feature them), where the jars filled with "moonshine" support the downhome, countrified vibe (which you can say is fake, but the jars are at least in sync with the theme of the place).

Hoyt’s is using mason jars for drinks, butter, even Caprese salads. The goal is “hominess,” and I’ll see if that’s working when I eat there this Thursday.

Café des Architectes, a place where I recently had a stellar yet rather traditional French-type dinner, is jumping aboard the mason jar movement, and this one is hardest to understand. The feel of the mason jar in the hushed and elegant dining room seems that it would be…jarring. (Couldn’t resist. I did try.)

Trends, by their nature, are not necessarily a bad thing (for instance, I think the trend toward crafted cocktails, now many years running, is a very good thing – i.e., I like it).

What trends have you spotted? Good, bad or indifferent.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

You just don't like canning, do you?

A mason jar trend, if used properly, can be a good way to signify that certain items are housemade. Example: I've seen the tiny ones at various places (Lush, Gage, etc.) to hold housemade pickles. A mason jar trend, when used improperly, can be a bad way to signify yuppie-approved redneckedness. Example: Mason beer glasses at Lillie's Q.

As for me, I'm over the meat-bombs that are burgers and hot dogs with multiple types of meat.

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Local Beet

In a remarkable bit of thread unity, I have a food phobia about mason jars - one which I had successfully repressed for many years until this very moment, thank you very much. In college, I stuck some leftover stew in a mason jar, and promptly forgot about it until it was time to clean out the fridge at the end of the year. Yuck.

I discarded the jar without ever opening it, but the contents were so disturbing that I want to retch just thinking about it.

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"I've always thought pastrami was the most sensuous of the salted cured meats."

Yes, the jar is a "signifier" of homemade, hand-crafted, artisanal, even if the ingredients inside are not.

I've got a friend (an attorney -- that's how tolerant I am, ) who belongs to a country club somewhere around Burr Ridge, and he's been telling me for years that they serve big drinks in mason jars at the clubhouse. This mason jar trend has been low-lying for years and is now getting foregrounded for various reasons.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

I'm not a huge fan of drinks out of mason jars but I do love them for a variety of reasons. I love to store food in them. I jumped on the mason jar bandwagon this winter and bought the tiny size as well as a larger size. The best thing I found is you can buy plastic lids for them and make them into storage jars. I am a jar hoarder, runs in my family. Any time I have a nice jar I keep it. I store food in it, nuts, pesto, or any small amount of anything. Actually I love the idea of using things again. IN my travels to foreign countries I see that they save these kinds of things and reuse them for stuff. Plastic, glass or metal items are hard to get and expensive in countries like India so people save them and wash them and reuse them for things. They do not just go out and buy tupperware or rubbermaid. We tend to put jars in the garbage or recycle bin.

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare

Half Acre started out selling its growlers in mason jars. Thankfully, they swiched to real growler bottles shortly after this was posted.

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

Another trend, though one I happen to like quite a bit: pretzel rolls. I love 'em, and that's a good thing, because everybody is using them for sandwiches, burgers, in bread baskets, everywhere. Yay...for now.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

I don't know if this ever qualified as a trend, or it may be one that's died down--to be seen this summer possibly--but fried shishito peppers? I was at a reception last week where the food was pretty good. Browsing the buffet tables, a colleague and I came upon a huge mound of fried shishitos. He got really excited, said, "I love these things!" My immediate response, a flash of food snobbishness, was, "Shishitos are so 2010, maybe 2009." Despite my comment, I too love these fried peppers and hope to continue to see them around.

Punch

Burgers. I love them, but the trend is starting to get old for me. I noticed today that Michael Symon has 2 and soon to be 3 locations for the B Spot. http://www.bspotburgers.com/ Mmmmm witty names and lots o' toppin's.

For the record-I know it should be a good thing that I have more choices for a good burger, Neapolitan pizza etc but for some reason it begins to bug me at a point...like when my mom puts a kimchi fried egg on her burger while talking about umami. Oh, and I'll call one early so that I can reference this thread in 2012-2013. Cavatelli is the new gnocchi.

Jeff

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http://eatpizzeriavalentino.com
http://valentinopasta.com

One that I am enjoying-
Anyone notice the big tater chip players now offer "lightly salted" versions on your grocers's shelves?
The bad news is that I can go buy a bag of Jays or Lays and actually eat an entire bag without getting grossed out because my mouth is burning from salt after three chips.

Other items now proudly marketing "lower sodium options:"
Big name canned soups (progresso, healthy choice, and Campbell's select harvest brand) and some of these are delicious!
One of the major jarred pasta sauce players has a heart healthy label now which features lower sodium.

I've been saying for years and years that the processed food folks are missing out on a chunk of the marketplace by ignoring
the sodium intake watching crowd.

Side rant: You have no idea how often I'd stop for Popeye's spicy chicken if it wasn't so damn salty. KFC is totally inedible to me because of salt. And I'm 100% positive that they would do more business if they didn't make their bird with so much salt.

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We cannot be friends if you do not know the difference between Mayo and Miracle Whip.

I think it's interesting that the thread right under this one today is "Denny's celebrates baconalia!"

Trends I don't care for:

BBQ - I love bbq but so many of these places keep opening around town and they're almost never any good.

Bacon - *Yawn* This has completely played out, IMO.

Communal Tables - Ugh! Don't even get me started.

Trends I do care for:

Craft Cocktails - I think this is still filling in and the overall landscape, at least in Chicago, continues to improve.

=R=

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I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

Poutine and its variants.

Besides these, the Wall Street Journal had an article last year about how even in the mainstream products, companies have stealthily been reducing sodium over the past 5 years or so. Campbell and Kellogg were specifically mentioned. The issue has been that even though people say they wanted lower sodium, they wouldn't buy the lower sodium products. It was more effective to gradually reduce it without telling anyone.

Probably a bad sign that I have fatigue before it even hits the market broadly, but it seems edible dishware has been a food design trend since early/mid-2010. These aren't bread, tortilla or waffle bowls. Just off the top of my head:

-->There's designer Chris Panopoulos playing with the notion of a Swiss Army coffee cup, including one "Willy Wonka-inspired"-with-edible-lid rendition.
-->And designer Elisa Parucker whose proposed "Piece of Plate" is an appliance of sorts, a "dish creator" that produces edible plates.
-->There are Oscar Lehrmitte's (in collaboration with Stephen Morris) Bols Comestibles made from potato starch and sugar.
-->And I know The Way We See the World's vegan jelloware reached its Kickstarter goal early this year, so we may be seeing the jiggly cups around soon.

I'm guessing you don't eat in enough kitschy low-cost restaurants -- mason jars have been seriously mainstream for years. From a restaurant perspective the benefit is that they add a rustic, homey touch and are very cheap. The Cafe des Architectes use is a little weird, though, I grant you.

I do dislike them as drinking vessels, even the specially made ones with handles.

The trend I'm tired of is gussied-up, expensive versions of cheap eats aimed at attracting young people who, the restaurant industry apparently believes, won't eat out unless they can eat with their hands (fancy burgers, barbecue, tacos, etc.).

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

See "Poutine" above. Here in L.A., Jonathan Gold reports that the hipsters are desperate for it.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2011/03/poutine_jonathan_gold_ask_mr_g.php

Bro, Baconfest is this coming weekend. I'm keeping my enthusiasm up at least until then.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Uh-Oh...

From a Yelp review of the newley opened GT Fish & Oyster...

"The Clam Chowder has been calling my name. So I went on the second day it opened since the first I had a meeting
I ordered the Clam Chowder that was brought out in a nice mason jar and opened in front of me"

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"Your custard pie, yeah, sweet and nice
When you cut it, mama, save me a slice"

Again, this makes no sense. A mason jar for pickles? Sure. For butter? Okay, I guess. Chowder? WTF?!

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

On the other hand, if restaurants really are increasing their use of mason jars, that's possibly good news for home canners, because it well help keep the manufacturer in business.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Truffle Oil.

(Note to restauranteurs: the Spice House's truffle SALT is fine, as it contains actual truffles. Truffle analogs...bad.)

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

So true.

I have enjoyed truffle oil, which has been trending for so long it's now a cliche -- I'm ready to see it go away.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

"Stupid." That's what Patricia Wells, author of the Salad as a Meal (2011) told me when I mentioned that a restaurant in Chicago is offering a Caprese salad in a Mason jar. I tried the "it looks pretty stacked vertically" argument on her, but she wasn't buying it. Salad as a meal, yes; salad in a Mason jar, no.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Pretzel Bread Rolls, now available in Lean Pockets.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Robata Grills: appear at Sushi Samba Rio, Union Sushi and Barbeque Bar (230 West Erie Street) and Tokio Pub (opened last week, in Woodfield, next to Shaw’s); soon to appear at several others.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

In my neighborhood, add:

Yuzu Sushi and Robata Grill
1715 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
312-666-4100
yuzuchicago.com

They've been open for a few weeks, but I think they're just celebrating their grand opening this week (or maybe last).

Doughnuts.


(anyone still "long" Crispy Creme?........ )
Dunk Donuts ROCKS!
(just don't tell anyone else!)