2020 has been one of the world’s most trying years, and with it came an onset of lockdowns to cope with waves of Covid-19. On the bright side, it did give some of us more time to cook, be at home with family and even experiment with global food trends that quickly went viral (mostly thanks to TikTok videos). Here’s a list of 14 major food trends this year. How many did you get to try?
1. Dalgona Coffee
One of the biggest food trends of 2020 was Dalgona coffee. Scroll through social media, and there’s a good chance you know someone who has made this Instagram-worthy, whipped coffee drink that began trending in South Korea earlier this year. It was especially popular during the first imposed quarantines around the world, and if you’ve tried it, it’s not hard to see why.
To make, whisk instant coffee, sugar and hot water in a bowl for five minutes, and it turns into a light brown, goopy foam that’s dolloped on a glass of iced milk. Boom, that’s Dalgona coffee.
2. Ram-Don (Jjapaguri) from the Movie “Parasite”
2019’s South Korean black comedy thriller Parasite did more than win numerous awards and international accolades. It also inspired foodie spectators to recreate one of the film’s Korean dishes at home. In the movie, the dish is referred to as ram-don, but its actual name is jjapaguri, which the subtitle translator deemed too difficult to translate. Ram-don came from the combination of instant noodles used in the dish: ramyeon and udon. What most spectators may not have grasped is that the Park family adds premium Korean beef (not simply sirloin, as it’s translated) to the noodles, which was meant to highlight their wealth. The noodle dish on its own is considered to be cheap comfort food.
3. Focaccia Bread Art
One of the viral food trends to emerge during the first wave of lockdowns in the US was focaccia bread art (aka botanical focaccia/garden focaccia). In April/May 2020, stunning gardenscapes displayed on focaccia bread began to fill up baking enthusiasts’ Instagram feeds, and they became a popular quarantine cooking project. The idea is to bake focaccia and decorate it with vegetables and herbs to create a beautiful edible garden. For a quick guide on how to make your own, go here.
4. White Claw Slushies
We all remember when White Claw, the hard seltzer drink of summer 2019, became a national phenomenon. It only seems logical that we’d be finding creative ways to use it in other ways, and this year we saw White Claw slushies go viral on TikTok. After all, you only need four simple ingredients to prepare this frozen cocktail.
To make, you’ll need one can of White Claw (whichever flavor you prefer), 1 shot of hard liquor (vodka seems to be the most popular choice), 1 cup frozen fruit (complementary to the White Claw flavor), and 2 cups of ice. For best results, use a high speed blender that crushes ice easily.
5. Sourdough Bread
Who can forget when grocery store shelves were raided in a frenzy earlier this year? It was like a bad omen of what would happen during an actual apocalypse, with shortages of toilet paper rolls, hand sanitizers, pasta and—flour. Despite many home cooks having never dabbled in baking bread prior to the pandemic, the demand for this shelf-stable product skyrocketed. Soon it was almost nowhere to be found, including online. Google searches for sourdough bread also peaked in April 2020. Interestingly, sourdough isn’t one of the easier bread varieties to make. It requires a live fermented culture, known as “sourdough starter” to make, and that in and of itself takes a minimum week-long process to cultivate.
6. Plant-Based Meats
Perhaps one of the better food trends to come out of 2020 is the shift in people’s eating habits, which included reduced consumption of animal products and a huge rise in demand for plant-based meats. This was partly due to increased awareness of problems surrounding animal agriculture, as well as uncertainty related to Covid contaminations in the meat packing industry.
Most notably, there was the exponential growth of Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat substitute company which gained notoriety in 2016 for its “Impossible Burger.” It was later introduced as an option at major fast food chains, including White Castle, Burger King and Starbucks. To give you some perspective: at the start of the year, Impossible food products were sold at about 150 grocery stores; in September, the company announced its products were available in more than 11,000 supermarkets across the country. Seems like the plant-based meat revolution has only just begun.
7. CBD Foods & Drinks
The beginning of 2020 saw more and more states legalize medical and recreational use of marijuana, and CBD or cannabidiol (comes from hemp), is technically considered legal at the federal level. However, state laws may vary with regards to its legality. Still, the increased tolerance and progressive regulations have created a real market for CBD-based products, which includes everything from CBD sparkling water to CBD snacks and even CBD cocktails. Its popularity derives from its medicinal qualities—curbing anxiety and regulating pain—but it won’t get you high, which is why it’s (mostly) legal.
8. Pancake Cereal
TikTok struck again with this viral food trend that started off like so many other successful modern-day recipes—by mistake. Sydney Melhoff was making regular pancakes one day in April when she ate a stray piece of batter that had splattered onto the side of the pan. Then she decided to replicate the mini pancake to make an entire bowl that could be eaten like cereal. The gimmick caught on like wildfire, with people making pancake cereal and topping it with maple syrup, a pad of butter and milk.
To make, follow your favorite pancake recipe, drop the batter in small quantities into your skillet, and cook like regular pancakes, flipping when the bottom is browned and cooked. Let cook through, and transfer to a bowl. Garnish with your favorite pancake toppings or just add milk.
9. Banana Bread
Banana bread is nothing new, but during the first wave of the current pandemic, it was one of the most popular baked goods popping up on people’s social media feeds. It’s not as random as you might think, however, as it was also quite popular during The Great Depression years. Baking powder had been introduced to Americans in the 1930’s, and it’s one of the key ingredients in banana bread. Besides being very easy to make, the sweet treat provides a great way to use overripe bananas and uses affordable pantry staples like flour and sugar. Given the economic downturn provoked by the pandemic, it’s no surprise then that banana bread emerged as a star recipe this year. If you’d like to try making a loaf, this recipe from allrecipes.com promises to be the “Best Ever.”
10. Frog Bread
Frog bread was one of the more quirky baking projects to come out of 2020, though some have traced its creation back to a 2005 blog post by The Fresh Loaf (which also includes a recipe). It is pretty much exactly as it sounds: bread baked in the shape of a frog. TikTok then did what it does best by turning the recipe into a viral challenge, with people baking up cuter or uglier versions of doughy amphibians for thousands (and sometimes millions) to see. It can be made with any yeast-based bread recipe, including sourdough. You simply shape the dough into a frog after it’s risen (use smaller pieces of dough to attach the legs and two small balls of dough for the eyes), brush with egg wash for a nice gleam, and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350°F.
11. Corporate Recipe Sharing
Miss dining out? Traveling? Trips to Disneyland? You’re not alone. It’s been an excruciating year for the hotel/restaurant industry with long closures, travel restrictions and limited capacity rules for interior businesses. One of the ways restaurants, hotels and theme parks are dealing is by sharing recipes for some of their most popular or famous dishes. Major food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, Cheesecake Factory, and even Disney theme parks revealed recipes for iconic dishes that can easily be made at home. This is a clever way of staying connected to consumers, without being able to serve them in person. Want to know how to make Disneyland’s famous churros? Get the recipe here.
12. Haute Cuisine at Home
Fast food chains and Disney weren’t the only ones to let home cooks in on some of their best recipes. Michelin-starred chefs were equally active on social media, sharing re-creatable dishes from their high-end restaurant menus and often posting fun video tutorials of themselves cooking at home. For haute cuisine fans around the world, it provided somewhat of an unprecedented glimpse into the lives of famous, world-renowned chefs, most of whom are hidden away in professional kitchens churning out their masterpieces.
13. Keto Diet
Despite being one of the worst-ranking diets in US News and World Report 2020, keto was the most popular diet in the US at the outset of the year, and it still is, according to an analysis by British company Supplement Place. For anyone who doesn’t know, keto is an extremely low-carb, high-fat diet that limits one’s intake to 20 net carbs per day or less. It promotes weight loss through fat-burning, which is achieved when the body enters a state of ketosis. This occurs when it’s burned through all the carb stores and must use fat for energy by converting it into ketones. Like any other low-carb diet, it may yield drastic results at first (remember, most weight loss is water-based when you initially reduce carb intake). But its restrictiveness and “anything goes” approach to fat consumption make it highly unsustainable in the long-term.
14. Vegan Fast Foods
Vegan fast food options are no longer difficult to come by, thanks in large part to Impossible Foods’ supply of plant-based meat alternatives, but also due to rising popularity and familiarity regarding vegan proteins (tofu, tempeh, seitan, etc.). Social media has amplified everyday exposure to vegan ingredients and alternatives, and major fast food brands have not ignored the calls to offer plant-based options on their menus. Besides Burger King’s Impossible Whopper and White Castle’s Impossible Sliders, you can order Vegan Sofritas (braised tofu) at Chipotle, Taco Bell’s vegan Black Bean Crunchwrap Supreme, Subway’s Beyond Meatball Marinara, Panda Express Chow Mein and Eggplant Tofu, and more.
—
Photo Credit: KlavdiyaV / Shutterstock.com