Even a Food Lover Needs Food on the Go Sometimes

There are people who eat to live and then there are those of us who live to experience food. We delight in sampling new things and detest wasting calories on the on mundane tasteless convenience and fast foods that many American’s diets have been reduced to. But even a food connoisseur needs food in a hurry sometimes. That is why I love one of the current urban food trends – food trucks. Apparently I am not the only one who thinks this is a hot food trend. Mintel (a leading food and drink marketing research company) highlighted food trucks this month in its Menu Trends email.

A food truck is basically a mini restaurant stuffed in the back of a truck. You can think of it as the marriage of an urban restaurant concept and an old fashion food cart. The menus may be limited, but the menu items have interesting twists making them the perfect fast food option for a food lover like myself.

In addition to putting an emphasis on interesting food choices, food trucks put a lot on emphasis on being mobile. They regularly move around the cities requiring potential customers to visit a truck’s website or follow it on twitter for the day’s location. It can make finding your lunch a lot like a game of Where’s Waldo!

Did I mention food trucks are definitely an urban trend? Since I live in a very non-urban area, I can only experience food trucks when I travel, so on my recent trip to Los Angeles I seized the opportunity and went looking for food trucks.

I found several but one particularly memorable one was the Shrimp Pimp truck. Like most food trucks the Shrimp Pimp has a narrowly focused menu. I tried the Drunken Shrimp Tacos for lunch. They consisted of sherry ginger marinated shrimp popped on top of jicima, a green pepper slice, mandarin orange and fresh cilantro and all wrapped up with a corn tortilla. A totally tasty lunch time treat.

Next month I am headed to New York City where I hope to explore a whole new genera of food trucks - maybe Kogi BBQ or Rickshaw Dumplings or Waffles and Dinges - with so many choices it is heard to know where to start!

The Latin American Trend

Cinco De Mayo is almost here. What better time to talk about trends in Hispanic cooking....or at least trends in the types of Hispanic foods average America is eating. In the 1990's fast casual Mexican restaurants were extremely popular. No matter what the name of the particular restaurant was over the door, you knew before you even looked at the menu generally what was going to be offered to you - various combinations of similarly seasoned beans, meat, cheese and rice with tortillas or chips. Today those types of Mexican restaurants continue to be ubiquitous through out America, however the true emerging trend is Hispanic-influenced foods. According to Datassential's Food Bytes e-Gazette, 44% of restaurants now offer what they call a "Mexican-Inspired entree" (think of menu items like a tequila lime salsa burgers or a prime rib sandwich with a zesty jalapeno mesquite spread).

Following behind the Mexican-Inspired trend is a new trend towards Latin American foods which would include dishes from Mexico but also foods from the many other Latin American countries located in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. New menu items being seen are things like Cuban sandwiches; chimichurri sauces* (popular in Argentina) and ceviche (a popular dish in Peru). In fact a Datassential survey showed that 22% of Americans were very interested in Brazilian foods, which makes it only slightly less popular than Thai.

So as you are thinking about recipes to add to your library it is definitely time to add a few dishes with a Hispanic twist. These could be things like Chipotle Chicken Alfredo or Spicy Lasagna made with habonaras. And if your target consumer is a little more progressive you can start adding in some more exotic Latin American dishes like Brazilian Rice Pudding or a flavorful Puerto Rican Stew. Fruit flavors like coconut, mango and pineapples are also a part of this trend so things like Coconut Infused Rice or a Pineapple Mango Salsa Grilled Chicken are more great menu options. May is a great time to debut your new Latin American-inspired dishes! So grab a margarita if you need the inspiration (or mojitos if you prefer), put on your salsa shoes and say ole! You won't want to miss this deliciously sassy trend!


Notes:
*Chimichurri sauce is a thick herb sauce or condiment popular in Argentina. It is made from olive oil, vinegar, and finely chopped parsley, oregeno, garlic and onion and then seasoned with salt, cayenne and black pepper.
*Ceviche (also spelled seviche) is fish that has been "cooked" with lime juice. Often ingredients like tomatoes, onion and green peppers are added to the marinade.