Going up
Ice-cream sandwiches: Squidgy cookie, ice-cream, squidgy cookie: remind us what the point of ice-cream cones is again? Drizzle with caramel and roll in sprinkles.
Multitasking: US supermarkets are trying to lure back online shoppers with free childcare, spa treatments, even yoga. In the UK, grooming and eating in the same place is becoming a thing. Because who wouldn’t want a wax followed immediately by lunch? (Although wine — yes, please.)
Bugs: Fancy nibbling on cumin mealworms? Or maybe paprika crickets? French brand Jimini’s spiced insects are intended to replace wasabi peas as the bar snack du jour, and are a hit in France and Belgium.
Mac’n’cheese: We’re buying 550 per cent more oozy, cheesy deliciousness than five years ago. Expect it spiked with jalapeños, studded with lobster or inside a (practically calorie-free) fried cheese and pasta sandwich.
Southern cooking: Jambalaya. Crawfish boil. Peach cobbler. The food of America’s most southerly states is having a moment. Get Brad McDonald’s new book, Deep South, and make your own gumbo or hush puppies.
Lambrusco: Forget the fizzy, sweet Italian red that flare-wearers quaffed in the 1970s. Good-quality modern lambrusco is juicy, often dry or off-dry, and gently frothy.
Delivery: With UberEats, Uber has muscled in on food delivery around the world. Will its couriers beat Deliveroo’s black-and-turquoise riders? (Don’t forget, UberEats delivers ice cream today!)
Tree water: Beyoncé’s favourite maple water is out; birch, bamboo and aloe sap waters are in. Good if you like electrolytes, vitamins, minerals and the taste of wet tree.
Going down
Kale: 2016’s wonder green is officially seaweed, not least as Waitrose has started stocking it. And not just for Asian broths and seafood dishes: use it in bread, instead of pasta, in butters and salads, and as a salt substitute. Buy it ready-to-eat, wet or dried.
Pumpkin latte: It’s all about turmeric latte, or “golden milk”, now (though you have to make it with nut milk: the clean-eating mob won’t go anywhere near real dairy). True hipsters will already be soaking their chia and hemp seed oats in this stuff overnight.
Beef and lamb: Goat is lean, sustainable, relatively humane and easy to find all over Dubai.
Coffee cups: Ice-cream in a cone may be passé (see Going Up), but lining one with chocolate and filling it with coffee is not. Baristas in South Africa nearly broke Instagram when they started posting #CoffeeInACone pictures. You’ve got 10 minutes before the chocolate melts and espresso dribbles down your arm.
The pint glass: “Built by thirsty boffins” is the tagline for Cobra’s reinvented beer glass. It’s got a swirly pattern on the inside, designed by scientists to create the perfect head of foam.
Red and white wine: Spanish vintners Gik are so bored with grape-coloured wine that they’ve dyed theirs blue. Electric blue, like a slushie, or those sticking plasters chefs use. Yes, that blue.
Sushi: Move over maki. Poke (pronounced po-kay) is the only raw fish dish we’re eating now, served as it is in Hawaii, in a bowl with sesame oil, black rice and pickles. President Obama is a fan.
Limoncello: Nancy Dell’Olio is launching Limonbello, a sugar-free limoncello that she says is made to a family recipe. That’s the death knell for us.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2016
