# Food Fads **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675 "2009-01-30T03:23:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/61 "2009-01-31T04:58:11Z")
Ingredients like balsamic vinegar, pomegranates, extra virgin olive oil, cilantro, philo dough are now common where they were once exotic. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/62 "2009-01-31T05:37:42Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > “Russian” salad dressing was sharing the spotlight in restaurant offerings beside the heavies ranch, french, blue cheese, etc. in the 80s. > > I love it, but it’s impossible to get on your side salad anymore. Isn’t it just called Thousand Island now? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/63 "2009-01-31T05:48:53Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > Isn’t it just called Thousand Island now? Thousand Island has bits in it. (Pickles?) ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/64 "2009-01-31T05:51:08Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > Isn’t it just called Thousand Island now? Russian is (essentially) just mayo and ketchup, mixed in the oh-so-perfect proportion. It can sometimes have a few other spices, but that’s generally it. Thousand island, on the other hand, HAS to have a shit-ton of chopped up pickles (which make the “thousand islands.”) To add to the thread: in the mid to late 90’s, blue raspberry was THE thing in candy, drinks, and other super sweet stuff marketed to kids. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/65 "2009-01-31T09:14:19Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Didn’t SNL do an ad for “Crystal Gravy” or something? I remember them showing this disgusting clear goo oozing all over everything. Yuck! But it was really funny at the time. Funny, and [not just a parody of Crystal Pepsi but also the Van Halen “Right Now” video](http://www.videosift.com/video/Crystal-Gravy-Now-you-can-finally-see-your-food). Good times. (To add to the grossness of it, especially since Kevin Nealon is gobbing it on his face and Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney take big bites of food covered with it, the Crystal Gravy was just nice, thick, high fructose corn syrup. Yum.) Other food fads: tapas seemed very big around the turn of the century, following the dim sum of the 90s. Also “gourmet” olives. Some of the foo foo grocery stores (other than Whole Foods) had olive bars for a while. A fad that’s still going: in-store rotisserie chickens. (Is that maybe more a trend or an evolution?) Another that is fortunately going away in restaurants was the resurgence of cheap iceberg after the 90s brought us mixed field greens and baby spinach in salads, particularly in the insidious and awful “wedge salad.” A quarter of a .39 cent head of lettuce, a gob of dressing and some chopped tomato for $6. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/66 "2009-01-31T15:58:57Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > Some of the foo foo grocery stores (other than Whole Foods) had olive bars for a while. All of the grocery stores near me (none of which are “foo foo”) still have olive bars. They also tend to have things like fresh mozzarella, marinated artichoke hearts, etc… A current trend I see a lot: honey wheat _everything._ Honey wheat crackers, honey wheat pretzels, honey wheat bread, honey wheat honey, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/67 "2009-01-31T16:18:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Bacon seems to be all the rage for the last two years or so. Don’t get me wrong, I like bacon, but it’s really got to stop. I mean, really, [this was in the Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html?_r=1&no_interstitial) yesterday. Bacon salt. Battered deep fried bacon. Bacon chocolate. Bacon wrapped bacon. C’mon. Enough with the bacon, already. I’d extend that to an obsession with foods really, really bad for you. [Lard on a hot dog. come on.](http://www.tvgasm.com/archives/food_network/001402.php) ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/68 "2009-01-31T17:12:48Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > I’m still half-expecting to see someone trying to use boba in liquor one of these days. Half-expect no more. [Jasmine 26](http://www.jasmine26.com/) in Minneapolis has “spiked bubble tea.” People have mentioned a few examples of this (pomegranates, acai), but I think a huge trend right now is just antioxidants. Let’s eat them! Let’s drink them! Let’s put them on our faces! I’m sick of the bacon thing, too. I don’t eat mammals, and it’s really annoying to read a menu carefully, order mussels, and basically receive bacon + mussels. Despite it’s being the thing these days, bacon shouldn’t be an unnamed garnish. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/69 "2009-01-31T17:14:02Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > Other food fads: tapas seemed very big around the turn of the century, following the dim sum of the 90s. Also “gourmet” olives. Some of the foo foo grocery stores (other than Whole Foods) had olive bars for a while. They all still do. I wouldn’t call olives a fad, it’s just another in a long line of foods that we didn’t have access to in the US until relatively recently. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675/70 "2009-01-31T17:43:14Z")
> [@Chum](#): > > Half-expect no more. [Jasmine 26](http://www.jasmine26.com/) in Minneapolis has “spiked bubble tea.” :mad: > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Not really. Those wines have and always will be expensive due to limited production and labor intensivity. I love themn though, particularly Hungarian Tokaji. Hey, I did say _relatively_ reasonably-priced, as in “cheaper than they are now.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-fads/483675.md?page=3)