Bread machines back in the nineties. Seemed like everyone got one and there were tons of mixes to try in the grocery store. I know they are still around but I think their popularity has declined some.
Curse you, Hampshire!! 
The Snackwells, etc. low/no fat revolution.
Atkins and the low/no carb revolution.
Nacho cheese flavoring was huge in the 70’s and early 80’s.
There is ONE brand of nacho cheese flavored tortilla chip from that era that I miss SO much…Bravos! They were round instead of triangular, and they had a nacho flavor that was different from the Dorito type…it was almost softer or warmer or something.
Deep Fried Turkeys. I know they’re still around, but for a couple of Thanksgivings there, it was like there was no turkey but a deep fried turkey.
Brining Turkeys. Yes, it’s probably my beloved Alton Brown’s fault. But it is undeniably a fad, although one that’s still going and very, very tasty.
Stir-Fry. Back in the late 80’s early 90’s during the Susan Powter inflamed low fat craze, stir-fries were what fondues were in the 70’s. *Everything *was getting tossed into an (overcrowded) wok from K-Mart and cooked with hardly any fat at all…and then slathered in syrupy sweet sugar laden “stir-fry sauce” that came in quart jugs. Seriously.
Turducken. Yes, Virginia, before it was a punchline, it was an actual recipe in all the “Women’s Circle Weekly” type magazines.
Probably due to Blue Velvet being a cult movie for them
Acai berries.
I will forever and always make Thanksgiving turkeys this way.
It was trendy in the late 1990’s. I used to laugh when I saw trendy restaurants serving stuff like macaroni and cheese, and meatloaf-at $30.00/plate!
Going back to the 1980’s-remember “quiche” it was just a fancy name for chees and egg custard. It went along with “kir” (white wine with blackbeey brandy…gaahh!
“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.
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.
So will I! But I also still enjoy fondue and crepes, and if they still sold Invisible Kool-Aid, I’d buy that too! (No more red stains in the corner of your mouth - what’s not to love?)
I’ve already got relatives muttering that brining is “too much work” and threatening not to do it next year. I’m not looking forward to going back to chalky breast meat. 
Wine cooler was huge in the late 80’s, but I doubt you can even buy the shit anymore: when it comes to cheap fizzy lolly-water for getting teenage girls drunk on, wine cooler seems to have been replaced by premixed Black Russians and similar filth.
Wine itself is also subject to enormous fashion swings. In the 80’s it was all Chardonnays, then everyone switched to Cab Sav and then Sav Blanc, now it seems to be all about Pinot Gris and Syrah. Me, I stick with Cab Merlot.
Heck, wine snob fads could be a new thread in itself. Related to that, sangria was everywhere in restaurants for a year or two in the early 00’s.
Tell me about it. Tokaji and icewine used to be relatively reasonably-priced…
Yeah, I think a lot of people were (and are) primarily trying to jump on the Ferran Adria bandwagon, but I’m hoping it’ll settle out before too long.
I’m still half-expecting to see someone trying to use boba in liquor one of these days.
Not really. Those wines have and always will be expensive due to limited production and labor intensivity. I love themn though, particularly Hungarian Tokaji.
last I saw a 375 of 5 puttonyos vintage Tokaji was selling for close to $40 a bottle, and with the quality of that wine, it stacks up to the uber-expensive wines of Sauternes, particularly Y’quem, any day.
Wine coolers are still around, but I remember in the eighties when my parents had two liter bottles of it in the fridge. Yea, like a sophmore in highschool was going to pass that opportunity up.
Didn’t white zinfandel have a thing in the eighties or was that just my family? Nobody in my family would touch the stuff now, but for a while it was what we drank. I can’t even begin to understand what I liked about it back then.
I’m actually sitting here drinking a B&J’s Fuzzy Navel “Wine” Cooler (it’s really malt liquor). I have to make a special trip to get them as they aren’t sold everywhere.