From tinned fish to potato milk, a taste of food trends for 2023
Many things determine what we eat, and how. In 2023 our food choices will be shaped in large part by the ongoing cost-ofliving crisis and the continued longtail effects of the pandemic, as well as international trends, concerns about health and the environment and – no less importantly than any of those – what tastes good. So, here – as Sunday Star-Times’ food editor – are my predictions.
Tinned fish
What was once one of the world’s most deeply untrendy foods experienced a swift rise to social media fame in 2022 when TikTokkers started making canned seafood the focus of easy at-home date night spreads.
I can hear you rolling your eyes from here but actually, this makes a lot of sense. Tinned fish is low-cost, low-waste, healthy and versatile. It can also be sustainable if you know what to look for; this might mean eschewing the ubiquitous tuna (although albacore is a generally good bet) and trying sardines, mackerel or kippers instead. Add some omega 3s by using one of those in fishcakes, a pasta sauce or savoury tart, or just on toast – or go full Gen Z with a fish board.
The supreˆ me
Move over, cronut: there’s a new croissantdoughnut hybrid in town.
Created by Lafayette Grand Cafe and Bakery in NoHo, New York City, the supreˆ me is a wheel of croissant pastry about 4cm thick, filled with a creme or custard and topped with icing and a pretty crumble. Flavours at Lafayette include chocolate, pistachio, rose berry spritz and peaches n’ cream.
Having gone viral on TikTok and Instagram, the supreˆ me has arrived in New Zealand courtesy of Luna Bakehouse, which has three locations in Auckland – but expect to see it everywhere, and soon.
Booze-free drinks
Sober curiosity has been on the rise for several years as Kiwis become more attuned to the risks to health and society of excess alcohol consumption, and there’s now a burgeoning market for sophisticated alcohol-free drinks to serve it.
Forget soft drinks or flavourless 0% European lagers, booze-avoiders now have a plethora of homegrown drinks to choose from. Stalwart AF Drinks has extended from canned mimics of G&Ts, margaritas a spritzs to a bricks and mortar shop in Ponsonby selling its own and other ranges, while if you’d rather mix your own drinks companies like Ecology & Co offer a range of alcohol-free spirits.
The New World Wine Awards judges praised the quality of 2022’s 0% offerings, including a merlot from Giesen, in Marlborough, that they said managed to capture the full body of a classic merlot (usually around 13-14% ABV), and two nonalcoholic Kiwi beers – Garage Project’s Tiny and Bach Brewing’s All Day IPA – made the top-30 in the supermarket’s Beer and Cider Awards.
Dates
There’s nothing new about dates, it’s true; the Middle Eastern fruit is indeed ancient. But, like tinned fish, they’ve recently been discovered by generation TikTok and are enjoying a well-deserved renaissance.
The beauty of dates begins with their natural sweetness, but they are also rich in fibre and antioxidants, have been shown to benefit a healthy gut, and are a good source of Vitamin K, necessary for healthy bones. They’re also quite delicious. If international trends are anything to go by you’ll be seeing dates more and more in the coming months, both as a sweetener in other products and as a snack on their own.
Spam
Another entry in the ‘‘everything uncool is hip again’’ files, Spam – a long-lasting canned pork product developed in the 1930s to provide Americans with a cheap source of protein during the Great Depression – has been on the ascent for a few years now, appearing on menus at trendy American restaurants and being experimented with on social media. Like tinned fish, Spam makes a lot of sense in the current climate, though its health and environmental impacts are more in question. Still, expect to see more meat in a can around, even if you can’t bring yourself to eat it.
Ferments
2020 and 21 saw a sharp uptick in ferments on menus as chefs frantically worked to preserve fresh produce with each consecutive lockdown, and showed customers there’s a lot more to these than cabbage and kombucha (though that last, too, is a trend on the ascent in and of itself).
Expect our appetite for ferments to continue to grow, both on menus and shop shelves, as local companies like Hamiltonbased Good Bugs gain more traction, but it’s also worth having a go at fermenting at home: it’s not difficult and because just about any fruit or vegetable can be fermented, it’s a great way to cut back on food waste. See also: pickles.
Potato milk
Plant-based ‘‘milks’’ are a fraught area. Soy and almond milk are arguably as bad for the environment as animal milks; nutbased drinks are packed with allergens; coconut has a strong flavour; oat milk is hard on your gut.
That’s why potato milk is the next big thing in plant-derived milk substitutes. Potatoes are considered one of the world’s most environmentally friendly vegetables – they emit far fewer greenhouse gases than many other crops and require comparatively little land and water – and are also one of the lowest-allergen foods around. They’re also a good source of several vitamins and nutrients, including folate, which vegans often lack.
Plant milks are by their oxymoronic nature always processed foods, but potato milk has started to take off overseas and we’ll be seeing it here on supermarket shelves and cafe menus.
Better restaurant service
Covid has been fairly catastrophic for the hospitality industry. But a silver lining will come in the form of better, and better informed, service. Kiwis have returned from working in countries that traditionally place a higher value on hospitality work with greater knowledge, skills and professionalism, while higher pay for hospo workers here will lead to more people viewing it as a viable career path, and a relative scarcity of workers to owners investing more in the best of them.
We’ll be paying more for restaurant dining, but that increase will have a direct, positive effect on the experience.