I just found a funny item on the history of food fads, by some people who are historians by way of collecting funny or outright odd recipes.

Here's the item. Australia's evolving palate (http://www.smh.com.au/news/diet/australias-evolving-palate/2008/03/18/1205602349966.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)

What receipes, fads in their time but perhaps unpopular now, would you still occasionally use?
Do you have a favourite fad dish, to enjoy or to make?

Cheese fondue and lemon butter recipes are there, if you would like to try. :)

Excerpt from article:
Colin Bannerman has spent a lifetime intrigued by food and the trends driving what we eat. His new book, Seed Cake & Honey Prawns - Fashion And Fad In Australian Food, covers crazes from mock turtle soup to fondue.
For his book, Bannerman spent months in the National Library of Australia... His book is quite serious but many of the fads he documents are hilarious.

"I'd have trouble picking which was the most absurd," says Bannerman, who has a PhD in food history. "One that hasn't entirely departed is the practice of stacking food up on a plate," he says.

"I think it is not only absurd but comical. The first thing the diner has to do is to deconstruct it and scatter it across the plate ... it seems to me to be pretty silly."

A chapter on faddish cooking gadgets unearths some gems, including the vertical chop grill (like a large toaster), the electric tagine and the mid-'70s craze for the crock pot. "I actually have one," Bannerman says. "They're perfect for making chicken stock. And - well, not much else actually. Now crock pots are making a comeback."

It may not be long before the triumphant return of tinned pineapple jam and beef wellington at fashionable dinner parties.

I still enjoy a cheese fondue occasionally.

Banoffee Pie is another one (I make the toffee bit with evaporated milk which is supposed to be unsuitable).

Lemon meringues were all the rage in the 70s (I used to think they were dead sophisticated and I still like a well made one... horribly elusive now)

The fad for sun-dried tomatoes dampened down rather than died, they make a marvellous addition to the kitchen cupboard as an emergency addition to a sandwich when you're running low on the fresh stuff. A strange fad as they aren't something I ever ate in Spain (ñoras - dried capsicum peppers - are the norm, although I do once remember seeing a sheet out in the noon sun covered in drying tomatoes. I also remember the flies.) I'm not sure who in the Mediterranean is supposed to eat large quantities of them.


We got the Japanese equivalent of the fondue set as wedding present - it's a big cast iron thing that lets you make takoyaki balls. Making takoyaki at home was a fad in Japan a couple of decades ago. When I can find the right recipe you can bet I'll be making these into part of the Chez LapLap repertoire.

There's a trend that comes and goes for making okonomiyaki for friends, it took me a few years of failed rubbery attempts using a number of flawed recipes before I finally hit paydirt (http://www.justhungry.com/okonomiyaki-osaka-style), but I'm not going to let go of this one. One of the best recipes you can make in 10-15 minutes.

I'm not sure what food fads there've been in Spain (it's the song and dance crazes that stick indelibly - here's the latest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku34NOwoij0 the joke wears very thin very quickly :(). I remember in the late 80s/early 90s there was a time when little flecks of truffle seemed to be added to everything. It's been about 4 years since I spent any significant time in Alicante, on my last visit I noticed a massive boom in Kebap takeaways. Flavoured crisps are also growing in popularity. I look forward to the upcoming obesity data with great interest.

There are some food fads I still love :o

I still cook a lot with balsamic vinegar - I love the flavour it adds.
Deep fried cheese with jelly - increasingly hard to find but it tastes good :o

OTOH, I'm glad lamb shank seems to have had its day.

And I actually have a fondue set - I bought it for an attempt on shabu-shabu (yes, the spelling is likely wrong) and I'm actually going to attempt my first ever fondue tomorrow night :D

LapLap, that's quite a collection. :)

I think takoyaki (fried & baked octopus) is what we tried from a local, established Japanese restaurant, Sapporo at Crows Nest (their fun food product at the annual food fair). A good retro dish. Memorable.

You're on a good thing; Chez LapLap will do well. Stick to it. ;)

You're on a good thing; Chez LapLap will do well. Stick to it. ;)

I'm expecting to serve you okonomiyaki in the not too distant future. Perhaps with a snowball to follow (advocaat and lemonade - very popular in the late 70s/80s) as part of a Picnic on Primrose Hill.
If you're really lucky, I might cobble together some more retro 'food fad' goodies, like vol-au-vents, a stuffed loaf, and a cheese and pineapple hedgehog.

(yes, the spelling is likely wrong)
Nope!
(I've ordered a couple of books by Tokiko Suzuki, I'll send you shabu-shabu recipes when I receive them)

That would be good - I do have one, which worked fairly well. The problem is getting the quality of beef, but I now have access to some rather good butchers, which might help :)

Don't forget prawn cocktail and black forest gateau for your party!

(why is it we remember the 1970s fad food best? I'm sure the 1980s was just as faddy... )

Speaking of beef...

Fortunately we have no worries about BSE - but back to the subject.

IF you are OK eating beef, I see nothing wrong with Beef Wellington (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9430458&postcount=1)mentioned in the article.

A baker friend made a terrific one for dinner in Dublin.
Like some cocktails LapLap mentions, it may have been faddish.
Done right, still a classic. ;)

As long as we avoid tinned pinepple jam.

Speaking of pineapple, as a kid I loved Pineapple Donuts. :)

There seems to have been a fetish with pineapple generally - the aforementioned cheese and pineapple hedgehogs and I always think pineapple on gammon is nothing to do with taste and everything to do with sudden availability of tropical fruit.

Agree on Beef Wellington - I've had several formal dinners at the Palace of Westminster (sorry, one needs to name drop occasionally ;)) and it's a staple there. If done well, it can be terrific :)

Remember raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing about 10 years ago?

"Banoffee Pie"
My kids love Banoffee Pie, they first had it in London and they beg me to make it.

Pink peppercorns have had their 15 minutes, I believe.

Remember raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing about 10 years ago?
Goodness yes. Even though I like the idea of it, I've never worked out what it's actually good for. (I mean raspberry vinegar - obviously a vinaigrette is for salads)

Goodness yes. Even though I like the idea of it, I've never worked out what it's actually good for. (I mean raspberry vinegar - obviously a vinaigrette is for salads)

The vinaigrette works well with bitter field greens.

The vinegar works well in reduction sauces, like a bordelaise or veloute, for duck or goose.



Bon appetit!

I still cook a lot with balsamic vinegar - I love the flavour it adds.


I cook with balsamic vinegar a lot and love it. Marinate a few pieces of chicken in balsamic vinegar and some olive oil and sear it, you've got some tasty chicken. ^

The big food fad (at least in Southern Ca) is Pork Belly. It's now on just about every restaurant menu. The restaurant critics swoon over pork belly whenever they review a restaurant. I tasted some recently. I didn't think it was anything special. Kind of tasted like brisket.

Another big current food fad is foamed foods, created, I believe, at El Bulli. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_(culinary) Have you seen it? Foamed bleu cheese; foamed oysters; foamed mushrooms; garlic/saffron foam, and so on.

I give it 15 minutes.

Raspberry vinaigrette went with baby spinach salad with dry cranberries and crushed walnuts, which used to be popular.

For a while I tried to live on rice and pasta, almost cutting out meat and always using some kind of tomato-based sauce.

Didn't times and habits change with the hype about a low-carb, high protein diet in the 2k years!
From 3-4 pastas a week minimum, to one a month!

The vinegar works well in reduction sauces, like a bordelaise or veloute, for duck or goose.

I don't eat mammals, so still don't know what to do with it (outside of a vinaigrette, and I can always think of a better vinegar to use for a salad than a raspberry one)

Speaking of Hawaiian (Aloha kaukau!) and pineapple

Hawaiian pizza (ham & pineapple) is still surprisingly popular here, for people with no real interest in taste. Tons of other stuff with pineapple also gets the Hawaiian tag.

I'll stick to the finned Hawaiian produce, thanks. ;)

I don't eat mammals, so still don't know what to do with it (outside of a vinaigrette, and I can always think of a better vinegar to use for a salad than a raspberry one)

OMG! Crack me up! Duck and goose are not mammalian species, they're avian species!

"Waiter - please suggest a wine to get this fowl taste out of my mouth!"

(Try a raspberry vinegar veloute over a nice Dover Sole!)



(G'day, BiziBB! Howzit?)




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OMG! Crack me up! Duck and goose are not mammalian species, they're avian species!

"Waiter - please suggest a wine to get this fowl taste out of my mouth!"


Good grief!

How do you propose to make Bordelaise and Veloute sauces then?

(I don't eat bird meat either, but I wanted to be as specific as possible as your advice was referring to the sauces, not the birds)

EDIT TO ADD - OK, just found out that veloute can be made with fish or chicken, only times I've ever seen it on a menu was with cow. An old flat mate used to make Bordelaise sauce (he loved French regional food) but he was terrible about washing up after himself. I think of this stuff and I remember the smell of 3-4 day old bones in congealed fat. He was a good example of someone who enjoyed 70s food fads long after their popularity had waned - Beef Bourguignon, Chicken Chasseur... ugh, I feel ill remembering. I'm sure they're very appetising when freshly made by a good cook, but that rarely happened in 70s (or, in my experience, 90s) Britain.

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Food fads from the 80s?
Beaujolais Nouveau

Good grief!

....An old flat mate... who enjoyed 70s food fads long after their popularity had waned - Beef Bourguignon, Chicken Chasseur... ugh, I feel ill remembering. I'm sure they're very appetising when freshly made by a good cook, but that rarely happened in 70s (or, in my experience, 90s) Britain.

---
Food fads from the 80s?
Beaujolais Nouveau

Nice collection of fads, there. A very entertaining read, LapLap! :D

PS. Is the Beaujolais listed because you associate it with this flatmate? ;)

I'm very glad the 80s habit of giving everything a French name is over. Yes, I know, food is a passion over there, but it sounds so incredibly pretentious.

I like my hachis parmentier as much as my boeuf roti a l'anglaise, will happily have my saucisses a la puree de pommes avec son jus for lunch. Maybe my tartine au saumon fume can be enhanced by the snacks of croustillant au chocolat and meule au coco. I don't know.

I still don't know what's worse, though, that or the recent M&S-style phenomenon of over-adjectivising everything. Is the French menu better, or maybe an organic maris piper topped ground Leicester longwool lamb gratinée, a gently oven-roasted topside of Lincolnshire longhorn, three-spiced pan-fried single-farm hand-made cumberland sausaged on crushed root vegetable medley, a loch muir organic smoked salmon sandwich on hand-cut local multiseed bread, followed by Venezuelan single bean chocolate bitesize corn squares or Boholese fairtrade coconut stacked in the style of a South Suffolk haystack.

Only time will tell.

PS. Is the Beaujolais listed because you associate it with this flatmate? ;)

No, he just had a very intense love of offal and complicated cooking techniques requiring a surfeit of hard to wash utensils. He'd make enough for 10 people at a time (he was sure always to follow his recipes exactly) and seemed to consider the oven as a kind of fridge where he could keep his creations 'fresh' over long periods.
There is no better person to live with if you love meat but wish to maintain the resolve to be a vegetarian :)

The 'Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive' boom to me seems almost the antithesis of the slow cooked French Provincial cooking boom that preceded it.
They sort of reflect the times. 70s - frugality, 80s - ostentation

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stut, that's perfect! ^^^

Raspberry vinaigrette went with baby spinach salad with dry cranberries and crushed walnuts, which used to be popular.

well it must be making some kind of comeback because it's on store shelves again. Called "Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette". it's in one of those spray/spritzer bottles.

actually this dressing and pomegranite hibiscus both work well with a spinach salad with dried cranberries, toasted almonds and goats cheese

The food fad that I hope has died a permanent death is the jello mold fad from the 50s. They put some really REALLY horrible things in those jello molds.

I'm very glad the 80s habit of giving everything a French name is over. Yes, I know, food is a passion over there, but it sounds so incredibly pretentious.

It still cracks me up everytime I see "haricot vert" on the menus of U.S. restaurants. If they're flying the green beans in from France, then maybe... but I still see it far to often to think that's always the case.

-FlyerBeek

Did your local area catch the 'wood fired pizza oven' craze of maybe 10-15yrs ago?
Everyone was sellng 'wood fired' pizza, then a few friends were after the wood fired pizza ovens.

Great if you are Italian, but it seems like a lot of work, even though it can be extra tasty. Maybe Americans just throw the pizza in a Webber! ;)

The craze levelled off and a lot of the 'wood fire pizza' places are now other businesses.
Perhaps the Atkins fad killed the carb-oriented Italian food fad!

Bloody "fusion" cuisine of the 90s. "First demonstrate excellence at whatever you do, and only then experiment." should be drilled into these chefs.

Did your local area catch the 'wood fired pizza oven' craze of maybe 10-15yrs ago?
Everyone was sellng 'wood fired' pizza, then a few friends were after the wood fired pizza ovens.

Yup, in fact, the UK pizzeria chain Ask has a spin-off called Zizzi (which is hilarious if you're a French speaker) which is still rather successfully wood firing all its pizza. They're rather tasty, too.

As for at home, definitely not. Think of the carbon monoxide! If I want that, I'll get a wood fire going...

Yup, in fact, the UK pizzeria chain Ask has a spin-off called Zizzi (which is hilarious if you're a French speaker) which is still rather successfully wood firing all its pizza. They're rather tasty, too.

There's also Strada
http://www.strada.co.uk/

That particular 'fad' stayed the course (Jamie Oliver has been plugging them recently too)

Actually, if I have to eat chain pizza, Zizzi is my chain pizza of choice :o

Cheese fondue and lemon butter recipes are there, if you would like to try. :)



This seems to be a recipe for what is also called lemon curd, at least in the US and (I believe) the UK. But I might be wrong on the second one.

I make vast amounts of lemon curd every year for friends and family, and this recipe is very similar.

For the life of me, I can't think of any food fads come 'n' gone.

Remember raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing about 10 years ago?

Hah! Just this past August, NW served me the most delicious salad I've ever had inflight... with raspberry vinaigrette! Here's a photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mg_travels/1348280578/). Out of 1,339 photos, it's my most popular on Flickr.

Great article in Slate today re: "Fish Foam...."
http://www.slate.com/id/2187483/

I've seen the foam thing on a few travel shows and it makes me wonder: who would pay for tiny bubbles on their food? :)

After watching a few Food Network shows, one can see when some marketing rep has made a big sale. For example, all the chefs using lamb, or all the chefs suddenly praising tofu.

I don't mind when they're all praising dark chocolate, however. ;)

Frozen Yogurt and Croissants (independently, not as a single item)
At least on the US West Coast in the 80s.

Frozen Yogurt and Croissants (independently, not as a single item)
At least on the US West Coast in the 80s.

The former was huge on the East Coast, too. As American as T shirts with pockets, matched with fanny packs :D

I was there from the time of the Simpsons T Shirt Fad (:eek: I think I even bought one! :eek:) and the yoghurt fad had legs.



How easily we forget the horror!
(Around the same time, in Australia, there was the 'drink a Corona with lemon/lime in the bottle neck' fad)

... fanny packs

:D Now there's a fad that needs to go! Sports-related use is the exception.

How easily we forget the horror!
(Around the same time, in Australia, there was the 'drink a Corona with lemon/lime in the bottle neck' fad)

Now that was a good and glorious fad. Before the wedge of lime in a bottle boom limes were a hard to find commodity in Europe.

As a result of it, limes have been incorporated into mainstream Britain. This makes it so much easier to make all manner of other drinks (caipirinhas especially) and foods. Very, very useful fad.

Frozen yogurt has taken a long, long time to fully percolate into the UK and Spain. Ben & Jerry's version has only recently made it to the supermarkets here in any noticeable way.

I'm holding out for a Frozen Custard fad, I'm probably in for a long wait.

Using balsamic in cooking has now been replaced by balsamic glaze, which is a reduction made using grape must and balsamic vinegar. Glaze products are readily available to the home cook. Make sure you purchase a good brand as many are just colored sugar water. Mussini is one of the best brands available today.

Now that was a good and glorious fad. Before the wedge of lime in a bottle boom limes were a hard to find commodity in Europe.

As a result of it, limes have been incorporated into mainstream Britain.

I'm holding out for a Frozen Custard fad, I'm probably in for a long wait.

Citrus has been big here since Captain Cook's success with it as a preventative/cure for scurvy. :)

Actually the Corona with lime has just reminded me of current fad here - cider (often other fruits than apples, and the alcoholic UK version such as Magners, not the non-alcoholic US version) with ice...

I'm holding out for a Frozen Custard fad, I'm probably in for a long wait.

Isn't ice cream simply frozen custard?

(Or am I missing the point here..?)

Isn't ice cream simply frozen custard?

(Or am I missing the point here..?)

That's what I thought, until I had some in Las Vegas
http://www.luvitfrozencustard.com/what_is_custard.htm

Ahh, I see.

Sounds rather like a Loseley or Cornish type ice cream! I would recommend taking a trip to the Lizard Peninsula as soon as possible, and visiting the Roskilly dairy...

I'm pretty sure I've been there (a previous partner's parents live in Truro). From what I recall the cornish ice-cream is similar to http://www.minghella.co.uk/Default.action?_sourcePage=%2Fabout_us.jsp&page=about_ice_cream.jsp (which I prefer to Loseley's - Minghellas ice-cream is sold at the South Bank Centre BTW).

According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_custard), the main difference between frozen custard and high quality ice-cream is in the way it is frozen rather than the ingredients. This makes sense to me - it did seem quite different to what I'd had before. Wikipedia also says it was a huge food fad in the 1940s

Re: Food fads-- remember when juicing machines were all the rage?

Re: Food fads-- remember when juicing machines were all the rage?

The Laps are currently in serious discussion about getting our own. We're stymied by practical concerns regarding which might be the least of a pig to clean (we don't/can't have a dishwasher and loathe washing up). Shame we don't have a garden either as they seem to be an almost ideal source of compost.

The Laps are currently in serious discussion about getting our own. We're stymied by practical concerns regarding which might be the least of a pig to clean (we don't/can't have a dishwasher and loathe washing up). Shame we don't have a garden either as they seem to be an almost ideal source of compost.

Check out the Australian-designed Breville range, designed to be as easy to use and clean as possible.

As you note, ease of both useability and cleaning determine make or break a juicer's long-term utility.

This is a nice looking version but there are several cheaper versions, too:
Professional 800 Collection® Juicer (http://www.breville.com.au/800ProfessionalCollection/products.asp?prod=206)
Commercial grade juicer combining power, innovation, durability and performance for the ultimate in juicing
The Breville 800JE Juice Fountain Elite Juicer has been hailed by users, and retailers as the best juicer in the world. It represents Design excellence as it succeeds in integrating unsurpassed performance, innovation and superb engineering into a package that is simple to use and visually stunning.The Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800JE Juicer is designed for the high end domestic user who is serious about juice, and enjoys having a juicer with power, to juice better than the $3000 juice machines used in juice bars. The Breville 800JE also requires less maintenance, and preforms beautifully with up to a 50% greater juice yield, faster prep and clean-up time, and increased user safety. This home model juicer delivers the power and is unsurpassed in juice extraction from hard and soft fruits and vegetables. With durable Diecast Zinc and Stainless Steel Construction, this robust and visually impressive product is designed to last. The Powerful 1000W Italian made 2-speed motor is fitted with a speed sensor and computer monitoring, and is guaranteed for 3 years. A key to the performance of this product is the centralized 75mm feedtube which delivers whole fruits direct to the centre of the grating disc, enabling the unit to achieve a balanced high speed of 13,000RPM. The result is unsurpassed juice extraction and very dry pulp.

Breville & Sunbeam kitchen tech in Australia have the same owner & designer and subtle differences, so check both. I think Breville gear is for sale in Europe.

LapLap, the item above is widely available to the extent Breville has Factory Seconds outlets and eBay outlets (~20% saving I guess).
The above item is easily available as a factory second here an possibly eBay UK, e.g. 800JE factory second AUD$249 (GBP120?) on eBay.com.au (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Breville-Juicer-800JE-800-Class-Juicer_W0QQitemZ170204771326QQihZ007QQcategoryZ206 77QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).

Breville is promoting this month's win of its sister product, the 820 espresso macimne at the 2008 iF Design Awards, Germany.
Breville Wins Gold At The iF GERMAN Design Awards (http://www.breville.com.au/whats_new_detail.asp?id=73)
(a cafe style semi-auto machine)