Food Trend Lists: 'Tis the Season

Ah, December. When my mailbox fills with catalogs, my email inbox fills with 20% and free shippin offers...and my Google alerts are chock full of articles about food trends.

If you read just one trend piece this year, make it this report from Andrew Freeman & Company. It's extensive, which means there are some sort of tired trends, especially if you're a food blogger who reads trend reports every year (Yuzu? Sure, in 2008.)

It also means, though, that there are a few predictions that feel genuinely fresh, even to this jaded blogger. My votes for A&F's most daring, and most interesting, predictions:

• The rise of Hungarian foods, drinks and flavors: Was this a predictor?
• Hand-pulled noodles: I know next to nothing about them, so obviously I'm intrigued
• Edible landscapes: For A&F, this is about creating gorgeous dishes that look like nature, but I initially read it as creating tables with edible centerpieces - both interesting concepts
• Snow ice from Taiwan: Possibly a flash-in-the-pan trend, but still genuinely new
• Mixed drinks on tap: The opposite of artisanal cocktails that take 15 minutes to make - I think I like it
• Schnitzel in a sandwich: What's not to like? And actually, this fits with a few other predictions, all around the rise of German/Eastern European cuisine

There's a lot more at the original link, including a look at hospitality and marketing trends, but these were the most intriguing.