Top Trends in My Kitchen 2012

Hamachi with Vietnamese Chili-Fish Sauce

Have you had enough of the Year End Lists?  In case you haven’t been paying attention, there have been a few.  I’ve seen Best Restaurants, Best Dishes, Top Food Trends, Best Fast Food, not to mention psychic predictions as to what we can all expect to be eating, trending, and “besting” in 2013. 

I’ll leave the “Best of” lists to the professionals.  But even in my own universe, food seems to cycle, each year bringing its own personal set of top eats.  2010, for example, would certainly have been The Year of the Duck.  Once John found out I could sear a mean Muscovy, he put in a request for said duck dinner at least once a month.

2011 could have been a few things, but I’ll give a special mention to the clay pot. A simple unglazed bean pot inspired many a long simmered dish from Jamaican goat curry to rabbit ragu. 

Which brings me to the Top Trends in My Kitchen of 2012. 

Saturday Fish

Hamachi Collar

Once John learned how to navigate the tourists and overwhelming selection of fish and seafood at The Lobster Place, our fish consumption skyrocketed.  Walking home from a Friday night or Saturday morning workout, he might swing through and pick up whatever was looking good at that moment.  Opah belly, ahi tuna, hamachi collar, fresh Florida shrimp- we threw the net wide.  I'd prepare the fish simply and we'd eat it alongside a salad. Our Saturday lunches became infinitely healthier.

Grilled pork with Japanese Sweet Potatoes

Wide World of Potatoes

It all started with John’s famous sweet potatoes, roasted with garlic and rosemary, and the occasional dollop of duck fat.  Feeling bold one day, we swapped out the sweets for Purple Peruvian potatoes.  The entrance of Foragers Market to our neighborhood brought the discovery of sublime, creamy Red Bliss potatoes from a local farm, so far removed from the typical grocery store variety it was like I was discovering the potato for the first time.  Then came the revelation of the Japanese variety from BodhiTree Farm at Abingdon Square Farmer’sMarket.  These tiny, misshapen tubers were so intensely sweet I could eat them practically by themselves with little more than salt and pepper.

Ice Cream on Hand

New best practice for dinner parties: always have homemade ice cream in the freezer.  The gift of a Cuisinart ice cream maker last Christmas turned into the unexpected dinner party savior I never knew I needed but apparently did. Keeping ice cream on hand saved me from having to make one more dish on the day of the party, while still reaping the benefits of serving a homemade dessert.  From milk chocolate with Oreos, to lemon sorbet, to pumpkin with candied ginger, there was an ice cream recipe to fit any season and every menu. 

What will be trending in the months to come?  Will John start adding pineapple to his berry smoothies?  Will coriander replace cumin as my favorite spice in the cabinet?  Will potatoes take a backseat as we sample the international rainbow of rice?  Only time will tell.  But if it happens in my kitchen, you will probably be reading about it right here, on Pho the Love of Food.  

Happy New Year! With Vietnamese Duck and Rice Noodles

Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell

Cold Treats for Cooling Weather

The last two weeks haven’t felt much like fall. The mercury rising into the 80’s cities as far north as San Francisco and New York has meant one thing for food: the lines for ice cream vendors have remained mighty long.

Just as well for me, I tend to only get that ice cream itch when not even a glass of cold water can cool me down and nothing short of a sugar fix will get my electrolytes back into balance.

This was all the better for enjoying a few new fall flavors from some of the specialty purveyors around the country. Here are a two worth trying before the shorts and skirts get packed away and the scarves come out to stay.

People's Pops (New York, NY): I have been hearing about this gourmet frozen fruit pop company for sometime. To be honest, I couldn’t imagine frozen fruit puree on a stick meriting a $3.50 a pop price tag. After a long sweaty run on the Hudson River running trail, a stop by their Chelsea Market location seemed just the reward for my exercise efforts.

If I had come during the summer my guess is the flavors would have geared toward buxom fruits at their mid-summer peak- strawberries, nectarines, cherries. What I found on this early autumn day was a luscious purple remnant of end of summer: roasted plums. Unlike ice cream that hits you with the first bite, it can take a few licks to a get into the real flavor of a frozen pop. My patience was rewarded. As the frosty exterior gave way and frozen puree of roasted plum succumbed to the heat, what I found was the deep, rich flavor of late summer plums with a just a hint of the caramelization coming from roasting the fruit. Instead of the one note consistency of most commercial popsicles, a few licks of this pop revealed bits of pulp and skin remained suspended in the frozen treat, a welcome change of texture. People’s Pop’s season is almost over, so get in now before late summer frozen fruits pass you by.

Ciao Bella (San Francisco, CA): Nothing helps calm down nerves frayed by a long day taking outrageously expensive, inefficient cabs around San Francisco like a long walk home, ice cream in hand. The weather had stayed so nice for my week in SF that not only was a walk home in this often drizzly city possible, but cold ice cream actually seemed the perfect walking companion. Ciao Bella has been churning out sorbets and gelato for years in the Bay Area and in freezer sections of markets around the country (there are also three cafes in New York). A trip to their store in the Ferry Building is a rare treat for those of us who normally only get to taste their top sellers in the grocery aisle. Lucky for me, Ciao Bella has just rolled out with a few seasonal flavors- Pumpkin & Spice and Maple Ginger Snap. The taste was like fall- pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple, ginger- even if the weather felt more like summer.