The eight food trends of 2021

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: the eight food trends you don't want to miss in 2022.

Food trends; they come and go but hopefully the best ones stay. Some, like freakshakes, we would have liked to quietly disappear in previous years, but a number of things from this list we hope to encounter quite often in 2021…

Yelp has published a list in December, just like in previous years, with food trends to try out in the coming year, based on the increase in American Yelp review mentions of the respective topic. And it's again a list to drool over. Which of these things would you like to try next year? (Uhm, we want to try them all…)

Birria
The birria taco was already found at authentic taquerias like Coba and Bacalar in Amsterdam and hopefully will break through to the general public next year. Originally made in the Mexican state of Jalisco from very slowly cooked goat meat in a marinade (adobo) of vinegar, dried chili peppers, and herbs and spices, and cooked in broth, birria is now often made from more accessible beef or lamb. Still, we hope that taco chefs in the Netherlands dare to make this from, for example, the neglected goat kid meat from the goat milk industry that doesn't often reach consumers. It's very flavorful and specific, and with such a slow simmering technique, you can really make something delicious out of it. Perfect for in a soft small tortilla with onion, coriander and lime.

Hot honey
Not very well known here yet, but that's the fun of predicting trends like Yelp does: the demand for Hot Honey has proven to have risen enormously, and next year we can see if it breaks through here as well. It's honey infused with chili peppers, and people seem to drizzle it over pizza for a sweet kick that you wouldn't expect.

Detroit style pizza
Now that we're talking about pizza: another big trend that Yelp predicts is the Detroit Style pizza. “Having a moment”, they say about it, and when we see how deliciously airy and dripping with cheese and red sauce (on top of the cheese in this case, so the airy base doesn't get soggy) those rectangular monsters look, we hope that it becomes a very long moment.

Sando Sandwiches
Japanese ‘sandwiches’ you could call them, but that might not fully cover it. The bread in these sandwiches is often made from incredibly airy milk bread, and the filling is so delicious that your can of vegetarian liver pâté pales in comparison… Think of breaded, fried tender chicken or pork fillets with Kewpie mayonnaise and fresh homemade pickles: yum! Or, ultimate luxury, the wagyu sando that FavorFlav's Sharon once had. The chicken katsu sando from restaurant Fou Fow Udon on the Amsterdam Prinsengracht is one of our all-time favorites, but they are also irresistible when topped with, for example, a breaded pork chop without a bone. Seriously, go get one for yourself soon.

Hard seltzer
We had already spotted this at FavorFlav, the hard seltzers from, for example, Topo Chico and Stelz. Completely the boom in America, and slowly but surely conquering Europe as well. Soft drink with alcohol, simply put, but less sweet than the Breezers you might have drunk in the nineties. And that's good news.

Boba
Boba saw the percentage of mentions in reviews increase by 185 percent last year. We still find this a fun drink: Asian bubble tea that you can pick up at many tea bars but can also make yourself if you get a bag of tapiocaballs at a well-stocked toko.

Seafood Boils
It just started to gain traction in Dutch restaurants and then promptly everything shut down. We are still sad about it and hope that as soon as the hospitality doors reopen, we will encounter this delicious ‘dish’ in more places. Or we will all get to work at home with a large table that you first cover with plastic wrap and then newspapers, or with just a very large wooden cutting board over which you then pour a pot in which you have cooked potatoes, pieces of corn on the cob, crayfish, crab, and whatever else you like in shellfish (in little moisture). Ideally, you do this with Old Bay Seasoning, a spice mix that you can sometimes find at that same well-stocked store and otherwise you need to google a homemade recipe. That completes it.

Fried chicken sandwiches
Unfortunately, this predicted trend is just one of the unhealthiest, but one of the tastiest. So if we just participate in a very trend-sensitive way every now and then, then we can enjoy the tastiest fried chicken sandwich that we have eaten in ages…

In short: 2021 has turned us around in some ways, but with all this deliciousness in sight, we are quite ready to embrace 2022 with fresh enthusiasm!