I am a constant reader, with ecclectic tastes. On my nightstand you might find a British murder mystery, military history (Civil War or World War II), political biography, contemporary fiction, or a literary classic (anything I never got around to reading in English Lit or any leftover paperbacks from my sons’ English classes).

Right now, I’m reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, A Memoir, by Bill Bryson, a hilarious look back at growing up in the 1950s in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bryson takes us back to American food tastes then:

“Like most people in Iowa in the 1950s, we were more cautious eaters in our house. On the rare occasions when we were presented with food with which we were not comfortable or familiar — on planes or trains or when invited to a meal cooked by someone who was not herself from Iowa — we tended to tilt it up carefully with a knife and examine it from every angle as if determining whether it might need to be defused. Once on a trip to San Francisco, my father was taken by friends to a Chinese restaurant and he described it afterward in the somber tones of someone recounting a near-death experience.” [more…]

I was food editor of the Honolulu Advertiser as the Vietnam war drew to a close. Having been exposed to the proliferation of Vietnamese restaurants in Paris, I fully expected an immediate onslaught of Vietnamese restaurants to blossom across the Hawaiian Islands. So I rushed out to do my Vietnamese food story, interviewing native food experts to give my readers a taste of the cuisine to come. I waited…and waited. I was young — in my 20s — and didn’t have enough seasoning or sense of history to realize that such anticipated bounty doesn’t happen overnight.

However, I have been intrigued by why Filipino food hasn'’t caught on. Preparing to speak at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone’s first Worlds of Flavor conference on Asia in 1997, I researched demographic trends to gauge which Asian immigrant groups would likely have the biggest impact on American food marketing in the years ahead. I was surprised that in the period 1981 to 1995, the largest group of Asians immigrating to the U.S. hailed from the Philippines.

While we were seeing a proliferation of Vietnamese restaurants (second largest number of immigrants in this period) and Indian restaurants (fourth largest), where were the Filipino eateries? [more…]

My son David graduated with an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College this past weekend. Our family gathered in Wellesley outside of Boston, for the commencement. A celebratory dinner plays an important role in any momentous event, so food was front and center of our weekend planning.

Surprisingly, food also played the starring role at the graduation ceremony since the commencement speaker was Gary Hirschberg, chairman, president and CE-Yo (that’s for yo-gurt), Stonyfield Farm. In addition to Hirschberg, an honorary degree was bestowed on Irving W. Rabb, former vice chairman, Stop & Shop Supermarket Companies. I was pleased to see that Babson, ranked #1 for entrepreneurial excellence, recognizes successful food entrepreneurs with the same respect it gives to achievements in science, technology and any other fields of business. [more…]

Trends in food and beverage continue to accelerate, and what was a novelty soon becomes everyday. For example:

Bottled Water– It was the stuff you bought when you traveled to countries where the water wasn’t fit to drink. And what you bought in France because Coca-Cola was so expensive. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a research and consulting firm, U.S. bottled water sales were at $9.2 billion in 2004 and grew about 10 percent in 2005, as reported by Forbes. Carbonated soft drink sales in 2005 were flat. The motivation to purchase appears to be for the health attributes especially from the enhanced water category, which promises more benefits than plain tap water.

Pedigreed Foods– We didn’t pay a lot of attention to where our food came from and how it was raised. Now we care. Niman Ranch made a success of branding butchered meat, long considered a commodity item. Some restaurants are growing their own animals and produce to ensure that what they serve meets their exacting specifications. With food safety and food quality big issues, provenance offers reassurance. [more…]

The most striking change in American food in the last 40 or so years, is the mainstreaming of global flavors. A good example is the now-ubiquitous sushi. Who would have thought that raw fish and seaweed would one day be consumed so eagerly by Americans? Today, sushi is sold in restaurants, supermarkets, employee cafeterias and lunchtime takeout shops from coast to coast. And hot on its heels is the addictive Japanese soybean bar snack, edamame.

The number of Japanese restaurants has more than doubled in the past decade, from 4,086 to 9,182, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing Japanese Food Trade News. The Journal also pointed out that sushi sales have jumped to $2.8 billion from $1.1 billion in 2000. Even more impressive, the article notes that Technomic, the foodservice industry research firm, expects continued growth of 10 to 20 percent annually for the next five years, compared to the overall restaurant industry’s projected annual growth rate of 5 percent per year. [more…]

If people and cultures are bound by their food traditions, Thanksgiving is the unifying holiday that links all Americans to a common heritage. We may modify the traditional menu to include ethnic favorites such as salsa or sushi, or incorporate new culinary trends, like brines or rubs. But the tradition of turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, are imprinted in our taste memories and are the comfort foods we crave at Thanksgiving. [more…]

A few generations ago, avocados were the exclusive domain of fancy restaurants. Halved, seeded and stuffed with a mound of seafood salad, the avocado was all about value, not volume. That is, until the avocado found its killer app: guacamole.

Some decades later, in the 70s, the kiwifruit, having changed its name from the unfortunate Chinese gooseberry, became the darling of nouvelle cuisine, providing the perfect, dramatic garnish for minimalist plate presentations.

So what’s today’s next taste sensation? [more…]