You must admit that with the evolution of social media in 2017, every other food joint jumped into the bandwagon of ensuring an Instagram worthy menu. While some restaurants and cafes manage to ace making food look exciting and at the same time delicious, most of the Instagram worthy foods aren’t that palatable. This new year, we bid goodbye to some food trends that are no longer cool for the ‘gramm and stomach.
1. Salted Egg Everything
While we love salted egg sotong from our favourite halal zi char restaurant and salted egg potato chips to snack on as we binge watch Black Mirror on Netflix, we don’t want anymore salted egg fries, lava cake or ice cream. Salted egg in its original form is probably the best side dish to your plate of rice and Ayam Lemak Chili Padi from your favourite Nasi Padang stall. Destroying the amazing salty creaminess flavour and making it overrated is borderline blasphemous.
2. Nasi Lemak Everything
The humble $2.50 Nasi Lemak has evolved into a variety of mutations so much so many foodies demand that the original version be celebrated instead. From cupcakes to burgers and gigantic portions of the humble Nasi Lemak served with non-traditional sides like lobsters and deep fried squids, this food trend has been giving Nasi Lemak a bad name. Plus, nothing screams Nasi Lemak more than a perfect sambal tumis that boasts salty, sweet with a tinge of sourness.
Side note, we have the perfect recipe for Nasi Lemak if you’d rather make it your own.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWJwhYBBSAs?rel=0]3. Rainbow Everything
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Rainbow coloured food is only cool when it’s the 50 cents Paddle Pop ice cream from your childhood. Back in the 90’s Wall’s Paddle Pop ice cream was the only rainbow treat we begged our parents for. Ever since the Rainbow Cake was made popular back in 2015, we’ve been seeing rainbow in every possible food you can think of – smoothies, cheesecakes, drinks and even pastas! Eating rainbows in a form of salad is probably the only right way to eat a rainbow.
4. Big on proportions, small on taste
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As of late, many eateries and carnival food stalls offer huge proportions of a variety of drinks and foods like pastas and fries. The food are often overloaded with cheap cheese while the drinks are just filled with sugar syrup and food colouring. More often than not, food served is such big portions are perfect for the camera but short on taste. Less is always more, and the food loving community needs to be educated that the quality of food is more important than its size and proportion.
5. Fresh Food Vending Machines
There’s something about food that needs the human touch and love that automation and machines can’t give. While Singapore continues to grow as a thriving modern city that attracts startups, it has also caused our society to be heavily dependent on instant gratification when it comes to food. Food deliveries are on the rise, as are vending machine ‘cafes’. There is this belief that so long as food is affordable in Singapore despite rising costs of living, we do not need to know how to cook for survival. We need to know where our food comes from and how it is made for us to appreciate it. For me, getting my lunch from a machine doesn’t cut it. I still want a smiling makcik or aunty giving me my packet of food.
Now that we let go of these 5 food trends of 2017, we can look forward to the food trends of 2018! Stay tuned!
