Whole Foods' 2018 Food Trends read a lot like my Instagram.
Two weeks ago, to the day, I looked around a Mediterranean restaurant my husband and I were enjoying for his birthday, and I said, ‘I think eggplant is trendy.’
Could be that there was a huge picture of an eggplant on the wall, and this restaurant – named one of the best new ones in Austin by some list I have no idea who puts together – had three eggplant dishes prominent on the menu.
And I’ve been cooking it nonstop lately, thanks to an amazing recipe from Rick Bayless’s show on PBS.
Guess what just happened?
Whole Foods confirmed me.
They just came out with their Top 10 Food Trends of 2018, which includes:
4. Feast from the Middle East
Middle Eastern culinary influences have made their way west for years, and 2018 will bring these tasty traditions into the mainstream. Things like hummus pita and falafel were tasty entry points, but now consumers are ready to explore the deep traditions, regional nuances and classic ingredients of Middle Eastern cultures, with Persian, Israeli, Moroccan, Syrian and Lebanese influences rising to the top.
This includes: pomegranate, EGGPLANT, cucumber, parsley, mint, tahini, tomato jam and dried fruit.
I totally called it.
And they confirmed my Moroccan preserved lemons! I’ve been working on a project about the spoils I drag home from tradeshows – and if you’ve seen me loading up my loot at PMA, you’d know I’m an expert at getting new and exciting foods home in my suitcase. I dragged home 11 pounds of meyer lemons from a show recently to make preserved lemons. What I’m going to do with them, I have no idea, but they’ve been sitting in a jar on my counter for more than a month now.
Other produce items that made the list:
- Edible floral
- Functional mushrooms
- Alternative tacos, like jicama taco shells
- Root-to-stem, with ingredients like beet-green pesto, pickled watermelon rinds (I CALLED THAT ONE, TOO—back in July), broccoli slaw – which, by the way, Mann Packing claimed like, 25 years ago.
Want to see the list every media will be talking about this week? The full lineup is here.