Journalists Rate The Top Quarantine Food Trends, And They Are Not Dalgona Fans [Updated]
Update, May 29, 2020: What's life without a healthy bit of meaningless argument? Food writer Adam Liaw published his quarantine cooking power rankings over at The Guardian this week, assigning scores to such items as dalgona coffee (of course), sourdough bread (the new classic!), and even the IKEA Swedish meatball recipe released by the furniture giant over Twitter. Liaw also touches on a less discussed but equally pervasive cooking trend: Bolognese, the inevitable result of our collective early pasta hoarding back in March. Assigning the hearty dish a 5/10, Liaw laments, "There's nothing wrong with a good plate of pasta, of course, but I really just wish the gyms were still open." Read the full rankings here.
Original post, May 15, 2020: Instagram food trends under quarantine have run the gamut from labor-intensive to candy-coated, but all of them speak to a collective restlessness. We're all home, we're all learning, and each of these meals reflects our hope that this one might be the one to stave off not just hunger, but boredom or ennui.
The Seattle Times has been keeping track of which recipes have been creating the most buzz over social media for the last several weeks, and staffers decided to test them out to determine whether each one is worthy of its hype. They discounted any food trends like pancake cereal, though, because they "decided to explore things that require an actual recipe instead of just miniaturization." The staff of the Seattle Times does not mince words.
Most of the ire was directed at dalgona coffee, the fluffy concoction that has captured the imagination of home cooks everywhere since going viral on social media in March. When asked if this drink is worth making at home, features producer Amy Wong says, "No!!!!!!" (With that many exclamation points.) "Even halving the sugar, it was crazy sweet, and the frothy texture made it hard to mix with milk, leaving a really uneven flavor. The light and airy texture made for a really weird drinking experience — like drinking a tall glass of foam." Maybe Wong should try making dalgona candy instead.
There were lots of winners on the list, but the highest praise went to Helen Rosner's roast chicken over cabbage—an idea Rosner had when she wanted to roast a chicken over the typical bed of root vegetables but had only cabbage wedges to work with. "This falls into the, 'Why haven't we all done this forever?' category of cooking conventions," writes features editor Stefanie Loh of this dish, which she goes on to describe as "crispy and moist in all the right places." When a cook finds a way to make roast chicken exciting once more, they deserve all the accolades in the world. Here's the full list of food trends and the Times staff's thoughts on them. May they serve to inspire your weekend menu.