Happy New Year, CulinaryWoman Newsletter readers! First, thank you for your warm response to my bid for ten new paid subscribers to wrap up 2022. I wound up one short, just like the contestants on Great British Bake Off sometimes do during technical challenges.
But, I’ll strive to convince you to support our journalism in 2022, and there’s always the opportunity to do so.
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Old Year Out - New Year In
Some years seem like a fresh start. With the pandemic swelling, 2022 seems like more of the same. The entire food industry has been roiled in recent months by unpredictability.
Over the holidays, many places had to temporarily close for two main reasons: positive Covid tests, and short staffing. Some suspended dining room service and switched back to carry out and delivery. Others decided to get an early start on renovations they’d already planned for 2022.
The year-end messiness was the latest reminder that flexibility is the most valuable trait we all can have, whether we are customers, staff or owners. At times, it’s hard to see a path forward beyond the next few weeks, let alone an entire year. But there is one, in the pandemic thicket.
Here are some predictions for trends that I see emerging.
Drink options from Asia
Over the past couple of years, Ann Arbor, like many cities and college towns, has seen a flock of boba tea shops spring up. Every block near the University of Michigan has one of these cafes, whose roots are in places like China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam. They’ve expanded into strip malls in every corner of town.
It seems kind of boring now to go into a place and find that traditional sodas are the only soft drink options. This is the year when drink menus will step up their game, inspired by options from Asia.
We’ll see more the features and flavors from bubble tea places move into the mainstream. Matcha green tea, a staple at boba shops, is already ubiquitous at Starbucks and other places. Ube - purple yam - seems likely to follow. Pandan, the South Asian plant so pretty and fragrant, is ready for its closeup.
Boba shops offer long lists of toppings and ingredients as additions to basic drinks, and it seems only logical those will be more widely available, too, whether it’s cheese foam or pudding or boba themselves.
In fact, I’m surprised it’s taking this long, given that I tried my first boba drink at least 15 years ago at a shop in New York’s Astor Place.
These days, you can find espresso drink options everywhere from truck stops to McDonald’s. Since this ingredient infrastructure exists for boba cafes, these flavors are ripe to expand beyond them as well.
Guest chefs and instructors
The restaurant industry lost about 110,000 independent places in the past two years. Some owners gave up voluntarily, deciding it was time to retire. Others gave themselves a much-needed break after years of the grind.
But not all of the departees hung up their aprons and stashed their kitchen clogs for good. I expect 2022 will be a year when guest chefs are in the spotlight. They will collaborate with friends in the business to be back on the scene, perhaps in a less-hectic way than in the past.
Keep an eye on our friend Jason Goodenough in New Orleans for the activities of The New Culinarian, the company he launched last year. He is conducting a giveaway for a four-day adventure of dining and instruction.
And follow Kelly Fields, another New Orleans name, who took a break last year after serving wonderful food at Willa Jean. She’s been visiting different parts of the country, having a culinary holiday. Her Instagram is @kellyfields. She plans to teach a pastry class with Valrhona chocolate in the fall.
Pre-orders become a must
Shortages of ingredients and unreliable supplies are pushing restaurants and food places into unaccustomed positions.
In essence, they’ve had to devise lineups based on what they can get that day or that week. If customers have their hearts set on a dish or a food item, they have to nab it right away, not assume it will be there when they have a yen for it.
This is prompting a shift into pre-ordering food, whether it’s a loaf of bread, a hand-crafted pizza like the one above from Ann Arbor’s Pizza Replicator pop up, or a holiday meal. I’ve placed orders in advance for all three, and that’s in addition to ordering groceries from my favorite stores.
Pre-orders are still an adjustment for a number of shoppers and diners, who got spoiled by pre-pandemic abundance. I’ve spotted some angry rants on social media about having to order ahead. I admit getting irritated, too, when I have to hunt down something for which I have a craving, or when I have to miss out because I didn’t go online soon enough.
Although ordering technology is relatively new, the practice of keeping slim inventories is common around the world.
Patisseries in Paris only stock what they can sell that day. I’ve gotten off a late Shinkansen in Tokyo to find that places were out of food, meaning my primary dining option was a fast diminishing supply of onigiri rice balls. St. Viateur in Montreal sometimes has only one variety of bagels available - if you aren’t up for sesame, you are SOL.
With food waste a global problem, and supply chains interrupted, pre-orders are a useful defense mechanism. We just need to shift our mindsets away from expecting instant gratification.
Plant awareness
Over the holidays, I was delighted to meet up with my friend Susan Kelley, the founder of What Kate Wore, for a long-delayed dinner. We went to El Arbol Taqueria in Brighton, Mich., which is midway between both our towns.
El Arbol began as a single-story walk up stand next to a pretty park, but is now a two-story, bustling restaurant, with a full menu of choices. While meat dishes were readily available, I didn’t have any of them.
I stayed plant-based options, and had some of the best food I ate in 2021, including a Brussels sprouts taco (on the right, above), the grilled Mexican corn called elotes, and a colorful jicama slaw. I would happily eat that meal again.
In America, meat has always been the symbol of plenty, and there is a vast industrial complex that supports it, but in 2022, we will continue moving away from animal products.
For those of us lucky to have access to them, quality fruits and vegetables are available like never before. I can choose from merchants like Argus Farm Stop here in Ann Arbor, which is about to undertake a big expansion. Individual farm stands have stepped up their games: my closest one takes advance orders and has a iPad in its self-service booth. All kinds of CSA memberships are available, even during winter.
While big cities struggle with food deserts, there are efforts to provide more fresh produce across neighborhoods through mobile programs. (I wonder if an entrepreneur will bring them to less-populated places, too.)
While meat and three will remain a staple of many places, the “three” are increasingly more interesting to me than the slab of protein, and I suspect lots of diners feel the same way.
Which trends are you seeing where you live? Feel free to share your food predictions for 2022.
We have a winner!
CulinaryWoman Community member Paula Zirinsky is the winner of the Coo Moo Jams prize pack.
Paula, a professional services marketing advisor, lives in New York City with her husband, son, and adorable dog, Buddy Zirinsky (he is on Instagram @buddy_zirinsky). She does have an amazing kitchen that, along with her message-based foodie group Friends Who Cook, helped her get through the last few pandemic years.
Her dream is to write a book about all of this called Masked Potatoes, Adventures in Isolation … She can be reached at paulazirinsky@gmail.com
The first giveaway of 2022 will be announced soon and it will be especially comforting in cold winter weather. To be eligible, simply upgrade to a paid subscription.
Congratulations, Paula!
The First Cookbook Recommendation Of The New Year
My friend Heidi Jacobs, the Canadian author and professor, is a skilled home cook. This fall, she posted delicious looking results from Maman: The Cookbook. It features recipes from the cafe group with branches in Montreal, Toronto, and New York.
Heidi’s dishes looked so good that I bought the cookbook, and I think you will find it a wonderful winter companion.
This is how Maman owners and authors Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte describe their book.
“Part I is dedicated to breakfast and brunch and includes both sweet and savory options, while Part II features dishes that can be enjoyed throughout the day, from soups and salads to sandwiches and quiches. Part III is devoted to what maman is famous for, irresistible sweets, including cakes, cookies, and tarts, plus recipes and tips for making some of our delicious drinks at home.”
You can order the book directly from them, and they are donating $1.20 from each sale to Welcome Baby, a non-profit that provides low income mothers with a comprehensive package to support her and her newborn for the first 4 weeks of life.
Fog City closes
If you are a fan of bean-to-bar chocolate, you will be sad to hear that Fog City has closed. It is the newsstand/chocolate shop in San Francisco that is widely credited for educating people about exotic varieties of chocolate.
When you walked in, there were racks of European magazines as well as displays of different types of chocolate bars. It was like an apothecary of chocolate. The staff was trained to tell you about all of it, no matter how obscure.
The owner, Adam Smith, says he’s ready to do something else after 22 years. He certainly raised peoples’ awareness of chocolate beyond supermarket check out aisles and shopping mall brands.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
I got this email last week. It’s exciting - and a little terrifying.
Thank you to everyone who has placed a pre-order for Satisfaction Guaranteed (remember that you’ll get a bonus article from me if you send me your proof of purchase). I’m reachable at CulinaryWoman at Gmail dot com.
My publication date is Feb. 22 - yes, Washington’s Birthday, yes, next month! The calendar of events is growing, and I’ll give you a run down soon.
It was so nice of Mark Lasswell, my editor at the Washington Post, to include me in this wrap up of Post Opinions pieces for 2021.
Last week marked my swan song as editor of the A2View newsletter at the Ann Arbor Observer. We made it a Hail and Farewell issue looking at notable developments in 2021. I had some lovely emails from readers remarking on how much it included.
I’ll still contribute to the Observer’s Marketplace Changes section this year, so I am not vanishing from the Ann Arbor writing scene. And I am open to more culinary assignments, as time permits.
Please follow me on Instagram @michelinemaynard and on Twitter and Tik Tok @culinarywoman. As publication gets closer, I also will post book information on the CulinaryWoman Facebook page.
The Omicron variant is spreading like crazy. Get your booster, get tested, and be careful. I’m wearing a mask whenever I go out, and limiting my trips.
Happy 2022 and see you next week.