{"id":97815,"date":"2018-09-25T16:16:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T22:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foodie-trends-and-where-to-find-them\/"},"modified":"2018-09-25T16:16:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T22:16:22","slug":"foodie-trends-and-where-to-find-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foodie-trends-and-where-to-find-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Foodie trends and where to find them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kombucha,
Kombucha, a beverage produced by fermenting tea with a culture of yeast and bacteria, is one of several food trends that is taking hold in Durango.<\/span>David Holub\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The unfrosted cakes you\u2019ve been seeing this wedding season aren\u2019t rushed jobs. It\u2019s a food trend, and trends like this seem to appear out of nowhere before, with the help of food-porn Instagram accounts, taking over. Durango is insulated from some foodie fads that flood metropolitan areas (someone airdrop us mountain folk some lumpia), but some still find a way to landlocked high altitudes, even if only on a small scale.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9 poking up<\/div>\n

Take, for instance, pok\u00e9, the Hawaiian raw-fish bowl that is traditionally made with cubed ahi tuna, salmon or both, topped with soy sauce, rice vinegar and oil, greens, rice, veggies and fruit such as avocado, green onion, mango or whatever else the heart and taste buds desire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was served first without rice,\u201d said Jimmy Nguyen, co-owner of Rice Monkeys<\/a> and Pop Sushi<\/a>. \u201cThe rice came after sushi became mainstream in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pok\u00e9 invasion may have something to do with Hawaiian cuisine\u2019s growing popularity on the mainland in places like California and Nevada. This year, controversy in the pok\u00e9 biz<\/a> brought additional attention to the dish that already had plenty of inertia. The trademarked Aloha Poke Co. sent cease-and-desist letters to Hawaiian-owned companies with similar names, sparking a backlash from the Hawaiian community.<\/p>\n

But before the drama, Nguyen said the pok\u00e9 trend (and sushiritto craze) started as a result of the customizable convenience of fast-casual concepts that exploded with restaurants such as Chipotle. The price is right, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cPok\u00e9 is aimed at lunch people (or) college students who can\u2019t afford to eat sushi,\u201d Nguyen said.<\/p>\n

A filling pok\u00e9 bowl costs around $10 to $20, where one roll of specialty sushi generally costs $15 and up.<\/p>\n

Durango pays more for pok\u00e9 because access to fresh fish is limited and there is no pok\u00e9 restaurant in town. Rice Monkey offers pok\u00e9 only as a special on occasion, and there is only one pok\u00e9 item on the menu at Pop Sushi, which costs $18. On the plus side, both are made-to-order. The same goes for Manny\u2019s Fresh Co.<\/a> food truck at 11th Street Station, which offers a salad or rice bowl version or a non-traditional spicy apple bowl made with tempura shrimp, crab, sweet corn, unagi and firecracker sauce.<\/p>\n

Nguyen adds that non-traditional versions like this have become the standard in pok\u00e9 restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow there are so many types,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fermentation flood<\/div>\n

Durango health nuts may be more familiar with fermented foods than pok\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cFermented foods, for overall trends, are very hip and very popular,\u201d said Nicole Tribble, co-owner of The Living Tree<\/a> salad bar. The restaurant specializes in organic, cultured live foods.<\/p>\n

The trend is multiplying like lactobacillus for two reasons. Fermentation is not only a sustainable method of food storage (fermented foods can last four to 18 months if kept in a cool place) , the glut of research promoting gut health, which fermented foods assist in, means more and more people are disregarding the potent smell of kimchi (spicy pickled or fermented cabbage) and enjoying its delicious flavor.<\/p>\n

Fermentation is the process by which bacteria or yeast feed on starches and sugar, creating lactic acid or alcohol that prolongs storability. Fermented foods contain omega-3s, probiotics, vitamin B and other nutrients.<\/p>\n

Living Tree offers a variety of rotating fermented foods, with pineapple kimchi fixed on the menu.<\/p>\n

Tribble said fermentation can be confused with pickling, which uses vinegar, not a brine. And depending on what\u2019s being fermented, there are differences in the brine ratio, fermentation length and how long an item can be stored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a science and learning curve behind it, but it\u2019s something you can do at home,\u201d Tribble said.<\/p>\n

Many may have tried making kombucha at home. But for convenience\u2019s sake, and not having to come into personal contact with the 1960s creature feature that is a kombucha culture, the draft system at Living Tree is currently pouring a sweet chile peach flavor.<\/p>\n

Off the shelves<\/div>\n

According to Nature\u2019s Oasis<\/a> manager Libby Storc, kombuchas and other ready-to-drink beverages have been widely popular in the store over the last year.<\/p>\n

Storc said brands like Lifeaid make blended beverages with B vitamins and herbs to help cure hangovers, increase focus, promote recovery and encourage other superhero-esque qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want a quick-fix. They want to feel better right now,\u201d Storc said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how well it actually works, but people think it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storc said these drinks are a reflection of the overall trend of healthy, ready-to-go items.<\/p>\n

Storc said the keto and paleo diet fads are still going strong, too. This may be because food producers have finally invented a gluten-free wrap that doesn\u2019t have the dried acrylic paint texture of paleo-\u201dfriendly\u201d tortillas of old.<\/p>\n

The Real Coconut Co. makes a coconut flour tortilla with the same soft, bendy texture of traditional wraps, Storc said. The cheapest wrap option, though, is still the romaine lettuce leaf.<\/p>\n

For produce, Storc said one brassica has stolen the spotlight. Cauliflower no longer lives in broccoli\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n

\u201cCauliflower is the big buzz that is being added to everything,\u201d Storc said.<\/p>\n

The versatile veggie can imitate many things, including mashed potatoes, pizza crust and chicken wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

is Durango cuisine influenced by what\u2019s popular elsewhere?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[3109,438],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-beverage","tag-food"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97815"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}