What foods have recently become mainstream where you live?

I would have to say big burritos. Chipotle/Moes/Qdoba have all become so popular over the past few years. Just like 4 years ago I never heard of them, and now they are everywhere.

Not complaining though, I do love them.

Naked burritos. Sushi is everywhere, especially for lunch. Tilapia is on every menu. Fish tacos.

@jazzjeppe, your mention of sauce Bearnaise reminds me of Mel Brooks’ movie, History of the World Part 1, where one of the characters says, “Don’t be saucy with me, Bearnaise.”

Gee, in NYC I’d have to say that Thai and other East Asian foods have really gained in popularity since I’ve been here. And authentic Mexican food.

There has always been Mex-Mex here but there are now a couple of popular places that serve Cuban cuisine – yum!

I seem to notice a few more Greek and Mediterranean restaurants than there used to be but it just may be me noticing now. I guess living in such a restaurant-laden city can be overwhelming :P

Sushi, green tea, and pomegranates recently. It seems Asian foods are now trendy.

Vietnamese food… less than 5 years ago, there were no Vietmanese restaurants in our little corner of the ‘burb… now we have three within a stones throw of one another

(I’m SOO Lucky!) they’re all jammed, all the time, we have our favorite, we’re regulars there

Sushi Midwesterners were not eating this regularly even 10yrs ago

Thai Food. And yes Sushi.

And of course organic foods but I see the reasoning in that as there is more education on the topic now.

Edit to add: Yep pomegranates too. Although I’ve loved them since I was a small child.

Oh, there seems to be an annoying wine bar phenomenon going on here, too…

@inkvisitor Here too…Why is this?

Those so-called “big burritos” are also known as “San Francisco burritos”, so I daresay they’ve been popular in San Francisco for a while.

Here in Palo Alto, serve-it-yourself frozen yogurt is a craze. There are like 5 frozen yogurt places in downtown Palo Alto (one of which opened not too long ago). It’s ridic. :)

@inkvisitor come to think of it, ive seen quite a few recently too.

@DominicX – Yes! Pinkberry and Thisberry and Thatberry and Red Mango and Pink Mango and Plaid Mango, all selling frozen yogurt. Five have opened up within 6 blocks of my flat in as many months.

And yet I still go to NYC’s one and only Tasti-D-Lite. They have Dutch chocolate and peanut butter! And it doesn’t cost $6 for an 8 oz. cup!

Frozen yogurt has made a huge comeback. Cupcakes are big here now, as well.

Glad I live in L.A. I’ve always had access to many types of foods.

@tinyfaery

Palo Alto has Kara’s Cupcakes and Sprinkles! I’ve been to both. I’ve never been a fan of cupcakes, though… :P

@aprilsimnel

My friends always make fun of me for spending like $2 on frozen yogurt. I just don’t want that much! They always get too much and end up throwing part of it away. I always eat it all; it’s just not very much. Frozen yogurt is filling. This summer I probably had FY maybe 20 times. Had in San Diego, Coronado, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Davis, Las Vegas, Carson City, etc. It was fun. :)

Smoothies for sure. All the hipsters rock smoothies. And japanese fast food like panda express and such. Also Chipotle.

In my area, the most recent foods to go mainstream are frozen yogurt (not soft serv, but the ones that cost like $5 and are made with plain yogurt), wine bars, and Vietnamese food. It seems like the frozen yogurt thing took over as cupcake places started to lose popularity. We have a huge Vietnamese population and their restaurants get so much good press. By this question, do you mean mainstream, or trendy? Soul food is becoming very trendy where I live, too, and there are lots of places serving dressed-up versions of classic soul food.

Sushi – even the Irish pubs have Sushi bars now!

Speaking of frozen yogurt what about Gelato? They charge like 4.00 for a child’s size.

@RedPowerLady We have two gelato places near my home now…that’s the most recent trend it seems. (And, it’s like $7 for serving here)

@SpatzieLover I mean it is good ice cream but the price is ridiculous!

@RedPowerLady I agree on both counts ;D Yum…But WHOA to the finances!

Oreos. They just popped up like a year ago in a supermarket here and now they’re everywhere. Even our neighborhood grocery store has them.

More that the foods themselves it’s the packaging habits that are changing. Until recently, you could only find small packs of snacks, which was fine if you had a family of hamsters, but now we start seeing decent packaging sizes.

@Jack_Haas Where are you from???

I only ask because Oreos have been here and quite popular since I was a child.

@RedPowerLady France, the last place where I expected to find Oreos.

@Jack_Haas That made me laugh :)

Nice!