Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: 5 Things I Wish Foodies Would Fuggetabout

By the end of the week, I'm tired. I don't know how that affects you, but when I'm tired, little stuff starts to tick me off. Big stuff ticks me off, too, but when I'm bright and chipper I can let the little stuff go. I've found that one of the best antidotes for annoying things that you have no control over is to rant about it publicly. Many of my friends use Facebook for this. Another is a large dirty martini. Extra olives. Since I am totally out of olive juice, and my basement fridge is packed with drained-dry jars of green olives, there is no dirty martini in my future, or yours if you stop over here now. But I'm going to rant here, and you can certainly join me in the comment section below. Today's topic is over-done food trends. If I sound like a curmudgeon, I am.

1. Anything served in a canning jar. Please. Nearly every summer magazine spread, blog post with seasonal food or recipe site shows food or drinks served in mason jars. It's certainly OK if you are writing about canning or showing canned foods, but except for possibly the expedient consumption  moonshine, there is no good reason. It was cute. About 5 years ago. Very Martha-charming. Now, not so much, unless you like having your Watermelon Mary dribble down your shirt while you attempt to get your lips around the jar threads. If you feel you must use "unconventional" serve ware, at least use the cool stuff like the German made Weck canning jars. Good shapes and no threads.

Actually used for canning, this Weck canning jar would
pass for a perfectly good cafe-style glass.
 Get them at Crate & Barrel or from Weck's site.

2. Salt everywhere and on everything. Once the big ole ice cream companies have mass marketed an idea, it's time to move it along. I'm talking about salted caramel. Chocolate. Sweets in general. I just had some little dark chocolate discs that had so much salt on them they were just about inedible. Granted, salted desserts are delicious, done judiciously. Anyone who has ever scooped up ice cream on a pretzel stick has that figured out. One good thing about when food fads finally peter out, at least the good ones, is that they do have the staying power of a Chanel suit in the repertoire of good cooks. You can trot them out occasionally and they will still be wonderful.

3. Eggs atop everything. I had my first Salad Lyonnaise at the ripe age of 14. It was a revelation; the barely cooked egg became one with the dressing and coated the frisee and batons of pork beautifully. In a recent visit to  a "New American" restaurant, I saw a coddled egg four times on the same menu, on  boar chili, over a steak, on a bean salad and in a spring roll. The chef must raise chickens. Just try Googling coddled egg recipes. Too many. I'm sprouting pin feathers just thinking about it.

4. Food television reality shows. Snore. Need I say more?

5. Cupcakes, cake balls, popsicles. No, no, and no. At work we have 8-year-old kids coming in for baking supplies for cupcakes and cake balls, and they make really good stuff (some of the little dears bring us back samples, bless them). That's where these belong now.  Fun cooking at home. If I have to see one more overpriced cupcake shop open up in town, I'll have to move. If you feel the need to open a bakery, go to culinary school, spend some time apprenticing in Europe, and THEN, open a shop. Adult popsicles on restaurant menus? No thank you.