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Nation's Restaurant News
The Top 10 flavors of 2022
NRN staff Dec 22, 2022

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Mustard is one of the most popular condiments in the United States, enjoyed on sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs as well as in salad dressings, sauces and elsewhere — in the Italian condiment mostarda it is even paired with sweetened fruit. It’s tangy and sharp, sometimes sweetened (often with honey) and, increasingly, spicy.

If you’re looking for a way to draw in consumers who focus on plant-based eating with some traditional bar fare, there may be no better way than adding buffalo cauliflower to your menu.

A Middle Eastern fried cake or ball made from ground chickpeas and seasoning, falafel is a longtime staple in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines.

Mochi is a Japanese sticky rice product made by pounding cooked short-grain rice into a paste, often with sweeteners and thickeners such as cornstarch, and then made into different shapes, bringing a nice chewiness to a variety of dishes, particularly desserts — like donuts or ice cream — or just in its purest form as a plain bun.

Gone are the days when you’d enjoy the unique flavor of birthday cake once a year — today, you can experience it in myriad products including coffee creamer, vodka, popcorn and vape.

Mezcal is a spirit that, like much better-known tequila, is derived from the agave plant. Also like tequila, it’s native to Mexico where it has been enjoyed for centuries.

Like nachos with the added indulgence of a French-fry base, loaded fries are endlessly customizable and nearly universally enjoyed.

The rise of plant-based chicken is yet another phase in the food industry-shifting plant-based movement, after plant-based beef burst onto menus and retail shelves several years ago.

One of the earliest plant-based milks to appear on retail shelves, almond milk has seen a steady rise on restaurant menus for more than a decade, despite a number of other alternatives popping up.

Drunken noodles, a translation of pad khi mao (though a more accurate translation would be “drunkard’s noodles”), are spicy Thai noodles traditionally enjoyed late at night after an evening of drinking, or as a nice lunch dish. They are a great menu addition for an operator looking to add more global flavors as consumers flock to more dishes from the “big three” cuisines of Italian, Mexican and Chinese.

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