Food Trends 2024; Complex Heat; Fast Favs; More Canned Cocktails; Fried Egg Perfection

Looking Ahead— If you're a fan of sci-fi, you know that according to certain movies, cars should be flying by now.  Futuristic sci-movies tend to avoid too much depiction of food, typically because of the famine in the dystopian future being portrayed, or because replicators can make anything you want. In the here and now, Whole Foods has released their forecasts for the Top Ten Food Trends of 2024. Among them: a "plant-based" resurgence; faux fish (note: plant-based, not lab-grown fish, which isn't faux, does exist, and would be a little more sci-fi); brands that promote water-conservation (on our way to Fury Road?); complex heat (bye-bye Red Hot Chili Peppers, hello Hungarian Goathorn Peppers); and, a focus on women's health, taboos be damned. It's about time for that. Right on Cue— Perfectly timed to the forecasted trend of complex heat; ladies and gentlemen, introducing Weapon—uh, sorry... Pepper X. The World's (New) Hottest Pepper. Developed by Ed Currie and his Puckerbutt Pepper Co., the crew responsible for the Carolina Reaper (which this new pepper incinerates). I see a trend on the horizon, a painful one. OMG, We're All So Basic— America's best (and worst) fast food restaurants (as reported by CashNet USA) were published by Daily Mail. And, it seems we all love Chick-fil-A (tops in 34 states?) Now, many would argue that Popeye's has the superior chicken sandwich, unless you're in Montana—they hate Popeye's. Nobody likes Papa John's. And Pennsylvania really likes Krispy Kreme. So, It’s Come to This— Vodka and Sprite. In a can. Are you really surprised? Finally— Because "...there are so many dishes that benefit from a runny-yolk fried egg topping." …You're welcome.