The Epicurean Candidate

It Was A Good Year For…Beets

mmandeltort — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:28:31 +0000

I recently had the privilege of contributing to NPR’s segment “It Was A Good Year For…” with Senior NPR Correspondent Daniel Zwerdling. The topic was Beets. The Salt, NPR’s food blog, posted the article:

Children hate beets. Many adults hate beets. In fact, so few people in the U.S. eat table beets that the federal government doesn’t bother to keep track of how many are grown and sold, even though it does keep track of just about every other crop, including turnip greens and horseradish.

But it turns out that this was a good year for beets (otherwise known as beet roots or garden beets, but not to be confused with sugar beets.)

Some farmers markets say beet sales have surged since January, and they’ve doubled over the past few years. And it seems like every restaurant across the country serves beets these days — especially the ubiquitous beet salad.

Does all this constitute a beet renaissance? Irwin Goldman says, absolutely, yes. He breeds beets at the University of Wisconsin, where he’s a professor of horticulture. He has been waiting for this renaissance for years.

“I think it’s just wonderful to see because it’s just an incredibly fabulous vegetable that I think is totally underappreciated,” he says.

Maybe it’s not surprising that chi-chi restaurants have rediscovered beets. Take, for example, the Oval Room across the street from the White House. Sous-chef Tamesha Warren shows how the staff turns beets into art.

Her salad man gently places a red baby beet on the passion fruit squiggle, then a baby golden beet, then a striped one — it’s like of row of fantastic marbles. Then he shaves fresh baby horseradish over everything, like baby snowflakes. He adds some herbs — baby, of course — and vinaigrette.

Warren says at one point they tried to get rid of the salad, but clients protested. “So we have to leave it on here,” she says. “They might as well put billboards up and say, ‘No, don’t get rid of the beet salad.’”

Then again, this is Washington, D.C., where people are used to protests. But here’s even more compelling evidence that beets are back: They’ve been showing up in chain restaurants from California Pizza Kitchen to Jamba Juice.

Matt Mandeltort of Technomic analyzes food trends for the food industry. The company’s survey found that beets showed up in 13 percent more appetizers in chain restaurants this year, compared to 2010. They’ve increased more than 55 percent in the last three years.

Mandeltort says beets are becoming more popular partly because they’re cheap — or at least cheaper than a lot of vegetables. And restaurants have been struggling to control costs during the recession.

But Goldman, the beet breeder, says remember: People have been eating beets since the times of the Greeks and Romans. They’ve never gone out of style in Europe. And, “the Australians — they will eat a beet slice on a sandwich like we would eat a tomato,” he says.

Goldman would love to make beets that popular here in the U.S. So he has been breeding new varieties to try to capitalize on the current renaissance.

For instance, he’s studying the compound that gives beets their distinctive flavor. Geosmin is produced by interactions between microbes in the soil and the roots.

“People hate [these beets] because they taste like dirt,” Goldman says. “On the other hand, there are people who embrace them because they taste like dirt, and I think eating dirt or soil, or the smell of soil, is primal.”

So Goldman wants to create beets with more geosmin, so they taste dirtier, if that’s what you like. He also wants to make other beets that taste less like dirt, so everyone will be happy.

Incidentally, it was a good year not just for beets. Industry surveys show it was also a good year for pretzel rolls and Sriracha. That’s the spicy paste from Thailand. And that’s another story.

To hear the interview in its entirety, just click on this link: A Good Year for Beets With Daniel Zwerdling

The Next Big Thing – An Inductive Analytical Framework

mmandeltort — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:57:20 +0000

Recently I spoke at the Prepared Foods R&D Application Seminar in Chicago, IL. The topic was “The Next Big Thing – An Inductive Analytical Framework.” (see below) I believe that trying to figure out what the “next big thing” in foodservice will be (think Greek yogurt, Hummus, Pomegranate juice etc.) should involve more than looking at a single data point or consulting an oracle who deigns what will be popular the next few years. Technomic’s “Future 50 Program” is built upon our proprietary 5 node platform that takes into account both the aesthetic and the pragmatic elements of the equation. The goal is to try and increase the odds that a given product will be successful.

The presentation takes you through the steps of our model and provides examples along the way.

The Next Big Thing – An Inductive Analytical Framework

View more presentations from mmandeltort

The Offal Truth

mmandeltort — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:28:56 +0000

Our Tongue Sandwiches Speak for Themselves – Sign in a NY Deli

Despite the fact that dictionaries have them phonetically equivalent, offal is far from awful. Offal, from the Middle English “off + fall”, referring to parts fallen or cut off, is the pieces and parts of pigs, cows and chickens like livers, hearts, brains, sweetbreads, kidneys, tripe, hocks, ears and neck bones that are leftover after the animal is “harvested”. In 2010 approximately 2.5BB lbs (give or take) of beef and pork offal were generated in this country – enough for 8 lbs for every man, woman and child (about the equivalent of lamb/veal consumption in the 1950’s). However, most is frozen and shipped overseas to countries like Egypt, Russia, Latin America and the Far East where, unlike here, they appreciate a good beef liver or pig maw.

Dictionary.com defines “offal” as “the parts of a butchered animal that are considered inedible by human beings; carrion. Given a definition that conjures images of dead animals and vultures, it should come as no surprise that, according to the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the average American consumes just over two pounds of offal per year, placing the U.S. 96th among nations of the world for per capita offal consumption (Note: Compare this to St. Lucia, an island country in the Eastern Caribbean Sea occupying 238 sq miles with an estimated population of 173,765 is 1^stin world with 25 kilograms of offal consumption per capita).

Here, only 5% or 6% (at most) of offal finds itself into US foodservice, most for consumption by ethnic diners at home or in restaurants. How is it then that the Japanese are so enamored with beef tongue it can be exported by American suppliers for near 4 times that price it commands locally? How does one explain the fact that consumption of offal in the UK rose by 67% between 2003 and 2008? Clearly, the bulk of the American dining public is missing something. What they are missing are proteins that are nutritious, flavorful, versatile and perhaps most importantly in this day and age of rising food costs, relatively cheap.

Offal is a very nutritious protein. Liver is an excellent source of vitamin A, which promotes healthy skin, teeth, and eyes, as well as full of iron, zinc, B vitamins, vitamin C, and vitamin D. Beef liver contains huge amounts of copper and good amounts of healthy fatty acids. Heart is low in sodium and very high in iron. It also contains selenium, zinc, phosphorus, niacin, and riboflavin. Brains are high in niacin, phosophorus, B12, and vitamin C. (and if you are indeed what you eat, that’s not bad either). Tripe, which is found in a myriad of cuisines ranging from Mexican to Italian to Cajun to Vietnamese contains vitamin B12 and significant amounts of protein.

Meatopia 2011, an annual culinary festival in NY celebrating all things meat, (the website, www.meatopia.org,) touts itself as “the Woodstock of Edible Animals.”), is a showcase for the versatility and flavorfulness of offal. Event goers will be treated to, among other things:

Grilled Chicken Hearts with Burnt Eggplant Puree
Crispy Mangalitsa pig’s head torchon with green beans and horseradish
Braised Beef Cheeks with Sour Cherry Glaze and Rustic Summer Herb Salad
Greek lamb offal mixed grill
Nose-to-Tail Ground Veal Hoagies with Pickled Peppers
Crispy Pig Head Stuffed with Scrapple on a Buttermilk Biscuit with Oregon Chow Chow

But offal does not require elaborate preparation. It can be remarkably easy to prepare as well. Take beef tongue for example. If you can boil water, you can prepare beef tongue: throw it in water with stock vegetables and bay leaf and simmer for two-and-a-half hours. Done. Simple as that.

Lastly, offal is an inexpensive protein compared to other cuts of beef, chicken or pork. Many cuts of offal can be had for less than $1.00 a pound.

Now despite the fact that all those things may be well and true, Americans are squeamish about eating certain things: bugs, sandwiches from vending machines, shelf stable milk, halva (ok, that’s just me) and virtually anything that Andrew Zimmern chows on, to name but a few. Needless to say, despite the enthusiastic efforts of such chefs as Chris Cosentino at Incanto and the driving force behind www.offalgood.com, the self described educational and inspirational tool for those who are interested in learning and cooking with offal and British chef Fergus Henderson, author of the ground breaking book “Nose to Tail Eating”, offal falls squarely in this squeamish category. But the question is why?

Sociologists, scientists and authors have a number of theories on the matter. Stephen Mennel, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at University College Dublin, believes people’s increasing tendency to identify themselves with animals is an underlying driver fueling peoples’ revulsion at eating brains, eyes and testicles. This no doubt explains why we don’t eat our pets, even pets people actually eat in other countries (Guinea Pig anyone?). Noelie Vialles, author of “Animal to Edible”, identifies two interesting logics in regards to the consumption of meat: ‘zoophagan’ logic is favoured by those who like to acknowledge that what they are eating was a living and breathing entity and who therefore have no qualms about eating offal. A ‘sarcophagan’ logic is held by those prefer their meat to be abstract, divorced from its living origins and who therefore find consuming offal repugnant. The latter goes a long way to explaining why when you ask the average 6 year old where hamburger comes from, the answer is invariably not a steer, but rather a grocery store.

Whatever the reason, people are missing out on a good thing. And that’s the offal truth.

Pizza at Tiffany’s

mmandeltort — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:27:06 +0000

Back in the day, breakfast at US restaurants pretty much meant you were limited to the old standbys: pancakes, waffles, eggs, French toast, hash browns, bacon and sausage. The 1970’s gave us the breakfast sandwich (Breakfast Jack and Egg McMuffin) and breakfast burrito. In 2004 we saw the breakfast burger (courtesy of Carl’s Jr.) Today the breakfast sandwich have been done to death, built on everything from biscuits to croissants to bagels to tortillas to sour dough bread to pancakes and filled with every protein imaginable. So what is left you ask? A simple bit of deductive logic (aka “The Breakfast Pizza Theorem”) provides the answer:

Breakfast is good
Pizza is good
Pizza for breakfast is good

Now if you were one of the countless millions of us who have awoken on a Saturday morning and rummaged around the fridge for those little slices of tomato, sausage and cheese covered slices of heaven leftover from the previous evening’s meal out, the answer was obvious. Once seemingly solely the purview of lunch and dinner dining, pizza seems poised to burst its daypart boundaries and take its place in the pantheon of breakfast heroes (not the sandwich):

Ortine, located in Brooklyn, NY, offers up a thin crust pizza blanketed in goat cheese and parmesan with a generous handful of chopped pancetta, a sprinkle of herbs, and two hard-cooked eggs looking up.
Motorino menus Pizza Al’Uovo, layered with fior di latte mozzarella, three fried eggs, pancetta, basil, and pecorino romano cheese on their weekend brunch menu.
57 Napoli Pizza e Vino makes four different breakfast pizzas, including the Carne (two eggs, any style, Italian meats, mozzarella, no sauce), Verde (two eggs, any style, fresh grilled vegetables, mozzarella, no sauce), the Classic NY Brunch (bacon, egg, cheese) and the BLT (bacon, lettuce, fresh tomatos, tomato sauce, no cheese).
Donatella offers ‘Hangover Pizza’ (made with buffalo mozzarella, sausage, basil and egg) for brunch.

Pulino’s, located in NYC, is reputedly the nations first breakfast pizzeria. Nate Appleman (late of A16 in San Francisco and “The Next Iron Chef” Season 2) menus a variety of sweet and savory thin crust pizzas for breakfast including:

Salsiccia: Sunnyside up eggs, house-cured sage-y breakfast sausage, bacon, and white cheddar makes for a salty, tangy, hearty pile of food
Spinacci: Eggs, spinach, mascarpone, and grana
The Frutta: These sweet-savory pizzas are a bit more unusual. Made with cinnamon, sugar, butter, roasted pears, and pecorino
The Ottima: Ricotta with wild blueberry jam and bacon
Funghi: Eggs with mushrooms, pancetta, mascarpone and grana
Bianca Tradizionale: Mozzarella, percorino, black pepper and pork strutto
Margherita: tomato, mozzarella, grana and basil

Small pizzas are priced from $6.00 to $9.00. Large pizza’s are priced from $10.00 to $16.00. Chef Appleman’s offerings are admittedly a step up from the day-old leftovers most of us reheat at home.

Even Top 500 Chains are getting in on the act. The new Domino’s unit in Dayton, Ohio is offering a breakfast pizza featuring eggs and cheese on a pizza crust for $7.99. The price covers up to three toppings, and recommended combinations include ham and bacon; sausage, onions and jalapeños; and onion, green pepper and mushrooms. The breakfast pizza is offered all day. The morning menu also includes coffee and orange juice. The Domino’s in Dayton is the only U.S. branch of the chain to stay open 24 hours a day.

When it comes to breakfast away from home during the week, “portability” and “convenience” are often top of mind for today’s foodservice consumers. The Technomic “The Breakfast Consumer Trend Report 2009” showed 48% of consumers skipped breakfast during the week (as opposed to the weekend) because they didn’t have time. This explains in large part the popularity of breakfast sandwiches: 77% of consumers indicated they always/most times/sometimes purchase breakfast sandwiches when they purchase breakfast away from home during the week. The inherent portability and convenience of individual-sized pizza or pizza slices plays directly to these consumer needs. Technomic’s recent “The Pizza Consumer Trend Report 2010” revealed that:

30% of consumers say that they would be highly likely to order individual-sized pizzas if these options were available;
22% of consumers say that they would like portable, handheld pizza snacks to be more widely available;

This suggests that consumers would welcome new pizza offerings that were smaller and could be taken easily to go. If more pizza operators offered small pizzas, or a wider range of pizza-by-the-slice items that would be securely packaged to go, they could perhaps see increased traffic during the breakfast daypart.

Experts Say Breakfast Now Sixth Most Important Meal Of The Day

mmandeltort — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:04:23 +0000

Courtesy of the Onion:

WASHINGTON—A new report from the Food and Drug Administration has found that breakfast, once considered the most important meal of the day, has now slipped to sixth place, below brunch and just above midnight snack. “Significant gains by lunch and dessert badly damaged breakfast’s standing in the late 1990s,” culinary analyst Myron Jeffries said. “Add to that the blockbuster debut of second-breakfast in 2007 and a renewed interest in leftover-pizza pre-lunch, and breakfast is in a downward spiral it may never recover from. Especially considering the popularity of super-brunch.” The makers of Eggo frozen waffles reportedly expressed no concern at the news, as waffle-dinner is still holding strong at No. 3

Better Off Bread

mmandeltort — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:38:36 +0000

“Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad but bread is king.”
Louis Bromfield, American novelist (1896-1956)

“I am proud to be an American. Because an American can eat anything on the face of this earth as long as he has two pieces of bread.”
Bill Cosby, American comedian

James Beard observed that “America is a confirmed sandwich nation. Everywhere you go you find sandwich stands, sandwich shops.” (It should be noted that the sandwich is a decidedly un-American invention. It was first conceived in Sandwich, England by the 18th century English nobleman, John Montagu, better known as the 4th Earl of Sandwich for whom the dish is named.) Industry wide, sandwiches are menued in full- and limited-service restaurants more than any other type of entrée. Additionally, the Hamburger and Other Sandwich menu categories alone account for nearly half of the total LSR industry revenue.

Chefs.com estimates that Americans eat 300 million sandwiches a day (According to Technomic’s 2010 Sandwich Consumer Trend Report, 93% of consumers say they eat at least one sandwich each week.) This means that 600 million slices (give or take) of bread are consumed as well.

Technomic’s 2010 Sandwich Consumer Trend Report shows that consumers prefer Italian, whole-wheat and French bread more than other bread varieties for sandwiches eaten at lunch and dinner.

However, some operators have decided, that when it comes to sandwiches, that man indeed cannot live by bread alone.

Take for example KFC’s Double Down, a “sandwich” which eschews bread altogether. KFC describes the Double Down as a “one-of-a-kind sandwich” featuring two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce:

For those with dietary concerns, the crispy version weighs in at a robust 540 calories with 32 grams of fat and 1,380 milligrams of sodium. However, the DD is a veritable tea sandwich compared with McDonald’s Angus Bacon & Cheese Burger which tops the scales at 790 calories, 39 grams of fat and 2,070 milligrams of sodium. Who said fried foods were bad for you?

The Gateway Grizzlies, a independent Frontier League baseball team by way of Sauget, IL , set the culinary world on it’s ear in 2006 when they offered fans a unique sandwich made with a hamburger, cheese and bacon, all sandwiched between a Krispy Kreme doughnut:

It was rumored to pack a trencherman like 1,000 calories per serving.

The Mossy Creek Café (“Located in Fishersville (VA) near the train underpass and across from the Library) offers the “Chubby Melt” ($9.00), described on their menu as “Our Big Mossy Burger topped w/ mushrooms, onions, Thousand Island dressing served between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches.” Yes, 2 grilled cheese sandwiches:

Jerry’s Famous Deli keeps alive Bennigan’s legacy alive with their Golden Monte Cristo, a Ham, Turkey, Bacon, Swiss Cheese, Deep Fried Egg Bread Sandwich with Preserves and Fruit or Apple Sauce:

So, though bread may be the king of the table, when it comes to sandwiches, it’s clear that virtually anything (or nothing) goes. To learn more about trends and opportunities for foodservice operators when it comes to sandwiches, be sure to check out the Technomic’s 2010 Sandwich Consumer Trend Report.

Snack Attack – Baby, We Were Born Graze

mmandeltort — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:48:12 +0000

Homer Simpson:“Man, you should come over to our place. It’s full of valuable worthless crap.”
John: “Well, if you’re inviting me over … “
Homer Simpson:“I practically insist! Shall we say five o’clock? The snacking hour?”

Some anthropologists would argue that snacking is simply human nature. That sitting down to large meals at designated times through out the day is an anomaly born of the evolution of homo-sapiens from hunter-gathers to farmers to industrial producers. Our early ancestors probably viewed planet Earth as one big convenient store, grabbing food whenever and wherever it was available throughout the day (Paradoxically enough, other early predators tended to regard humans as one of the first forms of “fast food”). Our biology means that we are hard wired to eat a small amount of food at regular intervals during the day.

So it should not be surprising that snacking continues to be a significant (and growing) part of our dining behavior. According to the Technomic 2010 Snacking Occasion Consumer Trend Report more than half of consumers polled (55%) say that they snack at least once a day and a quarter of consumers (26%) say they typically consume more than one snack each day. Furthermore, a fifth of those polled (21%) say that they are snacking more frequently than they were two years ago. A fifth of consumers overall (21%) and 28% of respondents aged 18–24 say they are snacking more often today than they were two years ago.

According to consumers, fresh fruit is the most frequently consumed mid-afternoon snack with more than two out of five consumers (41%) saying that they often eat fruit as a snack between lunch and dinner.

Consumer research indicates that snack consumption peaks during the mid-afternoon; more than two-thirds of consumers polled (68%) say that they typically eat a snack between lunch and dinner. Additionally, more than a third of consumers usually snack in the mid-evening (36%) or later at night (38%), while 30% do so in the morning.

Perhaps anthropologist can explore the link between video display screens and snacking. More than three out of four consumers (77%) say that they are usually watching TV at home when they consume snacks. Many consumers also indicate that they often eat a snack when using the computer (47%). What? No data on the percentage of people snacking in front of a smart phone or any device that Apple makes? I’ve heard that the IPad makes an ideal interactive TV tray. On a personal note, I often find working on the computer drives people to drink but that is topic for another study.

Among restaurants, fast-food burger concepts are top of mind for snacking occasions. A majority of respondents (55%) purchase snacks from fast-food hamburger restaurants at least occasionally. 40% of consumers purchase snacks from other fast-food restaurants.

McDonalds Snack Wraps (launched July 2006): come in crispy and grilled chicken versions (Ranch, Honey Mustard., Chipotle) as well as the newest variety, the Mac Snack Wrap: lettuce, onions, cheese, special sauce, half a beef patty all rolled up in a flour tortilla.

Wendy’s Chicken Go Wraps (launched April 2008): come in Homestyle, Grilled and Spicy chicken varieties.

Dunkin’ Donuts Twisters (launched in April 2010): feature Dunkin’ Donuts’ bagels twisted into a more portable, easy-to-eat shape, available in Cheddar Cheese, Cinnamon Raisin, Sour Cream and Onion, Pretzel Salt, Blueberry and French Toast.

KFC Snacker (launched in March 2005): all white meat double-breaded chicken strips topped with lettuce and pepper mayo sauce, served on a sesame seed bun, available in Plain, Buffalo, HBBQ, and Cheese versions. There is also a fish version. (KFC may be the flat-out leader in QSR snack offerings: popcorn chicken, crispy strips, wings (boneless and bone-in), and Twisters (crispy and grilled – white meat chicken strips with lettuce, tomatoes, and pepper mayo sauce – all wrapped together in a tortilla.

Consumer data shows that 19% of consumers have changed their definition of a traditional snack over the past two years. Since 2008, more consumers are saying that their idea of what constitutes a snack has expanded to include more types of food. For operators, this means greater opportunity to tap into a burgeoning meal daypart.

Finesse Cuisine Hour With Jon Wool – 1/7/10

mmandeltort — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:52:32 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of appearing as a guest on the Finesse Cuisine Hour with Jon Wool located at BlogTalk Radio on your Internet Radio dial. Finesse Cuisine is rated Chicagoland’s finest and most inventive catering company. Jon Wool and weekly guest talk about entrepreneurship, arts,entertainment, food and wine. Just click on the player below to listen in as we talk about food trends and happenings in the foodservice industry.

Breakfast Epiphany

mmandeltort — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:52:02 +0000

I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast at any time”.
So I ordered French toast during the Renaissance.
Steven Wright

Breakfast is a culinary conundrum. Consider the following:

Widely regarded as the most important meal of the day yet breakfast is the meal most Americans like to avoid all together. As the recently released 2009 Technomic Breakfast Consumer Trend Report noted, 59% of consumers skip breakfast at least once a week.

The Center for Disease Control reported that in 2007 25.6% of adults over the age of 20 were obese yet the most frequently cited reason (48%) for skipping breakfast is that people were not hungry. Nearly a fifth of consumers (19%) believe that it is a healthy choice to skip breakfast.

So when we are not skipping breakfast entirely, what exactly are we doing for breakfast? Quite a bit actually, according to the 2009 Technomic Breakfast Consumer Trend Report:

Consumption

Consumers are less likely to skip breakfast on the weekend, with 40% saying they never skip breakfast on these occasions, compared to 30% of consumers who skip during the week. 45% of consumers skip breakfast on the weekend because they are not hungry and 29% say they don’t have time to eat breakfast.

Consumers are much more likely to eat breakfast en route during the week (58%) than on the weekend (37%) for away-from-home breakfast occasions.

Cooked breakfast foods are top of mind for weekday breakfast occasions, with most consumers saying they eat breakfast sandwiches (77%), eggs (72%) and breakfast potatoes (69%) at least occasionally.
49% of consumers usually or always purchase coffee to accompany their away-from home breakfast meals during the week.

Purchasing Decisions

38% women and 31% of men say they would be highly likely to purchase breakfast foods during other parts of the day if they were offered at limited-service restaurants.

46% of consumers indicate interest in breakfast foods that are served all day at full service restaurants.

33% of consumers report that it is too expensive to get breakfast at fast-casual restaurants during the week and 46% say the same of breakfast options offered at coffee shops.

Attitudes

43% of consumers said that they think it is faster and more convenient to eat breakfast at home and 34% think that grab-and-go breakfasts from home are faster than foodservice options.

24% of consumers indicate that they would likely visit full-service restaurants more often during the week if time was not an issue.

49% of consumers surveyed were in strong agreement that the food they eat at home is healthier than anything they could buy at a restaurant or convenience store and 48% think it is important that they eat a nutritious breakfast.

So what does this all mean to operators? The fact that many consumers routinely skip breakfast during the week suggests that operators may not be satisfying the needs of all consumers with regards to breakfast. To capture a larger share of stomach, operators should pay increased attention to their customers needs at breakfast, offer menu items that are highly portable, can be prepared quickly and can be offered at competitive price points.

To Bulgogi Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

mmandeltort — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:40:00 +0000

It’s a stone cold lead pipe lock: Korean food will be the next big thing. No, I really mean it this time. Now I admit there have been some false starts in the past:

2006 – Slashfood posted an article about Korean royal cuisine (surasan,) which appeared in The Korea Times leading some bloggers to hail Korean cuisine as the next big thing.

2007 – New York Magazine in their “Cheap Eats” section declared “2007 will go down as the year KFC took on another, much more delicious meaning … Korean fried chicken, an inspired, delectable variation of our homegrown kind, has reached critical mass.”

2008 – Flavor and The Menu speculated that “If Korean food is not as well known among non-Asians as, say, Japanese or Thai food, just wait a bit; its time is about to come.”

But as the end of 2009 looms, there is no doubt Korean cuisine has arrived. In fact, to make sure that Korean cuisine is not some mere flash in the pan, the Korean government has launched a global “Hansik” initiative. The $42mm program’s goals include:

Increasing the number of Korean restaurants to 40,000 worldwide by the year 2017.

Opening a new kimchi institute to develop various kinds of the pickled vegetable and other fermented Korean food items to attract more foreign tastes.

The program’s ultimate goal is to make Korean cuisine “one of the five most popular ethnic foods in the world.” World domination aside, Korean food has truly begun to capture the imagination of the American dining public, lead by the most unlikely of segments: mobile food trucks and fried chicken.

Mobile food trucks such as Kogi BBQ, Calbi, The Krave , Marination and Koi Fusion bring contemporary Korean fusion cuisine to the masses:

Seoul Sliders @ Koi Fusion – Bulgogi BBQ beef, shredded Nappa cabbage, griddled onions, crisp bean sprouts and spicy mayo.

Spam-a-Lot Short Rib Burger @Kogi BBQ – Toasted Bun, Coconut Lime Chilli Spread, Short Rib, Spam Goodness, Grilled Mushrooms, Onion Cilantro Lime Relish, cheddar cheese and jack cheese.

Kimchee Quesadillas @ Marination – flour tortilla, kimchee (Korean pickled cabbage), jalapeno peppers, kalua pork and melted cheese.

Korean food trucks have even attracted mainstream attention. Baja Fresh Mexican Grill chief executive David Kim and investors acquired Calbi earlier this year. Calbi is one of the first in Los Angeles to offer the concept to potential franchise operators.

Unlike food trucks whose success is driven by Korean fusion cuisine, Korean Fried Chicken concepts offer a distinctly Korean treat albeit with one concession to the realities of the American marketplace. Korean chickens are much smaller than their American counterparts, so whole chickens are fried and hacked up into bite-size pieces. Larger American chickens are a challenge to cook evenly hence the need for Korean-style chicken places here to serve mostly wings and drumsticks. The distinguishing feature of Korean-style fried chicken is its thin, crackly and almost transparent skin – think Peking Fried Chicken. The chicken is typically finished with either a sweetish garlic-soy glaze or a hotter red-pepper sauce. The other notable feature of Korean style fried chicken restaurants is their quirky names. To wit: Unidentified Flying Chickens (NYC), Bon Chon Chicken (NYC), Chicken Day (LA) Toreore Chicken and Joy (Chicago), and Cheogajip Pizza and Chicken Love Letter (Chicago).

There is even a Korean fast casual chain taking food hold in the United States. Sorabol currently has 13 units in California and 1 in Nevada. More are planned for Seattle, DC and NYC. The menu features traditional Korean Barbecue including Kalbi (barbecued short ribs), Bul Gogi (barbecued beef) and Dak Guyee (barbecued chicken). A variety of Asian noodle dishes are offered as well.

Next on the culinary horizon: Klingon. Trust me.