Food trucks are sooooo 2014! Are you over your quinoa, kale, and sharing food with your whole table? Let’s face it, if you wanted to share your food you would’ve just opened your house up to your mates and slapped a plate of Doritos and guac on the dining table and ended it already!
With all that in mind, here are some of our top food and bevvie trends that we see making its way to tables all over Canberra.
Eating your veggies, and eating them up real nice
Vegetarians rejoice, because 2015 will be the year that the protein/salad focus will be flipped on its head. Rather than building a dish around your meats, diners will be treated to dishes where the vegetables, grains and cheeses will the stars of the plate, and the meat will be used as the ‘side’.
Don’t know how that will work, but it will be interesting to see. Scratch that… interesting to eat.
Heading down to the farm
Now that we’re all another year older and wiser (ish), it’s time to find out where our food comes from. There will be a trend this year to visit the very farms and estates our food is grown or raised.
Pasture-raised farms (where animals are able to roam freely rather than be cooped up in cages etc.) will offer, if they don’t already, guided tours to allow us city folk a chance to see how the livestock gets from farm to plate. Check out Kindee Valley Farm or ask about tours at your local sustainable market.
Eating our Coat of Arms
Weird, right? But meats like kangaroo and even boar, goats and rabbits will be more of a focus in our dining this year. Granted, the latter three don’t make up our Coat of Arms but the wallaby is set to be a main meal too!
Why, you ask? Something to do with kangaroo being a great source of protein, which many of us will already know, but the other benefits include it being high in iron and being leaner meat than pork or beef. Plus, with Aussies being more adventurous with our food, it’s only natural chefs are on a search for different flavours to add to their menus. So you might be eating a very Game of Thrones-like meal sometime soon!
Craft Beer Bellies
Let’s face it, why have a summer in Canberra if you can’t enjoy a beaut bevvie in the outdoors? Craft beer is definitely here to stay, and you just might be surprised by how many times this year you will NOT be purchasing your beer on tap.
Even if you’re not a beer drinker, one sip of a local beer will turn you around. Locally produced beer from Bent Spoke Brewery in Braddon, Zierholz in Fyshwick and University of Canberra or the new Wig ‘n’ Pen in, yes, Llewellyn Hall will ensure you’re supporting our city’s best, too.
Cocktails even your tee-totalling Mother can handle
Cocktails get spicier, herbier or saltier in 2015, and will be so delicious you’ll probably not even feel the alcohol hit you until you’ve ‘broken the seal’ (so to speak), and have to get up and take your first (of many) bathroom break for the night. This year, things get savoury, with ingredients from what might be a herb garden. Think of Akiba or Knightsbridge Penthouse and you get the idea.
Hope it doesn’t take longer for service though!
