Food trends never die, they just take a mid-meal break. Don't believe us? Look no further than the "flavor tripping" trend. Which is to say, we hope you are stocked up on miracle fruit (A.K.A. Sideroxylon dulcificum) because the taste-confusing sensation that rocked the nation food bloggers five years ago is back, baby!
Wait, you missed the miracle fruit thing the first time? Here's the gist: Back in 2008 the foodie scene collectively lost its poo for synsepalum dulcificum berries, tiny little red guys which manage to confuse your taste buds into thinking sour foods taste sweet. Though the plants were not new, people went nuts. "Bacchanalian food tasting smackdowns" were held! Writers for once long-gone hip print magazines had side gigs selling the berries! It was madness, we tell you, MADNESS. And then it just stopped. Or, rather, it stopped being hip. After all, instead of needing special dealers to bring berries to your door you suddenly could just order them on Amazon. And we kind of forgot about them.
And then they came back. First we anecdotally started hearing more about the berry (i.e. one Gothamist staffer recently mentioned how they "really want to throw a flavor tripping party") and then events started showing up. Here's one on the new, odd party-finder site Speakeasy. And oh, on Thursday night Fatta Cuckoo on the LES is holding a flavor tripping dinner party (only $55 per person, make a reservation at 212-353-0570). And this isn't just any flavor tripping dinner. Oh, no. This a flavor tripping dinner whipped up by chef Homaro Cantu, who really ought to know how to handle the miracle fruit at this point. After all he just wrote a freaking diet cookbook about them, The Miracle Berry Diet Cookbook. A diet cookbook which actually kind of makes sense. Why eat cake if you can trick yourself into thinking a slice of lemon tastes as sweet? Move over South Beach!
Which is all well and good, but you know what also would have been nice? If maybe real tripping were to make a comeback before flavor tripping. We haven't seen a tab of LSD in ages.
