As foodies, we are always on the lookout for cool new food trends. After lots of research, we’ve compiled our list of the top five 2011 food trends that are already making their Sacramento debuts.
•Food trucks and “pop up restaurants” will be cropping up in cities across the nation. Where to find one in Sacramento? As we mentioned yesterday, you can now find GoGi’s Korean BBQ, a pop-up-style cafe with a to-go window at 15th & L Streets (offering free tacos Jan18-21!), and starting January 31st, Mini Burger Truck (MBT) will be canvassing the city – you’ll be able to track its daily location online and via Twitter. Due to a city ordinance that limits MBT’s ability to stay in one location, the truck will be moving about a block every 30 minutes. MBT will feature a “slider of the month” made with seasonal ingredients and a variety of sides to pick from, such as fresh salads, hand-cut French fries, sweet potato tater tots, crispy onions and fresh chips cut daily. Two of MBT’s recommended burgers are the “Cowtown” (bbq bacon burger with bbq sauce, bacon, crispy onions and pepper jack cheese) and the “Ninja Burger” (burger with Asian coleslaw, pea shoots, a lotus chip and sriracha aioli). A fresh veggie burger with a mushroom-based patty will also be offered. MBT uses local ingredients whenever possible and will be donating a portion of the proceeds from their seasonal slider to a different local charity each month. (Source)
•Food Apps for smartphones will become much more popular and localized in 2011. Raley’s recently launched a phone app that lets you view sale items for all Raley’s Bel Air and Nob Hill Food stores. Simply select your neighborhood store location to browse weekly specials any time, save items to your shopping list and even send the shopping list to someone via email. National phone apps, like Urbanspoon, VegOut and OpenTable are also making it even easier to find local restaurants. Urbanspoon creates a slot machine effect that spins neighborhood, cuisine type, and price to help you find a restaurant, while VegOut helps you find a restaurant with plentiful vegetarian choices, and OpenTable locates restaurant choices using GPS technology, while letting you know if there are tables currently available. (Source)
•Move aside cupcakes, because pies will be the new dessert trend of 2011. Local restaurants are already adding them to their dessert menus: the Waterboy Restaurant currently offers Boston Cream Pie, Capitol Garage boasts Peach Cobbler Pie, and Esquire Grill and Cafeteria 15L both have good old Banana Cream Pies on their dessert menus. And, in East Sacramento, The Real Pie Company uses local ingredients to make both sweet and savory pies you’ll love, such as their Coconut Cream Pie, Jumbleberry Peek-a-Boo Pie, Butterscotch Banana Cream Pie, and Chicken Pot Pie. (Source)
•Restaurants will be making an extra effort to feature seasonal ingredients on their menus and to use local produce, meat and seafood. Slow Food Sacramento is a local organization that gives the “Snail of Approval” to local restaurants that plan their menus around seasonal, local and organically grown foods. Some of those Sacramento “snail-approved” restaurants are the Waterboy Restaurant, HOT ITALIAN, Taylor’s Kitchen, Grange Restaurant, and Spataro Restaurant and Bar. (Source)
•In 2010, San Francisco became the first Meatless Monday city, will Sacramento be next? Meatless Monday is a nationwide public health campaign to reduce Americans’ meat consumption by 15 percent. Sacramento-area schools, universities, and organizations are now beginning to follow the trend. For example, Roseville’s Woodcreek High School has a Meatless Monday cafeteria menu, Carmita Restaurant in Fair Oaks supports the movement with $5 falafels on Mondays, and UC Davis has officially established Meatless Mondays on campus. Visit Meatless Monday’s website for a full list of the 150+ celebrities, organizations, universities, and individuals that have pledged their support to the Meatless Monday campaign. (Source)
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Moe Hong says
Please correct your article above – GoGi is not a food truck, but a cafe with a window in front. And I’m not sure how many trucks will pop up here until the City Council removes the regulations that effectively outlaw them in the city; you might have noticed that all the permanent-location trucks that actually serve fresh, made-to-order food have all gone out of business since the new regs went into effect, or else they’ve moved outside of the city limits.
sacfhoodies says
Hi Moe – Thank you for pointing that out, we have made this correction to the post. Thank you for reading SacFoodies!
Amber says
I always love reading your New Year’s predictions. Did last year’s come true? Will you have a recap? Great post! 🙂
SacForums says
I’ve been very happy with the burgers from Mini Burger Truck, but it can be difficult to plan to meet up with them… They’re in a different location every day, sometimes throughout the day, and their schedule can change without much notice due to any number of reasons, including weather, supplies, city ordinances, etc.