A recent article on Alternet tries to defend current "hipster" culture, by arguing that the media in general is merely "picking on" them. Log In I have to respectfully disagree, and it's not because I'm pushing 40 myself and no longer part of the "hipster" age demographic these days. I don't even directly have a problem with the people, it's the annoying food fads themselves - often fabricated and not even genuine to begin with. I'm merely angry at the "hipsters" for incessantly perpetuating them. Then the article tries to go all meta and argue that by being critical of hipsters for being status quo that that makes you a hipster yourself, and a hypocrite. I'm simply sick of all the bacon, kale, craft beer, paleo, etc... that is everywhere in the cooking community these days. You can barely find a food blog out there that isn't littered with recipes for "bacon wrapped this" or "blank with kale that", "quinoa this" or "coconut oil that", people beating their chests about their new paleo lifestyle, then instagramming some "cronut" the're pigging out on. Worse yet, bloggers feel compelled to write about these things even if they aren't personally that interested in them, simply for SEO purposes since these terms are generating buzz, and they want a piece of that traffic. It all becomes a giant repetitive echo chamber. Apparently some people relish in this phenomenon when something like this happens, but there are many of us out there that find it all really annoying.
So... you wanted to have a bit of a rant than? I honest don't have a clue what this is supposed to be asking about or what? I mean it's not really a question or an idea is it? I mean personally I've found the Internet to be a hive of echo chambers - that's what makes it so interesting really. Still I guess I can understand your ire even if I don't share it by any means.
Wait 'til you try this kale dip I learned about yesterday, LOL. Just kidding. Seriously, I think the food craze is something psychological that came out of need for comfort (post-recession). First, people ate at home because it was less expensive. Then food shows/personalities emerged a showed the public how to make simple meals/better/different/trendy/whatever. Some were simply indulgent but provided some euphoric feeling that I can only compare to the disco craze of the 70s. It's like a circle where the public has been exposed to so much negativity in their daily lives that having something like a bacon maple doughnut is such a treat. Only thing is that people have to eat so I'm not sure if this trend will die soon. I hope it doesn't .
I kind of get the irritation with food fads. For a while ,stores were selling bacon everything. Then they were selling red velvet everything, even Pop Tarts. Then they were selling sriracha everything and now they're selling pumpkin everything. I love sriracha so I was excited about sriracha becoming a food fad until I tasted some of the sriracha flavored products made by Lay's and Hormel and realized that they were terrible and contained fake chemicals instead of actual Thai sriracha chili sauce.
I am not a bandwagon person, but I do read articles about these various diets and evaluate them for myself. I feel that there is a lot to learn from different people's experiences, but that many of these diets are just to extreme to stick with in the long term, and for many people are too extreme to meet all their needs. I try to look at what they have to say and then make my own decision on whether any of what they have to say is right for me. I have gone gluten free and reduced my refined sugar to almost nothing and had really good success with that, my digestive system is definitely happier without the gluten. But that does not mean everyone needs to do that. I don't think we need to be picking on people for their dietary choices at all. If someone is really looking for solutions to physical issues they feel may be diet related, they may need to try several things before they find what works for their body best. I support healthy choices, if that means someone tries paleo or something else, good for them, they are making and effort to be healthy. If they decide that isn't the best plan for them and move on that's fine, they have learned from that experience and are that much closer to finding the plan that is best for them.
Your post is kind of off topic. We're not talking about healthy diets. We're talking about how certain foods become trendy to the point of being annoying. For example ,when bacon became trendy ,stores started selling bacon candy and bacon scented candles. When ciabatta became trendy, all the fast food places started selling sandwiches on ciabatta buns. Right now everything in the stores is pumpkin flavored. This is a fairly recent phenomenon because we didn't have trendy food fads when I was younger.
I see what you're saying, and I can't disagree entirely. I don't really spend much energy being annoyed by it, if anything it's almost amusing how "trendy" things like that can become, even in the cooking & foodie communities. Occasionally it even works out to my advantage, kale being a great example actually. I loved kale before it went super-fad, and it's much easier to find an excess of recipes for it now . I do think it's a little sad when people just jump from one trend to the other with it, but to each their own.
I understand what you are saying and it irritates me too but isn't it the same with everything though? Clothes, shoes, music, dances... everyone wants to get on the bandwagon to look cool or in the know with everyone else. Food is no different. There is also the push of media for the "eat healthy" that is merely propaganda for people to buy more into one thing then the other to make someones pockets fat. I guess it's just one of those things we just have to learn to deal with.
