Food Trends:

The following assignment was submitted on Oct. 11, 2017 by Morgan B Lee during her studies at The New School

Food Trends: The other other Mediterranean

France, Italy, Spain and Greece have dominated the scene in terms of what people think of when they think of Mediterranean Cuisine, especially with regards to upscale dining. It seems as thought this idea of the Mediterranean restaurant is tired and played out, but with so much focus on these European countries, the other half of the Mediterranean had been virtually ignored by trendy restauranteurs: until now. Soon restaurants will start to pop up featuring the “new” Mediterranean highlighting cuisines from countries in the Middle East and North Africa that border the east and south of the sea. Paving the way are restaurants like Illili a very popular and trendy Lebanese restaurant that purports having “inspired Mediterranean cuisine”. Nur is another Middle Eastern restaurant with nods to Israeli Cuisine, another country of the ignored Mediterranean. The trend of restaurants that feature ‘elevated’ cuisines from cultures where the traditional means of interaction is through fast casual or street food began with Asian Cuisines such as Cantonese Dim Sum, Thai, and Sichuan and has now found its way to this forgotten or frankly, avoided section of the Mediterranean. Furthermore, this trend is not bound within the limits of New York; in Montreal there is a Syrian restaurant called Damas that offers a $75 tasting menu of Syrian food, something that would be unimaginable even a couple of years ago. The trend is budding now and will grow throughout 2018 as it’s becoming more and more clear that restaurant patrons are looking for something fresh. And good, because the beaches are just as beautiful, the waters just as warm and the food just as worthy of a fine dining audience.