2025 Smash or Pass

My opinion on this year’s trend predictions

Jan 13, 2025

Red Curry Chicken Dumplings from Saturday Dumpling Company. Dumplings are almost always a smash.

We are a week and a half into 2025 now! How are you feeling? Did you make any resolutions or are you holding out until the astrological new year this spring?

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I have come up with some hopes and dreams for 2025 and it is mostly to keep doing what I’ve already been doing. I want to get better at texturing milk for coffee drinks thanks to our new *real* espresso machine. Maybe this will be the year I learn to knit, or maybe not! I would like to keep prioritizing my health and body since my surgery last year brought some things into focus. I think it would be a good idea to get trained to administer Narcan so I can carry some on me and be helpful in a crisis situation. My husband and I are traveling again this spring, so I guess going to Ireland is also on my list but does it count if it’s already planned and the deposits are paid? Anyway, I hope that you are doing what is best for your brain moving into this year.

As I was researching for this newsletter, I found almost nothing specific to the upper Midwest. There was a very brief article from MSP Mag highlighting food trends in the Twin Cities, which mostly highlighted already bustling neighborhoods (NE Minneapolis) and restaurants with famous chefs that allegedly spend more on marketing than health insurance or wages for their staff. What I want is for someone to reach out to many local grocery stores (not just the fancy ones like Kowalski’s or Lund’s) to ask what people are buying. I want someone to highlight a neighborhood that is getting more popular and has excellent restaurants without a Michelin star or James Beard award. I’d like someone to analyze how local restaurants of all price points have shifted their menus over the last year and report on that. Modern journalism breaks my heart every day.

And so, here are my opinions on the vast “trends” predicted nationally. The Midwest is usually a few years behind the coasts on all kinds of trends so those listed below are things you will see take off here soon!

SMASH

Here are the trend predictions I am happy to see, eager to make, and will be thrilled to eat.

Cannabis drinks. Many of them are straight up not good taste wise so I am ready for more on the market and to encourage the mid ones to be better.
Classic sodas. After years of kombucha and “healthy” sodas making a rise, the regular shmegular pop will come back into food fashion. I, for one, have loved having a 12 pack of 7up Shirley Temples in the fridge to use as a mixer with mocktails or to split with my husband on a weekend, cut with lemon bubble water.
Cookbook clubs. The thing about “leaning into community” that has been such a popular public topic lately is that people have to actually commit, and if they (you, we) do, the friendships gained and delicious bites will be well worth it. I’m a huge fan of niche clubs, and this one I’m particularly happy to see on this list - duh. Come to an Audrey’s Cookbook Club in 2025!
Dumplings. I had a delightful duck dumpling with kimchi, peanut chili crisp, and sweet cabbage at Herbst with a friend at the end of 2024 that was one of my best bites of the year. I swung by Saturday Dumpling Company in the first few days of 2025 with another friend where we had the rotating dumpling (Red Curry Chicken) alongside pickled celery and was sad the meal was ending when I ate my last dumpling. Happy to see dumplings on here, and I will be picking up a bag of them from the freezer aisle next time I’m at the store.
High-low pairings. This combo is a tale as old as time not just in the food landscape, but also in fashion and decor for decades (centuries?). Get one very expensive ingredient like caviar, Wagyu beef, saffron, Manuka honey, and eat it with the cheapest thing you can get your hands on for a balance of the wallet and a little fun kitsch to make the day extra special.
Melon. This fruit has a bad reputation for being the worst fruit in a fruit salad. Growing up I hated what my grandma called “muskmelon”, which she ate by the bowlful. The last couple of years, we have gotten the most beautiful melons in our CSA box and they are so sweet and juicy I have to tuck a napkin into the collar of my shirt when I eat them. If you are not yet convinced on melons, wait until late summer and go to your local co-op to splurge on a ripe melon. Sprinkle some flaky salt on it or pair with some prosciutto or salami. You won’t be sorry.
Retro foods with a modern flair. Shrimp cocktail - yes. Deviled eggs - yes. Meatloaf - yes. Jell-o - yes. Imagine a lamb meatloaf with za'atar spices or a jell-o dessert with lemongrass or calamansi (very trendy flavors right now). I’m so in!
Sauces. I love a sauce. I will dip almost anything in ranch and I am a sucker for a pan gravy alongside some seared chicken. Making sauce, dip, dressings, etc. from scratch is a great joy of mine as I try to find the perfect balance of salty, sweet, tang for most meals. One of the best cookbooks of last year, Saucy: 50 Recipes for Drizzly, Dunk-able, Go-To Sauces to Elevate Everyday Meals by Ashley Boyd, would be a perfect guide to bring some extra flavor to your kitchen this year. Imagine making a different sauce every week and cooking your way through the whole book while exploring new flavors?! My personal heaven.
Snack plates and snack salads. These are a longtime favorite meal of mine (hello Girl Dinner), and people will naturally expand their love of charcuterie to snack plates. I’m here for it, and will gladly participate in the joy of snicky snacking the day away with a few pals or while I’m reading or crafting.

PASS

Leave these in 2024.

AI and grocery shopping. AI is a nightmare for humanity and for the planet. It is being used for things that a human brain should be able to do, and is taking up so many resources. Do not use it, I beg of you.
Crunchy texture everything. Americans are obsessed with crunch. It’s one thing that defines our tastes as a country. I will continue to want something crunchy with most of my meals, but I’m not sure we need to focus more time and energy on that. It doesn’t feel new to me. Plus, just to be contrarian for a second, when is it time for slimy textures and softness? What if I want some of that now and I don’t want to wait until all my teeth fall out?
Fast flavor. I’m tired of everyone (including me) saying that they are so busy. It’s time to slow down and do less. Maybe just start with thawing your meat ahead of time so you can actually salt your chicken a day ahead to get more flavor. Dare to let a dish develop some complexity you coax out as you listen to a record without a phone or multitasking in sight.
One-job appliances. I’ve always been over these. I don’t need a quesadilla maker. I will fry my quesadillas in a pan, thank you very much. I get that the Ninja Creami is trendy right now, and has a small “footprint” in the kitchen so it’s easy to store, but if you get five one-job appliances, the footprint of all of them is all of a sudden much larger than you expect.
Protein everything. I am begging you all to take a moment to consider things like “the protein trend” before buying in completely. Sure, maybe we all need to eat more protein, but we need to consider who benefits from convincing us that we need a new food or beverage product. When I saw protein water - WATER? - I screamed. This is the Atkins diet made over 20 years later.

*Note: I did not look at any articles that were behind a paywall (i.e. Bon Appetit, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The New York Times, and The Star Tribune).

I wish you many delightful meals and new flavors for this new year!

Things I Like

Vintage pics! I’m saving them to a Pinterest board for the shop’s social media throughout the year.
a selection from my Pinterest board!
Bright and bold solid sweaters to go along with my usual neutral palette
Photos of dirty dishes in the sink, a unifying experience - look for The Sink Project coming soon!
This Dill Pickle Cream Cheese sandwich
Chrissy Teigen’s Red Chicken Curry from her second cookbook, Cravings: Hungry for More stays in our rotation every couple of weeks during the winter. It’s a great way to use vegetables we have in the freezer from the summer CSA. A blate (real ones know) with the curry and rice feels warm and comforting without being weighed down thanks to the coconut milk, fresh herbs to garnish, and high veggie to meat ratio.