Dishes are constantly evolving. However, with people sharing more of their eating habits online than ever before – combined with our constant hunger for content – unusual and little-heard-of dishes are sweeping the globe.
As the appetite for the extraordinary grows, unconventional flavour pairings are being thrust into the limelight – and on to our plates (multicoloured cloud bread, anyone?)
Food combinations that push culinary boundaries are emerging to blur the lines between culinary habits that the majority of diners would consider tasty and what they might have once deemed terrible.
Here are some peculiar food trends to sample.
In Japan, Disneyland staff will gladly douse your popcorn in soy sauce. Soy is also the ingredient used when making Japanese jibachi senbei, also known as wasp crackers, which are biscuits made with dead wasps.
In India, it’s common to add salt to a fizzy drink such as Sprite or 7UP, as a home-made energy drink to replenish electrolytes. This works because sodium helps glucose to be absorbed more easily by our body’s fluids.
Another unlikely, yet remarkably popular, combination is French fries and ice cream. Some foodies will tell you this sweet and savoury pairing is not new, but it reached dizzying heights recently when Filipino fast food chain Jollibee used TikTok to tease its ice cream-loaded fries topped with chocolate sauce and coconut. Disgusting, right? Wrong. The dish sparked a feeding frenzy as fans salivated at the mere thought of the tasty treat. The clip clocked up more than 3 million views with thousands of comments from eager foodies around the globe desperate to try the viral creation.
Ice cream can be paired with a number of things – perhaps none more shocking than what Tristin Farmer, chef of three Michelin-starred restaurant Zen in Singapore, dined out on during a recent trip to Australia. “During a culinary journey to Sydney I tried fish-eye ice cream, as well as chocolate tart and caviar at Saint Peter restaurant. It was delicious,” he tells The National.
Farmer, who was trained by Gordon Ramsey, is no stranger to odd food pairings and believes it’s all part of being a chef. “We are always experimenting in our test kitchen with flavours because ‘weird’ is subjective,” he says. “The culinary scene has no boundaries and we are pushed to innovate and experiment. I have been tasked to make a kinmedai dish that included chicken fat, sprouted walnut rice, fish garum, uni and fish scales.”
As for Farmer’s own “strange” food tastes, he says, “Being Scottish, I am a big fan of haggis and I did grow up on crisp sandwiches.”
If fish eyes and ice cream weren’t odd enough, how does fish and custard sound? For fans of British TV series Doctor Who, April 3 is known as Fish fingers and Custard Day. Super-fans pay homage to actor Matt Smith by eating the unusual dish – just as the actor did in the The Eleventh Hour episode of the hit BBC show – and posting about it online.
Celebrities are no strangers to getting behind unexpected food and beverage trends, either. Take “pilk” for instance – the stomach-churning mix of Pepsi and milk, which became a thing across the US when actress Lindsay Lohan appeared in a commercial for the American soda giant’s latest festive campaign.
The advert was created to capitalise on the rise of mixing liquids such as coconut cream with fizzy pop, also known as a “dirty soda”. This trend caught the eyes of Gen Z when pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo posted a snap on Instagram holding a cup from US drinks chain Swig – the apparent home of the dirty soda.
Another food trend that took off with the help of a celebrity was the mustard-on-watermelon craze. Rapper Lizzo tried the snack in a clip that has been viewed more than 34 million times on TikTok, and was subsequently tried by hoards of her 30 million followers. Mustard on watermelon isn’t easily found in restaurants in the Middle East, but the combination perhaps isn’t as wacky as it sounds. “It makes me think of the mostarda from Italy, which is a candied fruit with mustard relish, that goes perfectly with cheese,” says Stephane Buchholzer, executive assistant manager of culinary and food and beverages for the Mina Seyahi Resort, Dubai.
Buchholzer tells The National that having spent his life in restaurant kitchens, he’s no stranger to odd food requests. “One gentlemen was very particular with his food and asked for a margherita pizza topped with banana and strawberry. We made it and he loved it. However, I tried it and had other views.”
Fruity pizza may not tickle Buchholzer’s taste buds, but he does admit to enjoying grilled goat’s cheese baguettes dunked in latte and “classic” salt and vinegar crisp sandwiches. He also gives the thumbs up to the peanut butter hamburger, which was first seen by many on Food Network’s hit show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The combination works as the nutty saltiness deepens the flavour of the meat and can also add moisture to the beef if added before cooking.
