Would You Try the 10 Weirdest Food Trends of 2017?

Just what are people doing to much loved, regular food? Some bizarre trends as food for thought – how many of these weird/ quirky food trends will you try?

Gold and silver leaf/flakes

By far one of the most confusing of the recent food trends is our newest obsession with gold. People are eating gold leaf, drinking gold flakes, and rubbing gold all over their faces. Apparently the metal has an anti-ageing effect, lightens skin, and doesn’t taste like metal when you spread it on your pizza. Some people think that the flakes have no nutritional benefit but adding a little gold dust to your milkshake would make anyone feel like royalty.

Photo: Toukou Sousui via Flickr

Ube

People love to use food coloring to make eating more fun but the recent Ube craze gives you a health boost while turning your waffle purple! Ube is essentially a purple yam from the Asian tropics that is extremely sweet and can be used as a laxative (uh oh). The potato is adding a colorful twist to the American foodie scene.

Photo: Adventure Girl Horizons via Flickr

Unicorn style foods

A strictly stylistic food trend (don’t worry no unicorns were harmed in the making of this food) is the unicorn. A mash up of pastel blues, greens, pinks, and purples with some sparkly sprinkles is all you need to create unicorn anything (and I mean anything). Milkshakes, candy brittle, cakes, icecream, someone even made a unicorn cookie that poops star shaped sprinkles. One cafe in California makes exclusively unicorn style foods and it is a truly pink and sparkly site.

Photo: Michael Pollak via Flickr

Crazy desserts (loaded milkshakes, rolled ice cream, etc.)

From fully loaded milkshakes with whole pieces of cake on top to rolled ice cream, crazy desserts have been a part of the foodie scene since cronuts. Now we have donut ice cream sandwiches, a shop that serves raw cookie dough instead of ice cream, and melting bubbles of chocolate that reveal piles of treats underneath. The changing picture of desserts is truly fascinating to watch and taste as pastry chefs move from taste to aesthetics.

Photo: insatiablemunch via Flickr

Zucchini pasta

Turn your veggies into strings! This trend replaces regular pasta with thin strings of zucchini or other vegetables to make a colorful, tasty, and healthy gluten free alternative to traditional italian dishes. You can also use spaghetti squash for another delicious veggie pasta dish.

Photo: jules via Flickr

Cauliflower pizza crust

A great gluten free alternative to regular pizza crust, this trend in pizza making is blowing up the weird food world. Just combine cauliflower with cheese, egg, and spices and spread it out to create a delicious crust. Using mashed cauliflower can transform pizza into a healthy treat.

Photo: jules via Flickr

Experimenting with Macarons

These tiny french cookies have been blowing up on social media as bakers and cookie lovers alike are experimenting with the flavor, color, and design of the treat. Macarons are an egg, almond powder, and sugar based cookie that create a sandwich with buttercream, ganache, or jam filling. The cookies have been stacked, gold topped, painted every color imaginable, and now people are making them even weirder. A giant macaron ice cream sandwich came out of a restaurant in New York City recently and the cookie is just getting started.

Photo: Kristin via Flickr

Cotton candy

A staple at any ball game or county fair, cotton candy is pretty much just air and sugar formed into a puffy cloud. That is why so many people are using the sweet treat as a topper or base for some strange confections. On top of a cup while hot chocolate or coffee is poured over it makes for a great magic trick that will sweeten up any drink. The cloud is also used as a bed for ice cream or a topper for milkshakes. The most beautiful new cotton candy trend is definitely the art of the candy itself. Street vendors all over the world are layering different color clouds to form beautiful flowers and other rainbow designs.

Photo: F_A via flickr

Acai (smoothie bowls)

Native to Trinidad, Brazil, and northern South America, this deep purple berry has be named a superfood by popular U.S. food trends. The fruit is commonly used in smoothies, and, as the smoothie bowl trend takes hold across the tables of America, acai is getting a reboot.

Photo: insatiablemunch via Flickr

Matcha

This powdered green tea has been popular in hipster food circles for a while now but the monster drink is getting a makeover in 2017. A new store in NYC is making everything, and I mean everything, into a green delight. From the classic matcha tea to slushees and soft serve, this green splattered store is getting creative with matcha.