First, a year or two ago, cupcakes became a huge popular food fad. I just went to a little cafe that had a whole bunch of these new aged fancy cupcakes and they were actually moving them. I can't tell if this is a cool or not. In some ways I kind of like the idea of food fads. I'm a food centric person and I like it when people join me. However, I feel like a cupcake is a weak and cheap way out of a pastry. I mean I'm an Italian from NYC. A bacon topped cupcake isn't going to get me excited as much as a good "ganole" or Napoleon will. Or a good "bischut" with a cup of coffee or maybe some espresso. There are a hundred different old school Italian pastries that are truly masterfully crafted high art that don't get any love. Hell, it's even hard to find a good rainbow cookie nowadays. We make them ourselves with real almond paste. In this day and age it's tough to find them made this way, they usually make them cakey.
Here's our Rainbow Cookies:
That's a homemade Italian pastry right there. We're very proud of that. It was a lot of work, but the payoff is worth it. Those are 3 layers of almond with raspberry in between in a dark chocolate top and bottom (and sides if you're lucky enough to get that cut). This will cripple you. It's a perfect storm of sweetness and almond and chocolate married in a an incredible texture of substance. Toothsome.
To be indulgent, serve this with a good amaretto mixed with a bit of cream, ridiculous.
CAN YOU DO THAT WITH A CUPCAKE? Maybe I'm just a cupcake hater, but how are cupcakes knocking real pastries out? A cupcake is a small cake. That's fine, I like cake, but I think they're popular because they're popular now. And people are putting bacon on them and decorating them and just making them look new and different.
By the way, Bacon.
First let me say that the salty sweet thing is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Just because the homemakers of the 40's and 50's forgot this trick, doesn't mean that it isn't a long established principle of gastronomy. So is spicing non-spicey dishes. I use a bit of cayenne in some deserts to really stick some tastes to the palate. I learned that probably from Julia Childs. Regardless, none of that is new.
So, bacon. Now this is another largely unspoken trend that bothers me: Flavor Sledgehammers.
A friend of mine coined that term, and I'm stealing it. Bacon is a flavor sledgehammer. Bacon is also super popular right now because it is an internet meme that EVERYONE understands and can enjoy, but it's not like it's new. Now I like bacon too, but the thing is if you put bacon on something, it tastes like bacon, because it is a flavor sledgehammer much like the mountain of icing on top of the trendy cupcakes. It's difficult to give a hint of bacon because it's so strong and it is very difficult to blend the flavors without scaling things up massively.
I'm not going to qualify anything here because I am painting with a wide brush, but it's my BS post on my blog.
Suffice to say, flavor sledgehammers are big business lately. Cupcakes, with more icing than cake, bacon as a trendy gotcha, craft beers.....
Ah yeah, the hobby of fine drinking now accepts beer with trendy and clever breweries across the US, most of which are owned by Bud/Miller/Coors. I keep a case of Bud Light in my fridge at all times, so I'm not knocking that, I'm trying to say it's big business. The craft beers are great though, most of them, but notice that Pale Ales are taking off? Flavor sledgehammers. The bigger the better it seems, except you might as well say goodbye to your taste buds for a while because you won't be able to taste anything after you have one.
I feel like flavor sledgehammers are popular because of over stimulation. Artificial sweeteners among other things nuke our ability to see and understand what is going on on their palates and the ability to just get one HUGE taste is the right way to go. And oh, they won't eat or drink this or that because they want taste! They DEMAND TASTE! Of course they do.
Sometimes the right way to listen to a song is to turn the volume down.
Comment nazis must die.
ReplyDeleteCupcakes: Julie was watching cupcake wars last night, and my ears pricked up when I heard the word "sushi". I asked her WTF they were doing, and it turns out they were putting all kinds of meat in them. And caviar. The fad has jumped the shark.
ReplyDeleteFlavor sledgehammers: I think they are popular because they give people with shitty palettes something to do. I'm thinking about the bacon in Julie's carbonara, and how awesome it is in balance with the other elements of the dish. That's a far cry from topping a cupcake with bacon.