Five best Chicago food trends of 2008

December 22, 9:51 AMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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Photo by Benjamin Earwicker

With so many innovative restaurants in Chicago, there's always something new and exciting just around the corner, but it's not until something really captures diners' interests that we begin to see a trend. Sometimes it's something that's reinvented or rediscovered, other times it's something we didn't even know we wanted...but now we want it. A lot.

This year in particular, we saw much debate over the role of food bloggers with regard to influencing restaurant trends. We are a foodie city, and diners have become both researchers and reporters when it comes to what we like and don't like. Sites like Yelp and the LTH Forum have become go-to guides for discriminating diners, offering first looks at brand new establishments, as well as critical insight into just about every other restaurant, bar or diner in the city.

And so I'd like to present a round-up of the five best food trends of 2008:

1. Bacon
   Okay, so admitting we're a pork town isn't exactly revelatory, but anyone with taste buds has to have noticed that bacon is everywhere lately, from all-you-can-eat baskets at Chinaski's and the Fifty/50, to bacon bloody marys at Sepia and baconcello at Osteria via Stato to recipes for bacon brownies, cookies and candy on multiple bacon-focused websites. There are even bacon air fresheners, bacon alarm clocks...it's well past the point of obnoxiousness, but I still maintain that it's one of the best food trends because it represents a return to the basics. It's comfort food that has managed to transcend both its traditional breakfast role as well as styles of cuisine in general, and for that I think it should be commended. 
   > Check out some of the best places in the city to get your bacon fix
    
2.  Pork Belly
   Wait, weren't we just talking about this? Well, pork belly is the uncured version of bacon and thus, I believe, deserves its own time in the spotlight. Urban Belly's ramen with pork belly has been lauded again and again as a top dish at the new restaurant; Lao Shanghai's braised pork belly with bean curd sauce is one of the most delicious things I've tasted all year; Sepia's Berkshire pork belly eggs benedict have me admitting I'm an addict; and Publican's potee is another great example of how, no matter how many ways you prepare pork, the tender belly reigns supreme.
   > Check out reviews of Sepia and Publican here.
    
3. Locavore Dining
   This is my favorite trend of 2008, and with good reason: It supports local farmers while providing us with the freshest food possible. There is certainly an argument to be made (as it was by David Tamarkin of Time Out Chicago) that local doesn't necessarily also mean organic and sustainable, but the Green City Market is proof that there are plenty of local farmers who are practicing sustainable, organic methods, and I believe that with the growing interest and support of responsible cooks--both home- and restaurant-based--the combined trend will become the norm in the near future.
   > Read more about the Green City market here.
   > Check out Mado for a restaurant experience that brings you as close to the farm as you can get (in a restaurant)
    
4. Cupcakes
   As someone who loves dessert and likes just about anything made into a sandwich, it's not difficult to see how I could also enjoy my BLT in cake form. Desserts trump sandwiches in my mind, but I embrace the opportunity to enjoy both at the same time. This is another trend that's nearly out-of-control, but the imaginative minds of the folks at More have me convinced that it can continue to evolve.
    > Read Chicago Dessert Examiner Stacy Warden's review of More here.
    
5. Foie Gras
   Returning to our city's menus within hours of the reversal of the silliest ban ever passed by a city council, it's clear that Chicago chefs and diners alike love fatty liver. Graham Elliot featured a "Foie-a-palooza" menu this summer; Bonsoiree (review coming up!) offers a dish called Duck Duck Goose, which offers both duck and goose foie; Hot Doug's was shut down for flouting the ban with its foie dog; other establishments, such as the Paramount Room, continued to dish out the illicit offal during the ban, albeit as a "complementary" side to the $15 french toast brioche app; and Kuma's Corner served up the decadent "City Council Burger" during June, topping one of its pretzel roll-ensconced burgers with foie.
   > Read more about Graham Elliot here
   > Check out the City Council Burger at Kuma's Corner here
   > See why Hot Doug's is one of the best places to take an out-of-towner here.

An honorable mention goes to the ever-so-appetizing-sounding trend of molecular gastronomy, which has brought us amazing, previously unimaginable tasting menus at some of Chicago's best known restaurants: Alinea,L20 and Schwa. 
> Experience a full 12-course dinner at Schwa here.