BY CAROL LEE
DORITOS WITH CAVIAR AND COCKTAIL: PHILIP FRIEDMAN. YUZU AND MSG: GETTY IMAGES. COTTAGE CHEESE BOWL: LORI YATES (FOXESLOVELEMONS.COM).
Great Gadgets
Now that we’ve all become coffee experts at home, we’re adding more drinks to the menu. Searches for home beverage stations are up by 71 percent on Houzz! Gear up for smoothies with these fun finds.
Cocktail News
A total solar eclipse will take place on April 8, and some celebratory cocktails are in order! We created a drink made with Galaxy Syrup, a new mixer from Torani that has raspberry and rum notes—it’s the brand’s flavor of the year ($12; torani.com). There’s a legitimate outer-space connection: Scientists have discovered that ethyl formate, a chemical that gives raspberries their taste, is floating around the galaxy.
Freezer Fave
Frozen dumplings have gained a following over the last couple of years, and now it’s possible to enjoy great ones at home from popular Chinese restaurants. You can order from Xiao Chi Jie in Bellevue, WA (eatmila.com) and Mamahuhu in San Francisco (eatmamahuhu .com); Washington DC’s Laoban Dumplings are available at Whole Foods.
Cool Condiments
Compound butters typically found in posh restaurants are making their way to grocery stores. Banner Butter and Kerrygold have launched savory flavors, and Challenge Butter released a new sweet lemon-flavored spread.
Big Comeback
This umami-rich seasoning is finally getting the credit it deserves. The FDA recently endorsed MSG as a salt substitute, and 75 percent of the global social media conversation about MSG is now positive, according to the data company Mintel. Try adding a dash of MSG to something unexpected, like a brownie or a martini.
Viral Bite
Thanks to America’s obsession with protein, cottage cheese has become everybody’s new (old) favorite ingredient. The hashtag #cottagecheese has racked up more than 1 billion views on TikTok, and Aldi shoppers voted the store’s cottage cheese the number one “TikTok Made Me Buy It” food. Viral hits include cottage cheese bowls, cottage cheese avocado toast, cottage cheese chocolate mousse and cottage cheese ice cream. The cheesy ideas will just keep on coming!
Hot Appliance
Your oven could become your new personal chef: Samsung’s Bespoke AI Oven can recognize 80 dishes and ingredients and recommend a cooking mode, time and temperature. It also has a camera inside so you can watch and live-stream whatever you’re making. And it’ll send out an alert if the dish is close to burning! $3,849; samsung.com
Fruit of the Year
This citrus has been showing up on menus for a while now, but its popularity is at an all-time high: Google searches for yuzu have tripled in the past year. While it’s usually found in marinades, dipping sauces and salad dressings, the fruit is breaking into sweeter territory, including macarons and smoothies. If you want to add some to your pantry, a new company called Yuzuco (theyuzu.co) will ship cold-pressed yuzu to your door.
Food Culture
Food and drinks are the latest muses for makeup, hair and nail trends!