If there’s one word diners will know how to spell backwards by this time next year, it’s “vadouvan”. In 2024, the aromatic spice blend appeared on menus all over Victoria, from old-school pubs and seafood joints to Japanese fine-diners. The single-serve scallop was the entree of the moment, stuffed chicken wings gave new life to a cut often relegated to the stock pot and saffron’s sunny hue infused rice, pasta and even cocktails.
Among the many highs of eating out for a living, there are always a few lows. This list of what’s hot (and what’s not) is part gratitude journal, part outlet for the mundane gripes of two people who perhaps spend too much time in restaurants. Take it all with a grain of salt, just as we wrote it with tongue firmly in cheek.
HOT: In skewers we trust Eating the way our ancestors did must awaken a primal response. Why else would wooden batons threaded with charred meat, preserved seafood and marinated eggs give us so much pleasure? Snacks were speared at fancy fine diners, Spanish wine bars, neon-lit Sichuanese restaurants and fun Filipino spots in proof that nearly every culture loves to impale an ingredient. Skewers bridge high and low, they’re hand-held (circumventing the faulty cutlery that’s plagued us of late, see below), and they don’t warrant sharing.
Is there anything they can’t do? COLD: Wonky forks If we’re forking out a few hundred bucks for dinner, is it too much to ask that our tines are aligned? An astounding numbe.
