Round things that go pop in your mouth – Inventive food trends for 2012

One of the big food trends of 2012 is inventive bar food, especially tidy little balls that are easy to pick up and dip in multi-ethnic sauces, says San Francisco-based trend watcher Baum + Whiteman. I’ve always been a sucker for decadent stuff in miniature; it must be the natural correlation between guilt and portion size. This year, we should be seeing more “round things that go ‘pop’ in your mouth,” reported B+W, including sharable creative meatballs, falafel, risotto balls and other sphericals served with inventive sauces.

There’s terrific precedent in Baton Rouge for this trend. Historically, dishes like croquettes, hush puppies and boudin balls were ways to make small amounts of on-hand ingredients taste rich and filling—yet another regional expression of creative thrift. Versions of the Italian ball-shaped appetizer, arancini, often prepared with Arborio rice, ground beef or crawfish and served with red or cream sauce has long been a staple at Gino’s and the Little Village. The rich supply of Middle Eastern restaurants in town means that kibbi and falafel are never in short supply. Nur’s Kitchen, a local vendor which sells Middle Eastern cusine at the farmers market and Whole Foods, makes spicy, tender red lentil balls. And on the sweet side, we’ve developed a relentless passion in the last several years for a wide variety of cake balls, including those in LSU purple and gold, thanks to spots like coffee shop Brew Ha Ha and other specialty bakers.

What’s next for these round things will be to kick them up at home and to look out for inventiveness in restaurants and bars here and elsewhere. Fried goat cheese balls? Shrimp arancini with Asian sauce? A crawfish bread-inspired cornbread hushpuppy in which cheese and crawfish tails lie in wait? Get busy. The sky’s the limit.