I love talking about food as culture — and like all parts of culture, food has trends that ebb and flow. We asked you to provide us with food trends you’ve noticed (and/or confuse you) — and then we asked the great Evan Kleiman (chef, cookbook author, and longtime host of KCRW’s Good Food) to come unwind them with us. Want to know what it takes for a dish to show up at every corporate catering event? Why every restaurant in the U.S. (still) has a brussels sprouts dish? How hot chicken got franchised? WE’VE GOT YOU. This episode is filled with delights (and will make you want to browse expensive tinned fish online).

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Show Notes:

• Learn more about Evan Kleiman’s storied career here

• Listen to GOOD FOOD on KCRW!

• Follow Evan on Instagram:

• An example of the “recession meal” TikToks:

• The hot chicken Bitter Southerner piece I reference

• The Amanda Mull piece I reference (and summarize poorly): The United States is Southern Now

• A good background piece on the tinned fish boom

• Mangos are the world’s most popular fruit!!!!

• “Meet SoCal’s Premier Mango Seller”

• A great overview of the rise of Crumbl

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• Running a Small Business — and How to Make It Sustainable & Survivable (with Jen Hewett!)

• All things Love is Blind with Audie Cornish

• Different Modalities of Hanging Out (aka, best ways to hang out with different people) with Mary HK Choi

• Baseball Culture (with Ali Liebegott and Melody as additional co-host!!!)

• The history/utility/culture of OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE GEAR with Avery Trufelman (of Articles of Interest)

• What an actually family-friendly society would look like (with Elliot Haspel)

• An ADULT HOBBIES crossover episode with Forever35!

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!

• As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here

For this week’s discussion: What food trend are you STILL curious about?