Crazes we’d rather forget


There are some past food trends whose popularity cannot be explained – gelatin salads, cheese balls and fish-shaped food to name a few. But the 1970s isn’t the only decade to blame as more recent offenders include freakshakes, cloud eggs and unicorn food. Here are the bizarre food crazes we don’t want to make a comeback.




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The grapefruit diet


Having been around since the 1930s, the grapefruit diet has made a number of reappearances over the years. Though there are different versions, including eating a high-fat and high-protein diet or a calorie-restricted diet, it fundamentally involves eating grapefruit at every meal. Enzymes in the fruit were thought to have fat-burning properties but these days it’s trendier to aspire to a balanced diet as opposed to believing fad claims.




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TV dinners

While microwave meals are arguably as popular as ever, we’re talking about the original 1950s TV dinner that came in an aluminum tray with meat, vegetable and potato compartments. It took 25 minutes in the oven and was designed to be eaten in front of the TV (read more about its invention here). Flash-forward to today and you can make something way more appetizing with fresh ingredients in the same length of time. Take a look at 36 super simple recipes anyone can cook for inspiration.




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Jell-O salads

Jell-O salads were all the rage in the 1960s and consisted of vegetables, and sometimes fruit, nuts, fish, chicken or cheese, suspended in flavored gelatin. Pictured is an advert for mixed vegetable and celery flavor. Despite their popularity at potluck parties and picnics for so many years, we don’t know how people stomached it. We’d much rather our vegetables were fresh and not wibbly wobbly on our plate.




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Foods shaped like fish

In the 1970s, home cooks strived to be impressive hosts and loved to set foods into molds to create show-stopping centerpieces. Turning fishy dishes into the shape of fish was particularly popular – pictured is a tuna mousse shaped with gelatin. These days we prefer our food a little more unadulterated. Find our top tips for cooking fish here (advice on molding into a fish shape not included). 




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Cheese balls


Any 1970s host worth their salt knew how to whizz up a cheese ball. Made with a blend of cream cheese, shredded blue cheese, goats’ cheese, Cheddar or feta, plus herbs or spices, it was molded into a ball then rolled in crushed nuts. The cheese ball was served as a dip alongside crackers and crudités. We think that if you have good-quality cheese, it’s best enjoyed as it is and shouldn’t need this much dressing up.




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SlimFast

In 1977, SlimFast hit the dieting scene with its range of meal replacement shakes in strawberry, chocolate and vanilla flavors. The company suggested dieters have two a day, for breakfast and lunch, plus a low-calorie dinner. You’d probably lose weight in the short-term, but also be extremely hungry and bored. Thankfully the company updated its brand to include chocolate, snacks and smoothies, but we still find the mantra “a little of what you fancy” works best for us.




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Hubba Bubba

The bubble gum introduced by Wrigley’s in 1979 was one of the biggest trends of the 20th century. Its bright color, sugary taste and ability to form huge bubbles boosted its appeal. However, we’ve all moved on since then and Hubba Bubba is a sticky sweet best left in the past. Check out these other childhood snacks you’ll never forget.




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Alcopops


Sugary, low in alcohol and made with low-grade wine and fruit juice, wine coolers such as Bartles & Jaymes were consumed in vast quantities in the 1980s – until Congress upped tax on wine. Next, spirit-based coolers such as Smirnoff Ice took over. They didn’t taste like alcohol and were everywhere at the turn of the millennium. However, these days they’ve thankfully fallen out of favor, replaced by more sophisticated looking and tasting beverages.




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The cabbage soup diet

Popular with 1950s housewives and again in the 1980s and 1990s, the cabbage soup diet thankfully hasn’t seen a resurgence since. It involves surviving on just homemade cabbage soup for around one week. It’s a quick-fix diet and people are said to drop 10lbs fast. However, a lot of it is water weight which people regain just as quickly afterwards. Discover more horrible historic diets you’re glad you didn’t have to try here.




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The Beverly Hills diet


The king of fad diets, the Beverly Hills diet was published in 1981 by author Judy Mazel who claimed to have lost 72lbs on the program. The dieter consumes fruit for the first 10 days, carbohydrates on day 11 and finally protein on day 19. It’s based on the unscientific notion that blending certain foods inhibits digestion and that undigested food is what makes people fat. Of course, this is thoroughly untrue and weight loss on this diet can be attributed to calorie restriction.




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Bacon mania

Bacon mania started in the 1990s. Outrageous recipes and viral videos of creations like candied bacon, bacon-naise, chocolate-covered bacon and bacon desserts were abundant. Although we still consume bacon in vast quantities, it’s nice to see the crazy bacon one-upmanship waning.

Be inspired by better bacon recipe ideas here




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EZ Squirt Ketchup


When EZ Squirt Ketchup arrived on shelves in 2000, it was one of the biggest food crazes of the decade with more than 25 million bottles of multicolored sauce sold. The crazy hues (green, pink, purple, orange and teal) were a novelty, adding heaps of extra fun to mealtimes. But by 2006, parents were becoming more cautious about artificial food colorings, the USP was wearing off and the line discontinued. Personally, we always preferred the original.




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Cupcakes

The cupcake craze was supposedly started by a Sex and the City episode where Miranda munches on a cupcake from Magnolia’s Cupcakes in New York. Artisan cupcake shops began popping up across the country and lavishly-iced mini cakes were the most fashionable item to serve at parties. However, we’re glad this trend didn’t last. As delicious as they are, your teeth feel like they start rotting by just looking at a cupcake and it was always a disappointment to find more icing than sponge.




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The Atkins diet

Based on the principles of Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution, this meal plan became popular in the early 2000s. It had us cutting carbs to near zero and eating bunless burgers, bacon, cream, butter, chicken and steak every night of the week. Now its popularity has disappeared, only to return under a different guise: the ketogenic diet. It has similar principles with more of an emphasis on the consumption of healthy fats.




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Red velvet cake

This bright beacon of a cake supposedly dates back to the 19th century when cooks added almond flour, cocoa and cornstarch to cakes to give them a fine, velvety (hence the name) texture. During the 1900s, it gained popularity, appearing in cookbooks and on restaurant menus but its more recent resurgence is in part attributed to the 1989 film Steel Magnolias, in which it features in a scene. By the early 2000s, it was a staple item on every bakery’s menu and has since been infused into everything from lattes and spirits to air fresheners. It’s still fairly prolific but we think, why limit yourself to one flavor when there’s a whole world of cakes out there?




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The master cleanse diet

Also known as the lemonade diet, the master cleanse was invented in the 1940s but saw a resurgence in 2006 after Beyoncé apparently lost weight for her role in the movie Dreamgirls by following the regime. The bizarre program involves a liquid-only diet for around 10 days, consisting of a lemonade-like drink, a salt-water drink and a herbal laxative tea. We don’t recommend anyone attempt to bring this diet back again.




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Cake pops

These bite-sized treats rose to fame when blogger Angie Dudley, also known as Bakerella, posted a recipe for miniature cupcakes on a stick in 2008 and it went viral. They’re basically cake crumbs blended with cream cheese frosting, rolled into balls and decorated with chocolate. The problem is, apart from being cute, there’s not much else to them. We’d choose a generous slice over a cake pop any day. If you do want to give them a go, try this recipe for vanilla and white chocolate mini treats.




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Bulletproof coffee

This potent health drink was brought to us by American entrepreneur Dave Asprey in 2011 after his experience of finding mental clarity from drinking yak-butter tea while trekking in the Himalayas. The coffee, coconut oil and grass-fed butter or ghee blend is intended as a breakfast meal replacement. Dubbed bulletproof coffee, the fat and nutrients from the drink supposedly minimize hunger pangs. However, except for a few fitness bloggers and cafés, the trend never really caught on. It’s incredibly high in fat and calories, and the health benefits aren’t very clear or substantiated.




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Ramen burger

The ramen burger craze was a whirlwind. In 2013, ramen expert Keizo Shimamoto debuted the creation at the Smorgasburg outdoor food market in Brooklyn, New York. It’s a beef patty sandwiched between two boiled and seared noodle buns. You can still head to the market (temporarily closed) to try one but the hype has died down.




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Freakshakes

Crazy milkshakes topped with cream, cake, marshmallow fluff, sauce and sweets, called freakshakes, started appearing on menus around 2015. The drink and dessert mash-up is extremely calorific with some drinks totaling more than 1,000 kcal, more than half the recommended daily allowance. However, soon the backlash arrived and novel appeal of them waned. We don’t believe a person could finish a whole one in a single sitting anyway.




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Rainbow bagels

The Bagel Store in Brooklyn, New York was responsible for catapulting the rainbow bagel to social media fame. The bread ring is made with a blend of different colored doughs and served with Nutella or Funfetti cream cheese. They were the brainchild of baker Scot Rossillo who cleverly trademarked the name before the masses cottoned on. But it’s a trend we could have lived without really. 

Take a look at these fabulous food fusions and baked hybrids




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Cloud eggs

In 2017, cloud eggs was another lightning trend that was spurred on by a social media frenzy. The woolly-looking eggs are made by separating the egg white and yolk, beating the whites into a meringue-like fluff, then reuniting the two parts for cooking. The result is a silky yolk with a fluffy white, but personally we prefer a good old-fashioned fried egg. If you want to try it out for yourself, take a look at the recipe here.




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Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article.

Multicolored fast food

In the spirit of Halloween 2018, Burger King sold a Frozen Fanta Scary Black Cherry Drink and also the Nightmare King Sandwich. The latter featured a beef patty, chicken fillet, cheese and bacon, all sandwiched in a green sesame bun. But this isn’t the only instance of crazy colored fast food. Taco Bell also trialed a Midnight Melt Taco made with a blue shell. We don’t know about you but we prefer it when our food looks how it’s supposed to.

Discover meatless meat and other food trends taking the world by storm




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Gold chicken wings

The Ainsworth in New York serves 24-karat gold wings – they’re deep-fried, glazed with honey, chipotle and gold-infused butter, then sprinkled with 24-karat gold flakes. At $45 for 10 wings, the item is more expensive than most – and we aren’t convinced it’s worth it. Following suit, for one day only, Popeyes rolled out its own version of boneless wings battered in Champagne and coated in 24-karat gold, in 2018. While gold may look good, it doesn’t alter flavor and is a trend we’re glad to be leaving behind.

These retro dishes that deserve a comeback




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Unicorn food


In the last few years, the world has gone mad for everything unicorn, including pastel-hued food and drink. Toast has been covered in multicolored spread and sprinkles; cupcakes have been adorned with cute accessories and horns; and even Starbucks cashed in on the trend and introduced the Unicorn Frappuccino. It was a brightly-colored, sweet and sour drink containing ice, milk, mango syrup, vanilla cream, and pink and blue powder.




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28/28 SLIDES