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January 3, 2013

What will be the big food trends of 2013? Hmmm, well, let’s see. Tricky one.

Right from the start, we may as well say that the 5pm blog does not have a great track record when it comes to predicting food trends.

Although we did say that Nordic/Scandie cooking would become more popular and, to be fair, it has over the last year with successful new places like Edinburgh’s Timberyard and the Edinburgh Larder Bistro acknowledging the influence of Noma’s Rene Redezepi.

The problem is that we tipped Scandic style dining two years too early – in our What’s Ahead for 2011 post, to be exact. Still, better to be early than to get it completely wrong.

At this point last year, I made the confident prediction that food trucks would spread from beyond their South East/London strongholds and become more common place in Scotland.

They haven’t.

Street food

However, there are interesting gastro-ventures setting up in unconventional spaces. The Harajuku Japanese Kitchen Deli and the Babu Bombay Street Kitchen are perhaps the best known but by no means the only businesses who are jazzing up Scotland’s Farmers’ Markets with interesting street food.

Special mention should also go to the Bollywood Coffee Box – a converted police box in Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield which made a splash earlier this year serving coffee, curries and good karma.

I suspect that we might see more of this type of venture in 2013 – small, nimble enterprises that can spot a gap in the market and fill it quickly and relatively cheaply, at least compared to the cost of fitting out a full restaurant unit.

It would also be great to see more happenings along the lines of Burgher Burger, the guerrilla dining experience which asked high end chefs to create their ultimate burger in caffs and greasy spoons.

If that sort of experiential dining experience floats your boat then keep an eye on Jelly and Gin, the creative duo behind ground-breaking nights such as The Disconsolate Dandy and Create Eat.

Road trip

They appear to be involved with Tony Singh’s Road Trip. Formerly the main man at Oloroso, Mr Singh has already sold all 140 tickets for a ‘down and dirty’ pop-up. More are planned for 2013.

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Tony Singh promises to get down and dirty on his forthcoming road trip