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NRN's senior food editor explores what's coming for food and beverage this fall, from hyper-local sourcing to "starter drinks."
Fall fad: Drinking vinegars
Portland, Ore.-based Thai restaurant Pok Pok has been selling vinegar to drink since 2005, according to its website, which correlates the practice to the consumption of “shrubs” — sour fruit-based drinks sweetened with sugar — as tonics during colonial times. The restaurant adds its own bottled Pok Pok Som (som is “sour” in Thai) to cocktails and also dilutes it with soda water as a popular beverage in both its Portland and New York City locations.
Phat Thai, with locations in Carbondale, Colo., and Denver, is doing that, too, ever since chef Mark Fischer found vinegar bottled as a “health drink” at an Asian market in Denver. “It was interesting, and it went really well with our food,” said Fischer, who has started making his own infused vinegars and mixing them with soda.
Combine that with the 2010 sensation, the Pickleback — a shot of whiskey chased with a shot of pickle juice — and you have a penchant for really sour drinks that isn’t a trend yet, but it’s something to watch in the coming fall season.
