Global restaurants are launching handheld comfort foods with South Asian flavors
Trend - Restaurants in East Asia and North America are using curry as a base for different types of foods. The traditional South Asian dish is only recently growing in use in handheld comfort foods in the West. Burgers, hotdogs, and sandwiches are being served with spicy, sweet, or savory curry.
Insight - Regional flavors continue to gain popularity outside of their respective regions as consumers in multicultural cities broaden their tastes to new dishes. The cross-cultural nature of cities leads to iterations on traditional dishes and flavors, often combining multiple cultures into one single dish. Global restaurants are recognizing the value in cross-cultural dishes, and are experimenting with offering existing popular flavors in non-traditional formats.
Insight - Regional flavors continue to gain popularity outside of their respective regions as consumers in multicultural cities broaden their tastes to new dishes. The cross-cultural nature of cities leads to iterations on traditional dishes and flavors, often combining multiple cultures into one single dish. Global restaurants are recognizing the value in cross-cultural dishes, and are experimenting with offering existing popular flavors in non-traditional formats.
Workshop Question - How could your brand reimagine existing products by looking at cross-cultural influences?
Trend Themes
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Regional Flavors — Regional flavors continue to gain popularity outside of their respective regions as consumers in multicultural cities broaden their tastes to new dishes.
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Cross-cultural Dishes — The cross-cultural nature of cities leads to iterations on traditional dishes and flavors, often combining multiple cultures into one single dish.
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Non-traditional Formats — Global restaurants are recognizing the value in cross-cultural dishes, and are experimenting with offering existing popular flavors in non-traditional formats.
Industry Implications
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Restaurant Industry — The restaurant industry can reference the trend of regional flavors and cross-cultural dishes to create unique and multicultural menu items.
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Fast Food Industry — The fast food industry can reference the trend of non-traditional formats to innovate and introduce new flavors in handheld comfort foods.
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Food Packaging Industry — The food packaging industry can reference the trend of curry-infused handheld comfort foods to develop packaging solutions that maintain the flavors and quality of the dishes.
