While Chattanooga is typically about three years behind on most trends, food is an exception. We’re not Brooklyn by any means, but we’ve certainly got our fair share of hipsters working in and patronizing local kitchens and introducing Chattanoogans to widespread trends across the restaurant industry. Some local spots have had what foodies the world over are calling 2018’s most fashionable eats on their menus for years. Here’s where to find the dishes everyone’s talking about.
The National Restaurant Association named ethnic-inspired breakfast items one of the top five food trends of the year, providing millennials who’ve realized they can make their own avocado toast new options to order at brunch. Dishes incorporating the aromatic, sour and bitter flavors associated with Asian island fare are especially hot right now, maybe because they feel both foreign and familiar. Look for ingredients like sambal, a hot sauce or paste made with a variety of chili peppers, which is native to the cuisines of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. The Bitter Alibi uses sambal on its Seoul Train brunch dish, along with slow-cooked pork, potatoes, sauteed spinach and soft-boiled egg. Other touches of ethnic flare for the morning meal include topping your biscuit with chorizo gravy– which you’ll also find at Bitter – rather than the same old pork variety.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a restaurant menu this year that doesn’t include pork belly. St. John’s Restaurant uses the ingredient creatively in its pork belly croque madame, with prosciutto, fried quail egg and smoked Gouda topped with Mornay sauce and cherry jam, all piled on a buttermilk biscuit.
The Seoul Train entree is seen at The Bitter Alibi.Gut health is a goal for many when choosing foods these days, and restaurants are taking notice and sprinkling their menus with fermented and cultured foods that encourage healthy bacteria growth. The probiotics created naturally through the fermentation process used to make foods such as
kimchi,