Eating Fads?

Hi there

About ten years' ago, I had a group of people come to my place for an afternoon meeting.  It was nearly Christmas and in that good old kiwi tradition of  "Bring a plate", everyone had brought some snack or nibble for the coffee table.

I was stunned.  Where were the foods that people usually brought for such an occasion?: the cakes, biscuits, Christmas mince,  chocolate, sausage rolls, fizzy drinks, little bacon and egg pies?   All I could see in front of me was food and drink that was yeast-free, sugar-free, salt-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free ... taste-free!

It was my first experience of such a thing.  Nowadays, of course, this sort of eating has completely taken over.

In the nineteen-fifties, we read that in the future we would be eating pills that tasted like roast  beef,  plum pudding, pavlova, or fish'n'chips.

The way we're going, I figure this particular fad in eating is just around the corner ...