Trends

What's the culinary scene's next ramp? Is ricotta the new burrata? Grits the new polenta? Menu Spotting searches the country's restaurants, bars, and farmers' markets, revealing the next big ingredient coming soon to a plate near you.

I'm not exactly sure when and where I first tried Hitachino Nest brand beer. (Perhaps it was at Blue Ribbon Sushi in New York?) But since their debut in the late 1990's, the Japanese craft brews have had a meteoric rise to fame, garnering much praise and acquiring cult-like devotion.

Was it the 2004 opening of Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas? Daniel Boulud's
braised short-ribs-foie gras-and-white truffle-stuffed DB Burger (yours today for only $32)?