Predicting food trends is kind of like forecasting the weather. The outlooks are usually best guesses based on existing conditions - and sometimes, a dash of wishful thinking.
This week, the food site Eater has rounded up the top 10 New York City dining trend predictions that failed to take off this year.
Among them were pizza cones - the cheese, tomato sauce and topping-filled dough cups sold by the short-lived K! Pizzacone eatery; pie shops, which failed to take over as the new cupcakes; do-it-yourself dishes like fill-your-own-donuts - why go to the trouble when you're paying to eat out? and iPad menus and wine lists, which are more novelty than revolutionary restaurant tool.
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As we approach the end of 2010, it's time to look back on a few of this year's culinary forecasts that fell flat.
Foods on a stick
San Francisco-based marketing consultant company Andrew Freeman & Co. predicted skewers, satays and yakitori would become one of this year's top restaurant trends. Unless you're in a kebab shop, Indonesian, Malaysian or Japanese restaurant, skewered meats can hardly be considered a hot menu trend.
Garden tap
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"Beer gardens with good grub are spreading like Teutonic plague," the same consultancy said. Alas, if only that were true in Canada. We might have seen a few happening beer tents at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but they lasted about as long as the nation kept up an interest in luge.
New Austrian cuisine
"What?" you might ask. Exactly. Bon Appétit magazine's restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton proclaimed Austrian would become the cuisine of the year. Maybe it will be, eventually. But not this year.
The end of burgers
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Epicurious assumed that burgers would take the back burner this year, stating: "we've reached meat saturation." Evidently, with more burger joints opening seemingly by the week, the burger craze just won't die.
But then, there are plenty of predictions the food forecasters did get right: fried chicken, the rise of ramen, a proliferation of varied and premium sandwiches, and a love for simple, comfort foods, just to name a few.
With that in mind, what do you think were the best and worst food trends this year?