Hippie Food Gone Establishment

Just as boho defines fashion these days, it is also spreading into our cooking and eating habits too. Those natural seeds and grains along with fermented brews are becoming more mainstream than Twinkies and cheeseburgers.It's a definite trend but one with good and lasting results.

Christine Muhlke wrote about this in her article in yesterday's New York Times Food section.Ms. Muhlke ,a writer for Bon Appetit magazine, explored how food once thought of as "hippie" is becoming big in kitchens and tables all over the US. Like yoga, meditation,and the uber counterculture symbol, Birkenstocks, crunchy granola food  such as granola, itself, along with almond milk and kombucha tea are in more homes. Many have embraced the clean eating movement where kale reigns supreme and is included in almost every recipe. The question is why now. It could be that we're all tired of this technology and virtual reality and want something real eapecially in our eating t.Chef Geraldo Gonzalez, chef of the Manhattan eatery, LaLito, feel people may be moved to seek out the more restorative and "actual foods.They want the mouthfeel, aromas and flavors to connect them back to reality. His own recipes are what he terms "hippie Chicano" such as vegan chiccharrones and cucumber salad with brown mole vinaigrette.This is an alternative to all those bad foods such as meat dairy and starch, ingredients that cause brain fog according to Chef. Gonzalez

The "hippie" eating movement is also a backlash to the meat heavy, super-masculine style restaurants, according to another chef,Alissa Wagner, one of the owners of Manhattan's Dimes.Eating more natural and more green is a definite protest.Another reason she feels, is that diners are also more educated in how they eat and knowledgable about where their food comes from.Of course, restaurants are quick to jump on this trend. There is Tartine Manufactory in always food forward  San Francisco. It is a blend of roast beef sandwiches with green farro and roasted carrot salad.New York has just introduced abcV , created by Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten for the abc furniture and home goods store Its' menu hightlights organic all vegetable dishes such as a ramen noodle soup made with Meyer lemon and curry leaf boullion with pea shoots and beech mushrooms and spinach spaghetti with broccoli, and kale, Cookbooks are also featuring crunchy granola recipes. Such big names as Martha Stewart  and Wolfgang Puck are jumping on this trends with books devoted to healthier and more all natural cooking. The rock star of vegan restaurants, the famed Thug Kitchen is also coming out with another cookbook that makes eating quinoa and teff uber hip.

All this hippie eating has good benefits.We'll all hahve heathier bodies and habits if we go back to fermnted and whole grain foods. It's not just a trend but a way of life too.