10 foods that cooked up a storm in 2020
- Featured Food & Beverage
Kannav Chaudhary
- 27 minutes read
Aliya Ladhabhoy
At the beginning of the year, the kitchen didn’t seem like a very important place for some. Three months down the line, it gained a new focus in the pandemic. Everyone had to turn to their own kitchens to whip up meals to survive. While some returned to their old love for cooking, others discovered a new passion, that they never knew they had, and yet there were others who were just getting by with the basics
Whatever the situation, everyone’s relationship with food grew manifold. It became a source of joy, a source of comfort, a mood lifter, and even a way to pass time in the multiple lockdowns.
As we look back at the year gone by, we list 10 foods that cooked up a storm on the internet.
Dalgona coffee
This was one of the first few lockdown trends that had everyone trying their hand at whipping coffee. Made with coffee, granulated sugar, hot water, and hot milk, it was one of the most searched recipes in the world this year as per Google’s Year in 2020 search trends.
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Read: The new Dalgona trend: Dalgona Whiskey
Banana Bread
The easy to make recipe was a popular baking option for quarantiners. Even Indian celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Shilpa Shetty and Athiya Shetty tried their hand at it and shared it with their followers on Instagram.
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Focaccia bread art
Home bakers also decorated focaccia bread with vegetables, herbs and flower stems to create visually stunning edible art.
Read: #quarantinekitchen: These Focaccia bread art pieces will amaze you
Pizza
Recipes for pizza was the fourth top trend as per Google’s Year in 2020 Search. People experimented with making pizza from scratch and exchanged notes on how to make the best homemade pizza. As the lockdown eased, new pizza ventures emerged and were a welcome break from all the home cooked meals.
Biryani
According to Swiggy’s StatEATstics report for 2020, biryani was ordered more than once every second this year. Over 300,000 new users on Swiggy, placed Chicken Biryani as their first order from the delivery platform. This affirms India’s love for the dish.
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Pancake Cereal
On TikTok, #pancakecereal garnered 1.6 billion views making it the biggest food trend on the social media platform in 2020. Influencers and home bakers were busy making tiny pancakes that could be eaten with a spoon, just like cereal. Topped with fresh fruits, butter, chocolate and sprinkles, it makes for a pretty picture as well.
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Lotus Biscoff
The Belgium-made biscuit which pairs well with coffee, hogged its share of the limelight in 2020 Food blogger and baker Walla Abu-Eid created a Biscoff Lasagne during the lockdown which then caught on as a trendy ingredient around the world.
Since then, just about everybody has been adding it to cookies, cupcakes, doughnuts and cheesecakes. It also comes as a spread which can be layered on to toasts and sandwiches and is seen as an alternative to the hallowed Nutella.
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Sourdough
The lockdown induced people to become self-sufficient. So much so that people began baking their own bread. Sourdough became popular this year because unlike other types of bread, it doesn’t require dry yeast. Sourdough needs wild yeast which is already present in flour. You need to combine flour with water and you’ve got your sourdough starter.
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Samosa
Many Indians missed eating street food during the lockdown, so they began making it at home. One of the dishes Indians googled how to make at home was samosa.
Basque Cheesecake
This burnt version of the cheesecake may not rank high in terms of presentation but it has had its fare share of followers and takers in 2020. The charred layer reveals a soft souffle-like dessert underneath. Made as an experiment by Santiago Rivera, owner of San Sebastian Pintxos Café La Viña in Spain, thirty years ago, it found a new following this year.
