As the exhausted, grizzled and crotchety old man (2024, played by moi) prepares to pass the baton to a supple, enthused and bouncing baby 2025, “Edibles & Potables” proposes to keep the commentary to a minimum: Louisville area beginnings and ends during the year soon to pass, and an entertaining link to food trends for 2025.
First, from our Winter 2024 (Vol. 84) print edition of Food & Dining Magazine, your attention is directed to Comings & Goings. Here’s the intro.
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As a young lad in Southern Indiana, only Chef Boyardee and La Choy had made my list of acquaintances. By the time my driver’s license was valid, I’d yet to experience sushi or hummus, but at least Tex-Mex burritos, queso and tacos were available down the hill at the original Tumbleweed in New Albany.
But a selection of coffees from Yemen? Nepalese and Afghan fare? Authentic Sichuan situated halfway to Mt. Washington? Senegalese and Filipino, not to mention Cuban, Peruvian and Guatemalan?
I could fill a page with many mouthwatering lists, the point being that today an unprecedented culinary cosmos lies at our immediate disposal throughout the metro area. If the ingredients I need for some quick homemade curry can’t be purchased at Spiceland Indian Grocery in Clarksville, I’ll drive over to South Louisville to get them, and score a K-8 carryout at Vietnam Kitchen while I’m close by.
World flavors or international cuisine; call it what you will, just know that with this quarter’s resounding tally of 44 eatery openings and 23 closings, 2024 concludes at 158 – 115, incidentally marking 16 straight quarters of growth that began in 2021. A big chunk of this ongoing success owes to the willingness of Louisville’s immigrant community to chase its culinary dreams right here, enriching us all in the process.
Thanks to our newest Americans, and accordingly, this edition’s survey begins with them.
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At National Geographic, writer Joel Porter has the 11 biggest food trends for 2025, among which haute (hot) dogs, limoncello, masa, specialist seaweed, supercharged sandwiches and pimped-up noodles.
If, in recent years, food trends have been overly influenced by the cost-of-living crisis and the long shadow of the global pandemic, for 2025 there’s finally a sense of a return to fun. Whether this involves picking up expensive, overstuffed sandwiches for lunch, sipping craft limoncello or eating crisps in high-end restaurants, there are signs that diners are ripping up the rule books and enjoying themselves again. As always, chefs, retailers and influential food personalities have breathed new life into some unlikely old favourites, while social media, particularly Tik Tok, continues to have a significant influence on what we eat, with several trends directly traceable from platforms to supermarket shelves.
Ironically, one of my happiest culinary moments amid the 2024 holiday season came when we stopped in at Lotsa Pasta and I stocked up on Mackeys marmalades from Scotland, reflecting my traditionalist preferences. Ultimately it doesn’t matter, and to each their own edibles and potables.
Presumably bathed, perfumed and refreshed, this column will return in January. Thanks for reading, and best wishes to all in 2025.
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“Edibles & Potables” is Food & Dining Magazine’s Sunday slot for news and views that range beyond our customary metropolitan Louisville coverage area, as intended to be food (and drink) for thought.
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Edibles & Potables: Greece’s tradition of “embroidered” bread inspires a museum
