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What we'll eat out

Larissa Dubecki
Larissa Dubecki

Door-stopper: New York-style deli sandwiches are on-trend.
Door-stopper: New York-style deli sandwiches are on-trend.Eddie Jim

Would you like fries with that? The American diner-dude food movement shows no signs of hanging up its trucker cap for the duration of 2013 and well into next year. The reason is quite simple: Gen Y. These smug younger folk in possession of slim hips and fast metabolisms love the big-flavoured, fat-soaked, salt-crusted wrongness of it all. It's wallet-friendly, too. Restaurateurs love it because it's economical to prepare, requires no great knowledge to serve and - vitally - it sells booze by the bucketload.

But if you've had enough of the sliders and fried chicken with blue-cheese dipping sauce, take heart: the New York-style deli is poised to inject new flavour into the low road. Think door-stopper salt beef sandwiches on rye, pickles, sauerkraut and horseradish. Your Jewish mama would be proud.

And please don't roll your eyes, but Mexican will also continue to crest. Cantinas have been spreading across the inner 'burbs like a particularly virulent form of huitlacoche (corn smut) and there seems to be no end in sight of the gringos heading south of the American border on ''inspiration trips''.

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As the cuisine becomes more familiar, expect it to blossom into regional specialities and for the rest of Latin America to fall in the foodie equivalent of domino theory. Argentina is already blazing hot; Peru is only just beginning.

Korean, always the bridesmaid never the bride as far as Asian food trends go, might finally realise its potential. Chinatown will continue to spread its tentacles, the city streets and arcades thrumming with Taiwanese, Malaysian and regional Chinese cheap-and-cheerfuls aimed at the international student population.

In some ways, it's not what we eat but how we'll eat it, although diners might remain oblivious to the fact that a hard-working prep kitchen in an industrial area was responsible for most of the legwork on a dish (refer: Chin Chin). These are pressing questions for the industry as economies of scale become ever tighter.

Big fry: American diner food, the Gen Y staple, leads the way.
Big fry: American diner food, the Gen Y staple, leads the way.iStock

Regardless of its national origins, street food will continue to be king, from Thailand to India, Morrocco and beyond. The snack foods of the common people have attained major currency thanks to the way they convey an insider's knowledge of a foreign food culture. Think of it as the Lonely Planet approach to eating. When all the fuss dies down, the ones left standing will be those who inject a spark of authenticity. Those who don't will be about as fashionable as a tribal tattoo.

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Larissa DubeckiLarissa Dubecki is a writer and reviewer.

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