Foodie News
The great spaghetti tacos craze brings back visions of The Rachel Cut & Festivus
Spaghetti tacos, the latest craze from iCarlyPhoto by Francesco Tonelli/The New York Times
Mad Men is bringing retro sexy back.
Jennifer Aniston had the look that launched a million haircuts.
Seinfeld introduced America to Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us.
It's the latest food trend — except that no one out of junior high has ever heard of it.
When the creators of the Nickelodeon series iCarly needed a funny food for the main character's eccentric artist older brother to make, the result was spaghetti tacos.
Well, the line between a joke and a genius idea is very thin indeed, and kids across the country have made spaghetti tacos the hottest meal since the invention of the chicken bun.
Spaghetti taco have earned a write up in The New York Times (though no word on what Sam Sifton thinks) and has the seal of approval of Joe Bastianich, who told New York magazine's Grub Street he's planning them for his kids:
"I would put a bolognese with lots of tomatoes and mini meatballs. I think soft taco, not hard. If I wanted to do a Mexicali riff, I’d do soft tacos. You could riff and do branzino tacos with arugula salad and Tuscan olive oil and avocados and soft corn tortillas," he says.
Whether or not the Mexitalian dish ever takes off, there's plenty of precedent for TV-driven trends. Our favorites:
5. Kramer's business ideas
Whether he's gotten credit or not, we're pretty sure television's most eccentric neighbor has inspired more than a few business plans.
What is Acqua di Gio if not "perfume that smells like the beach"? Is Jus' Mac so different from a restaurant that serves only peanut butter and jelly? And if they can bottle peanut butter and jelly together, why not ketchup and mustard?
4. The return of the 1960s
OK, nothing Mad Men shows is technically new, but it's the first show in a decade (see below) to take the fashion world by storm.
By season two, curve-flattering sheath dresses and skinny ties were inspiring everyone from Michael Kors to Banana Republic. Add in the new twentysomething fetish for Manhattans and gin rickeys and you've got a certified cultural movement.
3. Sex and the City style
Among the trends that owe their existence to Carrie Bradshaw (and costume designer Patricia Fields) include the Fendi baguette, the name necklace, the horseshoe necklace, the giant flower pin, and, of course, the Cosmopolitan. And if you think these trends were annoying, thank the fashion gods that belting your torso never caught on.
2. Festivus
Of all the brilliant ideas invented on Seinfeld, Festivus, a holiday "for the rest of us" is the one that's had lasting impact.
After all, who doesn't want to get things off their chest with the annual "airing of grievances"? And amid the ever-growing wave of Christmas consumerism, there's something genuine about a holiday that requires only an aluminum pole to celebrate.
1. The Rachel cut.
When I was in junior high, cutting of my long locks for the bouncy layered style modeled on Friends by Jennifer Aniston was as formative in forging my teen identity as trading in my tees for Tommy Hilfiger and my Lisa Frank for a fly purple Jansport. (Yeah, I was that cool.)
Unfortunately, approximately 78 percent of Americans had the same idea.
