![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LDN-L-DRYMONTH-0102-DC-2.jpg\")
Chef David Gussin of Prose Kitchen and Bar serves up specialty mocktails on Tuesday, December 23, 2025. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\nThis week\u2019s subject is about food and restaurant trends, which also happens to be my favorite topic, so get out your notebooks and pens because there will be a quiz later.<\/p>\n
The first so-called \u201cfood\u201d we\u2019ll discuss is Brussels sprouts, a vegetable that can\u2019t even decide whether it\u2019s singular or plural.<\/p>\n
I have never willingly eaten a Brussels sprout because they have the smell and appearance of something that has already made its way entirely through the digestive tract.<\/p>\n
When I was a girl, my mother used to bring me to visit an elderly shut-in German lady named Frida, who had a trained Alsatian watchdog who was so terrifying that he had to be locked away when we visited.<\/p>\n
In every other way, Frida was the kindest lady ever and my mom always enjoyed visiting. I liked it too, because she had a leather-bound collection of the greatest children\u2019s stories ever written, and I\u2019d hunker down with the Swiss Family Robinson, Heidi, Gulliver\u2019s Travels and more.<\/p>\n
The only painful part about this visit was the ending, when Frida would feed us a lovingly prepared, formal luncheon on a white tablecloth. I would dread these meals because they always included the hated Brussels sprouts. The mere smell put me off my food, but my mom wasn\u2019t one of today\u2019s touchy-feely moms who express sympathy and find a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to eat at least one to be polite,\u201d she hissed at me firmly, whenever I reminded her of my aversion. I dreaded the thought of imbibing this one Brussels sprout like the coming of the atomic bomb, which we were practicing for at our school by climbing under our desks.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019d sit at the table, unable to focus on anything else, just staring at that one round green cruciferous vegetable with flop sweat pouring off my body.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d use my fork to mince it into small pieces, some of which may have ended up on the dining room carpet. I think the statute of limitations has run out on that one. I\u2019ve blocked the actual ingestion out of my mind as too painful, but somehow I did get the thing down every week.<\/p>\n
Now, however, it\u2019s impossible to ignore these small green orbs, because they\u2019re on every other restaurant menu. And my friends always try to convince me that this time, I\u2019ll like them. \u201cThey\u2019re fried and dipped in chocolate and honey.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. I won\u2019t like them. Leave me alone. My only consolation is that these restaurant trends always fade away like tuna casserole and hopefully the next one will be more appealing, like vegetables fried and dipped in chocolate.<\/p>\n
While we\u2019re talking about restaurants, what\u2019s with this trend of eating at picnic tables? Are we at a picnic? No. So then why do I have to raise my legs, exposing what\u2019s underneath my skirt, and sit on a bench without a back to socialize with my friends. I\u2019m as old as dirt. I don\u2019t want to sit on a backless bench. A delicious restaurant that focused on sustainable fish recently went out of business and I was sad but not surprised, because the decor was early Soviet bus station, with uncomfortable benches to sit on.<\/p>\n
Another restaurant with lip-smacking food makes you sit on little metal backless stools. I assume this is all an attempt to get you in and out of there quickly so they can turn the table, but all it does is keep me away from their scrumptious ramen.<\/p>\n
I just realized I\u2019ve done nothing but gripe this entire column, so let\u2019s flip the narrative. There\u2019s no doubt that the pandemic was horrible in many ways but it did one thing for us locally \u2014every restaurant that wanted to survive created an outdoor dining space. Hello. We live in a paradise where we\u2019re lucky enough to eat outside most of the time. Now, we can do it at our favorite restaurants. This makes me ridiculously happy. As long as the chairs have backs.<\/p>\n
Chef David Gussin of Prose Kitchen and Bar serves up specialty mocktails on Tuesday, December 23, 2025. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n
And then there are mocktails. Just when you thought you could avoid the $18 cocktail menu by giving up drinking, the mocktail came into fashion, giving that expensive, stemmed glass experience with all the cost but none of the alcohol. I applaud this move, because it\u2019s a win-win for everyone. Nowadays, it seems like many of my friends have stopped drinking liquor, so this is a way for them to have fancy drinks with a twist. And restaurateurs can rake in those big bucks they make from the cocktail hour, even from those who\u2019ve given it up. If you\u2019ve ever had a mocktail at a restaurant that doesn\u2019t know how to make them, you can easily tell it\u2019s missing the alchohol. But nowadays some restaurants use special ingredients like fermented kombucha, fermented fruit brines and such to add the kind of texture and taste you expect from a pricey drink. And it works. Hopefully this will grow.<\/p>\n
Looks like i\u2019m out of room, but feel free to email me about this at mfisher@scng.com. I love hearing from you. Tune in next week for more blathering about nothing.<\/p>\n
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