Food Fads worth the Trip

It is amazing at times how it can be easier to identify cheap traveldeals, such as cheapairplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, cheap auto rentals, discount travel deals, and cheap vacation packages thanit is to decide where to go on vacation.

Truly memorable food fads inspire people to wait in longlines, pay top prices, and sometimes resort to the black market for a chance toimbibe. The following are some of thehottest food fads worth traveling for, according to Smarter Travel:

• Cronutis a doughnut made with croissant dough and can be found at Dominique AnselBakery in New York City. Patronscommonly wait in long lines to pay $5 per Cronut with a limit of two perperson. Cronuts sell on Craigslist foraround $30 apiece.

• UmamiBurger comes topped with shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, roastedtomato, a parmesan crisp, and Umami ketchup. Unami started in Los Angeles and has since expanded into the SanFrancisco Bay Area and New York City. The restaurant chain also offers a burger topped with house made trufflecheese, another with four types of green chiles, and one smothered in bluecheese and port caramelized onions.

• Townieis a brownie tart that has exploded in popularity in London. The Townie combines a gooey dark chocolatebrownie with a flaky tart crust.

• Crookieis part cookie and part croissant. It ismade by packing crushed Oreos into croissant dough at Torontos Clafoutipatisserie et Caf. Reviewers have callthe crookie heavenly observing It was kind of like eating a chocolatecroissant but a gajillion times better.

• FrozenSmores feature a vanilla ice cream center wrapped in a chocolate wafer coveredin marshmallow, torched to order. It isthe creation of New York Citys Dominique Ansel.

• RamenBurgers are ramen noodles grilled to bun like perfection and then filled withextras such as fish cake and pork. Longa street favorite in Japan, the Saturday Smorgasburg market in Brooklyn pairsthe crispy noodle bun concept with a beef patty, a soy based sauce, and lots ofscallions.

• Japadogwas introduced at the Vancouver Olympics and is a Japanese style frank thatcomes in many variations. Its cult statushas grown by maintaining its commitment to quality dogs and bold Asian inspiredflavor combinations. One dog consists ofKobe beef, grated daikon radish, bonito flakes, and plum sauce. Among some of the other offerings are aveggie sausage and a deep fried bun filled with ice cream to choose from. These dogs can be found in Vancouver today atthree food carts, a trailer, and a shopfront. In 2012 Japadog opened its first location in New York City.

• BantamBagels are bite size fresh artisanal bagels that are filled instead oftopped. The Bantams West Village shop inNew York City offers lox, tomato and red onion cream cheese inside aneverything bagel ball and a bacon cheddar cream cheese with maple syrup insideof a cheddar and egg bagel ball.

• GourmetPopcorn can be found at artisanal popcorn shops across the country. This snack food is now coming withaccoutrements ranging from dark chocolate to sriracha sauce. It is like Cracker Jacks on steroids and hasstarted being served at weddings.

• Halo-Halolooks like a Technicolor ice cream sundae and comes with a combination of sweetpreserved beans, coconut meat, yam, flan, jackfruit, plantain, ice, milk, andice cream. It is native to thePhilippines and can be found at select Filipino restaurants.