Ditch The Creme Brulee And Grab A Hunk Of Ostrich Meat

It’s 1996. Do you know where your panna cotta is?

If you want to be an au courant consumer, you’ll make space on your countertop for bread and ice cream machines, stock your wine cellar with merlot and clear room on your table for a fondue pot (proof that everything old is new again).

Away from home, you’ll seek out wine bars and upscale taverns that specialize in microbrewed beers - perhaps a place with a theme. If you’re not eating vegetarian, such symbols of decadence as steaks, doughnuts, cheese courses and martinis will punctuate your meals out. Why else do you bother going to the gym?

You’ll also be open to new things. Like ostrich meat. Or thyme or basil in your dessert. Forget spreading butter on your bread; you’ll probably find a bean or vegetable dip for slathering.

That’s the word from leaders in the food business - critics, housewares purveyors, restaurateurs, grocers - who were asked to predict what we’ll be eating, drinking, cooking and using more of in the new year. And what we’ll probably let go of as we embrace new food fashions.

Let it be known that tiramisu is out, out, out. And tea is threatening to replace the coffee in our cups.

What’s hot

Theme restaurants, fondue pots, wine bars, buying in bulk, oysters, skate (the kite-shaped fish), visible restaurant ovens, doughnuts, port, Asian ingredients on Western menus, ostrich meat, bananas, restaurants that deliver, martinis, ice cream machines, panna cotta (chalk-white Italian custard), steak, bean dips (instead of butter) for bread, no- or low-alcohol wines, regional Italian menus, cigar dinners, bread machines, bottled water, cheese platters, single-malt Scotch, savory herbs in desserts, doggie bags, Latino cooking, tea, environmentally responsible food packaging.

What’s not

Flintstone-size food portions, white kitchens, creme brulee, portable phones in dining rooms, chardonnay, low-fat snack foods, smoking in restaurants, high-tech kitchen gadgets, tiramisu, making reservations and not showing up, butter sauces, buying groceries in a single store, tap water, tall “architectural” food, eight-course dinners, waiter introductions, gigantic plates, electric stoves, restaurants that don’t make their own desserts.