Barbecue used to be so much simpler: pick up a bottle from the condiments aisle for a home marinade or pick the standard Southern or Midwestern sandwich off the menu. Now barbecue has moved beyond America’s South to Chinese barbecue pork buns and sweet and spicy Korean barbecue such as Dwaeji bulgogi.
What else would one expect from a nation of foodies? It’s been obvious for quite some time consumers are willing to try new foods, as the popularity of Thai, Korean and Indian dishes attests. But now, consumers raised with the Food Network are pushing boundaries to learn about new cultures and foods such as Vietnamese, Burmese, Cantonese, Filipino and segmented Latin and Italian, which directly influences the marinades, brines and spices used with protein.