Sriracha, avo smash and rainbow dough: 2016's biggest food trends

The food trend stopping millennials entering the housing market, apparently. Photo / Jason Oxenham

If you consider yourself a foodie, you've likely embraced this year's most popular dining trends, happily queueing for hours just to try a new kind of cronut or delighting in assembling a "deconstructed" meal at your cafe table.

Whether you're now ready for those things to be washed down the proverbial restaurant drain or hope they're still topping menus in 2017, here are six of the biggest food fads we've seen this year.

1. Sriracha

Hotness in a bottle. Photo / Getty

The hipster in the hot sauce family, the tomato sauce for cool kids, Sriracha has set up camp at almost every Asian fusion restaurant that's opened this year. First produced in Thailand, where it's popular as a condiment for seafood, 2016 has seen it smothering everything from eggs to noodles to avo smash.

For true Sriracha fans, Urban Outfitters even sells a Sriracha key chain.

2. Deconstructed everything

Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no. Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed. I just...

Posted by Jamila Rizvi on Monday, 30 May 2016

This trend hit its peak back in May when a writer's rant about having to make her own coffee, separated in three designer science beakers, went viral.

She wrote: "I wanted a coffee. Not a science experiment. I prefer to drink my beverages out of crockery and not beakers.

"Next stage? I'll just get a chopping board with a bunch of actual coffee beans and an upside down hat on it.

"This must stop, dear Melbourne.

"This must stop."

3. Taste the rainbow

In June a Brooklyn bakery reported a four hour wait list of colour wheel-loving foodies hoping to get their hands on its neon rainbow bagels. And that was just the beginning.

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When Life Trys To Knock You Down Do What You Do Best, Get On Your Unicorn And Create Magic #unicorn #magic #becreative • • Rainbow Bagel 🌈 Shipping- scotrossillo.com For Custom Bagel Art Send Requests to - bagelartist.com Rainbowbagel.com #instarepost20

A post shared by The Bagel Store (@thebagelstore) on Oct 21, 2016 at 8:40am PDT

Indeed it seemed every food that could be multicoloured was. From acai bowls to bagels, our Instagram feeds became awash with all the colours of the rainbow.

4. Avo smash

This was the year someone decided guacamole just wasn't going to cut it. That "smashing" avocado was far cooler than "mashing" it.

And who would have thought this updated take on a Mexican topping would become such a force that it could single-handedly keep millennials out of the housing market?

5. Freakshakes

1. Take a regular milkshake and stack as many wild ingredients on top of it as possible.
2. Sit and ponder how you will ever eat and drink it.
3. Realise it was never really for your consumption as much as it was your Instagram feed.

As much as we're over the freakshake, we've got a soft spot for Mt Eden bar Scarlett Slimms & Lucky's Bloody Mary. The cocktail takes a savoury approach with a mini burger, fried onion and a big ol' pickle poised atop the jar.

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Start your week off with a bang. Scarlett xx #ScarlettsBloodyMary #scarlettslimms #mteden #mounteden #aucklandeats #eatsinauckland #newzealandeats #urbanlisted #urbanlistakl #zomatonz #yelpakl #eatsocialnz #aucklandfoodie #topaucklandrestaurants #bloodymary

A post shared by 🍸 Scarlett Slimms & Lucky 🍸 (@scarlettslimms) on Aug 28, 2016 at 4:28pm PDT

6. Matcha, matcha, matcha

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We've got more greens on the menu 💚 This is our matcha latte. We use organic green tea powder, organic agave syrup and almond milk

A post shared by Dear Jervois ☕️🥑 (@dearjervois) on Apr 15, 2016 at 1:14pm PDT

This fine green tea powder can be used to make pasta, pancakes and a green version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Why did it become such a hit? Apparently matcha powder is 10 times as good for you as green tea. Local cafes picked up on it and began serving it in latte form. Take that, green tea.