2015 trends: The monster mash

What we’re seeing:

The poster child for these highly marketable mashups is the Cronut, and now it seems like you can pull any two awesome bakery items out of a hat and mash them together to sell out of a truck in Brooklyn. We’ve seen the Wookie (waffle and cookie), Scuffin (scone and muffin), the Creffel (French crepe and Belgian waffle), the Bruffin (brioche/muffin) and the Cragel (croissant and bagel). In the entrée category, we’re hip to the blending of ethnic cuisines, such as Chinese–Peruvian, Australian-Asian and Mexican-Taiwanese.

What they’re saying:

Maeve Webster, Datassential: Mashups and hybrids are nearly impossible at this point to get away from on the menu. The key difference between these types of items and the “fusion” items of the past is that these items preserve the authenticity and individual integrity of the ingredients; current mashups celebrate the heritage of the ingredients, flavors and formats.

In the kitchen:

• Pastry chef Nick Stewart of Chicago’s Glazed and Infused offers a savory doughnut, the Ham and Cheddar.

• At Noodlecat in Cleveland, Jonathon Sawyer combines fried chicken and ramen for the Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Ramen, featuring maple syrup and hot sauce.

• There’s a Waffle Batter Corndog on the menu at Play at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

• Ernesto Uchimura at Plan Check Downtown in L.A. has debuted the K-BBQ Burger with “kimcheese,” gouchujang barbeque sauce, grilled pork belly, sesame salt, fried onions and sprouting onion.

• Presstea in NYC’s West Village features a Ramenrrito, a burrito with noodles taking the place of rice.

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