Eating food in a bowl is one of the new crazes. After all, apparently food isn't just what you eat but how you eat it. If eating healthy food in a bowl gets you to eat that healthy food, then bowls away.
In a time where I do very little eating out, I do love the poké bowls. The premise is that you get seafood (tuna, salmon) and brown rice with other vegetables and toppings. I usually get pickled ginger, cucumber, avocado, crunchies of some kind, and a beautiful sesame vinegar.
This is not a dish I would have had 20 years ago when I ate so much more poorly. But I like this bowl and I do feel more full even if it tastes light.
The drawback to this bowl is there isn't much room to move ingredients around. I love using the chopsticks given with the meal. But they don't stir things well. I do get better with the mixing and the chopsticks each time I get the poké bowl.
Fast food has not ignored this trend. Harvey's is a burger chain in Canada with a new build a bowl deal. The base of the bowl is salad, fries, or even rice. The idea of getting rice in a burger place is still a bit foreign but let's ride the wave.
You can get grilled or crispy chicken, original or angus burger, or a veggie burger. Then you can add on 21 classic toppings and 9 new toppings: corn and black beans, salsa, guacamole, Greek dressing, Asian sesame dressing, sweet chili Thai sauce, crispy noodles, croutons, and shredded cheese.
I haven't eaten at a Harvey's in a very long time. But I have to admit that this bowl would be tempting. Not more tempting than the poke bowl, but better than grabbing a burger.
Quite frankly, having salsa, guacamole, and shredded cheese on French fries would be fun. Explaining poutine to Americans requires telling the specific combination but as La Banquise in Montréal shows us, fries, cheese, and gravy is a starting point.
Whether KFC gets some credit for sparking a trend based on its Famous Bowl is a question better answered by Patton Oswalt. To recap for our readership that eats healthier food, the Famous Bowl has mashed potatoes, sweet corn, and crispy chicken with "home-style" gravy and topped with a 3-cheese blend.
I have tried a few crazy fast food items, including the infamous Double Down, but couldn't make myself eat the Famous Bowl. The idea of chicken, potatoes, and gravy sounds wonderful. Corn offers a vegetable even if it a starchy vegetable. The 3 cheeses feels way over the top. This might be a southern American poutine in a sense. Some Americans freak out over real Canadian poutine but that still tastes better than what the Famous Bowl could be in my mind.
I didn't give much thought to this picture I took of Cafe Kitsune in Vancouver in the summer of 2013. The carbohydrates and protein look similar to the poké bowls. The cafe, near Granville Island on 2nd Avenue, is closed now. This is proof of an earlier version of a healthy bowl.
photos credit: photos 1, 4: me; photo 2: Harvey's; photo 3: KFC
video credit: Harvey's
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