This week we ask: What will be the hottest food trend of 2026? Kim Severson returns with her predictions for the year ahead, where grandmothers, vinegar, and ASMR will reign supreme. We also get caught up on the latest in food lingo — "swangy" is the new flavor to watch out for. Plus, author Sho Spaeth gives us a lesson in homemade ramen and John T. Edge reckons with life, legacy and food in the American South.

Questions in this episode:

"A couple of years ago, I started to choose an ingredient or spice of the year. The first year was dill, then second was adobo, the third was curry. I'm looking for suggestions for what I should choose this year."

"I made some shortbread cookies recently and I noticed that some recipes used granulated sugar and other recipes used powdered sugar. How would the results be different?"