This week, my instinct has been to trend-forecast dates. Dates, the fruit. I really decided to go for it.
This idea did not come without hesitation. I feel like we are all so sleepy from hyper-anticipated and vaguely forced change. What I mean is the fatigue that comes from ‘vibe shifts’ (already sounds outdated, no?) and what will trend. I myself was a big trend head for awhile (it can be mesmerizing!) and, admittedly, am good at it.
As I chomp down on dates, I’ve been reading the expansive It-Girl Exploration from The Cut. The brain constellates, illuminated. This girl! Then this one! Then her! We’re taught, in the media cycle, to think about foods the same way. Eat this ingredient! Then that! Who remembers this? Throwback! Legend!
So, then, dates can be It-Girls too. Blonde dates, brunette, Medjool. They all can trend. I think of a line from one of my favorite podcasts ( Celebrity Book Club )’s recent episode on one of my favorite people (Lana Del Rey). I can’t remember verbatim, but they say something vague and real in description: “she’s so 60’s… but also is being so 2000’s… but also she’s so 70’s.” And she is!
The question of the Date Forecast first came to mind when we were at the new Superiority Burger and I saw that there was a Date Shake. I didn’t order it, but boy did it make me think! There was also a grape-nut sorbet which I also didn’t get, but they danced around in my brain for a little bit.
It called to mind the beauty of unglamorous nutrition. Not electric chlorophyll green or the sexy depth of blood orange, but just plain brown stuff that’s good for you. I thought of Eva’s, in the West Village, where I used to go with my Grandpa Leonard. Eva’s was a health-food restaurant that served kind of dusty protein shakes and beet soups and Greek salads. A poet and scholar, Grandpa Leonard would often let me choose between Eva’s or McDonald’s. I had a very unique childhood! Now Eva’s is somehow still around, but is very protein-y and supplement-y as opposed to the freaky West Village kind of place it once was. One memory transcends it all: on their old menu, there were Date Shakes.
I thought again of dates when Gohar World posted this pretty amazing menu from the New York World’s Fair in the 1940. For a café from the Royal Iraqi Pavilion: The Garden of Eden Café. The menu has the muted colors and quirky simplicity we love in 2023 (not terribly dissimilar to the aesthetic presence of Superiority Burger or even S+P’s, if you think about it), and heavily features dates as “the oldest fruit on Earth.” Edenic, indeed.
Dates come from palm-cultivated regions in the Middle East and North Africa. They also come from the Coachella Valley, if you can believe it. Mr. Floyd Shields began cultivating dates in his orchard in 1924, coming up with a Date Shake (made of sugared crystals) that a person can still fetch in those parts.
He also made what must have been a very mid-century, over-my-head branding decision: a movie called “Romance and Sex Life of the Date” that plays at his farm on loop. It’s not porn-y, it’s actually just a tiny documentary about the Date in California. Sex… sells? Dates must!
So I did all this research and was like, “okay! They’re the trend!” And I do think you’ll see more of them. Gwenyth has already been there done that a couple years ago, which means we’re due for a return. Plus, dates do have this kind of prune-y common sense to them with fiber, like grape nuts. Not necessarily glamorous but elegant in reason. That seems to be the draw lately.
THE PIT IN THE MIDDLE
But after all the research, I must laugh. Because how silly might it be for me to ‘forecast’ a food that has been cultivated for literal centuries? They came from Eden, after all! I should feel lucky to get to enjoy them, period. Dates are a sacred fruit during Ramadan. Many think that in the Bible, the land of milk and honey referred to honey from dates, not bees. My Grandpa, and many grandpa-seeming people, have been enjoying dates for a lot longer than Instagram might chance to remind me. These cycles — such a part of our ecosystem – are not real.
My favorite part of the It-Girl examination is the fatigue that comes with proclamation. As Baby Jane Holzer says, wisely:
“If you look at the history of anything, it’s fleeting.”
THIS WEEKEND: a new audio note for paid subscribers! This time: baking! Huge for us! xoxoxo
My favorite one so far! grazie <3