Street Lab Cooking Up Hyper-Local Food Trends

Ever wondered what your region would plate up as an example of its bioregionalism? Probably not. But, the folks at The Centre For Genomic Gastronomy have deployed their pop-up food lab, LOCI, to the streets of the world to tackle that question for you.

LOCI, inspired by the Chaat stands of India, employs a representative from the Centre to tailor make your desired snack in accordance with your selection from their mini menu. The edible experiments are made from hyper-local ingredients, in their natural season, by hyper-local people. For example, you may opt for a syrup topping, foraged from Doug fir, on your Hazelnut Pesto, which has been made with Chile peppers, grown at an urban-community farm. The representative present can then answer (or ask) questions which the participants may have at that point regarding the food and its journey to becoming a “bite-sized sample of bioregionalism.”

As well as enlightening people, LOCI will also provide the Centre with data indicating which aspects of the food system is valued most by people in specific areas. It has been pointed out on PSFK, that the data found may merely be novel, or could come of vital importance to the food industry, which has come under much scrutiny due to the amount of waste it produces.

For our readers in the Pacific Northwest, the location of LOCI is posted to Twitter (@centgg) every week.