Where would the food world be without the Internet? We'd never be able to Instagram our meals or tweet/brag about all the cool restaurants we were frequenting, and certain food phenomenons would never have blown up.
From kale to cronuts, sensational food trends were rampant this year. Unless you were living under a rock without WiFi, you couldn't escape these chart-topping food crazes:
The Cronut
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Probably the most hyped food of all time, the cronut hit New York in May 2013 and instantly became an international sensation. We all know 2013 was the year of the cronut, but what's next? Can another food ever reach anywhere near the crazy hype that the cronut inspired? We seriously hope not!
The Ramen Burger
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On the heels of the cronut came the ramen burger, debuting at the end of the summer at New York's Smorgasburg. Reddit could barely handle it, with homemade versions exposing the good, the bad and the very ugly of this hyped hybrid food.
Horse Meat
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Horse meat was huge this year. Traces of it found in hamburger meat by an Irish food safety watchdog prompted a massive fallout of recalls, ridiculous explanations, debate and even arrests. It quickly became one of biggest food controversies of the year.
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Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos
Taco Bell
Rumors about Taco Bell's next Doritos Locos taco flavor started gaining momentum on the Internet almost a year before it was released. And when people finally got to taste the Cool Ranch flavor when it debuted a day earlier than promised in March 2013, they flipped out.
Kale
Howard Bjornson via Getty Images
Kale's popularity has been soaring, but this year it exploded. Everybody was sharing kale recipes and discussing the minutia of perfecting the kale salad. The New York Times debated kale's origin and described it as an enigma to the French, while Jim Gaffigan went on an epic kale rant and BuzzFeed claimed it was "destroying America."
Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich
Dunkin Donuts
Bacon and a fried egg sandwiched between a glazed doughnut: it was the breakfast sandwich of dreams. Or nightmares. Dunkin' Donuts claimed it "changed breakfast forever. Again," but we think the company created a sensationalist, unnecessary "gut-bomb." The Internet seemed to like it, though.
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KFC "Wrinkled Brain"
Facebook: Ibrahim Langoo
When 19-year-old Ibrahim Langoo found what appeared to be a brain inside a piece of KFC chicken, the world stared and then quickly looked away in horror. KFC described the mysterious organ as an "unsightly" kidney that posed no health risks, but it's mentally scarred us forever.
Pizza Hut Crazy Cheesy Crust pizza
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut took stuff-crusted pizza to the next level this spring with its Crazy Cheesy Crust pizza. The crust consisted of cheese-filled pockets -- two per average slice -- with a blend of provolone, asiago, mozzarella, fontina and mild white cheddar. It was cheese-overkill, or, in other words, exactly what you would expect.
Nine-Way Peanut Putter And Jelly Sandwich
Everyone knows about the added value of potato chips in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as well as the solid variations on the classic: like peanut butter and honey or jelly and cream cheese. This PPJ took things up a notch, or nine. It has six different spreads, so that "when you close it you get nine different flavor combinations." Genius.
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The Bacon Weave Taco
Dude Foods
The bacon weave taco may have been done before, but this year Dude Foods did it right. Using kabob sticks and beer bottles to form the perfect shape, Dude Foods' Nick Chipman constructed one good-looking bacon weave. We couldn't get enough of it, but luckily we didn't have to, because he then made the Bacon Weave Choco Taco for dessert.
The Most Insane Bloody Mary Of All Time
http://i.imgur.com/5h9XzoZ.jpg
O'Davey's Irish Pub & Restaurant in Wisconsin served the most ridiculous Bloody Mary the Internet has ever seen. The crazy brunch cocktail reportedly only costs $5 -- not bad, considering it comes with a slider, a pretzel, a pickle, bacon, pop corn, a cracker and cheese curd, TO NAME A FEW!
Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich
Carl's Jr.
Mashup foods were clearly all the rage this year (to review: cronut, ramen burger...) and this Pop-Tart ice cream from Carl's Jr. sandwich was a favorite. This one looks like vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts, but just think of the other flavor combinations you could make at home!
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