Saturday, May 24, 2008

Flatbreads and geometry

At the Fancy Food show in Chicago last month, along with Lithuanian liquors, Japanese pine needle juice and all manner of "healthy" dark chocolate, were homely flatbreads.

Why are they popular these days?

The answer offered by an enthusiastic flatbread puveyer was that they're "not the circles and squares that everyone's so tired of." I wondered if rectangles could possibly be so much more appealing a form. He said, "No, they get broken up--into sharp angles and uneven shapes. That's what makes them interesting."

I thought of Cheetos, which get their appeal from weird shapes--and that was the only thing that made me keep from raising a skeptical eyebrow.