Depends on what you mean by a trend.  Sure, in Harvard Square the trend is burgers, pizza, and fried foods from Asia.  Why, at this very moment there are four burger places–two of them opened in the past year, and one is the NYC-based Shake Shack; five pizza places; and, a couple of Indian, Thai, and Korean places.  There are three high end restaurants when mom & dad show up to buy the kids $43 steaks and $39 plates of halibut.  Why it’s $43 and not $40 or $39 and not $40?  Talk to marketing.

Elsewhere, in Boston, more pubs selling pork and sliders and offal are on the rise.

Noodles?  Pasta?  Fish?  Vegetables?  Shellfish?

Not quite yet.  Though I will say that Legal Seafood remains the best and most reliable restaurant in town.

Elsewhere, we are seeing more rustic, regional Italian places opening up–vegetable driven, simple, few ingredients and all top notch.  Like Perla in the West Village or Il Buco Alimentari in the East Village.  And then, too, we see raw fish, simply plated, small portioned, like Nakazawa.  Or focused, high end ingredient driven restaurants like Rotisserie Georgette.

So it ends up being meals at home more often than not: Grey sole, yellow fun tuna, fresh pasta in a tomato cream sauce.

I’m heading soon to Japan where simplicity in cuisine is regal.