Trend forecasters say that laksa, a slurpable noodle soup served across parts of Southeast Asia, may rise in prominence in the United States in 2022.

Last year at this time, optimistic trend forecasters predicted that the cork would burst from the bottle by summer. With vaccines in arms, food culture would vibrate in a robust economy. American menus would be full of innovation driven by waves of international travel, and a new generation of digital-native cooks would rewrite the rules.

Clearly, the prediction game can be a losing one. But so what if things didn’t turn out like everyone thought they would? Trying to forecast food trends is still fun, and sometimes even accurate. (Kudos to those professional prognosticators who in recent years nailed the mainstream rise of quesabirria, soufflé pancakes, delivery-only restaurants and CBD. And a special citation for those who saw early on that those ripples of veganism would become a plant-based tsunami.)

So how are things looking for 2022? Not great. The year is starting with a surge of a highly contagious variant of Covid-19 that is only adding to the economic uncertainty. Social-justice concerns remain top of mind for many, as does pressure from a fast-changing climate. All of it will affect how food is grown, cooked, and packaged.

But don’t despair. “Constraint breeds innovation,” said Anna Fabrega, a former Amazon executive who recently took over as the chief executive at the meal subscription service Freshly. She and other food industry leaders in the United States say 2022 will be another pragmatic, roll-up-your-sleeves kind of year, shaped by the needs of people working from home and by the culinarily-astute-but-fickle Gen Z, whose members want food with sustainable ingredients and a strong cultural back story, prepared without exploitation and delivered in a carbon-neutral way — within 30 minutes.

With that in mind, here are some potential developments, big and small, that could define how we eat in the new year, based on a review of dozens of trend reports and interviews with food company executives, global market researchers, and others who make it their business to scour the landscape for what’s next.

Ingredient of the Year

Cooks can expect to be using more mushrooms grown inside urban warehouses, like Smallhold’s in New York.

Mushrooms have landed on many prediction lists, in almost every form, from psilocybin mushrooms (part of the renewed interest in psychedelics) to thick coins of king oyster mushrooms as a stand-in for scallops. The number of small urban farms growing mushrooms is expected to bloom, and mushroom fibers will start to proliferate as a cheap, compostable medium for packaging.

Drink of the Year

Party like it’s 1985, with drinks such as the Long Island iced tea.

Even in the age of no-alcohol cocktails, all those 1980s drinks you can barely remember (for obvious reasons) are coming back. Look for Blue Lagoons, Tequila Sunrises, Long Island iced tea, and amaretto sours re-engineered with fresh juices, less sugar, and better spirits. “We all need things that are sweet and colorful and joyful and playful, especially now,” said Andrew Freeman, president of AF & Co., the San Francisco consulting firm that for 14 years has published a popular food and hospitality trend report. (A corollary to the cocktails: the rise of ecospirits, made with ingredients from local farms or food waste, and packaged and shipped using climate-friendly methods.)

Chicken, Re-hatched

Among the chicken trends being predicted: the continued rise of vegan substitutes. Meat grown in laboratories from animal cells is on its way to winning federal approval as soon as the end of 2022, and chicken will be one of the first products to become available. But plant-based chicken from companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have recently arrived in groceries and restaurants, and the battle is on to determine which substitute will dominate the market. And in the real-chicken world, a shortage of wings has restaurants trying to persuade the masses to love a different part of the chicken. The Wingstop chain, for instance, has expanded its brand with Thighstop.

Seaweed to the Rescue

Kelp grows fast, has a stand-up nutritional profile, and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nitrogen from the ocean. As a result, farmed kelp will move beyond dashi and the menus at some high-end restaurants and into everyday foods like pasta and salsa.

Candy Nostalgia

The popular Netflix show “Squid Game,” from South Korea, made ppopgi — dalgona candy — a star. Credit…Sang An for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon

Nostalgic childhood favorites from China (White Rabbit candy and haw flakes) and South Korea (the honeycomb-like treat ppopgi, a.k.a. dalgona candy, and Apollo straws) will work their way into American shopping carts and recipes for desserts and drinks. – Source: The New York Times/Kim Severson.