You're scanning a menu, and a word jumps out at you. One specific food item in one specific dish that you now can't help but order. It's like a trigger. The thought of that ingredient has turned on a switch in your brain. The phrase "Pick me" plays over and over in your head for no apparent reason.
Sometimes it's seasonal. You say pumpkin during fall and there's no stopping us. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin loaf, and then that one time at band camp when we tried pumpkin Pop Tarts. Other times it's more irrational -- just some food trend that we have no control over. Take truffle oil, for instance. No, we can't taste it on our pizza over the heavy marinara sauce, and we're not even going to pretend we understand what it really is, but it sounds fancy and expensive, so why not? Or gold flakes, 'cause like, they're not actually food but they're pretty.
Miami is full of restaurants that play mind games with us, so Short Order has come up with a list of the top ten ingredients that make us tick and the eateries that use them best.
