Every New Year, we’re handed a fresh stack of “new” food trends and told what will be everywhere next. The BBC Good Food podcast recently flagged XO sauce as one to watch, and other trend spotters are also talking about grapes—not just as something to snack on, but as an ingredient to cook with.
I’m picking grapes, but not in the lazy way: no handful tossed onto a salad and no fresh bunch parked on the side of the plate. Grapes need heat. Roast them, char them, juice them (no additives, please), then reduce that juice until it becomes a syrup. Keep going and you get something closer to molasses—thick, dark, and glossy, in the same “use-a-spoonful” category as pomegranate molasses or tamarind. In Greece, that reduced grape syrup is known as petimezi, traditionally made from concentrated grape must and used as a sweetener and flavoring.
That direction makes sense to me because it fits the khattu mitthu sweet-sour balance that runs through Parsi cooking. We already lean on vinegar, jaggery, and dried fruits (including raisins—dried grapes) to get the tang and sweetness we want, but that doesn’t mean fresh grapes can simply be tossed in and called a day. The idea is to transform them, so their flavor becomes intentional.
So I didn’t wait for “someday.” I made gos na kavab this morning and served it with my own thick grape syrup, reduced from black grapes that were sitting in my refrigerator drawer. I brushed naan (any flatbread works) with the grape molasses, added thinly sliced onions, and topped it with the kebab. The onion’s crunch and bite cut right through the grapes’ sweetness, and suddenly this trend ingredient felt completely at home on my table.
Off the top of my head, I can see petimezi working with other Parsi favorites like topli na paneer and kheemo, and also with not-so-traditional weeknight standbys like lamb shanks or a roasted eggplant salad. If you want your 2026 kitchen to feel current without buying new gadgets, put a bottle of grape molasses—homemade or store-bought—next to your vinegar and tamarind, and start from there.
The recipe: Gos na Kavab (Parsi Meat Balls)
