There was a time when the word "salad" referred to little more than a pile of iceberg lettuce. It was ornamentation, sometimes doused in a sickly-sweet, carrot-colored dressing described, inexplicably, as "French.

Given how fast food trends emerge and travel, it's not surprising that there's a Cronut, or Faux-nuts. But the hottest food trend of the past five years may be copycatting.

When the U.S. borders swung open to millions of diverse new migrants beginning in 1965, Americans probably couldn't have guessed that there would be a culinary upshot. But within a decade, they were chewing on the most varied cuisines the country had ever seen.