Catching the mood.(Survey)

Every language has some words that can't be fully translated. The German word "Zeitgeist" means the spirit of the times, a combination of mood and mindset, perception and attitude, behavior and lifestyle. For Americans, especially younger Americans, the Zeitgeist is about embracing change and the anxiety that comes with it.

Change worked as a political slogan because it went far beyond what was or was not happening in Washington to zero in on what people felt was happening to them and the world around them. To some extent, younger Americans have always valued change and pushed for change against the traditions of their parents. What's different about today is that the change seems to be all encompassing, from spending and saving to food and fashion, friends, and family. Old rules about what foods go together, what drinks go with what foods, what foods belong at what meals, and what shoes go with what kinds of pants and dresses are of most interest when they are being broken. It's a bandwagon that's encouraging people to see what they can change next.

Talking with a cross section of women about Michelle Obama's clothes, I found that older women were mostly unimpressed, while those under 45 admired her self-confident mixing-and-matching, her as-needed relationship with her mother, and, most of all, her courage to wear flat shoes at places like the White House receiving line.

"She is very much her own person."

"She's makes her own rules."

The change bandwagon is accelerating changes in the way younger people are eating and drinking, as well as the way they are deciding what and where to eat.

* They are accelerating their embrace of ethnic foods and small plates.

* They are alternating traditional comfort foods with newer foods or salads.

* They welcome the idea that McDonald's can change its spots by serving good coffee and some healthy as well as junk food.

* They are bringing multitasking to their food ways, passing up meals that follow a linear formula, whether they are considering a restaurant or a home-cooked meal. Going from appetizer, to main course to dessert is only one, and perhaps the most boring, of many options.

* They are more comfortable in large, fluid spaces with lots of sensory excitement--both visual and auditory--and a feeling of motion. "I love being able to drink on a swing."

* Their friends' experience is more important than cuisine stars or Zagat ratings.

* Steak is a signature restaurant dish for them because they don't eat it at home as often as their parents did. The fact that it is environmentally wicked gives it an extra measure of cachet. Some of the success of steak restaurants is directly attributable to the failure of supermarkets to sell steaks that taste great when they are fixed at home, resulting in perceptions that steak from the supermarket is rarely a great taste experience.

"I don't expect to get a really good steak at a supermarket, so why spend the money for it."

* To older consumers, a good steak from the supermarket was easy to come by and the most convenient food to have for dinner (just toss it on the grill, under a broiler, or onto a frying pan, and voila!). In some ways, fish and steak have traded places--consumers used to be comfortable fixing steak but afraid to fix fish at home.

* Their knowledge of good food comes from their experience with cooking shows, ethnically diverse restaurants, bold flavors, and being open for almost anything that is new and different.

* They think of good food as anything that tastes good to them. Even the foodies among them didn't grow up with Julia Child's influence or the idea that French cooking or haute cuisine is important, or might be relevant, to their lives.

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