These are exciting times in the world of food. After decades in which convenience and blandness have been the reigning characteristics of North American food, the backlash has begun in earnest. Quality and taste are finally taking precedence as people start to care about what they eat, where it comes from and how it is prepared. To wit, a look at eating and cooking trends for 2004: Health, Diets, Chocolate, Cheese, Coffee, Tapas, Food and wine matching, Ingredients, Hot foods, and Umami. Coffee. Forget Starbucks. Wake up and smell the coffee roasting in your own kitchen, because the freshest coffee is coffee you roast yourself. Firms such as Toronto's Merchants of Green Coffee sell green beans that are organic and fair-trade. If you buy a year's worth (green beans have an unlimited shelf life), the company will throw in a counter-top coffee roaster. Taste the heady results; you won't believe the difference. Which brings me to another trend: growing consumer concerns about fair trade for growers and producers, ethical treatment of animals and preservation of the environment in the way food is produced.