If you’re a foodie living in the Raleigh-Durham metro area, you’re excited for what this week has in store. Triangle Restaurant Week is back and area restaurants are serving up delicious menus – many of which feature some of 2014’s hottest food trends.

Labeled, “a celebration of culinary excellence,” Triangle Restaurant Week is a weeklong event with participating restaurants offering special three-course and five course-course lunch and dinner menu options and wallet-friendly fixed pricing.

With more than 70 top restaurants from Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas partaking in this twice-yearly epicurean event, it’s no surprise that they are featuring delectable fare as well as offerings that have been dubbed some of the hottest menu trends for 2014.

Each year, the National Restaurant Association surveys chefs from across the country on which foods, cuisines, beverages and culinary themes will be the upcoming year’s biggest menu trends. The 2014 What’s Hot culinary forecast surveyed nearly 1,300 professional chefs from the American Culinary Federation, asking participants to label more than 250 items as a “hot trend,” “yesterday’s news” or “perennial favorite.”

What the National Restaurant Association found is that, “the top restaurant menu trends for 2014 focus on local sourcing, environmental sustainability and nutrition.” Locally sourced meats and seafood, locally grown produce and environmental sustainability are the highest-ranking trends, and can be found in a number of Triangle Restaurant Week menus.

Raleigh’s 18 Seaboard focuses of North Carolina ingredients, and nearly all of its Triangle Restaurant Week menu offerings include locally sourced products. At Local 22 Kitchen and Bar in Durham, everything served is sourced within 30 miles of its location. Other on-trend Triangle Restaurant Week participants include, Battistellas, Mia Francesca Trattori, Piedmont Restaurant, Lucky 32, Little Hen and more.