Soft shell for me not so much because of authenticity, but because hard shell are just a pain in the ass to eat. They just break apart from the first bite. I’ve occasionally tried to have a good ol’ fashioned 80s taco night with the ground beef , the packet of taco seasoning, and the Ortega shells, and god damn do I hate those shells. And they don’t taste all that good, either. So, no, nothing to do with authenticity. (Though there are crunchy, fried tortilla tacos in the form of tacos dorados in Mexico. I love those things, and they don’t break apart.)
The real debate is flour or corn. I’m generally on team corn (though it depends on the type of taco I’m eating), but I’m more likely to keep flour tortillas around the house (they have a much better shelf life, and I find them a little bit more versatile.) Fresh corn tortillas are heaven, though.
Cream-based clam chowder is fine, but I absolutely love the tomato-based kind. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
The best pizza is the kind we get in southern Ohio, with teeny-tiny diced toppings with a sweet tomato sauce on a cracker-thin and crunchy crust cut into tiny squares or strips. I don’t even know if that style has a name.
Chili—any style with any ingredients can be good if made well.
Ketchup on dogs—sometimes I want it, sometimes I don’t. But I prefer sausage with a casing that has to be bitten to get through.
Hellman’s and Best are the same. Duke’s is different.
Regardless of how he comes off, he’s still right about everything, particularly about developing children’s palates. In India, there’s no such thing as children’s food. Kids eat what adults eat.
Come on, a man with years of life experience who refuses to order anything with EVOO because he doesn’t know what it is and refuses to ask? That guy is pathetic.
Yes Yes Yes – thank you!! Especially on the cornbread. I’m old enough to know better but I always forget. I’ll get my taste buds primed for BBQ and cornbread then I take the first bite and it’s BBQ and freaking pound cake.
Then I get mad at myself for forgetting.
Ditto on the sweet potatoes and enough with butternut squash already.
I’ve had apple pie plain, with ice cream, or with a slice of cheddar. They’re all good.
Tea—okay first of all “chai” just means “tea.” You mean “masala chai,” that is spiced tea.
Yea must be made with leaves from the tea plant. If there are no tea leaves, it’s not tea. Tea is to be taken with milk or sugar or plain or some combination.
Lemon juice or honey doesn’t belong in tea.
“Tea” with no qualifier means a hot drink, not iced.
Breakfast is objectively the worst of the 3 meals of the day and people who fetishize “breakfast for dinner” are overgrown children who wallow in nostalgia as a substitute for a culinarily interesting meal.
Well, no. Sloppy joes are sweeter and are more barbecue sauce with ground beef concoctions. You’d put ketchup in a sloppy joe, but god forbid if you get it anywhere near a chili. Also, a proper bean-less chili is either made with diced or cubed meat or a grind of meat known as “chili grind,” which is not as fine as your day-to-day ground beef. The end result is more a beef stew than the soupy concoction you see in most places.
If you do it right, the first bite of the taco will cause the hard shell to crack along the middle of the fold, and you can still hold the two pieces of shell together to contain the filling.
We call that “tavern style” around here, although that probably refers more to the cut. And referring it to “tavern style” is probably relatively new foodie nomenclature (as in, within the last 20 years. It was just “pizza” growing up.) And, same difference, “tavern/bar.” That said, sauce need not be sweet (yuck.) But thin crust, on the crackery side, cut into squares (which seems to be a Midwestern thing. I’ve seen it in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana. And it looks like Ohio does it, too.)
Sweet tea is just nasty. During cloying hot summer days, the last thing I want to drink is sickly sweet syrup. Give me unsweetened iced tea with a twist of lemon every time.
Pork ribs are vastly inferior to beef ribs, yet are the default. Pork ribs are like nibbling on a discarded shoelace. Many BBQ places don’t even serve beef ribs, what the hell?
Cole slaw must include carrots, bell peppers, or something else of the sweet veggy family. Otherwise it is just tasteless mayo-cabbage slop.
BBQ places…seriously, have you heard of a plate? Plopping my food on a piece of paper on a tray is not edgy, cool, hipster, frontier, or whatever you think it is. It’s just gross. Guy Fieri has more class.
I’m pretty mellow on most food arguments. Eat and let eat, I say. Personally, I’m a mustard guy, but if you want to slather ketchup on your hotdog, knock yourself out. I won’t look at you askance. Beans in your chilli? Sure, enjoy. Pineapple on your pizza? Go ahead. I’ll pass, but you enjoy it. We’re all open to our own food choices, and it’s all good.
Except.
If you take your steak any past medium, you are simply doing it wrong. You are cooking all the flavor out, and merely eating texture. Yes yes, it’s your meal, and you are allowed to have it any way you’d like. But you are still doing it wrong. I know, this contradicts what I said in my first paragraph, but we all need to draw the line somewhere, and murdering a poor, innocent steak is my line in the sand.
Recently, there was a hamburger thread which reminded me: if you’re putting eggs and breadcrumbs or bread or, really, anything inside your hamburger, please call it something else. This one, for some reason, just annoys the crap out of me. Take ground beef, slap some salt and pepper and maybe other seasonings on it. Grill or griddle it. I don’t care. But that’s a hamburger. It ain’t rocket science, yet so many people fuck it up.
While we’re at it, I actually prefer griddled/flattop-fried burgers to grilled burgers. I’m happy with either, but the seared surface of a flattop burger tastes better to me.
I’m going to disagree on this one. it depends on the cut. if you take a ribeye or filet past medium, then I agree. But leaner cuts like eye of round (IME) want to be medium well or else they’re just chewy.
Hey, sorry… you’re not in my head. You don’t have my tastebuds. To me, a medium-well steak tastes delish, and even a well done steak tastes pretty good.
You’re welcome to try to convince me that a medium-rare steak would taste even better, if I could get over the texture-sense that it’s still raw. (Personally, I have a harder time picking up the taste with medium-rare or even medium.) But don’t tell me that all the flavor is cooked out. I know what I’m tasting.
On edit: It’s possible that I’m used to the kind of steaks that jz78817 is saying are better medium well. Was never a much of a fan of ribeye. Might try asking for a filet mignon medium next time I’m at the steakhouse.
In Mexican restaurants around here, hard shelled tacos are made with flour tortillas and fried right before they serve them, so they are still fresh and hold together fairly well. The hard corn “taco shells” you buy in stores have to be slightly stale or else they’ll turn into a pile of chips under a glob of meat and filling all over your plate.
This is why I prefer soft tacos, which to be authentic use soft corn tortillas, not the flour kind (which is what most Americans think of when they hear “soft tacos”). But soft flour tortillas are good too.
(Personally, I have a harder time picking up the taste with medium-rare or even medium.) But don’t tell me that all the flavor is cooked out. I know what I’m tasting.