# Controversial Culinary Comments **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 2, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328 "2018-10-02T18:49:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/101 "2018-10-03T15:34:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > True, charcuterie is just a fancy word for “cold cut platter,” but goddamit is good charcuterie delicious! Give me some sausages, hams, pates, and whatever cured meats you got any day to go with my beers. There’s really very little that I prefer to that along with some bread and mustard to eat with my drink. I’m a good Polish boy, so give me all your cured and processed meat products! Head cheese and aspics, too! But there’s a lot of overpriced middling charcuterie out there. I don’t know about it being a _current_ thing, though – the peak popularity of that trend was maybe ten years ago around here. The thing is, charcuterie as a term encompasses a LOT of stuff- anything from the classic cured and dried meats like prosciutto or jamon Serrano, to cured/dried sausages like salami, jagerwurst, to stuff like regular old ham and bacon, to beef jerky, to emulsified sausage like mortadella, bologna, and hot dogs, to pates like liverwurst, to terrines, to rilletes & confit, etc… I think even stuff like cold smoked salmon and gravlax could fall under charcuterie’s aegis these days. I tend to agree that the ‘standard’ charcuterie plate of the usual Italian-style salumi suspects like coppa, some kind of salami-type dried sausage and some other stuff is kind of overpriced and often pretentious as hell. But I still like it, and every now and then you get cool stuff- my wife and I went to a place last month where we had lamb rillettes as part of the charcuterie plate. That was unusual! > [@pulykamell](#): > > My controversial culinary comment is that I’m not sold on this whole sous vide thing. I’ve like the stuff I’ve had sous vided well enough, but it hasn’t been the orgasmic mind-blowing experience it is for most people. I’m just happy enough with food cooked the regular way that does not require vacuum sealing and cooking times that sometimes extend into the days. Now, this is not to say my brother’s home cured and 48-hour sous-vided corned beef isn’t wonderful – but I’m fine with corned beef cooked the regular way (the home curing for me is the most important part. Brings me back to my love of charcuterie.) I’ll say that sous-vide fish is where it’s at; unless you’re looking to brown the fish, like say… searing tuna steaks, you can nail the cooking temp with sous vide in a way that’s extremely hard to come close to with conventional cooking methods. Also, sous-vide steaks are pretty good- they only take 30-45 minutes, and provided you have a hot cast-iron skillet or really hot grill, you can get a really good sear as well as a perfectly cooked interior. I don’t have a lot of use for long sous-vided stuff like corned beef; yes, you may end up with supremely tender meat, but you get that anyway with the traditional braise, and you also don’t have that meat flavoring the veggies and potatoes in the pot. (I guess I’m thinking NE Boiled dinner not strictly corned beef.). **Switching gears a little… on the subject of IPAs:** I’m not a serious hop-head, but I do enjoy IPAs. But the biggest problem I’ve perceived is the arms-race between breweries on who can pack more IBU into their bottles. It’s a marketing thing, not a taste or quality thing. A “real” IPA is hop-heavy, but with a corresponding OG that gives it a lot of balancing malt flavor. Not as balanced as a bitter in that sense, but a lot more so than some random craft brewery’s “Triple Imperial-Royal IPA- “Suicide by Hop”” (or some other stupid-ass pun name) that’s like 130 IBU, but only 1.065 in OG. I like the balance- a hoppy beer is fine, but I’m not looking for alcoholic hop tea. For my money, I like a good, fresh, well-made lager. Something like Live Oak’s amber, Deep Ellum’s Neato Bandito or Karbach’s Karbachtoberfest, to name a few local/regional examples. Luckily, I think that’s the inbound thing for breweries. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/102 "2018-10-03T15:39:33Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Midwestern style pizza is underrated and since its easier to do than NY style you are less likely to get a bad piece. In the same vein, New York is the LAST place on Earth I would associate with good pizza. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/103 "2018-10-03T15:50:05Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Nothing beats a great piece of fruit, but buying it is such a crap shoot it hardly seems worth the risk of just ending up angry. Man I don’t know if this was said in jest but it couldn’t be more true for me, I find that I’m buying way less fresh produce because it’s always gross. I don’t know if I’m just not shopping at the right places but I couldn’t find a decent peach at all this year. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/104 "2018-10-03T15:55:18Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > I don’t know if I’m just not shopping at the right places but I couldn’t find a decent peach at all this year. I had great peaches this year, but the season was short. Locally grown peaches are all that I buy. If they were a bit under-ripe, I’d grill them for dessert. If they were perfect, I’d eat them. Over-ripe and they’d be bird food (parrot and chickens). ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/105 "2018-10-03T16:07:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Nope, eech. But I will attest it makes excellent fish bait. Wow, I thought my family were the only ones who used it that way. We used to always take a big hunk of Velveeta on backpacking trips to fish with. Trout seem to really go for it. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/106 "2018-10-03T16:17:05Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Midwestern style pizza is underrated and since its easier to do than NY style you are less likely to get a bad piece. Explain yourself. I mean, NY style pizza has basically 3 ingredients, and hole in the wall shops manage to crank out competent pizza all day long with little difficulty. How much easier can Midwestern pizza be? Edited to add: Eggplant sucks. It’s terrible food, and no cooking technique can make it edible. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/107 "2018-10-03T17:19:19Z")
1. . Every other restaurant that opens here is a burgers and fries joint, with big screen tvs for sportsball watching. Burgers and fries, burgers and fries, burgers and fries forever and ever and ever. I guess that’s what sells, and there are other options opening up timidly, here and there. (I find it amusing that the jiggle restaurants sucking up to frat boys (Hooters, Tilted Kilt) have gone tits-up, excuse the term, though there are other mundane burger joints taking their places.) I think that’s why the much-mocked places like Applebee’s and Olive Garden still do great business, there are burgers there, but options for non-burger fans. 2. . Hot sauce. Hot sauce aplenty, everywhere, chips and candy and every kind of sauce. Ice cream. Sausages. French fries, cheese, pasta. All advertised as ‘spicy’ - no, it’s just mouth-burningly hot. Will the craze for burning up ones throat with hot sauce ever slow down? I know it’s popular and I don’t have to consume it, just I’m amazed what a craze it is, everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/108 "2018-10-03T17:56:10Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Everything you’ve written here is wrong to the point of absurd to the point of surreal. I will go to my grave insisting that this post was just a poorly thought out joke. > > T > Here’s a couple of my own: > Sushi is Japanese fast food. It shouldn’t be expensive or served at a candlelit table at a fancy sit-down place with $50 bottles of sake. I wish we had a sushi conveyor belt diner near me. > > Budweiser is a fine beer. So is PBR, Hamms, and many other easy-drinking lager beers that dominated the 20th Century. However, Bud light, or any light beer for that matter, is garbage rejected from the depths of hell. > > Cake sucks. It never fails to disappoint. The prettier it looks, the worse it tastes. Give me a Betty Crocker brownie or cookie over a fancy cake any day. P. So true- he was so very wrong. Sushi boat places can be very good. I dunno about Budweiser, but a ice cold Coors or Pacifico on a hot day is really nice. Cake depends upon frosting. It needs to be REAL buttercream (or cream cheese for some cakes). With this homogenized fat & hfcs crap or “whip creme” you have garbage, suited for a 5 yo’s Birthday. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/109 "2018-10-03T18:02:31Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > Wow, I thought my family were the only ones who used it that way. We used to always take a big hunk of Velveeta on backpacking trips to fish with. Trout seem to really go for it. 😃 And- if you get desperate, you can eat it, I guess.😛 I learned this while on a backpacking trip up in the high sierras. One of the dinners was a early freeze dried Mac & Che, so they brought along some Velveeta to help. I guess it did. But we had half a loaf left over so I went fishing in the lake. They didn’t like salmon eggs, but they LOVED Velveeta. That nite, instead of bad freeze dried, we had fresh trout- along with some sort of freeze dried soup, which wasn’t half-bad. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/110 "2018-10-03T18:14:35Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > Man I don’t know if this was said in jest but it couldn’t be more true for me, I find that I’m buying way less fresh produce because it’s always gross. I don’t know if I’m just not shopping at the right places but I couldn’t find a decent peach at all this year. Certain kinds of fruit do better (or worse) than others, in the food transportation system that’s set up. Peaches fail in this system. Peaches grown fairly local to you, picked when ripe, and expensively & inefficiently driven a short distance to you by a small truck (or you go yourself to get them), are great. If peaches aren’t grown anywhere near you… don’t eat peaches. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/111 "2018-10-03T18:16:19Z")
Yeah, peaches do not travel well and need to ripen on the vine to be worth eating. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/112 "2018-10-03T18:16:58Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Yeah, peaches do not travel well and need to ripen on the vine to be worth eating. They grow on trees. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/113 "2018-10-03T18:45:17Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > Man I don’t know if this was said in jest but it couldn’t be more true for me, I find that I’m buying way less fresh produce because it’s always gross. I don’t know if I’m just not shopping at the right places but I couldn’t find a decent peach at all this year. Have you tried places that specialize in produce, or farmer’s markets? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/114 "2018-10-03T19:04:19Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Cake sucks. It never fails to disappoint. The prettier it looks, the worse it tastes. Give me a Betty Crocker brownie or cookie over a fancy cake any day. Pie, on the other hand, is the dessert of the gods. I thank my lucky stars that you can’t create a reality game show around who can make a pie that looks most like a castle or horse. Pie always looks like pie. I was at a wedding this weekend. 350+ guests, but amazing and honest food. Chicken that was moist and delicious, prime rib that was perfectly medium rare. And, most wonderfully, cake that was delicious and had a buttercream frosting! None of that inedible PlayDoh known as Fondant for this couple! ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/115 "2018-10-03T19:06:16Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > They grow on trees. Well, ripen on the branch, but if they are picked before they are fully ripe, they turn to mush. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/116 "2018-10-03T19:09:52Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I was at a wedding this weekend. 350+ guests, but amazing and honest food. Chicken that was moist and delicious, prime rib that was perfectly medium rare. And, most wonderfully, cake that was delicious and had a buttercream frosting! None of that inedible PlayDoh known as Fondant for this couple! Yes!!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/117 "2018-10-03T19:17:07Z")
Peaches aren’t commercially grown in the UK, at least I’ve never had one that was, but I’ve had tasty peaches before. Sure, maybe not amazing ones if you’re used to truly fresh, but sweet, juicy, tasty enough to be well worth eating. Not this year though, I’ve bought a few, and had no flavour or even sweetness at all from any of them. I don’t know what’s been different. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/118 "2018-10-03T19:19:53Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I was at a wedding this weekend. 350+ guests, but amazing and honest food. Chicken that was moist and delicious, prime rib that was perfectly medium rare. And, most wonderfully, cake that was delicious and had a buttercream frosting! None of that inedible PlayDoh known as Fondant for this couple! Go out and buy a lottery ticket _right now_. Fate and fortune is shining upon you. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/119 "2018-10-03T19:21:52Z")
Speaking of peaches, what’s up with Asian pears? Let’s take a pear, make it look like an apple, take all the flavor out of it, and sell it for a premium? Are they supposed to taste like this? I’m assuming not, but every Asian pear I’ve had tasted like somebody took a weakly flavored pear and crossed it with a jicama to further dilute the taste. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328/120 "2018-10-03T19:23:24Z")
Lifelong Chicagoan and I put ketchup on hot dogs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-culinary-comments/822328.md?page=7)