It was a pound of bacon raw – how much mass does bacon lose when you cook it?
You’re not the kind of guy who carries a scale in his briefcase are you? Who complains about his Quarter Pounder weighing only ninety-two grams after cooking?
“Mr. Simpson! I don’t often use the word.hero. But you! Are the greatest hero in American history! This is the most egregious lie since my lawsuit against The Neverending Story!”
On that same trip we visited some relatives in AZ. We were hanging out and one of my cousins was dipping some kind of weird corn chips (they were tortilla chips) into a strange mix of tomatoes, onions, chilies and some kind of exotic spices. (Salsa!) I tried it and “Damn! How did I not know about this!”
I was at a Jack when they got a delivery. Those delicious little things are full of TVP or textured vegetable protein. Potentially, but not intended to be vegan.
I grew up in the very white northwest suburbs of Chicago. Despite that, I never experienced bagels until I was an adult.
Chinese for was either cooked to death with La Choy at its core, or a “destination” restaurant about 40 minutes away called (no kidding) Chin’s.
For whatever reason, pizza around Chicago in that era was popularly sliced in what’s called “party cut” - rectangular pieces. I can’t remember when I first encountered triangular slices of pizza. Also, sausage was the default pizza meat. Didn’t try pepperoni until I was in college.
Spices in general - I think Mom’s spice collection was pretty much cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, powdered garlic, black pepper, and oregano. When I was in my 20s, I met fresh-grated nutmeg. I sent her a grater and jar of whole nutmegs. Rocked her world!
Never even heard of wonderful things like sushi, naan, pho, al pastor until I was an adult.
I use Hormel precooked bacon and the package claims 9.5 oz cooked equals 64 oz.raw so ~85% shrinkage. The bacon is cooked crisp, so that accounts for some of the loss.
Not cheap, but actually cost savings for me because, cook a pound, eat a pound. This way I just peel off and micro exactly what I want. Well, not exactly what I want. That would be pound!
I was at a Jack when they got a delivery. Those delicious little things are full of TVP or textured vegetable protein. Potentially, but not intended to be vegan.
Taco Regular Filling Ingredients: Beef, Water, Textured Vegetable Protein (Soy Flour, Caramel Color), Defatted Soy Grits , Seasoning [Chili Pepper, Corn Maltodextrin, Spices, Bleached Enriched Wheat Flour (Contains Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, and Folic Acid), Salt, Garlic Powder, Hydrolyzed ( …
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Jack in the Box Regular Beef Taco: Calories, Nutrition …
So beef is the #1, not even close to vegan, but yeah TVP is there.
In my neighborhood in MPS, there was one called The House of Wong. Seriously.
(In Jack in the Box tacos) I’ll happily defer to the ingredients list. My memory is a bit fuzzy on the exact wording on the boxes I saw. Might have been “With textured vegetable protein” just so people aren’t misled to think “pure beef” or whatever unadulterated cow meat is called these days.
I think it’s been touched on before upthread, but another “was exotic, now common” thing is the wide variety and availability of produce. When I was a kid, oranges were a Christmastime treat, and pineapples were restricted to only if a friend went to Hawaii for vacation and brought some back. When I was a kid, who ever heard of rainbow carrots? Last month, I was working with the food bank, and we were handing out not just rainbow carrots, but organic rainbow carrots.
My parents had a similar reaction when I dragged them to the Japanese restaurant when were at EPCOT and ate sushi. I was 8 or 9 and this was the early 90s.
I was at a thrift store the other day and saw one of those old fancy “escargot trays” fine restaurants used. A fancy looking tray with several small holes that, if filled with butter, can apparently make anything edible.
Back in the 1960s, my aunt got an escargot kit once, which IIRC consisted of a can of snails plus the shells that you were supposed to serve the escargot in once you prepared it. But escargot for most Americans is still just as exotic as it was back then.
Why not ‘Peel off and cook exactly what I want’? You don’t have to cook an entire pound of bacon or use the entire shaker of salt or empty the bottle of dressing on your salad.
I don’t think it’s been mentioned, but really hot foods were an extreme novelty when I was a kid. Something like habernero sauce would only be found at a Mexican grocery store, and all of the super-hot sauces and products like chips made with super-hot peppers just didn’t exist in the mass market. Now things like habernero-mango salsa are pretty common to find, hot sauces take up a few shelves, and various ‘X Scoville unit’ foods are in regular grocery stores. And you can mail order 13,000,000 Scoville peanuts if you want to try a challenge at home.
Spicy food is nothing new to some Asians, Mexicans and some other places. But I agree spicy food was not a prominent thing in my Canadian youth (and I ate more spicy food than most.). A lot of people only used salt and pepper. The brave few used paprika, chili powder or (gasp!) cayenne. Few non-ethnic restaurants served any food spicier than mild chili, and certainly no fast food places. Not sure when Tabasco sauce became widely available here.
People used to think of jalapeño peppers as incredibly spicy. It reminds me of a George Lopez joke about a gringo wincing after trying the salsa dip. “Geez! I think I just ate some onion!”. Potato chips came in “hot barbecue”. Today we would call this mild.
Growing up, hot sauce was Tabasco and Hawaiian chile pepper water, and the only spicy food generally available was bottled Kim Chee, a pale imitation of the homemade kind. I remember my Aunty who was Seoul, open the Tabasco bottle, shake a few drops on her tongue and say: “Not hot.”. I was in utter shock! When she made her Kim Chee, she had to make a severely mild version (to her tasteless) to give out. Even then, we’d run it under water before eating. When I was young, I had to run even the mild bottled version under water.
Kal bi - My Uncle married my Aunt from Seoul in the late 60’s and it was the first time I ever had kal bi or any type of Korean food. I don’t know if it’s because she’s from Seoul or because it’s a family recipe, but I’ve never had kal bi like hers again. She divorced my Uncle about 10 years later and she passed away a few years ago, so I’ll never her her kal bi again.
White Castle burgers! This must have been in my 20’s because they were frozen and microwavable. I don’t know how I’d heard about them, but I somehow knew that they were. I still get a craving for them once in a great while, but they’re expensive and I know nothing like the fresh ones that I’ll probably never get to try. Hate to fly.
Canadian also, and I think my mother’s spice rack when I was a child consisted of salt, pepper, and paprika (used sparingly, of course). There was a lot of empty space in the spice rack, and we ate a lot of bland meals. Nutritious, but tasteless. I looked forward to the rare occasions when we got pizza or Chinese delivered, because those were tasty.
I first encountered Tabasco sauce when I was about 13 or 14. Wow, what an awakening. Nowadays, I love spicy Thai cuisine, Szechuan Chinese, Mexican, and Tex-Mex. Greek cuisine is always welcome, and Indian cuisine is exquisite. Garlic is nothing to be afraid of, and neither is oregano.
We missed out on so much, Dr. Paprika!