I feel the same way. I’ve had two run-ins with stuff “made with truffle” that I can recall, and I didn’t like either of them. Kind of odd because I love the taste and texture of mushrooms, and I do certain kinds of cooking with dried porcini mushrooms, which really pack a truffle-like concentrated flavour wallop.
Anyway, one thing I tried once was a mac and cheese dish prepared by an upscale little grocery that makes many wonderful prepared foods. They call it “grown-up mac and cheese with truffle”. The other was quite a costly pasta sauce sold under the brand name “Truff”, made with truffles and fairly hot spices. Really disliked both. Your description of “nastiness” applies to my impression of the mac and cheese. The Truff sauce wasn’t “nasty” in the same way, just not very good and a bit too hot as well. The plain semplice pasta sauce made by that same store is far, far better, and you can literally buy four jars for the price of one jar of Truff. So I guess truffles are not for me, though I don’t think I’ve had actual solid pieces of truffle.
I’m also with you on the goodness of homemade burgers, kind of a specialty at Maison Wolfpup. But I will occasionally condescend to eat a fast-food burger, though almost never McDonald’s.
The thing with tea snobbery is that even the good teas are still quite cheap. OK, so my beverage of choice costs 20 cents per cup instead of 5 cents. I’m getting more than 15 cents worth of enjoyment out of that.
Plus, while it’s not exactly the best, the Benners brand sold at Aldi is still a good, respectable tea, and it’s literally half the price of any other brand, so even if you’re on a budget, there’s still no excuse for buying mediocre tea.
Truffle oil is garbage. Real truffles, freshly-shaved (as in you watch the waiter do it) and paper thin turn just about any dish into something sublime. Black truffle fettuccini is worth maiming for.
Oh, yes, yes, yes. Even my 5- and 7-year-old kids know the difference. They call it “the salty cheese.” One day, I ran out of Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano so I bought a domestic brand, I believe it was Bel Giogioso. They refused to eat it. “This is not the salty cheese,” they said. I even tried a South American version that looked promising, but they wouldn’t have it (and I agreed with them.)
Put me down as another vote for pineapple. When it’s the perfect tenderness all over, it seems like it could pose a genuine challenge to strawberries for the title of my favorite fruit. But the next time around, I’ll be eating some run-of-the-mill stuff and, you know, it’ll be fine, but nothing I’ll be in great need to have more of.
I love excellent (or at least good) tequila and cigars and totally dislike/hate lesser quality ones. When I was a kid, tequila especially was vile and so were cigars. That’s because all the people I knew could afford were was rotgut and the kind of cigars you get at the local convenience store for a dollar. It wasn’t until I was older and introduced to better grades of each that I understood how anyone could enjoy either thing. Now, while I’m no snob, I can state definitively that quality in both are key. This goes for whiskey as well of course. Gin…I still don’t get any difference (it’s all vile to me), nor vodka (though the really low-end stuff is noticeably worse).
Am I the only degenerate that read “X” as ecstasy, now called “molly”? But yes, excellent X is the best. But mediocre ain’t bad. As long as it’s actual mdma and not whatever other garbage trying to pass for mdma.
Kind of like when I walked into my favorite hole-in-the-wall barbeque place just as an angry-looking woman left. “She sure looked mad,” I commented to the guy behind the counter."
“She was complaining how the brisket was all red around the edges.”
First thing that came to mind. I grew up in 70’s Australia where the only “parmesan” anyone ever had was this powdery stuff that came in a little spice container and smelt like vomit. Then when I was in my twenties you could get ‘Gran Padano’ which was OK but I still didn’t really like it. Then I lived in the UK and my gf (now wife) introduced me to Reggiano. A whole other thing.
When I came back to Aus I raved to a foody friend about how she needed to try Reggiano, and how Gran Padano was sawdust by comparison and she good naturedly ribbed me about being a ‘hoity toity’ food snob since returning from the UK. Then she went to the specialty European foods store, bought some Reggiano and apologized to me. It’s everywhere now, but 20 years ago it wasn’t something you could get outside a delicatessen.
When I was a kid no one ate calimari in Brisbane. The trawlers would come in with it as “by-catch” and throw it back into the water to be scavenged by gulls and fish hanging around the wharf. Then a certain Greek restauranteur started buying it off fishermen for next to nothing, because they saw no value in it, but he knew better.
Nowadays it’s everywhere and the idea of throwing it back seems criminal.
A Wegmans near me had truffles (well, maybe a truffle) in the produce section, in a locked bin, for $999.99/lb. I wondered if their computers couldn’t accept a higher price than that, or if they ever sold any.
I’ve never had a fresh-from-the-field Hawaiian pineapple. I do pick one up at the grocery store (I’m in Boston) every once in a while. They’re usually okay; sometimes better than others, and I swear that the pieces from the bottom taste different than the ones from the top. If I ever go to Hawaii, maybe I shouldn’t have one. I’d hate to get hooked on really good pineapple and then not get to have them again.
For me - I love excellent venison, but will eat just about anything in the game meat space.
I love deluxe ice cream with real vanilla, but will eat the cheapest store-brand “vanilla” “ice cream” dairy product.
I enjoy beer, but not mass-market lagers. Yet am happy to drink the cheapest ciders going.
Hell, I can get poke delivered to my door from 3 places, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Huh. I have to say I’ve never noticed. I just know that slow roasted meat can often still be redder than other forms.
That said, apparently it’s not inherent in the process, as I found a link about how to make a good smoke ring, and another about whether or not it makes a difference.
For the OP: first thing that comes to mind is root beer. I love a good one, but only drink the lesser ones if it’s the only choice.
I also thought of tamales. I love a good one, but also will put up with those weird ones in a can. But it’s like wanting Mexican vs. wanting Taco Bell: they’re completely different tastes.
You don’t need to get a whole black truffle to enjoy truffle in food. But you do often need to read the labels carefully to distinguish between “this product contains actual truffle” and “somebody whispered the word ‘truffle’ somewhere in the vicinity of this product, and that’s good enough for us”.
I sometimes get a cheddar cheese with truffle in it which, while a bit pricey for cheese, is entirely affordable as a treat. It is a delight, especially thinly-sliced and melted on toast.
I too would love to be a tea snob and have been in proper tea shops with the walls full of bins of loose tea in a bewildering variety of scents and flavors. But I can’t justify paying those prices for what is often a subtle difference in quality, especially when I strongly suspect the prices are marked up entirely for the purpose of gouging tea snobs.
But I manage to find decent and affordable loose teas elsewhere. And while there are days when I want a subtle and complex tea in a china cup, there are other days when a builder’s tea in a chipped mug will hit the spot just fine.
I bought a product that was supposed to be actual minced truffle pieces preserved in oil, that came in a tiny jar. But the flavor was practically nonexistent. I think real truffle flavor does not preserve well.
Ooh, this sounds really good, and at the dollar equivalent of $8.63, not too pricey at all-- I’ve often spent around that amount for a more or less equally sized portion of aged Gouda. Unfortunately I doubt they ship to the states, so I’ll have to see if I can find a site on this side of the pond that sells a similar product.