I can drink good wine and cheap wine, good beer and cheap beer, and almost any scotch or bourbon. However, I cannot drink cheap champagne. The mid level stuff is good, the really expensive stuff is amazing. The cheap stuff f ($10 to $20 bottle) is undrinkable.
I agree in principle, and some of the stuff sold as “parmesan cheese”, such as the Kraft stuff that sits on the shelf unrefrigerated, is indistinguishable from sawdust. However it’s possible to get good quality pre-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and I just find it more convenient, plus the machine-grated stuff tends to be finer and more suitable for many uses. The stuff I buy is grated in the store from good quality imported Parmigiano-Reggiano and comes with a label showing the brand and the various attributes of the cheese it was grated from.
I won’t drink bad espresso, unless I need the caffeine. Same for coffee.
I won’t eat bad cheese, period. And I don’t mean spoiled, I mean low quality for what it is. I’ll scarf good processed cheese food at need, but not poorly made cheddar, nor stinking bishop if it lacks sufficient stink.
I’m sorry to say this, because I don’t want to be a stoner anymore, but my first thought when I read the OP was cannabis.
I am not sure how ‘high end’ brats can be, but I will go out of my way to get black n’ blue brats (black Angus and blue cheese crumbles) from the local butcher shop. I’ll go to the baker and get fresh buns. I will get a specific horseradish mustard and specific sauerkraut, both kept ice cold. And I will spend a dedicated amount of time cooking everything on the grill to perfection even in the middle of the cold-ass Wisconsin tundra.
But I also won’t pass up a gas station Wizard Finger even though it’ll guarantee almost instant heartburn.
Same here. I am also a fan of locally produced whiskies, fortunately the Seattle area has some of the best micro distilleries in the US. My little brother offered me a bottle of Jim Beam for my birthday, I declined and questioned whether he was really my brother. He gave me a bottle of Eagle Rare 17 year old bourbon. Best brother ever.
Bagels.
If they’re boiled, I love them.
Not boiled, they’re not worth eating.
If it isn’t boiled, it’s not even a bagel.
Port. A good 20 year old Tawny is fantastic. A 10 year is good. A cheap bottle of Ruby Port is godawful.
Was gonna say — isn’t that part of the process what defines a bagel? Pretzels as well. Boil (often in alkaline water or water with malt syrup) then bake.
I was surprised when I recently learned that bagels are made with alkaline water. What, then, distinguishes between bagels and pretzels?
Well, yeah, if I wanna I can DoorDash it.
I don’t think they are always made with alkaline water, but, yes, they are closely related. A lot of bagel recipes I’ve seen just use malt syrup. You get a lot more browning the more alkaline the water. Otherwise I do think they are indeed similar.
Not the bagel recipes I know. Just boiling water.
They also use different doughs, but the soda vs plain is the big difference AFAIK.
I live in south Georgia but grew up in central Indiana. There are a few things that are really hard to find down here- good sweet corn and good tomatoes.
I love a good tomato, but that means a garden-grown fruit that has flavor. They don’t exist down here. The hot nights keep them from ripening properly, I’ve read. Every summer, I make a pilgrimage back north so I can get some good ones.
The corn thing is changing. The climate here is good for corn growing. It’s just that the sweet corn culture here has been really behind the times and unaware of how good sweet corn can be. They leave it on the stalk two weeks too long and then cook it to death or cream it. Silver Queen is still considered a trendy variety. However, in the past five years or so, bi-color varieties have made their way here. Last summer a friend of mine grew some sweet corn that was as good as any I’ve tasted. This makes me happy.
Watermelon is another fruit (legally a vegetable according to Georgia’s dept. of agriculture) where I really love a good one but detest a bad one. Fortunately, Georgia has it going on when it comes to melons!
White wine.
I like wine, and drink mostly red. Here’s the thing - although I enjoy ‘good’ wine (ie expensive, snobbish - you know what I mean), I find that I can get quite a drinkable red in the $10-15 range. Perfect for a barbecue or just ‘I need a drink’. My normal ‘dinner wine’ range is $20-40 (and up). But I will drink the cheap stuff as well.
However, while I do like plenty of whites, I find it nearly impossible to find one below $25 that I enjoy drinking. I find the cheaper wines (these are my tastebuds talking) metallic, acidic, almost oily. Actually unpleasant.
Champagne just magnifies the problem - the only champagne I will drink is far too expensive for me to justify. (shoutout to Procrustus!).
Yeah, and that’s the low end of “good” Scotch. Like wine, you can get ridiculous with Scotch.
In North America, New York bagels are boiled in a weak solution of lye (like pretzels), Montreal bagels are boiled in a weak solution of honey or molasses, and supermarket bagels are boiled in plain water.
I prefer to grate my own from good quality cheese for stuff like alfredo sauces and the like, but some of the shaved or even graded stuff is good for adding to a dish. That Kraft stuff I can’t even stand the smell of it…it reminds me of my Navy days in rough seas. Total yuck!
I think it may be a form of plastic, tbh.