Why? What makes them “gradiations of quality,” and not just neutral “differences” to which you assign the idea of quality?
I wonder if anyone has researched the presence or absence of “taste” as a sense?
You’re a bad person if you don’t know all the best, half-hidden restaurants in allthe cities you ever visit? :dubious: Man, I’m glad I don’t have that kind of guilt hanging over me!
Is this fact a scientific fact? If not, what kind of fact is it?
Daniel
Well, at some level there are scientific fact. With meat, you can look at freshness, fat content, and the health of the animal that it came from, for example.
Well, at some level there are scientific facts. With meat, you can look at freshness, fat content, and the health of the animal that it came from, for example.
No, it isn’t. And you saying that it is doesn’t make it so.
Whee!
I think the main difference comes down to thought and consideration. A person who has chosen to put a lot of thought and effort into the topic at hand should inherently be considered more knowledgable than the person who puts zero thought into the topic.
For instance, the person who sucks down a glass of fruit flavored white zinfandel at the office christmas party vs. the person who has wine at his meals 4 nights a week documenting the wine’s flavor into a journal for comparative purposes.
You can try to say that Miss Peach Zin’s claim that “red wine sux” is just as valid as Mr. Aficionado’s claim that “flavored wines are cheap crap, sweetened and fruit flavored to mask the fact that they have no real wine flavor.” From a personal standpoint, that’s fine, Peach Zin isn’t going to enjoy a bold red wine, so claiming it’s better is false for her.
However, if she started to put in the effort that Aficionado does to understand and appreciate wine, she may change her mind. That’s what separates the inexperienced opinion from the experienced one. When people decide to put the effort in, they develop an opinion based on experience and consideration, rather than on a brief encounter with the subject. This is why I would assign more weight to the aficionado’s opinion.
Tell me someone prefers the Big Mac after trying gourmet burgers and finer foods with an open mind, then you have a valid case of “It’s all a matter of taste.”
It would be one of them “true” facts, also being scientific.
Furt:
It’s simple.
If we’re talking hamburgers rancidness would not be a neutral difference, would it?
The difference I perceive is enough to keep my preference for good food intact and the distinction clear.
No. But the comparative low quality of a Big Mac is demonstrable. It is specifically demonstrable by what the high quality of a Big mac is.
A Big Mac is high quality in that it is cheap, easily prepared, reproduceable, bland, generic, from frozen standard stock, and storeable. The quality of a Big Mac is not its qualtity as a hamburger, but it’s quality as a mass marketable commodity.
On the other hand, I will make a burger as follows: I will grind aged angus beef that has never been frozen , and lightly season it with pepper, salt, garlic, minced jalapeno, a tablespoon of crumbled monterey jack cheese and a tablespoon of whipped egg. I will form this into a concave patty so that when it cooks it will be be flat. I will grill this over charcoal until it is a perfect medium rare (as opposed to the cooked to death Big Mac.) When it is done I will place it on a fresh toasted sourdough bun made from real sourdough starter. On top of the burger I will scrape a smidgen of horseradish, a thin slab of aged sharp cheddar, a bermuda onion and fresh iceberg lettuce.
My hamburger is designed not as a marketable commodity, but as a burger that is designed to taste good, to approach the A priori archetype that is “hamburger.”
As a marketable mass-produced entity it does not have the quality of a Big Mac, and the Big mac is superior.
But to be a marketable mass-produced commodity is not what a hamburger is about, and that is why the Big Mac’s quality as a hamburger is low, and my burger has high quality.
Bon Apetit.
Put one on for me, Scylla. I’ll pick up a six-pack of Newcastle and be over in a minute.