# Lowbrow foods **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255 "2007-02-07T20:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/41 "2007-02-08T12:43:50Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Then, you have foods that are clearly inferior to their competition and indicate there is just something wrong with the person buying it. Bologna is the prime example in this category. I nominate it as a prime trash food. There isn’t much reason for its existence except to get rid of odd meat scraps. Ham and turkey fill the same niche in a non-trashy way. [/QUOTE] You are thinking Oscar Mayer. Try some real Bologna or Mortadella and you will see what you are missing. ---
**Author:** ![oiloiloil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc79bd/32.png) [@oiloiloil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oiloiloil)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/42 "2007-02-08T12:56:33Z")
Leaving the pub of an evening me and my pals usually pop into the chippy where, for most of us, our usual choice is a ‘haggis supper’ - take away deep fried haggis in batter with soggy deep fried chips with plenty of salt and vinegar, the whole thing slathered over with ketchup and wrapped in paper. We eat them on the way home (we wouldn’t be driving - we’re pissed). It’s delicious. Then there’s the annual Burns Suppers in expensive hotels, where the diners are in formal dress and the haggis is piped in on a silver platter, the bagpipes played by a piper in full ceremonial Highland regalia. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/43 "2007-02-08T14:23:51Z")
I quite agree-it is the venue that determines whether food is lowbrow or highbrow. take pate-it is basically meatloaf. served in a fancy French restaurant, its highbrow-at your local lunch counter, lowbrow. or tripe- it is basically "poor people’s food’-but in an elegant Florentine restaurant, gourmet fare. basically, protein is protein-once it hits the stomach, most people don’t know the differnec. And, the varying p price of foods determines its status: when i was a kid, fired cod/haddock was poor people’s food-now its luxury fare. Stuff i would NEVER eat (skate, eel, monkfish) is now highly esteemed. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/44 "2007-02-08T15:23:04Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] …[fried] cod/haddock was poor people’s food-now its luxury fare. [/QUOTE] The “fish” part of “fish & chips” is luxury fare? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/45 "2007-02-08T15:31:50Z")
YUP! Fresh haddock (when you can get it) is \>$8.00/lb. here in Boston. usually, if you order "fish and chips’ you are getting alaskan pollock or even (gasp!) catfish. God knows what other species are used. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/46 "2007-02-08T16:50:05Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] I read a thing once that said most artificial fruit flavoring is basically the same. They change the color and tell you what they want you to think it tastes like, and your brain fills in the blanks. Don’t know how much truth there is to that. [/QUOTE] I have no sense of smell and don’t think I discriminate flavors as well as other people, but I always suspected this. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/47 "2007-02-08T17:22:37Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] My teenage daughter once opined to me, in a superior tone of voice, that Honey Buns packaged in cellophane and prominently labeled “HONEY BUN” are “white trash food”. Dunno how she came by that opinion, 'cause I certainly thought they were just another donut. Apparently not. [/QUOTE] I worked with welfare moms on one job, and was amazed at how much of a staple these exact things were. And the other day, I visited a client in jail and saw that the honeybuns were the biggest seller in the jail “store.” Just my anecdotal evidence. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/48 "2007-02-08T17:36:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] You are thinking Oscar Mayer. Try some real Bologna or Mortadella and you will see what you are missing. [/QUOTE] Exactly what I was going to say. Bologna has had it’s good name ruined in the US because of that stuff from Oscar Mayer. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/49 "2007-02-08T17:44:48Z")
[QUOTE=flurb] Before the 20th century, lobster was so cheap and plentiful in New England and the Maritimes that it was a staple food for those in poverty. Consequently, it came to be thought of as “poor man’s food” and was shunned by the upper classes. [/QUOTE] Think of all the fancy restaurants that sell “peasant foods” like polenta, tofu, mashed potatoes, or the poorer quality meat cuts like tritip that you typically marinate in order to improve the flavor. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/50 "2007-02-08T17:46:44Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] Yeah. My parents say that when they were young, prawns (shrimp) were dirt cheap, and used to be sold in newspaper by street vendors outside the pubs at closing time, and they got a reputation as drunks’ food. Now you need to take out a second mortgage to buy the things. Same with lamb. “Lamb chops and three veg” was the typical working class Australian meal when I was a kid in the 1970s, but now lamb is a luxury. Chicken has done the reverse. My mother says that in the 40s and 50s, you might have chicken once a year, maybe for Christmas. It was very, very special. Now it is the base of a lot of the cheapest fast food, and a poor family can live on chicken daily if they want. [/QUOTE] Re: the chicken thing. I collect old cookbooks that have “mock chicken leg” recipes in them using veal :eek: Veal (at least the last time I priced it) was WAY more expensive than chicken is now. VCNJ~ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/51 "2007-02-08T18:08:39Z")
[QUOTE=zoid] Exactly what I was going to say. Bologna has had it’s good name ruined in the US because of that stuff from Oscar Mayer. [/QUOTE] Not unlike what happened to Budweiser. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/52 "2007-02-08T18:36:54Z")
You know, until I read this thread, it had not occurred to me that there was an actual food item called a honey bun. I’ve only ever come across it as a (usually ironic) term of endearment (_viz_ Pulp Fiction). Now I feel dumb. Honey… bun… makes sense. Not sure what we actually call them in the UK. “Sticky bun” is probably the nearest equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/53 "2007-02-08T21:36:55Z")
[QUOTE=pizzabrat] Uh, no it wouldn’t - it would be the ignorant, uneducated term for fancy food. A gourmet is a person. [/QUOTE] There is something called a “noun adjunct” [Homework Help and Textbook Solutions | bartleby](http://www.bartleby.com/68/41/4141.html) > [@](#): > > A noun positioned to modify another noun is called a noun adjunct. Noun adjuncts form the first elements of hundreds of compound nouns in American English (bird house, ball field, name brand, and fieldhouse); others are not elements in actual compounds but simply modify another noun, as college does in college dictionary and school in school principal. So “gourmet food” could be food actually or thought to be eaten, prepared by, or intended for a gourmet. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/54 "2007-02-09T04:15:45Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] You know, until I read this thread, it had not occurred to me that there was an actual food item called a honey bun. I’ve only ever come across it as a (usually ironic) term of endearment (_viz_ Pulp Fiction). Now I feel dumb. Honey… bun… makes sense. Not sure what we actually call them in the UK. “Sticky bun” is probably the nearest equivalent. [/QUOTE] We got [sticky buns](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_bun) too, made at home or in a bakery shop. [Honey Buns™](http://www.tastykake.com/ProductLanding.aspx?PostingID=48&ChannelID=69) (otoh) are a commercial product. Click on the picture for the nutrition content – half the calories are fat. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/55 "2007-02-09T12:19:00Z")
A though occurred to me as I was trapped into watching a commercial last night – Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, the kind that comes with dry, cheeze powder to which one ads milk. Around these parts, the Canucks call it “Kraft Dinner,” and I seem to think that it’s highly esteemed in southern Ontario, if not the whole country. Back home in Michigan, I grew up on the stuff, so I know for a fact that it’s poor people food. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/56 "2007-02-09T13:04:57Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] Everybody sing: **Gizzards, scrapple and tripe!** (Any **New Duncan Imperials** fans out there?) [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > Should you be whipping up a platter of crispy pigs’ tails for a cocktail party any time soon, you might find, after persuading your butcher to order the tails for you and getting the squiggly things home, that they’re bristling with little, unappetizing hairs. > > Fear not. In his new cookbook, The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, British chef Fergus Henderson, of London’s trendy St. John restaurant, advises, “By the by, dealing with any slightly hairy extremities of pig, I recommend a throw-away Bic razor (hot towels and shaving cream not required).” > > If you can’t imagine hacking away at the peach fuzz on the curlicue tail of a dead swine, think again. The publication of Henderson’s book heralds a new fashion in food, already discernable in various hot restaurants in New York: offal, the organs and extremities (nose, cheeks, tail, feet) of butchered animals, has become chic. > **[Offal on upscale menus.](https://slate.com/human-interest/2004/04/offal-on-upscale-menus.html)** > > Should you be whipping up a platter of crispy pigs' tails for a cocktail party any time soon, you might find, after persuading your butcher to order... ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/57 "2007-02-09T13:21:38Z")
I wonder if place of origin has something to do with highbrow and lowbrow perceptions. Slap a “California” moniker before the name of any menu item, and it’s becomes upscale. Foods originating from Upstate New York – chicken wings; beef on weck; sponge candy; charcoal broiled, white and Texas hot dogs; salt potatos; and so on – all seem to scream “lowbrow”. ANYTHING that has its roots in county or state fairs is lowbrow. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/58 "2007-02-09T19:00:01Z")
Hawa’ii, which we don’t picture as being full of rednecks, eats more Spam® than any other state. **A Hoosier Mama** and I usually think of Spam as a low-rent food. I haven’t had any Spam for 4 or 5 years, although I know it’s not bad at all. I think it got a bad rap in wartime. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/59 "2007-02-10T04:22:56Z")
Anything involving fried dough is hopelessly lowbrow. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255/60 "2007-02-10T04:32:43Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] I wonder if place of origin has something to do with highbrow and lowbrow perceptions. Slap a “California” moniker before the name of any menu item, and it’s becomes upscale. Foods originating from Upstate New York – chicken wings; beef on weck; sponge candy; charcoal broiled, white and Texas hot dogs; salt potatos; and so on – all seem to scream “lowbrow”. ANYTHING that has its roots in county or state fairs is lowbrow. [/QUOTE] For me, anything that has ‘California’ before it screams ‘fake’. I’m curious what “beef on weck” “sponge candy” and 'salt potatoes" are? I dated a guy from upstate NY that talked about, “do you like white or red hot dogs?” And I thought WHAT? We dated from online and when he came to visit, he brought ‘white hot dogs’. Which turned out to be what I used to think of as bratwurst. But now the brats I see and buy are like regular sausages. And I’m in Texas. What’s a Texas hot dog? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowbrow-foods/391255.md?page=4)