Just skimmed the thread quickly, but is it possible that no one has mentioned shark fin soup yet? I’ve actually never tried it but from the Gordon Ramsey documentary, and everything I’ve read or heard anywhere, this has to have the biggest disparity between hype and the actual experience people have of it.
I would have to come to the defense of most of the other things mentioned in this thread: bacon, steak, chocolate, lobster, really good hot wings dipped in blue cheese, cheese (in general)… these are a few of my favorite thiiiiiiiings
These days it’s really hard to top the answer of bacon, as there seems to be a current cultural obsession with talking about bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon.
However, within a few years, bacon as an Internet meme will die off and it’ll just be another food again and some other food will be the “OMG!!!11!” food on the Internet - the bacon of 2019, if you will. I have no idea what it’ll be.
My personal long term nominee is wine. I just don’t get the obsession over it, and find the thin-slicing of wines hilarious when I know full well most so-called wine experts wouldn’t have a hope in hell of telling a cheap Canadian wine from an expensive French wine if you did a double-blind test on them.
Beer is getting that way, too. I like beer, but restaurants that tell me their house brewed IPA is “just a bit more bitter than bitter, with a hint of citrus and peat rolling into a rich, truffle-like completion” are kidding themselves. All beer tastes like beer, unless they deliberately put strawberries or some weird stuff in it. Some beers are shitty and have a dank aftertaste, and some beers aren’t shitty. If you aren’t already really drunk you can tell the difference between light beers, medium beers, and stouts. So there’s six kinds of beer, really.
I’ve been holding back too. All of those (and the freshest corn and seafood I can get my grubby mitts on) are also a few of my favorite things.
As always on the SDMB, people don’t actually read the OP.
My example was bacon - I love bacon, even the cheap stuff, but it is over-hyped. I can eat fast food when I’m in a hurry, but to hear some gush over this-or-that burger/taco/burrito/rib sandwich/etc. far overrates the quality of the offering.
My grandmother made polenta quite a bit. My dad used to say it’s what they ate when money was tight. The fact that it has gone from northern Italian poverty food to something else is amusing.
I’ve never had something with quinoa that tasted good. Most of the recipes that I’ve tried it in have tried to hide the flavor somehow, and it still tastes awful.
I think Bacon is fine in small doses once in a while like with breakfast or a Bacon Cheesburger, but not every week, and not too much.
Heh. De gustibus and all: cheese and ketchup do nothing for a burger IMO. The pickle is best on the side, eaten as dessert. But the mayo is almost non-negotiable.
RE: fresh-picked corn on the cob. I think it used to be an actual big deal, back when the varieties of corn available to eat only held sugar in the kernels for a couple of hours, before that sugar turned to starch. But modern corn varieties stay sugary for several days after picking, so it’s not a big deal now.
De gustibus exactly. The saddest* I was ever, when I was little D_Odds, was the time we were on a road trip with Dad. We stopped at a McDonald’s somewhere south and I got a burger without pickles, as I always would at home. Started eating it and was disgusted. They had put mayo on my burger! It was a crime against humanity, like putting ketchup on a hot dog. Dad, cheapskate extraordinaire, tried to solve the problem by scraping off the offending substance, not understanding what the problem was and why that didn’t solve my problem. Hey, I like mayo, but not on my burger. I like ketchup, but keep it in a separate zip code from my hot dogs (and it should only be on a burger if steak sauce is unavailable). Some things are not meant to be paired.
*Hyperbole. While my childhood wasn’t bad, it wasn’t that tame either.
What an awful story. I agree that both mayonnaise on a hamburger and ketchup on a hot dog represent a crime against humanity, but would go further and describe each as an abomination unto the LORD.
With corn, I don’t think it’s so much “picked right now” versus “picked a day ago” so much as versus the stuff in cellophane at the grocery store. That said, it’s sweet corn season and I’ll always go with stopping at a farm on the way home over any of the alternatives.
Restaurant Buffalo hot wings: either too hot or substandard chicken.
Restaurant lobster: why is it so hard to serve good lobster?
Restaurant steak: Too salty.
In the south any place that hypes itself as an Italian restaurant is ridiculously expensive.
yeah, this. I’ve had it, I like it, but it’s still just soup. I’ve been on a couple of other boards where one merely mentioning pho would bring about a bunch of others professing how much they love it (all making sure to use the proper characters for phở.)
It’s good, but goddamn, it’s just soup.
this is another one. some years ago I was in Vegas for CES, and saw an In-n-out. I figured I’d see what the hype was about. The burger was OK; definitely a cut above McPuke’s (but what isn’t) but it was still a fast-food burger. And the fries were awful. No desire to go back. (cue the faithful saying “but… but… but… you didn’t order the fries well done!” Sorry, greasy overcooked fries are not the answer.
Exactly. The only time I ever tolerate mayo on my burger is in In N Out’s special sauce. That’s the only exception. Otherwise, mayo has no place on a burger. Mayo belongs on lean meats or other foods where you need to add fat (like, say, a nice tomato sandwich.)
Agreed. Truffle salt, however, is another matter entirely. I just discovered it recently, and it’s amazing. I’ve been putting it on chicken, pizza, potatoes, rice, eggs… I just have to be careful not to overdo it.
Oh, I’m not talking about dry rubs and meat cooked low and slow. I love that stuff.
I’m talking about things like pulled pork or ribs which seem to have to be basted often. A little sauce is OK; I find gloppiness unappetizing.
On a totally unrelated note, mac & cheese. To this day I cannot understand why some people rave about it. OK, maybe I’ll give you points if it’s all about the cheese, but still…
I do not have to avoid gluten, but I like to try new things, and I like quinoa pasta.
Not long before Jay Leno went off the air, he said, “I tried some gluten-free bread. Wow! I had no idea how good gluten is! I keep a bowl on the side for dipping now.”
I also vote for crab. I like other seafood, but not crab. I don’t even like the smell of it; I worked at a steakhouse when I was in college, and I would hold my breath while carrying it out to the table.
