# Rehashed: Foodie snobbery, fusion, and overall pretentiousness **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085 "2013-05-11T16:17:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/82 "2013-05-13T13:48:10Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > But the OP is 100% correct. The facebook status update was clearly just to show off how cool this person was for trying such a hip, unique sandwich. It had nothing to do with making a good recommendation or sharing some important information. It was showing off, and being a pretty arrogant foodie while doing so. I think people are bringing their own issues to the table here. I don’t post food pictures or those kinds of updates except to show off maybe some barbecue I’m cooking (especially the one time it actually involved building a cinder block smoker.) But I have some friends who post interesting foods or updates they’ve come across, and it’s interesting to me. If it looks good, I make a mental note to try it out if I’m ever in the restaurant’s neighborhood. I don’t find it “arrogant” or “pretentious” at all. > [@](#): > > It doesn’t make the sandwich good or bad, but it is a fair observation to make, that such things are just to appeal to a hipster/foodie audience and nothing more. Well, yes, of course. That’s kind of stating the obvious, isn’t it? It’s appealing to people who like little twists and experimentation with their food. Even if it is a quest to find the perfect BLT, it’s still going to appeal to this so-called “hipster/foodie” audience based on its ingredients. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I like kale. I haven’t noticed it turning up in restaurant food. The only time I have it is when I make it at home. (But I prefer collard greens.) Yeah, I love kale, too. I haven’t noticed it either in restaurants, though. To be honest, I only eat out maybe twice a month, but even when I end up at well-regarded “foodie” restaurants, I haven’t noticed it being more popular or anything. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/83 "2013-05-13T13:52:31Z")
Just picked up a bunch of kale this morning. The wife is making caldo verde Tuesday. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/84 "2013-05-13T14:14:28Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > But the OP is 100% correct. The facebook status update was clearly just to show off how cool this person was for trying such a hip, unique sandwich. It had nothing to do with making a good recommendation or sharing some important information. It was showing off, and being a pretty arrogant foodie while doing so. You have no way of knowing that. Plenty of people post pictures of food, most often when they’re excited to try something new. This is all your own baggage, packed with preconceptions. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/85 "2013-05-13T15:13:24Z")
All you kale-lovers are just fooling yourselves! or something! Why are you ruining my perfectly sound logic with your silly emotions!? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/86 "2013-05-13T15:51:32Z")
I think sometimes the ingredients aren’t really all that exotic, but the trend to describe them in detail makes them sound both exotic and pretentious when it’s all spelled out. For example, a BLT made with center-cut, hickory smoked bacon, organic buttercrunch lettuce, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes, and served on slices of multigrain baguette with olive oil mayonnaise sounds pretentious, but is made of stuff I can get at my local Kroger- several of the things I mention are either mass-market items (Oscar Mayer center-cut bacon, Kraft olive oil mayonnaise) or are standard produce items (organic lettuce, heirloom tomato) and the only one of any pretense is the bread, and that’s from the store’s bakery. It’s not generic store-brand bacon, nameless tomato and iceberg lettuce on a slice of wonder bread with Miracle Whip, but it’s not particularly pretentious either, unless you go out of your way to describe it as such. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/87 "2013-05-13T15:52:46Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Now excuse me, I need to go tell all my friends about this bowl of cereal I just ate. It had wheatberries in it. You peasant!! [Crunch Berries](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/crunchberries.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/08/crunch_berries_lawsuit_nonsense.php&h=414&w=305&sz=78&tbnid=udWLR8Uz3EEq4M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=66&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcrunch%2Bberries%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=crunch+berries&usg=__QHmfcYOUd491u8wJ3Z0Qiq73qQE=&docid=_q3eWPejd-6huM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FwyRUc_XMYb_ygHL04GgBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQ9QEwBA&dur=617) would have been so much better. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/88 "2013-05-13T16:28:00Z")
That sandwich sounds disgusting. But only because the only bread in my household growing up was crumbly-ass wheatberry bread which I loathed with the fury of a 75-watt incandescent bulb ( yeah, I didn’t fixate on it, but that stuff sucked - trying to spread “old-fashioned” peanut butter on it was an exercise in frustration ). Just like gin after my first unfortunate bout with a substantial amount of alcohol when I was a HS sophomore, I’ll never put that shit in my system again. Otherwise, I can sorta see it. I’m actually not huge fan of wasabi per se, but some other variant of spicy mayo sounds like a reasonable idea as long as it doesn’t end up fighting too much with the bacon. The reason a duck egg might be preferable to chicken egg other than whatever minor flavor differences there might be, is simple size. Might be easier to fit. And egg on a BLT, like a spicy mayo, sounds like an experiment that might be worth trying. I don’t think it would replace or best the original, but it still might be decent. At the end of the day I find myself with a foot in either camp. Living in the Bay Area trendy fusion food is pretty ubiquitous and yeah, some of it is pretentious wankery. It’s easy to get annoyed with the more preciously over-the-top stuff ( especially if it has an unjustified price premium attached ). I know I have. But some of it, when done properly, is pretty damn delicious or at least a nice change of pace. A lot of people probably thought the first BLAT was heresy as well ( a very unadventurous friend of mine was slightly horrified by avocados on anything, which she didn’t taste until she was in her 30’s ). But some foodie got the bright idea to pair them up and voila - two great tastes that go great together. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/89 "2013-05-13T16:54:35Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > That’s kind of the point though, right? Often fusions taste great because the ingredients complement each other well, and other times it seems like someone drew trendy food items from a hat and cobbled them together. I agree. There’s a difference between foods chosen for deliciousness (we’ve got a local mad genius chef who makes things like bean burritos with bananas and coconuts in them) and foods chosen for trendiness (we’ve got a local mad moron chef who makes things like black bean burritos with green curry sauce). I’m super-happy to have the mad genius cooks out there, but the folks who subsitute fancy-sounding ingredients for that kind of genius are a waste of time in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/90 "2013-05-13T17:30:57Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > Well, we can’t all be happy with wonder bread and bologna. Sorry. I guess it’s just my unredeemable snobbery that causes me to… eat food that I like. Keep knocking down those straw men. You’re doing a great job! ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/91 "2013-05-13T18:05:21Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > No one likes kale. > > I’m tired of it showing up in my food. Last month I had an amazing white bean and sausage stew that would have been absolutely perfect with some spinach or chard, or maybe even collard greens, but the chef decided to be “trendy” and used goddamned kale. So I had to gnaw my way through stringy, bitter, green cardboard until I just pushed it all to the side. If you remove the stems and chop it up, and cook it in the rendered fat of thick cut grain fed organic cruelty free hickory smoked bacon, it can be pretty delicious. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/92 "2013-05-13T18:17:10Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > If you remove the stems and chop it up, and cook it in the rendered fat of thick cut grain fed organic cruelty free hickory smoked bacon, it can be pretty delicious. Hell, fiberglass insulation would taste good prepared that way! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/93 "2013-05-13T18:26:08Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I make a fantastic Portuguese kale soup. I make the Cape Verdean variation. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/94 "2013-05-13T18:39:48Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I make the Cape Verdean variation. Truthfully, I’m not certain which version mine is closer to. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/95 "2013-05-13T18:45:15Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I’m as adventurous as they come when it comes to food and have even worked as a chef in the (somewhat distant) past. I like that people are experiencing new things with food, but I’m sick to death of the descriptive gymnastics some diners and food service professionals engage in. I don’t need to know every tiny little detail about your ingredients, down to the condiments. That’s the kind of crap that makes me roll my eyes at people like the one mentioned in the OP. > [@bump](#): > > I think sometimes the ingredients aren’t really all that exotic, but the trend to describe them in detail makes them sound both exotic and pretentious when it’s all spelled out. > > For example, a BLT made with center-cut, hickory smoked bacon, organic buttercrunch lettuce, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes, and served on slices of multigrain baguette with olive oil mayonnaise sounds pretentious, but is made of stuff I can get at my local Kroger This too. Obviously I would like more of a descriptor than “Sandwich,” but when you go all Portlandia on me and tell me my bacon was made from a pig named Sam, my eyes involuntarily roll. This reminds me of the dish I recently ate which contained “foraged mushrooms.” Foraged! The meal was great, so I didn’t complain too much, but the growing ubiquity of “foraged” food gives me a chuckle. > [@DoctorJ](#): > > I appreciate people who add new elements to dishes, but with each disparate element added the skill required of the chef goes up. > > \ > > The sandwich described in the OP could easily go either way. If the bacon and the egg are cooked just right, the bread is perfectly toasted, the tomato is ripe (unlikely in May, but theoretically), and the wasabi really complements the classic BLT flavors, then this could work. But a shitty BLT doesn’t become unshitty when you slap on a duck egg and wasabi mayo. Word. But I suppose if you’re not impressed by it or are irritated by foodie pretense, it means you adhere to a strict diet of bologna sandwiches. > [@](#): > > And can we stop hating on bologna? I love me some Perry County Round Steak now and then. Whoops, sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/96 "2013-05-13T18:45:52Z")
On the kale front,I much prefer it to spinach, which I generally find slimy if cooked or bland if uncooked, and my tofu-kale cooked in a savory ginger-peanut-garlic-chili sauce is possibly my single best invented recipe. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/97 "2013-05-13T18:48:28Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Hell, fiberglass insulation would taste good prepared that way! Ugh. You and your hipster ingredients. Fiberglass-- _so trendy_. Stupid foodie. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/98 "2013-05-13T19:01:52Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > This too. Obviously I would like more of a descriptor than “Sandwich,” but when you go all Portlandia on me and tell me my bacon was made from a pig named Sam, my eyes involuntarily roll. I suppose I’ve only ever seen that happen on Portlandia, not in real life. > [@](#): > > This reminds me of the dish I recently ate which contained “foraged mushrooms.” Foraged! The meal was great, so I didn’t complain too much, but the growing ubiquity of “foraged” food gives me a chuckle. It takes a certain amount of expertise/practice and effort to forage for ingredients, especially if you’re in a city. One would assume that people who forage for food want to serve it to people who want to eat foraged food. How would it work unless there was some kind of exchange of information? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/99 "2013-05-13T19:36:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I suppose I’ve only ever seen that happen on Portlandia, not in real life. I envy you. Portlandia is not so much a sketch comedy show as it is a documentary on Portland and its inhabitants. The overly-hipster description of menu items is nearly ubiquitous there. -drewtwo99, Oregonian ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/100 "2013-05-13T19:55:50Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I envy you. Portlandia is not so much a sketch comedy show as it is a documentary on Portland and its inhabitants. The overly-hipster description of menu items is nearly ubiquitous there. > > -drewtwo99, Oregonian I was referring specifically to this: > [@](#): > > when you … tell me my bacon was made from a pig named Sam, my eyes involuntarily roll. That’s ubiquitous in Portland? ---
**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:** [May 13, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085/101 "2013-05-13T19:58:23Z")
Well, not anymore. Sam’s dead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rehashed-foodie-snobbery-fusion-and-overall-pretentiousness/658085.md?page=6)