# Silliest Foodie Item, Idea, or Trend? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533 "2013-02-16T20:04:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/81 "2013-02-18T01:44:56Z")
I really dislike this whole sous vide thing. I’ve never been served it, but I’ve seen it prepared on tv shows. It looks like food that hasn’t been cooked. I would ask for food that had been cooked, please. It’s not appetizing looking at all. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/82 "2013-02-18T01:54:43Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > No, no, no, what I’m railing against is this nonsense: [Sea Salt Grinder](http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Herbs-and-Spices/Grinders/Sea-Salt-Grinder.aspx). It’s not adjustable. It takes 5,325 grinds (approximate) to get a teaspoon’s worth. It’s as ergonomically incorrect as it’s possible to be. I have one like that. Same brand. It has three different coarseness settings. I like it just fine. I also keep regular salt and kosher salt for things that require them. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/83 "2013-02-18T02:10:53Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > How do you get it even? I get a chunk there, a flake over here, and nothing over vast areas of real estate. Maybe I’m just…special. A pinch of kosher salt from a dish and a rubbing of the fingers over the plate gets me much more even coverage. It works well enough. I’m sure kosher salt does at least as well. It’s not commonly sold here. Salt flakes cost $40/kg at my local supermarket. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/84 "2013-02-18T02:44:37Z")
Bacon $3 cupcakes And its a local thing but enough with the pale ale! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/85 "2013-02-18T03:21:04Z")
With all the gourmet salt and sea salt trendiness, I wonder if we aren’t courting a goiter epidemic. Good old iodized table salt is iodized for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/86 "2013-02-18T03:31:14Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > With all the gourmet salt and sea salt trendiness, I wonder if we aren’t courting a goiter epidemic. Good old iodized table salt is iodized for a reason. Yes, a reason that existed in the 1940s. Many people then had an almost iodine-free diet. Most authorities today consider iodized salt unnecessary, as people get an adequate amount from other sources. You never want to cook with iodized salt anyway. When heated, it can produce an unpleasant metallic taste. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/87 "2013-02-18T03:38:17Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Yes, a reason that existed in the 1940s. Many people then had an almost iodine-free diet. Most authorities today consider iodized salt unnecessary, as people get an adequate amount from other sources. Please cite some of these authorities, from non-woo sources. I actually know a case study. I have a friend who has assiduously avoided iodized salt for years in favor of more “natural” choices. Guess what? She now has a goiter. The doctor’s first order? Buy iodized salt. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/88 "2013-02-18T03:39:57Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > With all the gourmet salt and sea salt trendiness, I wonder if we aren’t courting a goiter epidemic. Good old iodized table salt is iodized for a reason. I rather doubt it. Most of us eat enough food from other sources that we get more than enough iodized salt to fend off goiter. We haven’t had any iodized salt in the house in nearly 10 years, but we grab a fast food burger or a meal at the local diner about once a week, and that gets us plenty of iodine. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/89 "2013-02-18T03:48:58Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > We haven’t had any iodized salt in the house in nearly 10 years, but we grab a fast food burger or a meal at the local diner about once a week, and that gets us plenty of iodine. Yeah, that’s exactly what my friend used to say, before she got her goiter. But fast foods and processed foods (like potato chips) do not utilize iodized salt. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/90 "2013-02-18T04:00:19Z")
[Good article here on the forgotten danger of goiter](http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/oct2009_Halt-on-Salt-Sparks-Iodine-Deficiency_01.htm). > [@](#): > > Most Americans over 60 years old remember the days of goiters, the unsightly thyroid gland enlargement visible on the neck that was wildly rampant. As many as one-third of the inhabitants of some parts of the country were affected. > > Goiters were not just unattractive. They sometimes reached grotesque proportions, compressing adjacent structures like the trachea, necessitating surgical removal. If a pregnant woman had goiter, she was at risk for delivering a mentally impaired child. > > The connection between goiter and deficiency of the trace element iodine was confirmed when a family doctor conducted an experiment on schoolgirls in 1916. > > …In 1924, the FDA introduced a voluntary program for adding iodine to table salt… > > In the 21st century, many health-conscious people proudly declare their assiduous avoidance of salt, especially iodized table salt. Others have turned to alternative preparations, such as sea salt (containing very little iodine content), Kosher salt (containing no iodine), or potassium chloride-based salt substitutes (containing no iodine). > > … The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) assessment of Americans’ health revealed a 50% reduction in iodine levels and a quadrupling of iodine deficiency in the period between 1971 and 1994. Twelve percent of the population surveyed from 1988 to 1994 were severely iodine deficient, judged by urinary levels of iodine. Women of childbearing age are at particular risk for iodine deficiency, with up to 36% evidencing low levels. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/91 "2013-02-18T04:05:09Z")
> [@SecretaryofEvil](#): > > There’s got to be a better synonym out there that could be used in lieu of foodie. Glutton. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/92 "2013-02-18T10:28:32Z")
Anything with gold foil. Does nothing for the taste. Its only purpose is aesthetic, and that aesthetic is, “ostentatious, with a sprinkle of _nouveau-riche_ douchebag.” ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/93 "2013-02-18T13:00:12Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Yeah, that’s exactly what my friend used to say, before she got her goiter. But fast foods and processed foods (like potato chips) do not utilize iodized salt. Yeah, there is no iodized salt in processed food or fast food. However, milk, yogurt, enriched white bread, pasta, and several other items (including white fish) contain iodine. If you eat any of those items regularly you’ll probably be okay. Also, Nori has a huge amount of iodine. That’s an added benefit for sushi lovers. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/94 "2013-02-18T14:33:43Z")
> [@bump](#): > > As a foodie, I’d say that the silliest thing about the whole thing is the snobbiness/snottiness of some of the other foodies. > > It’s the exact same thing that some proportion of enthusiasts in any hobby get wound up in, whether it’s wet-shaving, foodies, beer nerds, wine people, or what have you. They get convinced that whatever it is that they like (usually hard to get/hard to do) is THE best, and anything else is inferior and gives sub-standard results. > > I think it’s idiotic; I’m a foodie, and I still dig a McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries from time to time. I’m a beer nerd, and I have no problem with Budweiser or even 2.99 Walgreens beer. I’m not a huge wine person, so I don’t have a good example there. I own a Gillette Fat Boy, a Sigma brush, and have a tube of SMN shaving cream bought in Florence, yet some of my best shaves are with Barbasol and a Target house brand disposable razor. Agreed. I have a funny story from a few weekends ago; my husband works in a craft beer place that serves small plates of food (tiny prep kitchen). Folks who are regulars on another night than I usually show up come in after a local food ingredient festival and are chatting with the owners. After some talk about a restaurant a couple of towns away, they turn to one of the owners and say “You know what would be awesome if you served? [Food item that requires a fairly large kitchen and equipment that won’t fit in the back.] Why don’t you have stuff like that on the menu?” Thing is, the food they mentioned is “trendy”, the kitchen is tiny, and the person they said this to was a professionally trained culinarian who has planned the majority of the limited service menu. The focus of the place is on the beer, with sandwiches and snacks that are designed to be low mess, low levels of prep, and well-suited toward the tiny galley kitchen in the back. Regardless of whether the “foodies” in this story knew that the owner in question had a culinary background, it’s a little insulting to give advice on menu items to a proprietor. > [@pulykamell](#): > > As I’ve mentioned on this board before, I think the whole “foodie who looks down on what others eat” is a bit of a strawman. I’m sure they exist, but I really can’t think of a time I’ve encountered them. Come visit me, and I will introduce you to all of the beer snobs that I know who play this game. I have met at least fifteen of them, and I hear plenty of bourgeois food snob stuff from them and their friends on a regular basis. Because I live in an area where folks follow trends pretty closely\* and we’ve got a newer craft beer scene, I encounter a lot of folks who are all about their one type of beer and dismiss everything else as “girly beer” or “swill”. Sadly, they’re usually “Hop Heads” who really love the most bitter IPA, but who can’t handle a stout, lambic or Belgian ale when given one. My answer to them is usually “what’s good is what you enjoy, and that differs with everyone.” \*The caveat is that they’re usually behind by at least six months or so. If it’s been popular in a big city for six months to a year, it’ll start to pop up on restaurant menus or in shops down here. We still have fancy cupcake shops, even though that trend has been dying for at least a year. The biggest hindrance to being “up with the trends” is that the local zoning laws and downtown regulations make it difficult for things like food trucks and pop-up restaurants to exist. > [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > I really dislike this whole sous vide thing. I’ve never been served it, but I’ve seen it prepared on tv shows. It looks like food that hasn’t been cooked. I would ask for food that had been cooked, please. It’s not appetizing looking at all. [Sous vide is actually the “low and slow” methods of cooking taken to an anal “scientific method” extreme](http://modernistcuisine.com/2012/10/sous-vide-mdrn-ktchn/). A really low temperature is held for many, many hours (I’ve seen upwards of 24 hours, sometimes up to 36 or more); this gives the food a chance to get the benefits of slow cooking without the risk that the food is going to overcook due to accidental temperature spikes. Yes, the food is usually cooked to a “rare” or “medium rare” temperature if it’s a meat, which is unappetizing to many folks, but it’s been cooked pretty thoroughly. (By the way, your last two lines remind me of the time when my mother-in-law called up a Japanese restaurant to ask them if they cooked their food. I can’t imagine you wanted to sound boorish, but it came across that way. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/95 "2013-02-18T14:55:38Z")
I don’t know, **nashiitashii** , it sounds perfectly reasonable to me for a patron to say to a restaurant owner “it’d be awesome if you served X here”. Now, obviously, if X requires resources that the restaurant doesn’t have, they’re not going to do it, but did the customer necessarily know what it required? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/96 "2013-02-18T15:04:23Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > [Sous vide is actually the “low and slow” methods of cooking taken to an anal “scientific method” extreme](http://modernistcuisine.com/2012/10/sous-vide-mdrn-ktchn/). A really low temperature is held for many, many hours (I’ve seen upwards of 24 hours, sometimes up to 36 or more); this gives the food a chance to get the benefits of slow cooking without the risk that the food is going to overcook due to accidental temperature spikes. Yes, the food is usually cooked to a “rare” or “medium rare” temperature if it’s a meat, which is unappetizing to many folks, but it’s been cooked pretty thoroughly. Put even simpler, the basic idea is to cook the food to exactly the temperature that you want the finished dish to be at, no more, no less. So, for a “medium” steak, you want 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Normally, what you do is put the steak on a hot grill or cast iron skillet and cook the outer layers way, way beyond 140, until you get the inside to 140. This gives it a nice crusty sear on the outside, and then a gradually decreasing doneness until you get to the middle, where it’s 140 degrees. A lot of people don’t like the over-well/well/medium-well parts of the steak, and would prefer it all at 140, but with that nice crusty sear. That’s what sous-vide does- by means of a sealed plastic bag and precisely temperature controlled water bath. It doesn’t have to be done for a long time- just enough to get the inside to whatever temp you want, but if you do it for a long time, certain enzymes in the food have a chance to tenderize the food, so that’s the low-and-slow-to-an-extreme rationale. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/97 "2013-02-18T15:05:36Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > Come visit me, and I will introduce you to all of the beer snobs that I know who play this game. I have met at least fifteen of them, and I hear plenty of bourgeois food snob stuff from them and their friends on a regular basis. Because I live in an area where folks follow trends pretty closely\* and we’ve got a newer craft beer scene, I encounter a lot of folks who are all about their one type of beer and dismiss everything else as “girly beer” or “swill”. Sadly, they’re usually “Hop Heads” who really love the most bitter IPA, but who can’t handle a stout, lambic or Belgian ale when given one. My answer to them is usually “what’s good is what you enjoy, and that differs with everyone.” Beer snobs are a totally different group of people. I tend to agree with pulykamell about foodies. Most of the people I know who refer to themselves as such are relatively harmless. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/98 "2013-02-18T15:13:18Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Please cite some of these authorities, from non-woo sources. > > I actually know a case study. I have a friend who has assiduously avoided iodized salt for years in favor of more “natural” choices. Guess what? She now has a goiter. The doctor’s first order? Buy iodized salt. I can’t find any single authoritative cite, but a few searches will turn up quite a bit of supporting material: that the adult RDA is a vanishingly small 150 micrograms; that most adults get closer to 1000 mcg from their regular diet; that goiter is an extremely rare condition in the US among adults who eat normally; etc. Repeated searches of medical databases turn up nothing but studies of iodine deficiency in third-world countries. ETA: The lack of any single cite is probably because the US “goiter belt” disappeared in the 1940s, from the widespread use of iodized salt, but vastly better diets across the country have changed the picture. We don’t see pellagra or rickets in the south much, any more, either. Yes, of course, if you assiduously avoid iodized salt in any food product (and, I would guess from context, eat a very selective diet) you’re going to encounter problems. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/99 "2013-02-18T15:16:01Z")
> [@Beastly\_Rotter](#): > > Glutton. We have a winner. A glutton is not someone who eats too much; it is “someone who pays too much attention to matters of the diet” and there is a reserved seat in Hell for them. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533/100 "2013-02-18T15:18:08Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > Come visit me, and I will introduce you to all of the beer snobs that I know who play this game. I have met at least fifteen of them, and I hear plenty of bourgeois food snob stuff from them and their friends on a regular basis. Because I live in an area where folks follow trends pretty closely\* and we’ve got a newer craft beer scene, I encounter a lot of folks who are all about their one type of beer and dismiss everything else as “girly beer” or “swill”. Maybe it’s because Chicago still has that Midwestern, blue-collar, no-nonsense backbone, but I don’t come across this here. I’m not saying it’s non-existant, but I personally don’t run into it. There’s plenty of craft beer drinkers here, too, with a lot of great breweries popping up over the last 20 years. But nobody’s ever given me lip or a looked askance when I’m rocking an Old Style instead of a Three Floyd’s Alpha King. And even the subject of “favorite cheap beer” is commonly discussed. And same with the food culture and same with the music culture. I participate in what some here may call “music hipster” message boards, and there’s as much love for Top 40 pop as there is obscure indie rock. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silliest-foodie-item-idea-or-trend/650533.md?page=6)