I was actively disappointed. It was a cafeteria sandwich. I don’t think I even finished it.
I agree. I’d heard of them and read about them on this board, but until we passed through CA on our way to the Southwest, I’d never had one. One of our RV campsites was right across the highway from one, so off we went. Totally underwhelmed. The burger was bland and the fries were crap. I had no idea there was something called a “secret menu” that people rave about. I was also completely disappointed in White Castle burgers. Steamed hamburgers? Am I back in bootcamp? I guess you have to grow up with them.
So many things in this thread I really like, including Turkish Delight, though, admittedly, I would not sell my family for that. For me, deep-fried turkey comes the closest. I’ve had it a couple of times, and both times I thought it was good, but not the tastebudmindfuck everyone made it out to be. A properly oven roasted turkey was just as delicious as far as I’m concerned.
Here’s something they taught us at USAF Survival School back in the day:
Q: What’s a good survival food?
A: Anything that runs slow enough to catch. Slower the better.
Oysters run very very slowly. Good thing.
I feel the same about smoked turkey.
Oysters got legs!?
</BC reference>
I always wanted to try Limburger cheese, after hearing all the jokes and references in cartoons and such. I like strong tasting blue cheeses, and thought that Limburger was something like that. When I finally bought some and opened it, I threw it away without even tasting it. It took days for that nauseating odor to clear out of my kitchen.
Escape rooms. 
Okay, this will get me murdered by some of you, I know.
I went to a friend’s wedding in Philadelphia. The father of the bride took all the guys in the groom’s party to Sonny’s for cheesesteaks, and insisted the only way to have them was with Cheese Whiz. He was buying, so we took his advice.
Now it wasn’t bad, by any means. The meat was tender, the break good, the onions added a nice touch, but the “cheez” was gloppy, went everywhere, and to me tasted and smelled like plastic. That took what was an okay sandwich (B+, maybe A-) and turned it down to a C+ at best. I finished it, thanked our host for the meal, and quietly though to myself “If this is one of best 5 cheesesteaks in Philly (and possibly the world) then I’m NEVER having one elsewhere, because it’s going to be terrible!”
I do sometimes think that I could make, using quality ingredients, one nearly as good, and put a much more tolerable cheese [ I’d like to try with a smoked gouda!] and maybe redeem the sandwich as a whole. And I’m sure the leadup and hype around them made the mediocre experience far worse overall, as others have mentioned upthread. But it still left me so disappointed and disillusioned.
[ I pre-emptively bow my head before the more knowledgeable types that about to tell me I did it wrong, should have gone with provolone, or that Sonny’s is more for tourists who don’t know better or similar ]
I’ve mentioned cheesesteaks in threads about disappointing regional foods. Mine wasn’t lauded as Top Five Global but it was from a family style restaurant we otherwise have luck at and it’s not all that difficult a concept. It was extremely mediocre though.
The whiz part of a cheesesteak is authentic 1950s US cuisine. Which era’s cuisine fucking sucked as a matter of record. The same sandwich with almost any real cheese is a vastly better experience.
And although I’m no Philly native I’ve eaten a bunch of them at various downtown & near downtown eateries in Philly. As well as all across the country, since they’ve been popularized for decades now. It’s a nice hot sandwich. But it’s not all that.
And never was. The discussion just above here about Turkish Delight and postwar British tastes is applicable. Most of American food in the first half of the last century was pitifully bland and uninteresting and stereotypical. Not so much out of a shortage of food as in the UK, but rather as a shortage of imagination and communication.
In that bland world of unseasoned boiled beef served with unseasoned boiled potatoes and a white bread biscuit, a Cheez Whix cheesesteak would be bursting with flavor and culinary innovation and exoticness. Now? Spare me the fake ecstasy.
Yeah, you can add smoked turkey to my list too. I love most things smoked, but not so hot about smoked turkey. Just give me regular oven roasted turkey.
I’d add “unbrined” to that.
Must disagree there. I used to work at a company that gave everybody a turkey for Thanksgiving. Since we’d go to my wife’s parents’ for T-Day and they cooked a larger turkey to feed a big family, for years I’d keep our turkey frozen until warmer weather, and smoke it. Those were some tasty turkeys. I personally think smoked turkey is way better than oven roasted. The only drawback is, no drippings to make gravy with.
Smoked meats are good, and smoked fish can be great. But spare me the smoked cheese - to me it’s like smoked plastic.
I don’t brine mine because most of the commercial ones you buy are already brined (or pumped full of broth) and it’s kind of pointless. Never tried a real bird that hasn’t been processed in this way, so I don’t know what that would be like. I assume I’d probably brine it.
ETA: actually, not true. Living in Budapest we got untreated birds and didn’t brine them and they were fine.
I wonder if they have to be fully ripe to small strong? My wife was raised on durian and she bought one so I could try it. She is really good at picking tropical fruit at their peak. She said she had to cut it open outdoors and she was right. Damn near killed all the plants in my back yard.
And yet a Chinese co-worker brought one in to work. I hung back and was waiting for all the puckered faces but it did not smell bad at all.
I wonder how much this is a matter of smoked turkey as food versus smoked turkey as non-traditional Thanksgiving Feast preparation?
Back when I cooked regularly, I’d make 4 or 5 turkeys a year. To me it’s much better than chicken and no more work. So I just don’t see that bird as Thanksgiving-only food. And I’d make various examples around the year in different ways with different seasonings.
Folks who don’t much care for turkey and dutifully eat it once a year when it must be prepared exactly as long-dead Grandma once did, because Tradition!!1!, will have a very different attitude to e.g. smoked turkey.
Yeah, if I was to cook for Thanksgiving dinner I’d do it the traditional way, with the oven-roasted turkey and lots of gravy made from the turkey drippings to slather over mashed potatoes and dressing. As much as I like smoked turkey, it’s a thing for another time of year. The sides I’d make with smoked turkey would be completely different from T-day style sides as well.
I agree with the folks who are “meh” about caviar.
Since I loved salmon, herring, and crab roe at sushi bars, I thought caviar would top them all. But it was expensive, so I never bought it. However, later in life, when we were making a bit more money, I requested and received some quality sturgeon caviar for my birthday. I tried it, but it wasn’t very interesting. It just tasted salty and a bit fishy, but had no personality.
I’m glad to return to the other fish eggs listed above at sushi bars. Salmon eggs are way tastier than sturgeon caviar.
I’m also disappointed in truffles. I liked the flavor in the first bite or two, but by the third bite it became overwhelming. And I think I could taste truffle in the back of my mouth for two days afterwards, even after toothbrushing. That stuff is really penetrating and lingering.
Good one.
Well, you werent all that wrong. No, I agree, Cheeze- whiz is nasty stuff, so is that “liquid cheeselike substance” they put on cheap nachos.
One place that uses that crud claims to be the original, and other place- same city, also makes that claim, and uses provolone. But my parents did not use Cheeze-Whiz back in the 1950’s. We did use (real) American cheese, which at least is real, but bland.
But you make a good point, my Mom put paprika on her famous deviled eggs, and folks used to exclaim over it. Spices were salt, pepper and maybe Lawrys
I’ll eat it, but….
Tried it, didnt like it- BUT when doing the final thawing my Mom taught me to add salt to the cold water.
Yep.