My wife bought a giant jar of Kalamata black olives the other day, which I think are considered the ‘Cadillac’ of black olives, and I like black olives a lot. But not so much the Kalamata-- I prefer the ordinary canned black olives.
Soy sauce-- I grew up with LA Choy brand soy sauce, as well as the canned La Choy Chinese dinner meals. I can’t say I prefer it over say, Kikkoman, which is itself I know not the best, ‘gourmet’ soy sauce, but Kikkoman is what I normally use these days. Except, once in awhile, I like to make a stir-fry just saturated in the salty, MSG-laden goodness of La Choy soy.
Kraft Mac ‘n’ cheese-- not me, I can’t stand the weird looking neon orange stuff, but I imagine a lot of people who grew up with Kraft brand prefer it over fancy, multi-cheese restaurant style M&C.
Beer-- again not me, but I had an ex brother-in-law who only drank Budweiser. He went on a business trip to Germany-- The Land of Beer-- and came back complaining that even the so-called Bud over there was dark beer.
Posted in CS because I’m thinking mainly food & drink, but feel free to expand on that…
P.S. In “your topic is similar to…” it turns out this exact subject was covered before. I almost abandoned this post, but I thought since the original is 5 years old, maybe it’s fine to cover it again…? I didn’t look through it yet, but here it is for your consideration:
I buy whatever birthday/Xmas/wedding card that strikes my fancy instead of the locally made American Greetings (right down the road from my house). “When you care just enough to send the second best”.
Well, this is the one for me. If I want “fancy” pasta I’ll make some penne or bowtie pasta. But when I want something simple and easy, it’s Kraft Dinner all the way. Cheap, easy, tastes good, why mess with it?
I often make KD when I have broccoli or cauliflower threatening to go off in my crisper. Either are awfully yum, cut into small florets, then boiled with the noodles. Add in a slice of Kraft cheese with the powdered stuff, to make it taste a little cheesier. Serve with garlic bread,Yummo!
Ah, that’s a good point. Differing tastes means no stealing snacks from each other!
(That’s it, I’m staying away from solost’s wife… and I mean it this time!)
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Oh, and if I do take the time to make homemade Mac ‘n’ Cheese, with good pasta and classy cheese, my kids’ll whine “WHY can’t you just make the box stuff? It’s sooo much better!”
Scorn gets heaped upon me — by folks who aren’t even watching — when I opt for low-def over high-def; I’d gladly pay extra for low-def, but even ‘for free’ appears to be a minority position.
I think I’ve ranted about “foody” pubs making their own hippy ketchup. That shit always sucks. The bigger problem is that their fries are usually so awesome, and then they pair it some crappy tomato sauce ketchup wanna be.
Speaking of candy, in the world of jelly beans I would rather have a bag of big ole cheap standard ones than a bag of the gourmet ones flavored like coffee, peanut butter and boysenberry.
It sort of sounds like you’re describing what I once heard a chef on NPR’s The Splendid Table call “The pancake problem.” A chef at a fancy restaurant could make what are technically prefect pancakes, but a large portion of customers are going to dislike them because they’re not like the pancakes they grew up with. Apparently a lot of chefs shy away from serving traditional “comfort foods” for that reason.
For me, it’s beef stroganoff. The version my mom made was made with ground beef and canned cream of chicken soup. I like that version better than the more “authentic” version with chunks of beef in a creamy sauce. That’s still the way I make it at home. In fact though for most things I usually try to use fresh ingredients and try to avoid highly processed stuff, this is one recipe I make an exception for.
Moving away from food, I am one of those people who actually prefers driving a car with a manual transmission, even though the vast majority of drivers consider them obsolete.
I really don’t enjoy the taste of dark chocolate, even though I know it has some health benefits. Give me milk chocolate any day! If I want to really splurge, it’s Godiva milk chocolate truffles.
Blueberry muffins. I eat them once a year on my birthday in lieu of cake. They have to be the boxed Betty Crocker version with the tiny wrinkly blueberries. None of those fancy bakery muffins.
I recognize that pasta cooked al dente is aesthetically correct, and for most pasta shapes I’m on board with that. But if I’m cooking spaghetti, fettuccine or elbow macaroni just for me, I want it super-soft.
Also, I’m not a fan of sweet beverages in general, but if told I had to drink one or the other, I would much rather drink Tang than fresh-squeezed orange juice.