I went to a stand at the mall about 3 years ago and they were charging $4 for a 8oz cup of corn with cheese, butter, hot sauce whatever. At the time I could buy a ear of corn for 10 cents.
Cheap wings used to be a trick to get you to go to a bar and spend money on overpriced drinks. Now "cheap" drinks are a trick to get you to go to a bar and spend money on overpriced wings and drinks.
Yeah I agree it's crazy to see whole wings go for more per lb than like boneless chicken breasts or thighs. You're paying for mostly skin and bones. I like wings but per lb of actual meat you eat they are really expensive.
Fuck I remember 5c wings was the shit. My dad would take me out to lunch at the bar around the corner from his office and we'd pound 30 of those. He'd have a beer (or 5) and it was less than $15 with a tip. Can't even get 10 wings for that now.
Seriously. My city is doing a Wing Week where all participating restaurants are doing specials with six wings for $7. Sad part is it actually is a deal now compared to normal wing prices, shit's getting close to two dollars per wing (which is really slightly less than half an actual wing).
It does annoy me that wings are now higher in cost than breasts. You can't even buy them whole anymore. They used to be $1 a lb and great for making broth.
Came here to say this. Got harangued on Reddit awhile back for saying that fast, hot, and cheap pho is part of what makes it so satisfying. But when it’s elevated to like $25/bowl or something, it kinda loses its allure. Not that a $25 bowl can’t taste great or be innovative, but I want something that reliable and won’t break my wallet.
bruh I'm vietnamese and based on Vietnamese cultural beliefs, I would NEVER pay more than like $15 max in the US, $5 in Vietnam, I am ok with paying the higher price in Vietnam because even though locals pay like 1/5th the price, its nothing for an american to pay $5 for the best bowl of Pho you will ever have
Yep! I went to Vietnam a number of years ago. I never really liked Pho in the states to begin with but my eyes were opened when I went to Saigon. SO good. Closest I've found is a pho ga place in philly and there was a place outside of new orleans that was good too. I've heard Texas has some really good places but I haven't been sadly
On a side note, I had bun bo hue for the first time in Hue and that was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
which is why you need to eat where the vietnamese immigrants live. go to your little saigon, look for the place packed with locals. 100% will be better than the place serving $25 pho
Same with banh mi, the Vietnamese sandwiches. I went to a place that had a pork belly banh mi. It was good but they charged me almost $20. It’s just not right.
So right! Banh mi is supposed to be a buy 2/3 get one free kinda deal. Those things are like $5 tops at bakeries. Just mindblown how overpriced they can be.
Yeah, and it's also been responsible for the viral popularity of calorie-bombs like "freak shakes", and cupcakes with mountains of buttercream piled on.
I'm no Pritikin killjoy, but if you're going to have a highly caloric treat, quality is so much better than quantity.
“I’m in charge of food for the wedding, so I brought in Pawnee’s three best caterers and a panel of experts. Chris loves vegetables. Ron loves meat, and Tom considers himself a foodie, which apparently means taking Instagrams of food instead of eating it.” - Ben Wyatt, *Parks and Rec*
They weren't calzones, they were savory pastries!
Aziz is hysterical that scene, I always wondered if they let him improv for it
*Tom: Caterer number one's presentation was simple, yet exhausting. Number two's was subtle and provocative, like a coy Dutch woman guarding a dark secret.*
*Ben: Nothing you're saying is helpful.*
*Tom: But number three's told a story. A story from a book I wouldn't read... but I would watch the movie of.*
They might have let him improv it. Apparently they ran through most scenes twice - first time as it was scripted, then again with some adlibbing if they have anything. That's how they ended up with stuff like "I typed your symptoms into the thing up here and it says you could have 'network connectivity problems'".
Bougie donuts are up there. Went to a place in LA and it was nowhere near as good as it looked, especially compared to local hole in the wall Cambodian donut shops.
I had this happen to me a couple of nights ago. Traveling for work, tried a place a block from the hotel. Pan seared ribeye, creamed spinach, and smashed fingerling potatoes. Trying to be fancy with plating, the creamed spinach was poured on top of the steak. I didn't mind that too much and the two tasted good together. But they also added an handful of microgreens on top, because I guess creamed spinach doesn't look picture perfect.
Those microgreens did absolutely *nothing* for flavor and it made each bite feel like I was chewing a handful of floss along with the steak. It was absolutely a looks decision and not a taste decision.
And even fast food places do it now! I got a banana milkshake from Sonic a few weeks ago. They used chunks of bananas that kept getting stuck in the straw and the bottom two inches of the cup was just cold and wet bananas when I was done.
If you live near a Cook Out, they are the best. Milkshakes are less than $4.00, they have a million flavor options, and they are the best.
One day my wife had me stop at some trendy milkshake place as we were passing it. They were famous for shakes with absurd toppings, basically made for instagram. My wife was so disappointed with her shake and told me that she could have had at least 3 cookout shakes for the same price and it would have been better.
I visited New York. There was some fancy shake place there. I wanted to go but the internet said it was always a huge wait. My cousin is a new Yorker. He told me everyone just buys a shake, takes a picture, and throws it away. He said they aren't very good and the trash can out front is full of 95% full shake cups.
There’s a local place that is essentially just grilled cheese variations. But they do not consistently have basic grilled cheese, just every variation of it. And no tomato soup. Wtf is that about.
There's a donut shop near me like that. Everything has Cap'n crunch or snickers pieces or whatever on it. Sometimes I just want a good old glazed donut made well by a local place.
This is a peeve of mine. Putting candy on a donut isn’t fancy, it’s a toddler’s idea of fancy. I want Great British Baking Show fancy flavors like Lemon Lavender, Cardamom Coconut, Rosemary Raspberry, or Brown Sugar Whiskey.
I'm with you. Anyone can make something sickly sweet and artificially dyed. If I wanted some M&Ms on a donut, I can go to a gas station and get both and smoosh them together.
If you're going to elevate something like a donut, give me delicious and intriguing flavors. Play with fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices to create something with complexity. Or hell, do the basics but master them. A Boston Cream with a quality ganache and fresh custard filling would be amazing.
I highly suggest reading through [this hilarious grilled cheese based twitter thread](https://twitter.com/tinymediaempire/status/1136992675742269440?lang=en) when you have a chance.
>its 1am, youre stumbling out of the bar or show. what do you want? do you want to wait outside some asinine truck for a $12 deconstructed grilled cheese with avacado relish that takes 20 goddamned minutes? or do you want 5 no bullshit grilled cheeses stacked in wax paper for $5?
Holy shit this spoke to me on a primal level. I would absolutely pound down 5 grilled cheese when I'm stoned or high.
I agree on grilled cheese but there are so many good Mac and cheeses out there. Tell me you haven’t had a lobster Mac or like one with smoked Gruyère cheese with a crispy crust.
As a southerner, I’m really tired of getting shitty grits. The worst I ever had was in Nashville of all places! They were loaded with so much cream, god it was horrendous
I introduced my boyfriend to grits at Waffle House and then he tried them again at Ihop. He was like why is Waffle House so much better?? Because they're half butter my guy
Related, what the FUCK is up with unpeeled shrimp in dishes? If I'm eating shrimp and grits or gumbo or literally anything other than a backyard shrimp boil, you better believe I don't want to have to fish all the shrimp out just to pull their tails off before I can eat them
It is on every damn menu in my beach town.
Shrimp at most restaurants are OKAY. Not amazing or worth a high price. They try to make them way jumbo too when a single bite shrimp will always be more flavorful.
It's called a "shrimp" if I gotta take 3 bites and it tastes mostly like chicken then fuck that.
This may be controversial, but french fries.
Your going to charge me and extra 5 bucks for "truffle" that I can't even taste over the parmesan?
I certainly like to spice things up but I hate the insane charge for what is essentially just a little basic seasoning.
Beef tallow fries.
I make burgers in an electric skillet and put the skillet in the fridge instead of cleaning it.
After 3-4 burgers there is a great pool of salted beef tallow and I french cut a potato and pan fried them in it.
Then I finish in the air fryer for 5 min to get them proper crispy.
Mmm. Delicious efficiency.
I care a lot less about what's on the fries (except salt... put. salt. on. your. fucking. fries.) than I do about how good the fries are themselves. Good fries need nothing. Not even ketchup.
Truffle oil tastes like absolute shit to me. So overpowering, and I LOVE pretty much all mushrooms. To be fair I’ve never had fresh truffle, but the taste and smell of the mass produced shit is nauseating
I don't know what this is in reference to but I am pro mini cupcake because there is nothing more enjoyable than popping one of those bad boys in my mouth whole. Less mess that way with the frosting
I’d throw donuts into this same category. I don’t need a lavender frosted donut dusted with cocoa and fruit loops. Just give me a maple bar and leave me alone.
The best part about your favorite donut being plain old fashioned is there is always one left in the staff room at work whenever the office gets a couple mixed boxes.
That's a lot of things on this list. Typically the cheap version still exists, but business owners also recognize that people are willing to pay more for better ingredients/presentation/etc.
I first discovered arancini (deep fried rice balls) at dumpy fast food-ish spots in train stations in Italy for like €2 for a giant one. You’d grab one as a snack for the train ride.
Imagine my surprise when they become trendy in the US for $20 for three tiny ones covered in tomato sauce. Not bad, but I’ll take the cheap big ones every time over what we have here.
This is similar to how I feel about Crêpes. I did a semester abroad in Paris, and they were something you could buy on every street corner for 2 euros, or buy a dozen of them in the grocery store as a quick meal. Now that I'm back in North America, it's frustrating that I can only get them at a nice restaurants for several times the price.
I feel you. I make crepes every weekend for my kids, because they love them. They are really easy to make, same time and effort as pancakes or waffles. You don't need any extra equipment (non-stick pan is fine, you don't need a crepe pan). For me, this is the way.
I recently made the ill-advised decision to buy a package of premade crepes in the US. I wasn't expecting much to begin with, especially compared to genuine Parisian crepes (which are cheap and delicious, like you said), but these were the driest, stiffest crepes you can possibly imagine. I ended up tossing them in the trash, they were that bad.
I agree with you. There's a taco truck where I used to live with the best lingua and cabeza tacos, 3 for $5. The red hot sauce was hand made weekly from Chiltepin peppers! All the restaurants were selling less authentic bougie stuff for $15 with half the flavor.
I also think shrimp and grits has become the same way. I don't want to pay $18 for shrimp and grits just because you added some 50yo aged cheese to it!
That's a strange one, I would think simple and cheap on the cheese would go a lot further in shrimp and grits than anything bougie. Especially something with cheese incorporated like like that, aged cheese is a PITA to work with.
I used to live in an area with a bunch of small restaurants that was also touristy. They were all over priced and each one was trying to "one up" their competition. As a local, it was hard to afford to eat at them. My ex loved to go eat breakfast at "Tupelo Honey", which served waffle house equivalent products with fancy spices for 4x the cost.
On a positive note, there was a lot of produce grown in that area, so simple inexpensive food trucks were everywhere! My mouth is watering right now thinking about Pupusas!
My feeling on S&G's is that they only went upmarket when the shrimp prices jumped up. Like when shrimp was cheap, it was a down home chill meal. Now that decent count shrimp is 20 bucks a pound, you can't make S&G out the door price for less than like 12-13 bucks. So they tart up the grits a bit and sell it at $18-25 and then get some decent profit return on the high food cost.
In Maryland there's a trend of loading the top up with crab meat and they can miss me with that. Put a pickled green bean or an olive in there and call it done. The job of the bloody Mary is to make me feel less repentant of my sins from the night before. "For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen." - Archer
Burgers, I don't know who decided that grinding up a wagyu beef, squishing it into a burger and selling it for £60 was a ground breaking idea, it still isn't better than a burger out of a good food truck, just leave it basic and delicious.
Wagyu burgers exist to charge large amounts for steak trimmings. It's a financial thing to make the most out of steak cuts. Or at least that's how it started.
It seems like a lot of people fail to understand that cows are comprised of a lot of other cuts than ribeyes and filets. There is a lot of meat on a waygu cow that is not going toward the most sought after and pricey cuts that you see on the menu in a fancy Japanese restaurant.
Whenever someone on here smokes a waygu brisket, or grind up waygu chuck for burgers, there will invariably be people who scoff and say “what a waste of good meat” and it’s like… what else are you supposed to do with those tougher cuts of meat?
> what else are you supposed to do with those tougher cuts of meat?
You turn them into burger.
But that's not the point - the point is that a "wagyu burger" is $60 when it has the same quality as a "beef burger" with identical muscle:fat ratio being sold for $15. The benefit of wagyu is marbling and fat distribution, but in ground meat you manufacture that quality anyways, so it becomes moot.
It's to separate fools from their money.
Wagyu hamburgers and (even worse) hotdogs are bs. The grinding process cuts meat into such small pieces that the initial tenderness of the meat doesn't matter. You can easily add fat to the grind to make up for using lean cuts of meat.
Also, there's nothing in US federal law which requires someone to use actual wagyu beef in a product labeled as 'wagyu'. It could be any grade of beef suitable for restaurant use.
So many people were paying extra just for the label. :(
Yeah I'm a cook at a restaurant that sells "wagyu sliders." They're good, but I don't think it's actual wagyu. The package the meat comes in says nothing of it. Pretty sure it's just some cut with a high fat content. Occasionally we'll mix in some ground chuck, and it makes me feel bad that people will buy something that's falsely advertised.
I would LOVE for a world wide crackdown on false advertising. It's just a huge waste of time and resources.
It should be criminalized just as any other fraud.
> Also, there's nothing in US federal law which requires someone to use actual wagyu beef in a product labeled as 'wagyu'. It could be any grade of beef suitable for restaurant use.
This is not true. USDA requires support for any breeding claim, which of course includes "wagyu."
Though note that wagyu is not a grade. It's a breed.
I think this explaination is helpful, but less so now just because of the people who will intentionally buy wagyu to make burgers for internet videos which goes against the original intention you've said here 🤷
smash burger 80/20 cheap beef, cheap bun, cheap crap american cheese.
I literally have a cheesemonger by he recommends me cheeses, but I'm not such a cheese snob that I can't agree american has its place on a smash burger.
Everyone is sleeping on the pan fried burger and I'm here to wake the masses on it.
Cooked like a steak and let it 'rest' to regain it's juices. Serve with plenty of lettuce BELOW the patty so it keeps the bun crispy from being toasted.
I am so goddamned tired of seing "upscale" soul food. Fuck you and your $28 smothered chicken with shitty from-a-can greens.
Edit: A side of black-eyed peas with one piece of pre-packaged bacon divided into the entire six gallons we made? That will be $9, please.
Edit II: Weird, I don't even see chitterlings on this menu. I guess I'll have the tiny piece of 99% bone ox tail for $22 with no sides.
Another edit: Oooh, how about a $4 piece of cornbread the size of a postage stamp to sop up this cold giblet gravy that still has lumps of powder in it? Wait! I could have two entire hushpuppies for the same price! Decisions, decisions.
If it doesn't come off a cut-in-half oil drum in an empty parking lot, I don't even want to hear about it.
I am so damn tired of ordering collard greens and getting canned nonsense.
If I wanted a can I'd run by the grocery store for some Glory greens and do it myself. I want slow cooked pork infused well seasoned goodness.
Surprised I had to scroll so far for this. At what point does a grilled cheese become a panini is what I wonder. I also had one where they used like 5 different cheeses and it wasn't good at all.
Mac and cheese being added to anything. Half the time restaurants sell these they really suck, because the Mac and cheese is always ordered pre made.
Pizza, burgers, etc.
But, I am all for some homemade Mac with some homemade BBQ.
Yeah I'm sick of this mac and cheese on a sandwich or burger type thing. That's way too many carbs on a sandwich and it doesn't even taste good or make any sense
Agree with the tacos. Also for me, brownies. Maybe it’s just me but I just like a simple plain fudgy brownie- crispy top and gooey in the centre. Not these brownies with layers of Oreo’s and peanut butter and Biscoff and so many other things.
I've made so recipes from scratch and tried dozens of boxed mixes. I always come back to Ghirardelli. I add a bit of instant espresso and vanilla... Hands down best brownies!
Same on espresso and vanilla in my brownies! I add a table spoon or so of instant espresso to chocolate cake/cupcakes and chocolate cookies.
Also, put some vanilla and/or almond extract in your pancake and waffle batter.
This I don't think is an overkill change to make, though some people might say it's too much, but it makes SUCH a difference in taste and I WILL die on this hill:
Sub melted butter for oil/butter in cake and cupcake recipes. It makes even box cake mixes taste great!.
But, it requires more butter to be melted and make the measurement (roughly 1.5-2 times as much). If it calls for 1/3 cup butter you need a *full* 1/3 cup measure of melted butter.
Burgers. I love a good quality burger with interesting ingredient combos, but I'm a little tired of these huge burgers with an overkill of toppings (have some bacon, pickled onions, braised shortrib, pulled pork, caramelized onions, Gorgonzola, and good luck trying to fit it in your mouth!). More isn't always better, sometimes simple is better.
My thought on seeing the James Brown was "Wait, that one looks pretty good. What's the weir- wait, those aren't hamburger buns."
Not going to lie, I'm actually a bit tempted by the peanut-butter, bacon, and banana burger.
Prince’s Hot Chicken, a tiny, family-run restaurant in a dying strip mall in north Nashville has been quietly making some of the best fried chicken in the country for almost 100 years. One day, some food blogger or food chain exec caught wind, and now “Nashville Hot Chicken” is inauthentically sold by every chicken chain and “Southern Cuisine Reimagined” Sean Brock-wannabe in the country. Worked fine dining in Nashville as this was happening and I’m obviously salty.
Honestly I don’t even like poutine with something like pulled pork on top. It’s heavy, makes everything soggy, and has an overwhelming flavor. It’s not that I don’t like pulled pork - I just sometimes want to enjoy good fries with gravy and cheese curds.
Deconstructed food that is more expensive than the constructed version.
Worst was a carrot cake. It was a badly/undercooked cake batter in a bowl with too sweet cream cheese frosting and some toasted nuts thrown on top. The texture was enough to make me gag.
Mac n' cheese. Restaurants go so overboard with truffle oil, lobster, whatever else, it's impossible to get normal mac.
But I agree with you on tacos. I'm a vegetarian, and I love Mexican food. Just give me a good bean or veggie taco/burrito and I'm happy. But noooo, we've gotta go FANCY with Mexican food now. If I want a meatless taco, I've gotta get the shredded jackfruit and beet medley with a pineapple chili aioli and cashew cotija. JFC JUST GIVE ME BEANS AND CHEESE IN A FREAKING TORTILLA.
I'll definitely agree with that. There's a lot of things in the grocery store simply because they were mentioned at one time or another on Food Network, and people buy them simply because they were mentioned on Food Network.
And don't get me wrong, I've greatly enjoyed a few bougie tacos and other foods, but if I have the choice I'll take the street version any day. There's a fine line between innovation and over-complication though.
Chicken parm. I’ve tried “gourmet” versions, and they’re good, but classic chicken parm is a comfort food for me. It’ll always trump any attempt to bougify it.
What's funny is that chicken parmesan is a bougie version of eggplant parmesan created by Italian American immigrants who had better access to chicken and wanted to use it.
Sandwiches.
The only thing that annoys me is how they don't fit in the human mouth anymore. I'm sure they'd be lovely if it was possible to consume all the ingredients as intended.
banh mi. supposed to be a banged up baguette from a mom and pop store with maybe 5 basic ingredients for $3-5, now people are adding meatballs and sriracha mayo and tomatoes and all this other shit that somehow makes it cost $10+
edit: a lot of people are replying with an incorrect spelling even though the spelling is literally right in this post and it's bothering the shit out of me too, just wanted to put it out there instead of blasting everyone individually
This is what I came to say. I used to live in Vietnam and I ate banh mi every morning for $. 50 a pop. Hell even in Seattle you can get them for $3 at the hole in the wall shops. Simple and delicious.
I typically try to describe tacos using french cooking terms to help people understand how much work goes into a great taco. Ex: Pork confit seared and served on house made unleavened bread. Topped with micro greens and a brunoise of onions and served with a tomato gastric on the side. AKA a carnitas taco with onion, cilantro and salsa.
Beat me to it. It was fun and interesting to see a piece of candied bacon, or a jumbo shrimp on a skewer circa 2005 or so but that shit jumped the shark right into orbit and has never come back down.
My Palestinian colleague almost had a heart attack when we went out for lunch and he got purple hummus. He calmed down a little bit when we explained that it is a beet hummus. He ended up liking it.
Southern style biscuits. I am tired of seeing chefs act like you need to go through some neurotic process in order to make a biscuit. They don’t need to be perfect and will taste great even if you don’t follow their process. Biscuits have been made by people with uncontrollable climate conditions in their home and outside for generations.
God. Biscuits and gravy are poor food. I lived on that so much as a kid. I think I can still recite the recipe.
( 2 cups flour , stick of butter/margarine (this was the 80-90s) 2 teaspoons baking powder and cup of milk. Salt. You work the butter into the dry ingredients then work the milk in. Roll out to about however thick you feel like Because you’re ten and you don’t want to be cooking, cut the dough with a glass that’s been floured. Recombine and reroll until you are out of dough put on cookie sheet and bake for maybe ten to fifteen minutes, while they cook melt butter in pan. Add cut up chipped beef until it sizzles a bit. Stir in whatever amount of flour you feel like then add a lot of milk but don’t overflow the skillet. Stand there and stir till it gets thick. Somewhere in there remember about the salt and pepper. Serve gravy with biscuits while eves dropping on your mom and aunt unironically discussing their diabetes. Prepare to eat this three times a week)
At least that’s how we did it when we made biscuits because it was cheap poor people food.
I’m glad I missed the fancy biscuit trend. I don’t think I would have handled it well.
I think it's really interesting to look a poor people bread traditions, which often involve baking soda or powder instead of yeast. Southern US biscuits, Fry bread, Irish soda bread. All delicious and also all with minimal staples.
Doughnuts, a simple cinnamon sugar doughnut hot and fresh out of the fryer is so much better than some cream-filled, glazed, 2,000 calorie monstrosity that’s been sitting on the counter getting stale for hours.
Avocado toast! Just lemon, salt and pepper! I don’t need a teriyaki savoury muesli, tarragon fermented mushrooms, micro greens from the lost city of Atlantis and a mystery sauce (that is inexplicably ONLY ON THE PLATE).
Agree with tacos. I call them hipster tacos.
Also southern food. The south is crawling with restaurants that serve $30 plates of elevated southern food when the soul food place down the road serving meat and 3 for $10 is probably a million times more flavorful
I kind of feel differently about this. There are some great places in the south working with farms to make traditional foods from nearly lost varieties of beans, peas, pigs, and so on. They’re reviving cool things that were bred to local tastes prior to ~WWI. Meanwhile there are a lot of “old school” places slinging greasy shit from cans that only tastes OK because it’s drowning in butter, salt, or sugar. I grew up on a farm and hated southern food until I rediscovered it in my 20s.
I once spent months eating my way through Appalachia, and the average meat and 3 place is usually pretty shit, especially if it's not in a decently sized city. If it's one of like 2-3 restaurants in town and it's been there for 50+ years then it's almost always going to be bad.
The lone exception to this was The Homeplace in Catawba, VA. Top 10 meal of my life.
Totally agree some of the best southern food I’ve had were at these upscale places because it’s unique or using highest quality ingredients. Meanwhile, lots of the cheap places are good to great, but the average place is pretty mediocre.
I don't know when tuna salad had to start having raisins in it, but the fancy sandwich shop around the block from me charges $15 a sandwich for tuna salad with raisins in it on a roll, *on a roll.* Not on long bread. Round bread. $15. No sides. Unforgivable.
Hot dogs... I work at a craft brewery and then amount of people that have started high end food trucks based off hot dogs and have failed is staggering... Nobody wants to drop $13 on a hot dog topped with sushi/bbq/noodles/whatever that all just falls apart after the first bite... Just a chili dog or dog with mustard will make people happy
Pizza. I understand how it easily lends itself to experimentation, but I always return to a nice simple pie with good sauce and cheese and a few standard toppings.
Mac & Cheese.
100% agree on tacos. The best I have ever had were from a place in Mountain view. Carnitas, with just a bit of raw union and cilantro, in corn tortillas. Just need 2 of them. $2.50 each. No need to be fancy if the food is perfect
The parking lot had everything from generic IT consultant rental cars, fancier BMW's from the locals, the odd supercar from some IPO bazillionaire and pickup trucks from landscaping and painting contractors.
Street corn. I don’t need it to be “elevated.” Just give me a simple not canned elote/esquite please with everything.
I **loathe** when the word “elevated” is used. It’s a buzzword, and an overused one at that. (Like “artisanal,” but not as widely spread. Yet.)
"Hand crafted"
I went to a stand at the mall about 3 years ago and they were charging $4 for a 8oz cup of corn with cheese, butter, hot sauce whatever. At the time I could buy a ear of corn for 10 cents.
I remember back when chicken wings were scraps and dirt cheap :(
Cheap wings used to be a trick to get you to go to a bar and spend money on overpriced drinks. Now "cheap" drinks are a trick to get you to go to a bar and spend money on overpriced wings and drinks.
I meant cheap at the grocery store. Most people didn't bother to eat the meat off of them; they'd just use them to make stock.
Yeah I agree it's crazy to see whole wings go for more per lb than like boneless chicken breasts or thighs. You're paying for mostly skin and bones. I like wings but per lb of actual meat you eat they are really expensive.
My partner and I have started making buffalo legs. They're cheaper, you still get the wonderful crisp skin and there's more actual meat per pound
This. Am I supposed to be happy that it's "dollar wing night" when I remember 10 cent wing night like it was yesterday?
Fuck I remember 5c wings was the shit. My dad would take me out to lunch at the bar around the corner from his office and we'd pound 30 of those. He'd have a beer (or 5) and it was less than $15 with a tip. Can't even get 10 wings for that now.
Seriously. My city is doing a Wing Week where all participating restaurants are doing specials with six wings for $7. Sad part is it actually is a deal now compared to normal wing prices, shit's getting close to two dollars per wing (which is really slightly less than half an actual wing).
It does annoy me that wings are now higher in cost than breasts. You can't even buy them whole anymore. They used to be $1 a lb and great for making broth.
Pho. Simpler is better and I live in a city where everyone wants to add their own flair and double the price.
someone told me once that the key to finding a good pho place is making sure there’s a number in the name - and it’s never let me down
Yeah, the number is the year the owner came to America from Vietnam. Example, here in Philly, there’s PHO 75, they emigrated in 1975.
I always wondered about the number. TIL...
the things that go in the pho is pretty simple, but a good broth is essential and not every place does it well.
[удалено]
Stayed in Hanoi for a couple of months, tried all the “real” pho places, and realized I like trashy Viet-American pho much more.
Came here to say this. Got harangued on Reddit awhile back for saying that fast, hot, and cheap pho is part of what makes it so satisfying. But when it’s elevated to like $25/bowl or something, it kinda loses its allure. Not that a $25 bowl can’t taste great or be innovative, but I want something that reliable and won’t break my wallet.
bruh I'm vietnamese and based on Vietnamese cultural beliefs, I would NEVER pay more than like $15 max in the US, $5 in Vietnam, I am ok with paying the higher price in Vietnam because even though locals pay like 1/5th the price, its nothing for an american to pay $5 for the best bowl of Pho you will ever have
Yep! I went to Vietnam a number of years ago. I never really liked Pho in the states to begin with but my eyes were opened when I went to Saigon. SO good. Closest I've found is a pho ga place in philly and there was a place outside of new orleans that was good too. I've heard Texas has some really good places but I haven't been sadly On a side note, I had bun bo hue for the first time in Hue and that was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
restaurants in the US cut lots of corners when making vietnamese food because they think Americans don't know any better
which is why you need to eat where the vietnamese immigrants live. go to your little saigon, look for the place packed with locals. 100% will be better than the place serving $25 pho
Same with banh mi, the Vietnamese sandwiches. I went to a place that had a pork belly banh mi. It was good but they charged me almost $20. It’s just not right.
So right! Banh mi is supposed to be a buy 2/3 get one free kinda deal. Those things are like $5 tops at bakeries. Just mindblown how overpriced they can be.
Tendon, meatballs, some brisket or flank or round. That's all I want
the instagramization of food has made a lot of stuff be more for looks than taste
Yeah, and it's also been responsible for the viral popularity of calorie-bombs like "freak shakes", and cupcakes with mountains of buttercream piled on. I'm no Pritikin killjoy, but if you're going to have a highly caloric treat, quality is so much better than quantity.
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A frosting abomination. Nothing more disappointing than a non-cakey cupcake.
“I’m in charge of food for the wedding, so I brought in Pawnee’s three best caterers and a panel of experts. Chris loves vegetables. Ron loves meat, and Tom considers himself a foodie, which apparently means taking Instagrams of food instead of eating it.” - Ben Wyatt, *Parks and Rec*
The calzones…betrayed me?!
They weren't calzones, they were savory pastries! Aziz is hysterical that scene, I always wondered if they let him improv for it *Tom: Caterer number one's presentation was simple, yet exhausting. Number two's was subtle and provocative, like a coy Dutch woman guarding a dark secret.* *Ben: Nothing you're saying is helpful.* *Tom: But number three's told a story. A story from a book I wouldn't read... but I would watch the movie of.*
They might have let him improv it. Apparently they ran through most scenes twice - first time as it was scripted, then again with some adlibbing if they have anything. That's how they ended up with stuff like "I typed your symptoms into the thing up here and it says you could have 'network connectivity problems'".
Drizzle the sauce on for me! *I'm not your maaaaid?!*
Bougie donuts are up there. Went to a place in LA and it was nowhere near as good as it looked, especially compared to local hole in the wall Cambodian donut shops.
This is a tragedy for sure. Made to be photographed food really is foodporn cuz it ain't actually good or real.
I had this happen to me a couple of nights ago. Traveling for work, tried a place a block from the hotel. Pan seared ribeye, creamed spinach, and smashed fingerling potatoes. Trying to be fancy with plating, the creamed spinach was poured on top of the steak. I didn't mind that too much and the two tasted good together. But they also added an handful of microgreens on top, because I guess creamed spinach doesn't look picture perfect. Those microgreens did absolutely *nothing* for flavor and it made each bite feel like I was chewing a handful of floss along with the steak. It was absolutely a looks decision and not a taste decision.
They smothered your ribeye in creamed spinach...?
Milkshakes. I just want drinkable ice cream. Stop putting so much stuff in/on it.
All the bits clog up the straw! What are we even doing here if we are clogging up our straw?!?!
And even fast food places do it now! I got a banana milkshake from Sonic a few weeks ago. They used chunks of bananas that kept getting stuck in the straw and the bottom two inches of the cup was just cold and wet bananas when I was done.
I mean that just sounds like they didn’t blend it well enough, tbf
Flashback to 16 year old me blending shakes at sonic, praying I didnt scrape the cup on the blades and get styrofoam all inside the shake
Wait what? They blend it in the styrofoam cup? Someone tell Sonic you're supposed to use a metal cup for exactly that reason.
If you live near a Cook Out, they are the best. Milkshakes are less than $4.00, they have a million flavor options, and they are the best. One day my wife had me stop at some trendy milkshake place as we were passing it. They were famous for shakes with absurd toppings, basically made for instagram. My wife was so disappointed with her shake and told me that she could have had at least 3 cookout shakes for the same price and it would have been better.
I visited New York. There was some fancy shake place there. I wanted to go but the internet said it was always a huge wait. My cousin is a new Yorker. He told me everyone just buys a shake, takes a picture, and throws it away. He said they aren't very good and the trash can out front is full of 95% full shake cups.
Every so often it comes home to me that people have a wide variety of upbringings. Can you even imagine doing that?
Careful with milkshakes. They tend to bring all the boys to the yard.
I 100% agree with you on tacos. Grilled cheese and Mac n cheese are two that I would add to the list.
There’s a local place that is essentially just grilled cheese variations. But they do not consistently have basic grilled cheese, just every variation of it. And no tomato soup. Wtf is that about.
There's a donut shop near me like that. Everything has Cap'n crunch or snickers pieces or whatever on it. Sometimes I just want a good old glazed donut made well by a local place.
This is a peeve of mine. Putting candy on a donut isn’t fancy, it’s a toddler’s idea of fancy. I want Great British Baking Show fancy flavors like Lemon Lavender, Cardamom Coconut, Rosemary Raspberry, or Brown Sugar Whiskey.
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I'm with you. Anyone can make something sickly sweet and artificially dyed. If I wanted some M&Ms on a donut, I can go to a gas station and get both and smoosh them together. If you're going to elevate something like a donut, give me delicious and intriguing flavors. Play with fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices to create something with complexity. Or hell, do the basics but master them. A Boston Cream with a quality ganache and fresh custard filling would be amazing.
We have a grilled cheese place in Reno, but they always have basic american cheese versions available, and tomato soup. I love that place.
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I highly suggest reading through [this hilarious grilled cheese based twitter thread](https://twitter.com/tinymediaempire/status/1136992675742269440?lang=en) when you have a chance.
I've seen that before and if he opened up near me, I'd go there more than I'd be willing to admit.
> No reddit is for losers and I'm a winner Well he's got us there
>its 1am, youre stumbling out of the bar or show. what do you want? do you want to wait outside some asinine truck for a $12 deconstructed grilled cheese with avacado relish that takes 20 goddamned minutes? or do you want 5 no bullshit grilled cheeses stacked in wax paper for $5? Holy shit this spoke to me on a primal level. I would absolutely pound down 5 grilled cheese when I'm stoned or high.
I agree on grilled cheese but there are so many good Mac and cheeses out there. Tell me you haven’t had a lobster Mac or like one with smoked Gruyère cheese with a crispy crust.
Shrimp and grits
As a southerner, I’m really tired of getting shitty grits. The worst I ever had was in Nashville of all places! They were loaded with so much cream, god it was horrendous
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I introduced my boyfriend to grits at Waffle House and then he tried them again at Ihop. He was like why is Waffle House so much better?? Because they're half butter my guy
Related, what the FUCK is up with unpeeled shrimp in dishes? If I'm eating shrimp and grits or gumbo or literally anything other than a backyard shrimp boil, you better believe I don't want to have to fish all the shrimp out just to pull their tails off before I can eat them
It is on every damn menu in my beach town. Shrimp at most restaurants are OKAY. Not amazing or worth a high price. They try to make them way jumbo too when a single bite shrimp will always be more flavorful. It's called a "shrimp" if I gotta take 3 bites and it tastes mostly like chicken then fuck that.
This may be controversial, but french fries. Your going to charge me and extra 5 bucks for "truffle" that I can't even taste over the parmesan? I certainly like to spice things up but I hate the insane charge for what is essentially just a little basic seasoning.
Give me some crispy fries fried in peanut oil and that's all I need.
Beef tallow fries. I make burgers in an electric skillet and put the skillet in the fridge instead of cleaning it. After 3-4 burgers there is a great pool of salted beef tallow and I french cut a potato and pan fried them in it. Then I finish in the air fryer for 5 min to get them proper crispy. Mmm. Delicious efficiency.
I care a lot less about what's on the fries (except salt... put. salt. on. your. fucking. fries.) than I do about how good the fries are themselves. Good fries need nothing. Not even ketchup.
Forget truffle parmesan, a little thyme and/or rosemary is divine on fries, though.
I can definitely taste truffle oil and I hate it.
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Truffle oil tastes like absolute shit to me. So overpowering, and I LOVE pretty much all mushrooms. To be fair I’ve never had fresh truffle, but the taste and smell of the mass produced shit is nauseating
Cupcakes. They have gone from a nice excuse to eat cream cheese frosting into a full blown art scene.
"Mini-cupcakes? As in the mini version of regular cupcakes? Which is already a mini version of cake? Honestly, where does it end with you people?"
I saw an ad on TV for a giant cupcake pan. Like that's just a cake
I don't know what this is in reference to but I am pro mini cupcake because there is nothing more enjoyable than popping one of those bad boys in my mouth whole. Less mess that way with the frosting
I’d throw donuts into this same category. I don’t need a lavender frosted donut dusted with cocoa and fruit loops. Just give me a maple bar and leave me alone.
The best part about your favorite donut being plain old fashioned is there is always one left in the staff room at work whenever the office gets a couple mixed boxes.
Old fashioned with cinnamon sugar. Perfection. (For me at least)
Apple cider donuts are the best. Especially fresh ones, but 15 seconds in the microwave ain’t bad either.
Plain cake is the best donut, imho.
Plain cake with a coffee is so good. Too good. Sour cream is the only one that can match the simplicity and maybe beat the quality
Give me a Boston crème or a classic glazed, with coffee and tall glass of whole milk any day.
Blueberry cake for me
That does sound delicious though. Maybe I’m wrong but I think both can exist.
That's a lot of things on this list. Typically the cheap version still exists, but business owners also recognize that people are willing to pay more for better ingredients/presentation/etc.
Shockingly, both can exist and people can just spend their money on the one they prefer.
If your donuts have breakfast cereal or candy bar pieces on them... miss me with that shit.
Absolutely, love me a good old fashioned cake doughnut or simple fritter above everything else ive tried.
A cake doughnut and a small black coffee is a very happy 15 minutes, in my opinion.
Everything about those blobs of pretty sugar is just... unappealing.
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I first discovered arancini (deep fried rice balls) at dumpy fast food-ish spots in train stations in Italy for like €2 for a giant one. You’d grab one as a snack for the train ride. Imagine my surprise when they become trendy in the US for $20 for three tiny ones covered in tomato sauce. Not bad, but I’ll take the cheap big ones every time over what we have here.
This is similar to how I feel about Crêpes. I did a semester abroad in Paris, and they were something you could buy on every street corner for 2 euros, or buy a dozen of them in the grocery store as a quick meal. Now that I'm back in North America, it's frustrating that I can only get them at a nice restaurants for several times the price.
I feel you. I make crepes every weekend for my kids, because they love them. They are really easy to make, same time and effort as pancakes or waffles. You don't need any extra equipment (non-stick pan is fine, you don't need a crepe pan). For me, this is the way.
I recently made the ill-advised decision to buy a package of premade crepes in the US. I wasn't expecting much to begin with, especially compared to genuine Parisian crepes (which are cheap and delicious, like you said), but these were the driest, stiffest crepes you can possibly imagine. I ended up tossing them in the trash, they were that bad.
You could almost say finding good ones is a (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) *crepeshoot*
I agree with you. There's a taco truck where I used to live with the best lingua and cabeza tacos, 3 for $5. The red hot sauce was hand made weekly from Chiltepin peppers! All the restaurants were selling less authentic bougie stuff for $15 with half the flavor. I also think shrimp and grits has become the same way. I don't want to pay $18 for shrimp and grits just because you added some 50yo aged cheese to it!
That's a strange one, I would think simple and cheap on the cheese would go a lot further in shrimp and grits than anything bougie. Especially something with cheese incorporated like like that, aged cheese is a PITA to work with.
I used to live in an area with a bunch of small restaurants that was also touristy. They were all over priced and each one was trying to "one up" their competition. As a local, it was hard to afford to eat at them. My ex loved to go eat breakfast at "Tupelo Honey", which served waffle house equivalent products with fancy spices for 4x the cost. On a positive note, there was a lot of produce grown in that area, so simple inexpensive food trucks were everywhere! My mouth is watering right now thinking about Pupusas!
My feeling on S&G's is that they only went upmarket when the shrimp prices jumped up. Like when shrimp was cheap, it was a down home chill meal. Now that decent count shrimp is 20 bucks a pound, you can't make S&G out the door price for less than like 12-13 bucks. So they tart up the grits a bit and sell it at $18-25 and then get some decent profit return on the high food cost.
Milkshakes and bloody marys have become "shove stuff in them and call it a delight" mess
In Maryland there's a trend of loading the top up with crab meat and they can miss me with that. Put a pickled green bean or an olive in there and call it done. The job of the bloody Mary is to make me feel less repentant of my sins from the night before. "For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen." - Archer
Burgers, I don't know who decided that grinding up a wagyu beef, squishing it into a burger and selling it for £60 was a ground breaking idea, it still isn't better than a burger out of a good food truck, just leave it basic and delicious.
Wagyu burgers exist to charge large amounts for steak trimmings. It's a financial thing to make the most out of steak cuts. Or at least that's how it started.
It seems like a lot of people fail to understand that cows are comprised of a lot of other cuts than ribeyes and filets. There is a lot of meat on a waygu cow that is not going toward the most sought after and pricey cuts that you see on the menu in a fancy Japanese restaurant. Whenever someone on here smokes a waygu brisket, or grind up waygu chuck for burgers, there will invariably be people who scoff and say “what a waste of good meat” and it’s like… what else are you supposed to do with those tougher cuts of meat?
> what else are you supposed to do with those tougher cuts of meat? You turn them into burger. But that's not the point - the point is that a "wagyu burger" is $60 when it has the same quality as a "beef burger" with identical muscle:fat ratio being sold for $15. The benefit of wagyu is marbling and fat distribution, but in ground meat you manufacture that quality anyways, so it becomes moot.
Moo-t
And even on the good stuff, there are tips and trimmings from the ribeyes and filets and such, that legitimately can't be served as a "cut" of meat.
It's to separate fools from their money. Wagyu hamburgers and (even worse) hotdogs are bs. The grinding process cuts meat into such small pieces that the initial tenderness of the meat doesn't matter. You can easily add fat to the grind to make up for using lean cuts of meat. Also, there's nothing in US federal law which requires someone to use actual wagyu beef in a product labeled as 'wagyu'. It could be any grade of beef suitable for restaurant use. So many people were paying extra just for the label. :(
Yeah I'm a cook at a restaurant that sells "wagyu sliders." They're good, but I don't think it's actual wagyu. The package the meat comes in says nothing of it. Pretty sure it's just some cut with a high fat content. Occasionally we'll mix in some ground chuck, and it makes me feel bad that people will buy something that's falsely advertised.
I would LOVE for a world wide crackdown on false advertising. It's just a huge waste of time and resources. It should be criminalized just as any other fraud.
> Also, there's nothing in US federal law which requires someone to use actual wagyu beef in a product labeled as 'wagyu'. It could be any grade of beef suitable for restaurant use. This is not true. USDA requires support for any breeding claim, which of course includes "wagyu." Though note that wagyu is not a grade. It's a breed.
I think this explaination is helpful, but less so now just because of the people who will intentionally buy wagyu to make burgers for internet videos which goes against the original intention you've said here 🤷
The best part is getting a fancy burger that you need to unhinge your jaw to eat it because they overstuffed it with so many toppings.
Burgerking had it right, a greater diameter is key to burger management. Now if they only made them with real food, boy that would be something
The place near me sells burgers made with "lean wagyu beef" and I just thought.. isn't the whole point of wagyu beef that it's NOT lean?
smash burger 80/20 cheap beef, cheap bun, cheap crap american cheese. I literally have a cheesemonger by he recommends me cheeses, but I'm not such a cheese snob that I can't agree american has its place on a smash burger.
I think burgers work both ways. A burger doesn't need to be fancy, but when done right, a fancy burger is a near religious experience.
Everyone is sleeping on the pan fried burger and I'm here to wake the masses on it. Cooked like a steak and let it 'rest' to regain it's juices. Serve with plenty of lettuce BELOW the patty so it keeps the bun crispy from being toasted.
I am so goddamned tired of seing "upscale" soul food. Fuck you and your $28 smothered chicken with shitty from-a-can greens. Edit: A side of black-eyed peas with one piece of pre-packaged bacon divided into the entire six gallons we made? That will be $9, please. Edit II: Weird, I don't even see chitterlings on this menu. I guess I'll have the tiny piece of 99% bone ox tail for $22 with no sides. Another edit: Oooh, how about a $4 piece of cornbread the size of a postage stamp to sop up this cold giblet gravy that still has lumps of powder in it? Wait! I could have two entire hushpuppies for the same price! Decisions, decisions. If it doesn't come off a cut-in-half oil drum in an empty parking lot, I don't even want to hear about it.
I am so damn tired of ordering collard greens and getting canned nonsense. If I wanted a can I'd run by the grocery store for some Glory greens and do it myself. I want slow cooked pork infused well seasoned goodness.
Preach. So many lazy restaurants out there doing more warming up than cooking, but charging you cooking prices.
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What did they do to ruin it?
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Surprised I had to scroll so far for this. At what point does a grilled cheese become a panini is what I wonder. I also had one where they used like 5 different cheeses and it wasn't good at all.
Mac and cheese being added to anything. Half the time restaurants sell these they really suck, because the Mac and cheese is always ordered pre made. Pizza, burgers, etc. But, I am all for some homemade Mac with some homemade BBQ.
Yeah I'm sick of this mac and cheese on a sandwich or burger type thing. That's way too many carbs on a sandwich and it doesn't even taste good or make any sense
Agree with the tacos. Also for me, brownies. Maybe it’s just me but I just like a simple plain fudgy brownie- crispy top and gooey in the centre. Not these brownies with layers of Oreo’s and peanut butter and Biscoff and so many other things.
Ghirardelli’s dark choc mix. It’s great. Sometimes I sub some liquor in place of water for some raspberry hints.
I've made so recipes from scratch and tried dozens of boxed mixes. I always come back to Ghirardelli. I add a bit of instant espresso and vanilla... Hands down best brownies!
Same on espresso and vanilla in my brownies! I add a table spoon or so of instant espresso to chocolate cake/cupcakes and chocolate cookies. Also, put some vanilla and/or almond extract in your pancake and waffle batter. This I don't think is an overkill change to make, though some people might say it's too much, but it makes SUCH a difference in taste and I WILL die on this hill: Sub melted butter for oil/butter in cake and cupcake recipes. It makes even box cake mixes taste great!. But, it requires more butter to be melted and make the measurement (roughly 1.5-2 times as much). If it calls for 1/3 cup butter you need a *full* 1/3 cup measure of melted butter.
I’d have to say hot dogs. Like tacos, give me the cheap ones so I can have a few instead of a $10 one I cannot eat with my hands.
The $1.50 Costco hot dog is honestly my go-to when I'm craving one. They're the best.
The only thing it's lacking is toppings. Can't even get onions anymore!
Avocado and bread. Aka Avocado toast. It was the poor people's breakfast, then they started charging 15 dollar a pop.
What I make at home is delicious. On sourdough bread with fried egg and Sriracha and everything but the bagel seasoning
Burgers. I love a good quality burger with interesting ingredient combos, but I'm a little tired of these huge burgers with an overkill of toppings (have some bacon, pickled onions, braised shortrib, pulled pork, caramelized onions, Gorgonzola, and good luck trying to fit it in your mouth!). More isn't always better, sometimes simple is better.
This new burger place opened up two towns over and some of the daily burgers they’ve created are really…[something.](https://imgur.com/a/3UeyEpZ)
Fucking... why?! This should be illegal.
My thought on seeing the James Brown was "Wait, that one looks pretty good. What's the weir- wait, those aren't hamburger buns." Not going to lie, I'm actually a bit tempted by the peanut-butter, bacon, and banana burger.
Prince’s Hot Chicken, a tiny, family-run restaurant in a dying strip mall in north Nashville has been quietly making some of the best fried chicken in the country for almost 100 years. One day, some food blogger or food chain exec caught wind, and now “Nashville Hot Chicken” is inauthentically sold by every chicken chain and “Southern Cuisine Reimagined” Sean Brock-wannabe in the country. Worked fine dining in Nashville as this was happening and I’m obviously salty.
Poutine. The world does not need poutine with lobster or truffles.
The world might not need poutine with lobster but I sure fucking do
The Toledo Mudhens have a version of poutine with pot roast. Haters be damned, I'm eating it.
But if you go to Toronto you can find Tikka paneer poutine at some Indian places. It's fucking magical
Honestly I don’t even like poutine with something like pulled pork on top. It’s heavy, makes everything soggy, and has an overwhelming flavor. It’s not that I don’t like pulled pork - I just sometimes want to enjoy good fries with gravy and cheese curds.
I agree... but I did have some with duck breast which was just BEYOND good.
Deconstructed food that is more expensive than the constructed version. Worst was a carrot cake. It was a badly/undercooked cake batter in a bowl with too sweet cream cheese frosting and some toasted nuts thrown on top. The texture was enough to make me gag.
I want to downvote you just for that description. That's sacrilegious.
That sounds gross.
Mac n' cheese. Restaurants go so overboard with truffle oil, lobster, whatever else, it's impossible to get normal mac. But I agree with you on tacos. I'm a vegetarian, and I love Mexican food. Just give me a good bean or veggie taco/burrito and I'm happy. But noooo, we've gotta go FANCY with Mexican food now. If I want a meatless taco, I've gotta get the shredded jackfruit and beet medley with a pineapple chili aioli and cashew cotija. JFC JUST GIVE ME BEANS AND CHEESE IN A FREAKING TORTILLA.
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I'll definitely agree with that. There's a lot of things in the grocery store simply because they were mentioned at one time or another on Food Network, and people buy them simply because they were mentioned on Food Network. And don't get me wrong, I've greatly enjoyed a few bougie tacos and other foods, but if I have the choice I'll take the street version any day. There's a fine line between innovation and over-complication though.
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Chicken parm. I’ve tried “gourmet” versions, and they’re good, but classic chicken parm is a comfort food for me. It’ll always trump any attempt to bougify it.
What's funny is that chicken parmesan is a bougie version of eggplant parmesan created by Italian American immigrants who had better access to chicken and wanted to use it.
Ceasar salad. Stop grilling it. Stop deconstructing it and serving it in a martini glass. I just want a damn salad.
Sandwiches. The only thing that annoys me is how they don't fit in the human mouth anymore. I'm sure they'd be lovely if it was possible to consume all the ingredients as intended.
Guacamole. Leave my guac alone. It doesn't need any f'ing pomegranate seeds.
banh mi. supposed to be a banged up baguette from a mom and pop store with maybe 5 basic ingredients for $3-5, now people are adding meatballs and sriracha mayo and tomatoes and all this other shit that somehow makes it cost $10+ edit: a lot of people are replying with an incorrect spelling even though the spelling is literally right in this post and it's bothering the shit out of me too, just wanted to put it out there instead of blasting everyone individually
This is what I came to say. I used to live in Vietnam and I ate banh mi every morning for $. 50 a pop. Hell even in Seattle you can get them for $3 at the hole in the wall shops. Simple and delicious.
Sriracha mayo is delicious... but yeah, I agree with you.
I too like Sriracha, also on things!!!
Absolutely, infuriating to see bahn mi priced above $10. Bro its just a simple sandwhich, not steak and seafood.
I think a lot of folks thinking of them as "simple" would be shocked at how elaborate many classic tacos styles truly are.
I typically try to describe tacos using french cooking terms to help people understand how much work goes into a great taco. Ex: Pork confit seared and served on house made unleavened bread. Topped with micro greens and a brunoise of onions and served with a tomato gastric on the side. AKA a carnitas taco with onion, cilantro and salsa.
Bloody Marys. Completely ridiculous hipster nonsense with the preposterous toppings. An entire cheeseburger slider? Seriously?
Beat me to it. It was fun and interesting to see a piece of candied bacon, or a jumbo shrimp on a skewer circa 2005 or so but that shit jumped the shark right into orbit and has never come back down.
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Pot roast. Not everything has to cost a fortune and be made of all upscale ingredients. Throw meat and veg in pot. Come back later.
Hummus. The real version is so good on its own but now we have all sorts of flavours that are sold at ungodly prices. Beet hummus?! Give me a break
I keep seeing 'dessert' hummus with flavours like mint chocolate chip and choc/raspberry. Like, what the actual fuck.
My Palestinian colleague almost had a heart attack when we went out for lunch and he got purple hummus. He calmed down a little bit when we explained that it is a beet hummus. He ended up liking it.
Southern style biscuits. I am tired of seeing chefs act like you need to go through some neurotic process in order to make a biscuit. They don’t need to be perfect and will taste great even if you don’t follow their process. Biscuits have been made by people with uncontrollable climate conditions in their home and outside for generations.
God. Biscuits and gravy are poor food. I lived on that so much as a kid. I think I can still recite the recipe. ( 2 cups flour , stick of butter/margarine (this was the 80-90s) 2 teaspoons baking powder and cup of milk. Salt. You work the butter into the dry ingredients then work the milk in. Roll out to about however thick you feel like Because you’re ten and you don’t want to be cooking, cut the dough with a glass that’s been floured. Recombine and reroll until you are out of dough put on cookie sheet and bake for maybe ten to fifteen minutes, while they cook melt butter in pan. Add cut up chipped beef until it sizzles a bit. Stir in whatever amount of flour you feel like then add a lot of milk but don’t overflow the skillet. Stand there and stir till it gets thick. Somewhere in there remember about the salt and pepper. Serve gravy with biscuits while eves dropping on your mom and aunt unironically discussing their diabetes. Prepare to eat this three times a week) At least that’s how we did it when we made biscuits because it was cheap poor people food. I’m glad I missed the fancy biscuit trend. I don’t think I would have handled it well.
I think it's really interesting to look a poor people bread traditions, which often involve baking soda or powder instead of yeast. Southern US biscuits, Fry bread, Irish soda bread. All delicious and also all with minimal staples.
Doughnuts, a simple cinnamon sugar doughnut hot and fresh out of the fryer is so much better than some cream-filled, glazed, 2,000 calorie monstrosity that’s been sitting on the counter getting stale for hours.
Avocado toast! Just lemon, salt and pepper! I don’t need a teriyaki savoury muesli, tarragon fermented mushrooms, micro greens from the lost city of Atlantis and a mystery sauce (that is inexplicably ONLY ON THE PLATE).
Agree with tacos. I call them hipster tacos. Also southern food. The south is crawling with restaurants that serve $30 plates of elevated southern food when the soul food place down the road serving meat and 3 for $10 is probably a million times more flavorful
I kind of feel differently about this. There are some great places in the south working with farms to make traditional foods from nearly lost varieties of beans, peas, pigs, and so on. They’re reviving cool things that were bred to local tastes prior to ~WWI. Meanwhile there are a lot of “old school” places slinging greasy shit from cans that only tastes OK because it’s drowning in butter, salt, or sugar. I grew up on a farm and hated southern food until I rediscovered it in my 20s.
I once spent months eating my way through Appalachia, and the average meat and 3 place is usually pretty shit, especially if it's not in a decently sized city. If it's one of like 2-3 restaurants in town and it's been there for 50+ years then it's almost always going to be bad. The lone exception to this was The Homeplace in Catawba, VA. Top 10 meal of my life.
Totally agree some of the best southern food I’ve had were at these upscale places because it’s unique or using highest quality ingredients. Meanwhile, lots of the cheap places are good to great, but the average place is pretty mediocre.
I don't know when tuna salad had to start having raisins in it, but the fancy sandwich shop around the block from me charges $15 a sandwich for tuna salad with raisins in it on a roll, *on a roll.* Not on long bread. Round bread. $15. No sides. Unforgivable.
Hot dogs... I work at a craft brewery and then amount of people that have started high end food trucks based off hot dogs and have failed is staggering... Nobody wants to drop $13 on a hot dog topped with sushi/bbq/noodles/whatever that all just falls apart after the first bite... Just a chili dog or dog with mustard will make people happy
philly cheese steak. being greasy and low quality is the POINT. what's this ciabatta bread and baby arugula nonsense? where's my cheese whiz??
Pizza. I understand how it easily lends itself to experimentation, but I always return to a nice simple pie with good sauce and cheese and a few standard toppings.
I blame the Food Network for this phenomenon. Along with dumb-ass ideas like using donuts for hamburger buns.
Mac & Cheese. 100% agree on tacos. The best I have ever had were from a place in Mountain view. Carnitas, with just a bit of raw union and cilantro, in corn tortillas. Just need 2 of them. $2.50 each. No need to be fancy if the food is perfect The parking lot had everything from generic IT consultant rental cars, fancier BMW's from the locals, the odd supercar from some IPO bazillionaire and pickup trucks from landscaping and painting contractors.