I enjoyed this round of food opinions, because my food chemistry professor QT’d it with, simply, “the world would be a better place without celery”- which is absolutely correct.
Other random ones from me: Old Bay does not go on chicken wings, scrapple is the superior breakfast meat, cake is largely worthless, fast food shouldn’t use lettuce or tomato because their produce is so bad it makes people think they don’t like lettuce and tomato, meatloaf should never be cooked in a loaf pan and leeks are superior to onions in every way.
It’s ambitious to try this by level of pretentiousness before 0800 Eastern but I’m going to try anyway: I quite enjoy beans on toast despite having spent most of my life in the US, but I don’t often eat them here, because the bread is wrong. There’s a certain kind of supermarket white bread - I think they just call it white loaf - that toasts up really well and goes with the beans. It’s not a universal thing for me - a cup of (proper) tea and a hobnob is the same either side of the Atlantic.
Also it’s quite difficult to make a decent lager or Pilsner and I applaud small breweries that can do it, because I really enjoy those especially in warm weather.
The thing I hate about food arguments outside my immediate circle of trusted friends is the thing I hate about a lot of political arguments: it's argument for sport, which is something I have NO tolerance for as I age. I'm exhausted of it for two reasons:
1) I cannot care. I am out of capacity to care. I want people to eat/listen to/etc. what makes them feel happy. Life is too damn short to carp about people's joy.
2) Arguing for sport about real issues tends to treat the dehumanization of marginalized people as a side effect at best. It's not surprising to me that Matt Gaetz is a high-school debate team kid. He's the platonic freaking ideal of THAT GUY on your debate team. And that's the genesis of the dynamic you describe, Scott - obsession with an orderly debate over whether or not my trans friend is a human being or not legitimizes that question as something that should be asked, rather than the question itself being a horrific thing to ask. And I don't know how to fix that.
Anyway. Let people eat what they like. Even if it's objectively weird.
Every once in a while I see people say putting orange juice on cereal is good. I'm not entirely convinced that is even real and not some weird prank started in the early days of the internet.
The one food opinion I will defend to the hilt is when eating a bagel that has been sliced and topped with whatever you choose, the top half must be consumed before the bottom half.
Food fight! I love it! My strongest-held food opinion is that no food should ever, EVER be dipped in a liquid. Oreos in water is no worse (or no better) than doughnuts in coffee. Eat the food, then sip the drink, for heaven's sake. Soggy pastry? No thanks.
Sort of need more on the dumpling/pizza classification. Is it the ingredients, cooking method, how does it work?
You want to see a take, ask a child their opinion on foods. Ketchup is too spicy but serrano pepper guacamole is the cat's meow. Water is too wet. The pasta selection for dinner was wrong, it should have been spirals instead of linguine.
My takes:
I think people who pay hundreds of dollars for bite size portion tasting menus need to be examined.
It should be acceptable to ask for seconds of a dish at a restaurant and be charged half price or even a third if you want thirds. If the soup is that good then dammit I want more.
I don't care how you eat or what you eat as long as you are happy.
My favorite one of these in a while. I think people have a naturally occurring amount of vitriol and it's important that we use that up on stupid stuff so we have our brains back to deal with important stuff.
"a plate of overcooked spaghetti slathered in sloppy spiced meat sauce and laden with a catcher’s mitt worth of un-melted shredded cheddar cheese" Please deliver this to [REDACTED] around 12:15 PM.
Man, this one hit me, Scott. You get me, you really do.
This line, man. "many of us have forgotten how to communicate with each other without reflexively defaulting to the most extreme version of what we’re trying to say, a tendency that often leave us screaming at people who we largely agree with on the substance of most issues." It's perfect.
Then you summed up my time on the HOA board with this line: "the other party is more concerned with following Robert’s Rules of Order than putting out the fires around their feet. " That one hit me right in the repressed memory.
In another place we recently began discussing music, and I approach it as I approach food. If someone says "this is great, try it!" If I have never tried it before, I will, and only then will I form my opinion. I've never dipped an oreo in water, but maybe this person is onto something. Cookie flavored water might be a market all them seltzers have missed.
I've tried rabbit, and it wasn't to my liking. Doesn't necessarily mean it's awful, I may have just gotten a poorly-prepared recipe. If someone else offers me a plate, praising its deliciousness, I'll give it a try again. Just so long as there's no onion in it.
I enjoyed this round of food opinions, because my food chemistry professor QT’d it with, simply, “the world would be a better place without celery”- which is absolutely correct.
Other random ones from me: Old Bay does not go on chicken wings, scrapple is the superior breakfast meat, cake is largely worthless, fast food shouldn’t use lettuce or tomato because their produce is so bad it makes people think they don’t like lettuce and tomato, meatloaf should never be cooked in a loaf pan and leeks are superior to onions in every way.
I am a zealot for the order of the Cube Rule of food classification.
https://cuberule.com/
It’s ambitious to try this by level of pretentiousness before 0800 Eastern but I’m going to try anyway: I quite enjoy beans on toast despite having spent most of my life in the US, but I don’t often eat them here, because the bread is wrong. There’s a certain kind of supermarket white bread - I think they just call it white loaf - that toasts up really well and goes with the beans. It’s not a universal thing for me - a cup of (proper) tea and a hobnob is the same either side of the Atlantic.
Also it’s quite difficult to make a decent lager or Pilsner and I applaud small breweries that can do it, because I really enjoy those especially in warm weather.
The thing I hate about food arguments outside my immediate circle of trusted friends is the thing I hate about a lot of political arguments: it's argument for sport, which is something I have NO tolerance for as I age. I'm exhausted of it for two reasons:
1) I cannot care. I am out of capacity to care. I want people to eat/listen to/etc. what makes them feel happy. Life is too damn short to carp about people's joy.
2) Arguing for sport about real issues tends to treat the dehumanization of marginalized people as a side effect at best. It's not surprising to me that Matt Gaetz is a high-school debate team kid. He's the platonic freaking ideal of THAT GUY on your debate team. And that's the genesis of the dynamic you describe, Scott - obsession with an orderly debate over whether or not my trans friend is a human being or not legitimizes that question as something that should be asked, rather than the question itself being a horrific thing to ask. And I don't know how to fix that.
Anyway. Let people eat what they like. Even if it's objectively weird.
I’m absolutely going to steal the “sandwiches don’t exist” take the next time someone brings out the hotdog/sandwich question.
Every once in a while I see people say putting orange juice on cereal is good. I'm not entirely convinced that is even real and not some weird prank started in the early days of the internet.
The one food opinion I will defend to the hilt is when eating a bagel that has been sliced and topped with whatever you choose, the top half must be consumed before the bottom half.
Food fight! I love it! My strongest-held food opinion is that no food should ever, EVER be dipped in a liquid. Oreos in water is no worse (or no better) than doughnuts in coffee. Eat the food, then sip the drink, for heaven's sake. Soggy pastry? No thanks.
I have no idea how curry is either a dumpling or pizza, also the quest to put food into 10b categories is over organizing, just accept that food is.
All food is good if it is prepared properly and good ingredients are used, although I should state the exception of spilly's early food experiments.
If someone doesn't like something, I'm okay with their being wrong.
Diet Coke DOES taste better.
Candy corn is Satan's dingleberries, though.
I used to dip my pizza crust in soda when I was little. Also, chocolate chip cookies in fruit punch.
I love arguing about food on the internet because it's a great way of finding out truly bizarre yet wonderful food combos.
[Scrolls through comments, scrolls through comments]
And I said, what about, Breakfast At Tiffany's?
(Someone had to)
Sort of need more on the dumpling/pizza classification. Is it the ingredients, cooking method, how does it work?
You want to see a take, ask a child their opinion on foods. Ketchup is too spicy but serrano pepper guacamole is the cat's meow. Water is too wet. The pasta selection for dinner was wrong, it should have been spirals instead of linguine.
My takes:
I think people who pay hundreds of dollars for bite size portion tasting menus need to be examined.
It should be acceptable to ask for seconds of a dish at a restaurant and be charged half price or even a third if you want thirds. If the soup is that good then dammit I want more.
I don't care how you eat or what you eat as long as you are happy.
My favorite one of these in a while. I think people have a naturally occurring amount of vitriol and it's important that we use that up on stupid stuff so we have our brains back to deal with important stuff.
"a plate of overcooked spaghetti slathered in sloppy spiced meat sauce and laden with a catcher’s mitt worth of un-melted shredded cheddar cheese" Please deliver this to [REDACTED] around 12:15 PM.
Man, this one hit me, Scott. You get me, you really do.
This line, man. "many of us have forgotten how to communicate with each other without reflexively defaulting to the most extreme version of what we’re trying to say, a tendency that often leave us screaming at people who we largely agree with on the substance of most issues." It's perfect.
Then you summed up my time on the HOA board with this line: "the other party is more concerned with following Robert’s Rules of Order than putting out the fires around their feet. " That one hit me right in the repressed memory.
In another place we recently began discussing music, and I approach it as I approach food. If someone says "this is great, try it!" If I have never tried it before, I will, and only then will I form my opinion. I've never dipped an oreo in water, but maybe this person is onto something. Cookie flavored water might be a market all them seltzers have missed.
I've tried rabbit, and it wasn't to my liking. Doesn't necessarily mean it's awful, I may have just gotten a poorly-prepared recipe. If someone else offers me a plate, praising its deliciousness, I'll give it a try again. Just so long as there's no onion in it.
Given the fact that @iamspilly is still on the Twitters is proof that nobody can be canceled for a food take (or monstrous creation).
Also, pop-tarts are raviolis.