Unpopular (but correct?) food opinions - Eater

Yes. I like the saying “don’t yuck my yum”.

2 Likes

John: there has been a trend in the US bbq scene with brussel sprouts. I’m not a big fan but they doctor these up and they taste quite good. It seems all the the local bbq spots are now serving deep fried sprouts with variations of ingredients. You can get them with chili oil and/or brown sugar and sriracha, as well as other variations. Generally they are spicy and sweet…all deep friend though. @CurlzNJ do you have any pics of our tst bbq lunch?

Mike, to note, I was exaggerating when I said bacon makes everything better. It does work well with a lot of things though :slight_smile:

Eli, I am in the same boat. I can anything raw but I can’t do clams or oysters raw. It is a mental thing for me. I’ve fished my whole life and they are just bait to me.

2 Likes

Haha, many of these made me laugh out loud. The chocolate orange thing, the lox, and truffle (oil or not) in particular are all feelings I know well. There are a lot of jokes about UK food, but I think that orange chocolate ball is the one true abomination.

Truffles and truffle oil add nothing good to any of my foods, and I’ve had truffle fresh shaved on to my pasta at nice restaurants or in my fries. The only thing it’s added is a slightly stinky feet smell, none of which adds joy to my taste buds or nose.

Ugh, lox. It’s like someone found a piece of dried out salmon stuck somewhere and decided to eat it.

:joy: I’ve been laughing over your post for the last hour & it does make you wonder…some of the foodstuffs have taken on an almost sacred status such that you don’t want to state your opinion. I know kale has a high nutrition value, but truly, that curly kale should go in planter pots only!! I do like the lacinato kale in smoothies & soups however.

I’m prepared to try a sprout preparation that, like these, disguise it’s real taste.

If you really want to disguise the taste of Brussels sprouts Mrs. P makes a spicy roasted brussels sprouts with kimchi dressing that includes chopped garlic, ginger, Korean gochujang paste, red pepper flakes, red onion, fish sauce, scallions, Kosher salt, and sugar, among other ingredients. It has a real kick to it.

4 Likes

Do please tell some. Serious request.

I find that most foreigners who criticise our cuisine have either not eaten it since they were “over here” during their army service 50 years ago (assuming they are American) or have failed to do any restaurant research so have spent their time in London eating in tourist traps (foreigners rarely venture out of London so have a pretty limited view of our food). But a good joke is always welcome.

As for Terry’s Chocolate Orange - it’s the only product made with cheap chocolate that I’ll eat and then only at Christmas (as it reminds me of getting one as part of my presents when I was a child - it was real treat after the postwar food rationing). It’s a product that’s stood the test of time - Wikipedia tells me it dates to 1932. By the by, should I take note of criticism of British chocolate when that criticism is levelled by an American, presumably brought up on Hershey’s? :grinning:

3 Likes

Oh, I don’t know if they’re good jokes, but there are a lot of stereotypes about the “native” food. I happen to find the London food scene to have fabulous food. Just like most people think New England Boston local cuisine is boring (and they are partly correct). Most people think of Yankee Pot Roast and stuff like that when they think of Boston food, and that’s not exactly something people get excited for. People aren’t exactly thinking about all the other foods that you can find locally.

The thing that really drives me nuts about kale (leaving aside that I think it’s little better suited to eating raw than, say, collard greens, which no one in their right mind does (yet…?), is it’s undeserved SuperDuperFood status. It’s no more nutritious than many other leaf greens, and certainly not spinach, which imnsho tastes much better cooked and raw, and doesn’t require a preprandial S&M session to make it edible raw… I’m not entirely opposed to kale - especially cooked - but it rears its leafy head in far too many places that would better suit other greens. (I also can’t help but find it ironic that coleslaw, say, is usually sneered at, when cabbage - raw and cooked - is actually pretty “super” itself, and sliced thinly enough, even raw cabbage is more eatable than most raw kale…)

As I’ve seen some food writers mention, though, it might in fact be it’s unpleasant characteristics that helped make kale so popular. Like so many other “gems” of illiterate folk wisdom (like “no pain, no gain” and that the burn of rubbing alcohol on cuts and scrapes - which is really just a sign that it’s causing further tissue damage - “tells you it’s working”… :roll_eyes:) A lot of people - and especially Americans for various cultural reasons - seem to "feel’ that things that things that are “good for you” are supposed to taste awful/hurt/etc… < sigh >

3 Likes

Exactly my point. By the by, we’ve made two trips to New England and generally rate highly the food we’ve eaten. It has similarities with the “best of British”, taking good ingredients and doing very little with them so it’s the flavour of the ingredient that shines through. Similarities disappear, however, when it comes to seafood. Even though none of us live more than 70 miles from the coast, we are pitiful in our use of fish, etc by comparision with New England. I usually make a comparision much nearer to home. If I travel to, say, Kent (our most southeastern county), it is really hard to find good fish in restaurants. But catch a ferry 22 miles away from there to the Pas de Calais region of France and it is so, so easy.

2 Likes

OMG hidden raisins. I’m with you and @chowdom.

Most disliked “surprise” - in biryani, because someone decided it was “fancier” with dry fruit .

Second worst - the mistaken chocolate chip cookie.

1 Like

raisins

5 Likes

Well-roasted Brussels sprouts are delicious - the caramelization transforms them.

@Harters try this - halve them so you get more browning, toss in oil, s&p, and roast them at 425F till you see the outer leaves brown, about 15-25 mins depending on the oven. You want caramelization /char.

Diced bacon or pancetta is a nice upgrade.

Then Asian flavors - the Momofuku recipe tosses them in a nuoc cham-type dressing that works really well (I cut back the fish sauce though), gochujang works great as @paryzer mentioned, and I do powdered indian spices sometimes (garam masala, cumin/coriander powder, chilli).

There’s a delicious south indian stir-fry recipe from Meera Sodha that uses them in place of cabbage, adding coconut at the end. It also works well in place of cabbage in simpler indian preps like this Madhur Jaffrey one (I skip the onions, but small-diced potatoes are wonderful).

Now that is most definitely a matter of opinion.

I have tried them roasted on the recommendation of people here. As with most things that are roasted, the flavour is intensified. Which made them doubly vile for me. Mercifully, roasting does not double their farty nature.

1 Like

:rofl:

Ok, if you can tolerate indian-style cabbage the shredded/stir-fried indian recipes might be worth a try.

So you had them roasted - but were they charred? I have a bunch of picky family who loves them charred, but won’t touch them “under”done. Same with okra.

Can’t recall I’m afraid. That said I have eaten a charred wedge cabbage and it tasted, erm, burnt.

Please leave me to enjoy my prejudices. And, whilst we’re on the subject of food prejudices, would anyone like to try and convince me that kohlrabi is not the worlds most pointless vegetable? Is there another contender for “least flavoured vegetable on your plate”? I would (probably) choose to eat sprouts in preference - at least I would have something to complain about.

3 Likes

I like almost everything you people hate and despise certain things you like.

Northern Europeans don’t understand the circus surrounding kale in the US. It’s been eaten here in Europe since Roman time. It’s a stable food round my parts. As soon as summer is over kale appears and disappears again in the spring. Frozen kale is available year round.

Oldenburg is Germany’s kale capital.

Courgette. I’d rather drink water.

Agree with your entire post. If kale is truly that nutritious, and high in antioxidants, why does it rot faster than any other green I buy? I love nearly all greens, don’t care for collards even if they’re cooked a long time. I get what you mean about eating them raw being unthinkable, who would do that? Yuck.

As well, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re a country of food and supplement faddists. This despite working in a medical foods company for over 12 years.

I do also believe there is an association between what is perceived to be healthy versus what really is. It’s like the Dr. saying if it tastes good spit it out for god’s sake.

And here we are a nation of over fed but undernourished people.

(these are only my humble opinions)

I definitely don’t get into these kale debates with my millennial spawn.
As someone put it so aptly don’t yuck my yum. ( Shrinkrap)

Life is short and to be enjoyed! And we get to make our own choices.

:+1:t3:

I’ll be over here hating cucumber.

Zucchini?