Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

Well, it isn't like there's some list somewhere of foods that are intrinsically "gourmet" and only fail if you don't prepare them correctly. Most foods can be awesome if you figure out how to deal with them.

You can go the route of the the taco/hot dog/sandwich argument if you want, but colloquially I'd say that there is a list of ingredients that most people would consider intrinsically gourmet, generally due to scarcity and/or price. Off the top of my head, filet mignon, truffle oil, foie gras, caviar, winnimere cheese, saffron. Obviously the list would be at least a little regional. But lobster would be on it for most people. When was the last time you saw a kopi luwak frappuccino?
 

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You can go the route of the the taco/hot dog/sandwich argument if you want, but colloquially I'd say that there is a list of ingredients that most people would consider intrinsically gourmet, generally due to scarcity and/or price. Off the top of my head, filet mignon, truffle oil, foie gras, caviar, winnimere cheese, saffron. Obviously the list would be at least a little regional. But lobster would be on it for most people. When was the last time you saw a kopi luwak frappuccino?

Two quibbles. One minor, one major.

Filet mignon is often expensive, but it's not great meat. It's meat for people that prefer texture over taste. People with money that like meat don't order it. But given the price, this is a quibble.

Truffle oil is not gourmet. It's a petrochemical. It's something that middlebrow restaurants will use to make you think something is fancy. Truffles, on the other hand? The real ones? The ones that are charged by weight, shaved on your food in front of you? Yeah. That's a flex.

If you only take one thing from this, it's never use or order food with truffle oil.
 

Truffle oil is not gourmet. It's a petrochemical. It's something that middlebrow restaurants will use to make you think something is fancy. Truffles, on the other hand? The real ones? The ones that are charged by weight, shaved on your food in front of you? Yeah. That's a flex.

If you only take one thing from this, it's never use or order food with truffle oil.

If I needed to double down and prove that I'm right, I would argue that the fact that truffles are inherently gourmet is why middlebrow restaurants use hack techniques like truffle oil to appear more fancy.

Luckily, I'm too humble and intelligent to stoop to that level of argument.
 

I am open-minded.
Food (excluding poison and allergy, of course) is low risk. Worst thing is you taste something you don't like. Boo hoo. So sad.

Though I'm old and have a natural antipathy against wasting food, so trying something I suspect I'll dislike has an intrinsic cost unless it can be taken in only a very small serving.
 

If I needed to double down and prove that I'm right, I would argue that the fact that truffles are inherently gourmet is why middlebrow restaurants use hack techniques like truffle oil to appear more fancy.

Luckily, I'm too humble and intelligent to stoop to that level of argument.

I think that the world* would be a better place if people would understand one simple thing-

It's okay to be wrong. Really. And it's fine to admit it. No one, in the history of ever, is correct all the time. It's better to confess error gracefully, and move on, than to just keep arguing. And you know what? Everyone else appreciates it, and will think more of you as a person, not less, if you do that.


*By "world," I mean world. But mostly the internet.
 

Two quibbles. One minor, one major.

Filet mignon is often expensive, but it's not great meat. It's meat for people that prefer texture over taste. People with money that like meat don't order it. But given the price, this is a quibble.

I'm not a regular steak eater, so this was interesting and made me google for more. Does this quote have the ring of truthiness? “Filet is the most tender cut, but has the least amount of flavor. Ribeye is the most flavorful, but the least tender of the three, and New York is in the middle.” Is Porterhouse the best of two worlds, or two worlds often done mediocre?

My big beef meal of the year is the annual standing rib roast at Christmas. (Is it bad that I have it with a Riesling or Gewurzt instead of a red - reds make me sneezy, and my grandfather always had a Gewrzt at Christmas).
 

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