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weird observation

post #1 of 16
10/1/07 at 10:53pm
Thread Starter 
I ate at a Perkins at one in the morning today. The young man taking my money at the register was the baker. So I asked how and what was made in store. The cookies and muffins are baked in store, the batter is in 5 gal buckets. the pies come in pre made....yum:rolleyes:.
George
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post #2 of 16
10/2/07 at 7:39am
Ya think that's gross? Check out some of the fast food place's breakfasts: Frozen pre cooked omelettes, frozen pre cooked scrambled eggs, etc, ad nauseuem...
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post #3 of 16
10/2/07 at 8:31am
Last year I received a gift certificate for Starbucks and tried one of their breakfast sandwiches. My Gawd! What crap. Pre-made, taken from the fridge or freezer, microwaved, and served in a paper wrapper. Actually I tried two different breakfast sandwiches as I couldn't believe they could all be so terrible. Decided not to try #3 and #4. Used up the certificate with coffee and scones.

Shel (who doesn't care for Starbucks in any case)
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post #4 of 16
10/2/07 at 8:55am
Pharmacist commented to me yesterday... take this with food, some Doritos or something. I answered, "You think Doritos are food?" He looked at me astonished and said, "You don't think they are?"
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post #5 of 16
10/2/07 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 
Well technically speaking they are, sort of. Here we're quibbling over cookie recipe ingredients and the rest of the US thinks regurgitated pablum is food. I think that attitude really defines why kitchen help is so low paid. Many restaurant owners know that most diners have a tongue made of sandpaper. I saw a show on tv where it was a dining thing in some restaurant and on the pie the patrons talked about how good dream whip is. This place is supposedly serving very good pecan pie and tops it with that frozen gunk. Thats all this place uses....:(
George
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post #6 of 16
10/2/07 at 1:30pm

What are we use to in this country? My wife's late Aunt had a word - grapple, this was the flavor of grape Kool Aid and I have yet to find an apple that tastes like a Jolly Rancher.

What we like is partly a matter of what we are use to. When I was in Naples in the Navy all the guys (who had just had to suffer through 4 weeks of Navy cooking) were ready to get a real pizza. Little did they know what awaited them!!! When we think of margarita, pizza is not normally the first thing that comes to mind.


I will admit that we are growing up as a country in our cooking and learning what good food can be after nearly being poisoned off by the fast food and convenience food craze of the 50’s & 60’s but it not going to correct itself overnight. Two or more generations didn’t grow up learning cooking form their parents. Things my Na’ma (grandmother) learned were not taught to my mother. It’s like common sense; if you aren’t taught it you don’t know it, which means it’s not that common.

Jim

P.S. - While I like whipped cream, Cool Whip on strawberry shortcake is a taste of childhood to me - sorry:o:blush:
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post #7 of 16
10/2/07 at 2:18pm
Jim, it sounds like you're saying that we have to be taught what food is and that we're being taught wrong. I take it you're a child of the 50's or 60's and you were taught that Cool Whip was food. eeek :D
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post #8 of 16
10/2/07 at 2:36pm
Partially. Comfort food means different things to different people though.

I grew up in the 70's ( o how I wish to forget that decade) & 80's:D

Jim
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post #9 of 16
10/2/07 at 2:55pm
Comfort food isn't comfort food if it's not food, right? ;)

My point is that children learn what to eat from their parents, just as little lions are taught what to eat and how to "prepare" it from their moms. In the US, we've taught generations to eat non-food items as though they were food.
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post #10 of 16
10/2/07 at 4:29pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah ain't that right. remember plastic orange pulp for a pulpier orange juice?
George
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post #11 of 16
10/2/07 at 5:13pm
Anti-freeze for moister cakes? We could make a very interesting list.
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post #12 of 16
10/2/07 at 7:41pm
[QUOTEMy point is that children learn what to eat from their parents, just as little lions are taught what to eat and how to "prepare" it from their moms. In the US, we've taught generations to eat non-food items as though they were food.[/QUOTE]


Somewhere TV and advertising come into the picture. All those 80's adds of the guy sitting on a mountain top spreading margerine on his ww bread telling you the benefits of margerine while telling you that butter will kill you, those "homey" commercials of Bing Crosby and jello etc etc. I dunno Europe was far behind in cra* food up to about the early 90's . Still isn't as big as in N.America, but is steadily increasing ground.

Time to hum along to ZZ top's "Tv Dinners"......
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post #13 of 16
10/3/07 at 10:31am
Somewhere TV and advertising come into the picture. All those 80's adds of the guy sitting on a mountain top spreading margerine on his ww bread telling you the benefits of margerine while telling you that butter will kill you, those "homey" commercials of Bing Crosby and jello etc etc. I dunno Europe was far behind in cra* food up to about the early 90's . Still isn't as big as in N.America, but is steadily increasing ground.

Time to hum along to ZZ top's "Tv Dinners"......[/quote]

Wasn't that Bill Cosby? ;)

I was thinking about that this morning... how we have come to applaud food substitutes. We even admit they're substitutes. Sugar substitute, fat substitute, etc. We're substituting non-food items for real, good food. :cry:

I wouldn't care so much if it didn't make such a dent in what is available in terms of produce and such. We're getting to the point of more food substitutes than food available, it seems. It's what it feels like anyway.
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post #14 of 16
10/3/07 at 12:12pm
Very true, we do learn a lot from our parents. It was eat what was put in front of you or go hungry. Combine this with a loss of basic skills (most people couldn't brew a cup of coffee to save their life) and it’s a wonder that any of us even know what food is.

A good example is the first time I tried a legacy breed peach from the tree I wondered what I had been eating up till now? Most produce in markets is bred to be shelf stable, bruise resistant and attractive. Notice taste isn't listed? I found out many eons ago that those small wild strawberries can blow your head off in flavor over those big beautiful gems at the store. Even just growing them at home doesn't change the flavor much. I've taken too (where I can afford it and it's available) to getting locally grown fruits for my pies. I don't always win. In Texas it's hard to get locally grown Cortland apples (my favorite for pies) so I do settle. I can get some killer peaches & pecans though.

Jim
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post #15 of 16
10/4/07 at 5:32pm
A quote from Jacques Pepin - not verbatim but something like:

"We say that nobody cooks at home any more. If that's true then what happens to all that stuff in the supermarket?" (Meaning the fresh meat and produce).

Good question!
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post #16 of 16
10/4/07 at 8:08pm
The next time you're in the supermarket, count how many aisles contain food like fresh meat and produce, and how many are filled with junk food, soda, frozen dinners, Cheese Whiz, and other things too disgusting to mention.
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