h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been to a couple of 'artisan burger' restaurants recently. They seem to be all the rage at the moment. It occurred to me that, although they are very nice, on one level they are just spruced up versions of fast food.
It made me wonder, what other seemingly simple, basic, everyday, slightly lower-class things might benefit from a connoisseur revival? And in what ways would they be improved to do so?

In my, limited experience thus far, I've found the burger ones an absolute rip-off.

ten quid for a burger. extra for the chipss?!

The burger was nice. as in, it was not horrible, it wans't made with the cheapest meat possible, but it certainly wasn't ten quids worth of burger, the roll wasn't anything special at all, and the whole thing wasn't seasoned well, and didn't ocme with particularly fantastis dressing salad etc... I felt robbed! - All I could think of was how many better burgers I could make myself at home,f or the same price

Mind, there was a gorgeous little pop up, in the carpark next to the pub near me, a few Saturdays ago, and that was gorgeous - mind, that was... hmm, actually no idea what sort of cuisine one would call that... tasty well done, all proper made, and a decent sized mixed plate of stuff, was enough for a good afternoon 'snakette' for W and I... - I think the trendy, or tends in food, are, in general, just new ways to try encourage more money to be taken, and try restore, E..g., the number of covers a given pub etc is doing per night... = got the impresion recently, out in pubs ron here in teh evening, even in an area where £80K per year is probably not a high salery, but, in general, the pubs are so quiet and money is not going over the bar, like it once did, for food, or for drink

£10 for a burger? That's the cheap end! Last weekend, I paid £20 and change for a burger, chips and a pint, and what I got was not at the top end of the menu by any means.

I'd not pay that for a meal. I can feed myself healthily and with only quality stuff, for a good four days if not more, for that much! - OK... I'm a cheapskate, but eating out's just seemed to get so insanely expensive, the past few years, even at the so-called cheap end... - true enough, we do have a fair few takeaways, at the moment, mainly due to being home so late at night, half the time, but £16 is enough for W and I, from the Chinese, or the Indian, or the Jamaican up the road and that's despite my eating for triplets at the moment - I seirously object too, when eating out, as for this burger; I've eaten it, and after I'm thinking, I could eat the same again, at least two times over, before I'd be full...

"a few Saturdays ago, and that was gorgeous - mind, that was... hmm, actually no idea what sort of cuisine one would call that... tasty well done, all proper made, and a decent sized mixed plate of stuff, was enough for a good afternoon 'snakette' for W and I"

Just had to read that bit again it sounded like you were describing "Totty"

who says I wasn't?!

Not me thats for sure

I'm ill! I couldn't possibly be up to any... well.. not that much.. well. not overly... OK, its barely stoped the kinky side of things, but... damn. I've no idea what arguement I was tryign tak e there, but it failed, quite clearly!

I think that beef loses something when you grind it up and nuke it . In it's finest form, it can make a wonderful steak or pot roast . I just don't see where people want to accept a third-rate version of beef, no matter how fast it gets cooked.

It's the amount of sugar and salt. Fast food and microwave burgers usually have quite a high level of both. Once you're used to a certain level of either, anything you taste without that unnaturally high level of salt and sugar just doesn't taste of much.

That's why a lot of people who are giving them up don't just stop using them - they use substitutes like sucralose, saccharin, and switch to potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride, etc. My friend thinks he loves the taste of "beefburgers", but it's really the salty, sugary taste he loves. If I fried him a delicious, rare, steak he'd love it, yes - but he'd also put ketchup on it!

Ketchup is a vegetable, right?

Only in the "Caution: may contain an ingredient which was processed in the same factory where a carrot was once seen" sense of the word "vegetable".

Carrots don't have a stalk

No? What holds their leaves up, then?

Ketchup with a steak?????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!

*passes out*

Beer.

Since the dark days of the 1970's there has been a significant revival. And it isn't necessary to pay truffle prices for well crafted beers made with top notch ingredients.

PP.

ahh. beer. - as it happens; just off to the pub any moment now

"Ketchup with a steak?????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!" [2legs]

After you come out of your swoon, you might like to try some A1 steak sauce instead. Okay, it's probably a glorified form of ketchup, but I won't tell if you won't.