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

Right, I have a question... I think I know the answer, strictly speaking, but feel there is something else going on and I cant put my finger on it, I'm hoping a discussion will enlighten me!

here it is.

Essentially, am I a food snob, and is it a bad thing?

I'm not a terrible snob, dont get me wrong. I'm not one of these cant eat it unless it's grown naturally by pygmies naturalised to the welsh hills on an organic apple farm with a hermetic (but nature friendly) perimeter seal... But I dont like eating ready meals or pre-prepared sauces (well, sauces I'll dabble in but will always supplement with real food too, like adding my own veg, onions, garlic etc.) I dont like living off fast food all the time. I dont like using ultra salty stock cubes if I can create flavour some other way.

Part of me feels like I'm perfectly fine and to carry on, but another part of me wonders if it really matters, particularly in reference to trying to change another's eating habits and attitudes to what I see as awful food. (there's a certain 'fast food' sandwich chain who's food I cannot stand. Even though it's *fresh*, it's so over processed, it even smells wrong to me, but so many people LOVE the smell!) I'm not crazy, I'll have a take away or a BK once in a while, but to live on it?

Should I shut up? Am I being a terrible bore? I feel like I'm trying to encourage people living in close proximity to me to achieve a basic level of understanding about what bad and good food is about and that it's often more efficient and quicker as well as tastier to do it properly, not to mention cheaper!!!

I could have written that post.

You mean you like fresh, well cooked food. Sounds pretty fine to me

I think I'm the same. Reckon its a natural consequence of getting older: your tastes get more sophisticated, you start to discriminate complex flavours, start to appreciate really good cooking for example, instead of just whining about the small portions. Similarly you start to notice how crap most processed food is.

My seven-year-old on the other hand doesn't like anything with more than one flavour. Put herbs, gravy, garlic or pepper on it and she won't eat it. Has to be big, bold, simple flavours like tomato ketchup. Hates my cooking but likes anything that comes in a jar.

Clearly if processed food is being sold to everyone, they have to maximise the number of people who will like it, which means loads of salt or sugar, but very little of the more subtle flavours like herbs or garlic that some people don't like. This guarantees its going to be bland to most of us.

Sugar, in particular, makes me furious. Why on earth should a pasta sauce or bread product have to be sweet? I find that disgusting , which pretty much means I can't eat any pre-made sauces. I nearly starved during my one and only visit to the US .

Sweet and Sour sauce from the Jar....


er... and the sour?

Hah!

Why is sugar added to the packaged salt in supermarkets?

Why is monosodium glutamate added to _everything_?



And don't get me started on the excessive packaging.......

Count me in as a "Robyn Clone" - I will eat pizza...but the last time we ate a BK was over 2 years ago and we both looked at each other and said "Never again"!

We buy the occasional Oyster sauce, but apart from that nothing....and a friend of mine at work has been heard to say of me "Of course, you don't eat NORMAL food"!

This is it! I'm made to feel (unintentionally, I'm sure) like a fussy snobby eater because I'd rather buy a sausage sandwich from a farmer's market stall who's food I trust (it's the only place my mum will buy processed meat products from, she's even had their faggots!) than walk past it to the burger van at the end of the street for a cheeseburger. The price is about the same but REAL bread, REAL meat and REAL butter... There's no contest, right? I get wrinkled noses and shaking heads and expressions of 'what a weirdo!'

My boyfriend even gets upset when I suggest that specifically finding a well known bakery chain for their vegetable pasty is, well, I wont do it! There's so many better options! One main problem I seem to come up against is that he, in particular, has a taste for MSG and other salty 'flavoured' flavours... Everything else tastes bland to me, whereas everything he thinks is nice is so samey and salty and eurgh, it's not so pleasant, I'd rather eat a packet of crisps, at least I'm expecting those flavours!

I'm glad I'm not alone though, I you people!

I see no problem with liking good food.

Most people on here know that I do have cooking sensibilities, but then again I'm occasionally happy with supermarket pizza or an El Paso taco kit.

Living in Herefordshire, I am finding myself increasingly aware of local welfare standards - not only of animals, but of farmers too. Therefore, I do find myself going out of my way to buy local in-season produce.

I note with skepticism that the latest Jamie Oliver/Fearnley-Whittingstall programming has caused uproar mostly among people who are happy to buy a ready-jointed pack of chicken breasts for £2.99 from Tesco's, and less so among people who buy (admittedly barn-farmed) local chicken from their butcher.

B

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Just kidding!

I think being a food snob is totally fine as long as it isn't taken to extremes (ie, turning up your nose at someone's icky food when you're invited to their house for a meal, or making a HUGE fuss if everyone else wants to go for some crap pizza). But if it's just you, or you and a friend or your special someone, sure. Why not?

I never go to any fast food places myself, and don't know anyone who does, so that makes it easy. Basically, I only ever want to eat food that is seriously worth the calories, you know? Even if it's a packet of Doritos ... if I'm really jonesing for Doritos then it's worth it.

I also don't like the sugar in almost everything, and even though I'm partial to salty stuff, there's a time and a place.

az

Why would it cause uproar?
Essentially, being able to afford to eat meat regularly is a relatively new thing for your poorer sections of society... So if it's being pointed out that you ought, if at all possible, to go buying better quality, better handled produce, then why would you be upset? Unless it's hit a nerve...

I can understand people sometimes getting what they have to but it doesn't mean that being mindful doesn't help! I think awareness is the key. At least when I eat rubbish (or badly managed produce), I identify it as such and know what I'm doing!

Although I agree almost entirely, the last thing you need after a few beers is braised duck breast served on a sweet potato mash with a cranberry and nutmeg jus. You need a large chicken donner mix with garlic mayo from Stavros, and the more grease and MSG the better.

The thing that shocked me most about Hugh F-W's programme was that thick woman who claimed to roast a whole chicken, eat the breast and then throw the rest away! Not only an appalling waste of a chicken's life, but she's chucking out all the best bits If that isn't a clear sign that chicken is far too cheap, then I don't know what is.

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Nog has just informed me that this means Burger King. I've never been to one. Went to a McDonald's once in Canada, shortly after one opened up in my neighbourhood and was offering free burger coupons. So I went to try it out, took one bite and never went back (I was 19 at the time).

Food snob? Moi?

az

I tend to disown my food snobbishness with the admission that there is nothing I like more than a KFC Zinger Tower Meal with some Hot Wings.

B

I think all this stuff has a lot to do with one's alcohol imbibe status.

When I'm sober, ready meals and Stuff like KFC taste of pants. And its not just about time, a lame excuse; it takes 5secs to chop up some fresh veggies for a soup or stir fry with a sharp knife. But when a few sheets to the wind, I couldn't care less. I need a hit of something like a donner kebab or any fast food thing, or a ready meal.

In a normal sober state I enjoy cooking fresh ingredients as much for taste as concern about ethical things, such as free range chickens. To be serious animal welfare means a lot to me. And I enjoy cooking.

But if I'm desperate and *issed, a KFC hits the spot.

Nothing to do with snobbery, that's just silly.

PS Ready meals taste genuninely horrible to me. Dunno what they put in them as a preservative?

sugar, salt, flavourings and essentially they take OUT anything that might taste good... It might interrupt the flow of poison into the brains of the masses...

Oh, KFC is pants, gotta be Miss Millies. Unfortunately I dont think they operate outside of my city shame, they ROCK!

Oh definitely! Miss Millies is always somehow juicier - though I suspect they may be sailing a bit close to the wind with their cooking times.

off to google Miss Millies

I'm pleased to count myself among the food snobs. Haven't set foot inside a burger/chicken/kebab shop for decades. I'd rather go hungry.

I will, however, succumb to the occasional pizza...Pizza Express, Ask and Strada are reasonably good.

Eating out at other restaurants is a problem, but because I usually go to quite good places (apologies to MB for that awful place we went to last time...it honestly sounded much better on the description I was given!) they usually source their food ethically. If I'm concerned about something I'll ask (was that cod trawled?)...if the wait-person doesn't know, they can ask the chef.

I read Alan Coren in the Saturday Times, mostly as a guide for where to avoid amongst London's eateries.

I like to cook all my own food, after selecting the meat from one of two UK supermarket chains that automatically gets all its meat* from ethical sources. No need to "taste the difference" or anything like that.

Yes, it's hard. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, it's worth it.

RF

* And, increasingly, from free range, organic sources as well. On the vegetable side, they hardly stock anything that *isn't* organic these days.

Personally I'm not blessed with the time or money or strong inclination to go as far as yourself, freddy, though i applaud it to a point (to the point where it becomes a status symbol rather than personal taste, I'm sure you know the sorts of people I mean!) i cant claim to go nearly so far.

I also dont eat out very often, particularly at very 'good' restaurants. Firstly, i dont often have the chance, secondly most of what is considered 'good' I cant stand. Like, most sea food, fennel and so on... I'm also amused by 'classy' food.

jus is gravy, however refined or little of it you get.

potatoes, whatever you call them, are potatoes. crushed, mashed, creamed and pasted are all various degrees of mash. End of.

is it my imagination, or are there more ways to describe food than to cook it these days?

Dont get me wrong, I like my food GOOD but I also like it quite, erm, I think Rustic is a good term... It's gotta be tasty but it dont need to be pretty!

Well, I am increasingly fussy about where I go to eat out these days, as most places do indeed describe gravy as "jus" and the like. However, in amongst the pretentious twaddle one can find decent places that serve good food, properly described, and, like as not, reasonably priced.

RF