Does your food need a fancy name?

[Dave Shepard]

I have been debating food with my sister lately. She likes meals that take a lot of time to prepare, hopefully with some rare, nearly unobtainable ingredient, a fancy name, and a low probability of being edible. She asked me what kind of food I liked. After careful consideration, I  replied "Glop". This is a food catagory that she doesn't like to venture into. Glop, to me, is not low quality food, but food that lacks complexity both in manufacture, and consumption. A food that that is dependable, consistant, and reliable. So, where do you stand in the Glop vs. (potential) Flop debate?


Dave

[Dan_Shade]

i'm with you, Dave.  I'm a meat and potato guy.  in fact, I turn up my snoot at "fancy" food.

[Engineer]

I tend to occupy both ends of the glop vs. not-glop spectrum and most everything edible in between.   Hamburger Helper or Kraft mac and cheese works for me just as well as filet de boeuf en croûte or grilled diver scallops with lemon and herb butter, a good bouillabaisse or risotto, or anything else fancy you can think of.   I am picky when I expect the food to meet a certain standard - like when I'm payin' market price for it in a good restaurant.  Otherwise - keep it simple.    Be just as happy to eat some peppers 'n eggs in the AM as I would eggs Benedict, and you can keep the asparagus too.

[Dave Shepard]

If I can't pronounce the name, I get nervous. ;)


Dave

[sawguy21]

I have been debating food with my sister lately. She likes meals that take a lot of time to prepare, hopefully with some rare, nearly unobtainable ingredient, a fancy name, and a low probability of being edible.
Dave

:D :D :D That is one of the funniest posts I have ever read. She will not get on well with this group.

[beenthere]

Meat and potato guy here....

[Woodcarver]

Yep, meat and potatoes, maybe a garden salad on the side.  Dishes with a fancy name just spell hunger to me.

[ScottAR]

Can't spell it...  Not eating it...   ;D

I'm not terribly bright some days but I can spell words like "Steak."   ;D

[Paschale]

I'm an equal opportunity eater.   If it's tasty, I eat it.  ;D  One of the most memorable meals of my life was a bologna sandwich when I was a Boy Scout doing my Order of the Arrow.  I hadn't eaten all day and was working up a huge appetite doing all kinds of work.  When they finally gave us half of a bologna sandwich, it was one of the tastiest things I've eaten in my life.  I've eaten at a four star restaurant and had a meal that I'll remember the rest of my life too.  But then sometimes, nothing tastes better than the first corn on the cob of the summer.  I appreciate good food , from a great hot dog at a ballgame to gourmet food at a fancy restaurant.  I like the full spectrum, so I'm with Engineer on this one. 

[Roxie]

I'm on Dave's side.    

Recently, some friends of our's went to an upscale "Inn" for dinner.  They told us that it cost $200.00 for the two of them for dinner, dessert and a bottle of wine.  As we were driving home from visiting them, Cowboy Bob looked over at me and said, "I sure hope you got no idea's about ME paying $200.00 for one meal."  I said, "Heavens, no!  Two hundred dollars is two weeks worth of groceries for us!" 

We both were wondering what kind of food costs a hundred a person.  CB said that maybe it was the wine, which got me to calculating my Riunite Lambrusco at $12.50/gallon...for $200.00, I could have 16 gallons and one heck of a party!   

[flip]

As a guy said, "If it's slower than me I'll eat it".  Goes for me with a very few exceptions.

[Tom]

Roxie, I'm with you and Cowboy Bob.  The quickest thing a cook could do to ruin my appetite is give me an unreasonable price.   The food costs only so much.   That means that the cook prides his touch by the rest of the bill.

My Grandmom could put those "Chefs" to shame with a miniscule amount of the fanfare.   That's all high priced food is, Fanfare. 

The best I've eaten was "hoppin' John", boiled greens with fat-back, corn bread, biscuits, homemade cane syrup, fried ham or porkchops or fish or a beef potroast with carrots and potatoes and onions and a plate with a stack of green onions to dip in a pile of salt and lima's cooked with a hambone or smoked pigs knuckles, or back-bone and rice, or neck-bone and rice or a green garden salad that contains a surprise, like chips of apple or a raisen or two and doused with oil and vinegar on salt and pepper to my taste at the table. 

I'll go for left-overs made into a soup, thick or thin.  I enjoy fruits, in season, prepared such that I can get a helping for dessert without having to prepare it myself.  I want a refreshing drink and finish with a cup of coffee.  I don't want some guy interupting my meal every 3 minutes wanting to know if I want my water glass filled.  Just fill the cotton picking thing and get out of my face!  Water can't be that expensive or different from pitcher to pitcher.  I want to talk with my partner at the table, not the help at the restaurant.  And... if the restaurant really wants to make my day, pay your help so I don't have to do it.  An hourly wage is good enough for the rest of the world, why should someone benefit percentage wise on my special evening out?

You want to make me happy? bring me an affordable, good tasting meal in qauntities suitable for a growing boy or working man. Do it with a smile and I'll be back over and over and over again.

[metalspinner]

Some people consider food as art.  And it is a great privilage to be able to sit down and eat it.  :  The same reason a Picaso painting cost millions and my son's second grade art is worthless.  Or a George Nakashima coffee table cost many, many thousands and mine doesn't. :(  However, in both of these cases, I would take my son's art over Picaso and my wife would want my table over George's.  And of course I would choose my wife's chicken and rice over any high falutin' restauraunt dish. ;D

[thecfarm]

We ate Zola's at Washington,DC.Stepson was up in mangement there.He picked up the tab,I paid the tip.The tip was $60 for 4 people.Food was good but not $400 good.A very nice place.We had probaly 6 people waiting on us and probaly a stepson saying them are my parents,treat them real nice or else.I had some sort of steak.I felt safe with that.His girlfriend's Mother had some salmon steak that was half raw.I may eat my steak that way, but not my fish. The napkins was cloth,or course.I had black pants on and little did I know there was a guy watching me to see where I would seat. Soon as I sat down the white cloth napkin was taken away and a black one was in it's place. They did not want any white lint to get on my black pants. Seems like the more you pay, the less food you get.

[metalspinner]

They did not want any white lint to get on my black pants.

Maybe they didn't want any black lint to get on their white napkins. :D :D

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Seems to be, the fancier the name, the smaller the serving.  Food doesn't have to look good to taste good ( that's for all you grits fans out there ). If I get a meal at a restaurant and I can see the plate under the food, it ain't enough food.

[thecfarm]

If I see grits on my plate,that ain't food.  ;D

[sawguy21]

Now ya dun it, just you wait till Tom gets back. :D :D

[thecfarm]

Tom was probaly the one that came up with thecfarm brand grits.  ;D

[scgargoyle]

Some people consider food as art.  And it is a great privilage to be able to sit down and eat it.  :  The same reason a Picaso painting cost millions and my son's second grade art is worthless.  Or a George Nakashima coffee table cost many, many thousands and mine doesn't. :(  However, in both of these cases, I would take my son's art over Picaso and my wife would want my table over George's.  And of course I would choose my wife's chicken and rice over any high falutin' restauraunt dish. ;D

I believe that food is the ultimate fine art- The only one that can appeal to all of one's senses. That being said- art is in the eye (or palate) of the beholder, and I've been impressed with good ole comfort food far more times in my life than fancy stuff I can't pronounce. The most expensive (and worse) 'food' I've ever had was caviar. I like to cook, and I'm good at it. But my meals don't have fancy names- I just call it what it is. There's a lot of music, art, etc. that I don't think much of either, so just because it's 'art' doesn't mean it's good!

[Frickman]

I'm like alot of you, I've eaten in four-star restaraunts, and I've eaten in farmers' wives kitchens. I'll take the latter any day.

[CLL]

Depends on where your from what things are called, and how fancy the place your eating at.
Sweetbreads in fancy places, mountain oysters in the country. Risotto -fancy, plain grits in the country.    :D :D

[WildDog]

Dave this thread is dear to my heart or at least stomach. I favour a basic meal, meat, spud and garden salad preferably on the B-B-Q, or pan fried fish and stir fried chicken and veges.

Last week I was in a country town about 10 1/2hrs drive away called Forbes on a plague locust course the Pub we were working from cooked a massive T-Bone steak they called the 'Red Steer", pepper sauce french fries and side salad for $15, it was one of the best meals I have had away from home. The next night travelling home we stayed in a town named Coonabarabran we decided to eat at the motels restaurant, what a mistake :($28 for a tenderloin fillet steak 2inchs diameter and 1inch thick with 6 french fries, layed out in some artist design  :-\I rarely eat desert but I was starving so $9 later I had a piece of apple pie and ice cream.

Not sure what you guys pay for a basic steak and veg meal over there but $15 to $20 usually pulls it up down here. When we are away with work they give us  $175 per day for accomodation and food anything not spent can be kept so we like to spend as little as possible.

[asy]

I don't care what it's called so long as it's cooked well and at least mostly identifyable, and... most importantly...  NOT SPICY.  >:(  I figure if ya gotta put so much spice in it that you can't taste it, you either can't cook, or should have used a better quality of ingredients in the first place.

I love cooking. One thing I really miss (Because my BBQ is out of commission at the moment) is Kangaroo on the Barbie. But it's gotta be done right. It's just succulent and delicious.

With regards eating out, we were taken out for dinner last week, by my boss and her hubby, and we went to a place called the Breakfast Creek hotel. I had the "Petite Eye Fillet" and salad. And it was cooked by a chef who actually knew what "medium rare" is!!!  It was the BEST bit of steak I've had in a LONG time. Simply delicious.

Whilst I like to try different things, I'd be in the "farmers kitchen" camp anyday.

asy :D

[Don P]

A rose by any other name 
So long as its good eatin I don't care if I can pronounce it or not. When we were courting my future wife was trying to woo me with recipes from the "back to nature" group. I was raised to ask for seconds if the first helping didn't kill me and to smile while doing it. Well she tried out a tofu cheescake on me one night. I guess my poker face fell flat. She tried a forkfull and we laughed on the way to the back door. About a year later she got a job in a gourmet food store. She learned how to prepare some pretty awesome dishes. Her boss gave us an expensive bottle of wine as we headed out the door for a camping trip one Christmas. The main thing I remember about that bottle was not the taste which I've long ago forgotten, but having to sleep with that cold thing the first night to keep it from freezing. From experience I knew Jack could survive all by his lonesome .

I still think the butter is the best part of snails though.