Overrated Foods...

[Campbell]

Donuts are overrated.

 

[MarcelNL]

bagels too

 

[sansho]

sausage as a pizza topping

vodka sauce for pasta

bay leaves that aren't fresh or freshly dried
kinda joking on this one, but it took me a long time to realize that most bay leaves in people's cupboards are bսllshit.

 

[MarcelNL]

dried bay leaves SUCK.....

 

[MarcelNL]

in fact most herbs in peoples cupboards are %#$#$@

 

[Michi]

in fact most herbs in peoples cupboards are %#$#$@

Most herbs fade quickly once dried. If someone wants to elevate their cooking, one of the cheapest and most effective ways is to start a herb garden. One or two planters or pots on the balcony, or get one of those indoor herb gardens with a grow light, or grow some herbs in your garden bed, whatever.

There is room for a few herbs in even the smallest kitchen, and they make a big difference.

 

[zizirex]

FYI the drug cartels stole property of many avocado growers and make more money on avocados than drugs.

They make a documentary about it.

I Gotta say, this Avocado Toast sh*t is getting out of hands.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

The volcanic soil in Hawaii is perfect for growing avocados. When sugar went down that agriculture land was empty. Over the years small farms have grown different vegetables.
No avocado orchards. Some of land has been turned into housing developments.

IMO our avocados are larger & taste better than the high export Haas brand coming from Mexico. We should be shipping to mainland.

 

[Dhoff]

Roasted tomatoes in a Caesar sounds pretty good. We are salad eaters always make simple
O&V dressing from scratch. We grow our own organic lettuce.

Hard to grow large tomatoes in Hawaii except in greenhouse. I was able to grow ping pong ball size very sweet. Made Caesar couple times making dressing right before adding it to good quality romaine. Would through few of those sweet tomato's quartered.

Read through the thread, and got curious mate; Why is it hard to grow tomatoes on Hawaii?

 

[Keith Sinclair]

Too many critters attack the plants. Subtropical environments have many tiny life forms.

For some reason cherry tomatoes can be grown. Larger tomatoes only in greenhouse. Where they have protection. So I buy at farmers market. A retired policeman on big island of Hawaii did research & built a greenhouse.

Now another greenhouse on Oahu. Those are best tasting large tomatoes you can get here.
The tomatoes sold in the stores lack flavor.
They are cheaper & a lot of people don't know
what a vine ripened sweet tomato taste like.

 

[Dhoff]

Too many critters attack the plants. Subtropical environments have many tiny life forms.

For some reason cherry tomatoes can be grown. Larger tomatoes only in greenhouse. Where they have protection. So I buy at farmers market. A retired policeman on big island of Hawaii did research & built a greenhouse.

Now another greenhouse on Oahu. Those are best tasting large tomatoes you can get here.
The tomatoes sold in the stores lack flavor.
They are cheaper & a lot of people don't know
what a vine ripened sweet tomato taste like.

Makes sense, thank you. And i completely agree, although not limited to tomatoes, so many fruits and vegetables are not ripe or even near it when shipped leading to it tasting nothing like it should

 

[e30Birdy]

Has bread made from premixed flour, and prebaked already been mentioned? It seems that out of 100 bakers 99 cannot bake anymore....PAH, mush sold as bread, no taste, no texture.

This is exactly why I make my own. Nothing but sour dough which is 12 years old, salt, flour and water. I cant stand most boughten bread. We have one bakery that actually makes good bread here but I know up north in Speyer there is a place called Brot Puristen that make amazing bread and nothing else.

Problem is now a days most use premix with enzymes and junk in there.

 

[big_adventure]

This is exactly why I make my own. Nothing but sour dough which is 12 years old, salt, flour and water. I cant stand most boughten bread. We have one bakery that actually makes good bread here but I know up north in Speyer there is a place called Brot Puristen that make amazing bread and nothing else.

Problem is now a days most use premix with enzymes and junk in there.

And this is why France still has the best bread anywhere: only supermarket chains and maybe a couple of all-night places catering to wasted clubgoers use premixed anything. At least half of the copious amount of bakeries (there are well over 20 within 500m of my apartment) are excellent. Some are "meh" but it's a strong minority, and you don't have to go far at all to find an "un-meh" one.

 

[e30Birdy]

And this is why France still has the best bread anywhere: only supermarket chains and maybe a couple of all-night places catering to wasted clubgoers use premixed anything. At least half of the copious amount of bakeries (there are well over 20 within 500m of my apartment) are excellent. Some are "meh" but it's a strong minority, and you don't have to go far at all to find an "un-meh" one.

I don't live on that side of Germany anymore. I know my dad can take a detour on his way home of about 8km just to jump into France for fresh bread, croissants and baguette.

That is why I taught myself and there is no one here that can touch my quality but it's all for my family and I. I don't share lol.

 

[Jovidah]

I love fine cheeses, but also appreciate and love common supermarket cheese. There're certain dishes that I welcome cheap, pasteurized, American Cheese—grilled cheese 'n tomato sandwiches; Tex-Mex tacos and enchiladas; classic cheeseburger; Southern Mac 'n Cheese. Delicious and nostalgic food for me.

Moscow style baked fish, another great example where cheap, processed cheese is preferable over a fine aged cheese; as with Korean Budae jjigae; etc.

A number of hip restaurants are rediscovering the joys of cheap American cheese.

I've some friends that are quite snobbish, turning their nose up at American Cheese, we often argue the merits of Velveeta, and individually wrapped Kraft cheese. Interestingly, most of my friends in the anti-American cheese contingent don't know how to cook, are into the trendy, hipster, foodie stuff, aren't terribly adventurous with food, and are missing out on some great dishes IMO. I honestly will not say a Colston Basset Stilton is always better than a humble slice of Kraft American Cheese—they're simply different ingredients.

There are times to savor Jamón ibérico; and other times when only SPAM will do.

I'm sorry, but that processed junk probably wouldn't even be legal to call cheese here. I can totally see an argument for using younger cheeses if you want something more creamy / meltable; it doesn't always have to be 3298329 month old ultradry parmiggiano, but that processed junk came into existance for one reason only: so manufacturers could make more money off junk ingredients. Why poison yourself with that processed crap; at best it's just dilluted cheese.. you can make that yourself by dilluting actual good cheese.
If you want a compromise between texture and flavor there's also the option of fast-fermenting cheeses; those often give you the umami of older cheeses while still having better texture when melting.

Underated Hawaii Avocados & Mangos
VA., & Georgia peaches tree ripened.

Awful
Organ meats. Reason why land & sea critters
are gutted.

Save it for the pigs oops actually DNA wise
Not that different like pigs humans will eat everything.

I'm torn on the organ stuff; for example I never cared for the flavor of livers on their own but I'm a total sucker for a good paté. I think organ meat probably stands or falls based on the quality of the recipe. Tried heart meat in the past and though it's tough from a flavor perspective I think it actually has potential. Could probably make a really awesome stew out of it, or use it to boost the flavor profile of ground meat when ground fine enough.

Most Vegetables
Wagyu
Plant based fats (Olive Oil, Coconut Oil)

While mostly enjoyable i feel they are definitely overrated.

When it comes to plant based oils, like olive oil, quality can make a huge difference IMO. Good quality extra virgin olive oil can be awesome. But when it's the processed chemically filtrated crap it's indistinguishable from any other garbage chemically processed vegetable oil. Actually makes me curious how good some oils like sunflower oil could potentially be if you got them closer to their natural form.

Has bread made from premixed flour, and prebaked already been mentioned? It seems that out of 100 bakers 99 cannot bake anymore....PAH, mush sold as bread, no taste, no texture.

This is mostly a Dutch thing I think. You don't have to go far across the Dutch border to find much better bread in almost any direction...
You're better off buying frozen bread that you have to bake off yourself from places like Hanos / Sligro than from most bakeries; some of that stuff is acutally quite good.

Not so sure about that. Bread in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany is up there with the best in the world.

Agreed, within Europe I don't think France has a monopoly on good bread. Then again maybe my standards are just crap because I'm from the Netherlands. But even bread in any random German or Swiss supermarket is better than most Dutch 'bakeries'

This is a partial view of my neighborhood bakery, which does also make good baguettes…
View attachment 147164

Their bread better be good at those prices.

in fact most herbs in peoples cupboards are %#$#$@

Not just in people's cupboards; in some stores too, simply because when it doesn't sell regularly enough the stock can be quite old.

 

[BillHanna]

Whipped potatoes are for babies and the elderly. Gimme some lumps. Gimme some thiccness.

 

[coxhaus]

Whipped potatoes are for babies and the elderly. Gimme some lumps. Gimme some thiccness.

I had some at a wine dinner that had so much flavor I could not believe it. They served my plate without potatoes and I said never mind as I won't eat the potatoes as whipped didn't sound good. Everybody at the table corrected me and told me I needed to try the potatoes and sure enough they were great with lots of flavor.

 

[ian]

We shall not speak of "pumpkin" beers or those lost souls who willingly consume them.

Long day at work. Oof.

 

[WiriWiri]

Korean fried chicken. Don’t get me wrong, I still quite like this stuff - frankly I even enjoy courgettes and flowers if deep fried hard enough - but it does seem to match the title of this very thread in my book.

Can be very crisp and tasty, but generally comes in smaller portions, more slowly. The spiciest version is never spicy enough/there’s too much sugar/it’s a bit messy to eat. And generally they’re little different ethically or better healthwise than your local KFC-copycat franchise, despite much warmer press coverage and a tendency to see these as ‘superior’ over the usual cheap fried chicken joints. See also hipster/upmarket fried chicken, albeit higher welfare birds at least tend to feature there.

All things considered, most of the time it’s less hassle and I gain as much enjoyment from a bargain sized bag of hot wings from Morleys, South London‘s superior alternative to KFC.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

Like the vinegar chicken wings 5.00 # on Fridays at Safeway. Better than the BBQ they have loaded with sugar.

Shoyu Chicken is popular here. Some places use way too much sugar not enough fresh ginger & garlic. Easy way out & sugar is like a drug reason why obesity & type 2 diabetes is rampant in the USA.

Just like cigarettes were
commonplace when I was a kid. The tobacco industry said nicotine not addictive smoking didn't cause lung cancer. They were lying & didn't care.

Food industry almost all processed food has sugar, artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, & all those ingredients with numbers words you don't know. Those drugs go straight to your liver spikes sugar in bloodstream. Refined not digested turns into fat as storage because of overload. Has nothing to do with calories in & out, exercise. As food Giants who have large lobby in Washington DC keep saying.
It's in the trillions of dollars. They are lying don't care. They don't pay the medical costs.

 

[10160]

steak. for me nothing is more unappealing than a big hunk of meat.

 

[MarcelNL]

@Keith Sinclair , you are probably right in pointing out some real health issues, yet I somehow disagree in pointing at the manufacturers ...do we not all have responsability over what we put into ourselves?
Nowadays ingredients are listed, if you bring glasses that is ;-), and we can choose....we rarely buy any processed food anymore, now for almost ten years.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

Absolutely you have a choice. Used to think was eating healthy, was overweight Belly fat.

Had to change diet because of health. Read several books on how to lower blood sugar to normal. It was an education almost no processed food make a lot from scratch.

Really didn't care if little over weight, but got skinny without even trying by eating habits.

TV is bombarded with fast food ads. Celebrities
drinking Pepsi & Coke. It's not like they aren't pushing their drug foods. I go to Costco town side cuz live Punchbowl area. See folks loading up soda, cases of dry instant noodles, spam.

It's not like didn't eat plenty plate lunches, spam musubi, love Lau Lau, poki. Still eat sometimes,
but not regular basis anymore.

 

[panda]

Korean fried chicken. Don’t get me wrong, I still quite like this stuff - frankly I even enjoy courgettes and flowers if deep fried hard enough - but it does seem to match the title of this very thread in my book.

Can be very crisp and tasty, but generally comes in smaller portions, more slowly. The spiciest version is never spicy enough/there’s too much sugar/it’s a bit messy to eat. And generally they’re little different ethically or better healthwise than your local KFC-copycat franchise, despite much warmer press coverage and a tendency to see these as ‘superior’ over the usual cheap fried chicken joints. See also hipster/upmarket fried chicken, albeit higher welfare birds at least tend to feature there.

All things considered, most of the time it’s less hassle and I gain as much enjoyment from a bargain sized bag of hot wings from Morleys, South London‘s superior alternative to KFC.

yall must just not have good korean fried chicken in london..

 

[panda]

steak. for me nothing is more unappealing than a big hunk of meat.

nothing more unappealing than a hunk of grass

 

[Jovidah]

Green stuff... that's my food's food.

 

[sansho]

i think i like good examples of basically any food. the problem is having access to such examples.

most chocolate is trash. most "normal" (american in my case) candy is trash. the only "good" ones are reeses, peanut MMs, twix, kitkat, crunch. i do genuinely like reeses cups and some of the other reeses products. hersheys bars and plain MMs are a complete joke. don't understand why anyone would buy those.

cupcakes are also a complete joke. as is most "normal" cake. crappy chocolate or vanilla cake with an inch of basic frosting? what is this sһit?

also, f sprinkles and most similar pastry decorations.

 

[Rangen]

If candy is fair game, then I nominate malted milk balls. I don't understand why anyone likes those.

"Chocolate, but weak chocolate, with a hint of vomit."

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

i think i like good examples of basically any food. the problem is having access to such examples.

most chocolate is trash. most "normal" (american in my case) candy is trash. the only "good" ones are reeses, peanut MMs, twix, kitkat, crunch. i do genuinely like reeses cups and some of the other reeses products. hersheys bars and plain MMs are a complete joke. don't understand why anyone would buy those.

cupcakes are also a complete joke. as is most "normal" cake. crappy chocolate or vanilla cake with an inch of basic frosting? what is this sһit?

also, f sprinkles and most similar pastry decorations.

Back in my military days my wife would make cupcakes for the single guys. She spent hours hollowing them out by hand and filling them with pudding. Vanilla cupcakes got chocolate pudding filling and frosting and vice versa for the chocolate cupcakes. She'd make a whole day of it and make who knows how many dozens.

The fellas loved 'em.

 

[user 16756]

@Keith Sinclair , you are probably right in pointing out some real health issues, yet I somehow disagree in pointing at the manufacturers ...do we not all have responsability over what we put into ourselves?
Nowadays ingredients are listed, if you bring glasses that is ;-), and we can choose....we rarely buy any processed food anymore, now for almost ten years.

you can take that line if you like, but if you listened to folks who were pushing Oxy just a decade ago saying it was safe, there was tons of evidence it was less addictive, your doctor who you trusted said "yes this is fine", do you still have the responsibility? a lot of that stuff was well hidden. in fact the feds ultimately did decide that the manufacturer had misled the public badly.

it is not a secret that the American sugar industry paid for much of the research that started the whole low fat thing in the 90s, for example.

plus you had an industry marketing heavily and directly at children, who have been known for a long time to not be able to distinguish between programming and advertising.

I would agree with your statement if and only if we lived in a world with genuine information symmetry. but that world is as far away from this as a Marvel movie is.

plus those calorie numbers on the packages? just estimates.