re: Anyone think some people take food maybe a little too seriously here?

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Yeah, if anyone is trying to sell the idea that this somehow improves the fry over a mechanical cutter... that's just laughable.

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I'll bet you that someone challenges this notion in this thread. They won't have any reason why, but they just "know" it's better.

I find the the saline bath infuses a great ocean-y taste in farmed fish.

Well, one FACT I can tell you in life is that no place ever changed for the better by accepting the satus quo as the way it is and not making better personal choices and encouraging others to do likewise for the good of their own personal community, a community you don't live in btw.

Similarly, places like Austin didn't have pixie dust sprinkled on them to magically become recognized as a food city. The people simply decided that they wouldn't accept anything less, and yes, it took people to vote for that in their choices. Why do garbage restaurants not work in New Orleans proper? Because there are other choices that are far better, and because the people will not put up with crap when there are better options. Now, New Orleans has been doing this for far longer than any of us have even been alive, so it's a fixture in the city, but to create change where there is no such food environment, it takes the people themselves to vote for that in where they decide to go eat and what they will accept and what they won't.

The Baton Rouge restaurant scene is nothing more than a mirror reflection of the people and their choices. If tomorrow, they decide they are going to choose to only patron those restaurants that serve stellar food, then Baton Rouge itself and it's restaurant scene will change OVERNIGHT. That's how it works. We are not victims to something that befell poor old Baton Rouge. We are victims to our own decisions and what we will tolerate and what we will not. Baton Rouge itself can be as big a food mecca as it chooses to be, and that's all in what we choose to accept. If I didn't believe in Baton Rouge, I would never bother encouraging it, and if I didn't have a vested interest in Baton Rouge it wouldn't bother me, as it doesn't bother you living in the greater NOLA area.

Accepting the low road does nothing but keep the status quo exactly where it is, and while that may benifit those who own restaurants that suck here, and chains that dominate the landscape, it really doesn't make Baton Rouge a "BETTER PLACE" to live, or benifit the people in the quality of life they can experience here. It doesn't make it a point of destination for others either, but rather a place to gas up on their way elsewhere.

In short, Baton Rouge is small because the people of Baton Rouge think small. If and when they begin to think bigger, the place will change for the better. Until then, you will have those who desire change, and the old guard fighting change, because change is nothing any of them take too kindly to in anything here. It's slow and fought tooth and nail every step of the way, because they don't understand it, and what they don't understand is pretentious, liberal, commie, or just flat out unAmerican. Probably USC fans as well. Damn terrorists trying to change me.

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For instance: people regularly eat and rave about things such as raw fish, things that are dug up out of the dirt, eating organs, etc.

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I'll eat a pig nose to tail if I know it was killed in the wild and butchered that morning. (have done this many times at the camp). When I say "disgusting" I'm referring to McDonald's and the like. I'll take fresh goat liver over a fast-food hamburger.

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People hate on "processed foods" and eat sausage. Then they hate on foods "with preservatives" yet they eat things that are pickled.

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I agree some people are hypocritical when it comes to such things, but for many educated folks they know the difference between store-bought vacuum-sealed sausage from Sam's Club vs. restaurant sausage where they grind meat and prepare in-house. And not sure how you're comparing preservatives to pickling. Pickling can be done in the home in a matter of minutes. Not the same as processed food containing something like butylated hydroxyanisole.

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I agree some people are hypocritical when it comes to such things, but for many educated folks they know the difference between store-bought vacuum-sealed sausage from Sam's Club vs. restaurant sausage where they grind meat and prepare in-house.

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Sure, but the point is, it's all "processed"

So? Are you suggested that's not a relative term? That there aren't varying degrees? I'd argue that each polar end of the "processed" spectrum are rather far apart with many levels in between.

This thread has gotten really serious for not being about chili or gumbo.

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This board suffers from the "my way is better than yours" syndrome

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So true

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Wow. Epic sample size there bro.

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are there any other independent surveys you can link? there aren't many huge blind taste testings of organic v non-organic out there. one day, but they just aren't out yet

as has been shown countless times in general, though, when you THINK you're eating "better" food, you're going to THINK it tastes better. now, how that food is "better" varies. for some it's price. for some it's perceived freshness. for some it's organic. study after study shows that taste is LARGELY a function of stuff having nothing to do with what you're putting in your mouth

for example,

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(not to mention how disgusting the idea of eating a lab-raised, chemically injected animal is

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this clouds your perception of "disgusting" food

regardless of how it tastes, if you're told you have to eat an organic chicken dish and processed chicken dish made exactly the same, you're going to say the organic tastes better due to perception, and not taste

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How about posting some research findings showing how hormone-pumped, preservative laden foods give people higher risk of cancer?

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any legit links to studies on this?

there seems to be a lot of bark and inconsistent data on this point. organic and inorganic foods both seem to have positives and negatives, health-wise