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

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Otis, let's go fry me up some fatback

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Use salt meat...really.


Pop it in the freezer until it's semi frozen...makes it easier to slice. Cut into 1/4 inch slices, keeping the rind on. Par boil for one minute and drain well. Then deep fry until golden brown and crisp. Drain well and enjoy...crispy,salty, pork goodness. It's addicting. We used to cook this for Monday Night football gatherings when we were young and stupid...er. Haven't had it in almost 20 years.

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so all of those hood rats on welfare are supporting the high-end dining industry?

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You're the one talking high end dining. I'm just talking great food.

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is this what is being discussed in terms of comparing ATX to BR? the regional "poor" dishes?

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No, it's that great food in general takes care and desire to do it right, and not half arse it to death, or just get along. It's not marketed as a means of saving time, and you won't find it where laziness or taking the easy road is the norm. You find great food with people who LOVE great food and value it, and desire to make great food. It's got jack shite to do with white table cloths, high end techniques, or pretty pictures on the walls, or snobbery. It's got EVERYTHING to do with LOVE for food and doing it all the way, not half assing it to death and worrying strictly about the bottom line alone. Like anything, when you find someone who really truly LOVES what they are doing, you will find a better product or service than when you find someone in it for business alone or punching a clock. That's true for everything in life.

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you can get good po boys and gumbo in BR, then. so i don't see how you can criticize BR when it produces a high quality of the foods you're now referencing

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Where? Good? Sure, there are some places that do okay, but great or even truly great? The list gets much much much smaller. That's not just here, but it's an overall shortcut way of doing business today that breeds that into places. If you honestly think that you can find a poboy on the reg here in BR like you can in NOLA, then I don't know what to say about that. Almost nobody here actually cooks their roast beef in house, and most don't even use very good bread to begin with, and the jus is almost always never from the drippings, because well they aren't cooking in house to be able to utilize that, so it's out of a bag from sysco. That's what I'm talking about, and it's evident in the way it tastes because there are no principles in that kind of so called cooking. It's short cut to death.

Not too long ago I made a comment about going to Dempsey's and how although some of my meal was decent, I had pale green canned green beans put on my plate. I got shite from that because "It's just green beans, damnit." And that's the problem, it's just green beans, and yet I really love green beans. Why would anyone put that crap on a plate and call it cooking in the first place? And look, I'm not trying to pick on Dempsey's in particular here. This is everywhere, but it's also indicative of a general disconnect with cooking and pride in what you put out, and with people who just accept that as normal. It's not, and the difference is in what you buy and what kind of care you put into the food you serve.

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I think there's a big difference between "liking food and wine" and sitting in judgement of others that don't have the same passion for it, or different tastes in it.

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yep. I prefaced that by saying that food and wine is my "passion".

I personally don't care what other people like or don't like--I'm selfish and only care about what I like.

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I personally don't care what other people like or don't like--I'm selfish and only care about what I like.

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So you don't have a conniption fit when you see someone putting their blinker on to go into taco bell? That's probably a good thing.

Old joke on here, SFP. But, you're not cool enough to understand.

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You're the one talking high end dining.

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that's where your traditional argument centers. you're about experimentation, quality ingredients, advanced preparation, finding an identity, etc. this is mostly located to high-end places. it's hard to produce all of these qualities at a reasonable price

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it's that great food in general takes care and desire to do it right, and not half arse it to death

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a great variable in the expense i was referring to above

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It's got EVERYTHING to do with LOVE for food

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and the ability to afford it, both in terms of the increased expense of the food/prep itself and the expense in personally investing all the time it takes to enjoy that experience. people buy mcdonalds b/c it's cheap and fast. if great food was as cheap and as quick, they'd prefer great food. it's about money

poor people, regardless of desire, will not be able to sustain a community of commercially viable restaurants

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white table cloths, high end techniques, or pretty pictures on the walls, or snobbery.

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also, i might add, these things add to the perception of food quality/taste when dining

presentation of an expensive/quality meal means more than the food served. if we think/perceive that we're about to eat a great, quality mean, we will subjectively grade that meal more highly

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Sure, there are some places that do okay, but great or even truly great?

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is it honestly possible to make a "truly great" poboy? i mean the best poboy in LA is the darrells special, and what makes it "truly great" is jalepeno mayo, super-buttered bread, gravy, and cheese.

gumbo is one of those things that is very subjective. this is commercially and non-commercially. people tend to enjoy the gumbo they were raised on to all others, in my experience. it's one of those things that is so localized in the cultural sense it's almost centralized around family

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and it's evident in the way it tastes because there are no principles in that kind of so called cooking.

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it's "evident in the way it tastes" because you have a preference of "homemade" food, so when you think you're eating "homemade" food, you subjectively grade it higher. like i said earlier, the subjectivity in food is about a lot of things OTHER than the food itself

for you, based on your posting history, you value local/homemade ingredients. that's fine, i don't care, but you subjectively will always perceive the food in this manner to be superior, whether it is superior objectively or not.

and i know i come off as a broken record, but it's been proven time and time again. i enjoy food, even though i'm not experimental in my experiences. i like a certain set of foods, and i like to try them in various places to see who makes a good dish-x. fettuccine alfredo with chicken used to be a favorite of mine in this respect. i swear i've had that dish 30 times across LA and TX. some were sysco factories. some were "homemade." some were prepared by legit chefs (i don't know if i have a favorite. i love the chimes version, but the dish i had at CCLA was awesome). i do the same with burgers (my favorite is the bacon cheeseburger from the Houstonian, fwiw)

but my philosophy is to not go in pre-judging a meal based on where i'm eating it. i've had awesome steaks at texas roadhouse and mediocre ones at high-end restaurants. it happens

i'm not against liking food, i'm against pre-judging food and the superiority complex that comes along with "elevated taste." this philosophy isn't limited to food, either. i do the same with other "cultural" things, like art, fashion, music, etc.

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but it's also indicative of a general disconnect with cooking and pride in what you put out, and with people who just accept that as normal.

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it is normal because that is what dominates. chains don't become successful because they put out a bad product at a high price. also, i believe there is a disconnect with people of your ilk who are on a crusade to pre-judge food (which you say is a passion and people should be more passionate about) and subjectively destroy the tasting prior to tasting it. just because you hate sysco products doesn't mean that good tasting food can't be made from them

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i'm just saying that WITHOUT money it's hard to sustain the type of scene mike loves to push

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Ehh, yeah I guess. There's not many cities in the US of half a million people that couldn't do it economically speaking (at least on some sort of level), if their populace was so inclined, though.

i only brought up money because mike made it sound like it was the noble artisans and hipsters who create and maintain that scene, when that's economically impossible

then he shifted his argument to essentially crowning regional "lower" dishes as the blood of a food culture. the problem is he's railed on houston a bunch in his time on TD, and by that standard houston has to be one of the top food cities in america. they have a shite ton of mexican places that serve fresh "low" food. hell asian places, too. but, we all know THAT'S not what he's talking about

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i only brought up money because mike made it sound like it was the noble artisans and hipsters who create and maintain that scene, when that's economically impossible

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I'd argue they are often at least the impetus for it.

I think the term "hipster" is overused and often misapplied.