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We will only use Pillsbury crescents in our crescent dogs -- no generic store brands. You mean like that?
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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I used to use Realemon, but I really dislike the taste. Squeezing your own lemons doesn't take long if you have an electric juicer (I have a very cheap, small one.) If I squeeze more juice than I need for a recipe, I freeze it for future use.
Same goes for canned soups - I used to use them, but I quit, cause I was unhappy with the amount of additives and salt.
On the other hand, I do use canned beans and frozen vegetables in many recipes.
So I guess I'm not a "food snob."
*curious as to what motivated this topic*
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I used to make all of our meals from scratch, including all of our bread, rolls and buns, sweet treats and sometimes pasta. At that point in my life, I seldom even bought canned foods - I mostly canned my own.
Now, I am a single mother "professional" woman. We eat a HUGE amount of pizza, packaged salads and rotisserie chickens from costco these days.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Not about many things... but I've gotta have real Parmesano Reggiano over the powder that Kraft puts in the cans.
Posts: 472 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote: Now I just have to hope my mice are not chocolate snobs. I had to use ghirardelli chocolate chips, and milk chocolate instead of dark.. it's just not the same.
I think it was when I was looking at the ad for Metro Market last night, and commented that the Brie en Brioche looked tasty. To which my husband replied that he could surely do it better. (I told him to prove it).
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: Do you look down your nose at people who use Realemon instead of hand squeezing their lemons?
I'm not a snob, I just prefer the taste of real lemons... I have no problem with people who get the little plastic squeezie bottle thing. That's not something I ever grew up with... since I come from the Mediterranean/Middle East area, it's very rare to find that. But I don't have a problem with it!
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Um . . . those aren't the specific cheeses I use for macoroni and cheese, and I wouldn't look down on people who use realemon, though I don't use it myself.
Other than that, yes to everything in the first post.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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There's one issue on which I am definitely a food snob. The doneness of meat, particularly pork and beef.
I happily and quite aggravatingly look down my nose, smug in my superiority over the coarse, elderly taste of people who like their pork and beef 'well-done'.
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Yes, I have noticed a fair amount of chocolate snobs here. I knew my husband was getting bad when he started buying Ephemere Sauce for his mochas.
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I don't have the money to be a real food snob. But since KamaCon I've gone out for dinner 5 times, 3 of which occured in one weekend when my parents came to visit. I haven't eaten processed food since KamaCon either.
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Well I scoff at Easy Mac when I could take an extra ten minutes and make Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in a pot full of boiling water.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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OOH that's my one thing. It's all about the Velveeta Shells and Cheese, although the store brands like it are passable and a fair bit cheaper.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I have just recently started doing a lot more cooking from scratch. My movtivation is twofold: 1) it's cheaper and we have an additional person in the house now that Mom has moved in. Plus the twins are old enough now that you can no longer count the two of them as "on portion between them" I am regularly cooking for seven now.
2) It's healthier and everyone in my family (well, all the adults) are trying to live healthier and more active lives. We need to be able to keep up with our kids! Plus, we love to hike and get outdoors and would like to be in better shape for that.
So...I'm becoming a food snob when it pertains to freshness. For example, upstairs right now is a crock pot full of red beans that have been simmering all day (after soaking all night) for cajun red beans and rice. Before, I would have used the boxed version.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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For $10, it would have to be a really big bar of baking chocolate.
And I eat lots of crap, too. Taste is more important than pedigree. But yeah, I do have and take the luxury of eating well.
And pretty much anyone can make better bries then the ones they sell in the store... those tend not to be very good.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I always thought making dinner from scratch meant that I had to open a can of soup and a box of minute rice in addition to thawing the frozen skinless boneless chicken breast halves, rather than simply sticking a Stouffer's lasagna in the oven (though with the extra steps of lining the baking sheet with aluminum foil so I won't have to wash it if some tomato sauce spills plus cutting those slits in the cellophane top and later removing it entirely almost count as cooking from scratch, too). I know we have stuff like flour and sugar in the house, but they're just kinda for show -- at least until Mooselet is old enough to bake chocolate chip cookies "from scratch" with me.
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Pop, a wise woman once told me that if it's cooked in your home it's homemade.
My family has many a time eaten Stouffer's lasagna, only recently have we begun to eat the homemade version and again, that's because of cost and a desire to use more healthy ingredients.
I can assure you, once I'm in school full time and even beyond that, working again, we'll be back on the Stouffer's bandwagon.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:I'd like to have more people joining in making fun of those who like their meat cooked well done, please.
Well, any people, really.
For the record, Rakeesh, I don't like my meat well-done. To me, "well-done" translates as "dried out."
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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That's a start, Ela, but really you're not making hard enough fun. When you tease, draw blood. I'm sure that liking meat well-done translates to a mother of loose morals or innate bad parenting skills.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I have survived for several lengthy periods of time on Kraft Dinner (that's Kraft Mac & Cheese to you crazy Americans), peanut butter toast and canned rice. I like micro-waved hotdogs. I like canned ravioli (the generic store brands too, not just Chef Boyardee). I love cheap food. I am not a food snob.
Posts: 609 | Registered: Oct 2004
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People who eat their meat well done are as bad as people who buy Monet umbrellas and book bags.
Or
People who eat their meat well done might as well sit down to a big plate of soy protein.
Or
People who eat their meat well done should feel guilty about the animal that sacrificed its life to be their dinner. If you are going to eat the flesh of beasts, at least have the courtesy to eat it in the way God intended -- rare or medium rare.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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One of the great things about coming to Hatrack is that, whenever I worry I might be a snob, I run into people who are so much snobbier than I am on the same subject that I immediately feel like a prole again.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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On the subject of pre-cut salad, I don't object to it so much as I find it too expensive for everyday use. The other thing about pre-cut salad is that it is only good if you get it really fresh - it dries out and spoils fairly quickly.
On the other hand, I absolutely love the pre-washed greens. I am much more likely to eat fresh spinach, kale, and collard greens if I don't have to spend all that time washing and inspecting each leaf. I toss some garlic pieces in olive oil and fry them for a minute or so, then add kale or collard greens and steam them till done. Delicious!
[ October 21, 2004, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: Ela ]
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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I'm a food snob as much as my budget allows me to be. I often make my own barbeque and teriyaki sauces, I bake my own bread when time permits (cornell), I hate canned or frozen anything, though I often use canned tomato soup, and I have lots of random ingredients in my house that can be adopted for different recipes. My spice rack is growing, thank goodness. And I believe people who use certain cuts of meats in certain ways are morons.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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I would like to point out, that although I answered “yes” to most of those questions I don’t consider myself a food snob, because I don’t look down on anyone who answered “no,” and if I were eating dinner at their house I would eat whatever they served and enjoy it.
Unless it involved legumes. I don’t like legumes.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Clearly, you, like most Americans, were exposed to legumes in their insidious "Midwestern Cooking" form.
I'm sorry that happened to you. It's not too late to remedy the situation.
<---- sets out a plate of red lentils cooked Ethiopian style alongside buttered jasmine rice and walks away
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I totally agree, Zal. I was going to say, you'd like legumes the way I cook them.
They are a staple ingredient in many of the dishes I make, whether you are talking about the middle eastern food I was raised with, or the Indian, far eastern, and other types of cuisine I have experimented with as an adult.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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(I've taken her to some really good Middle Eastern restaurants. She still doesn't like legumes, although she did once say that a local hummus was "kinda okay.")
quote:Do you think nothing of dropping $10 on a bar of baking chocolate?
It's ScharffenBerger or nothing, baby!
You know that scene in Chocolat where the guy crawls in the front window and passes out from eating chocolate? That's me.
I cook everything from scratch, mainly because, being a food chemist, I know what goes into most processed foods. My wife has migraines, so we have to watch the additives. I also bring treats to work, and we have the usual assortment of people who are allergic to just about everything. I once made a 100% organic, wheat free, soy free, corn free, dairy free, egg free fruit tart for someone's birthday. And it was not just edible, but good. Try getting that from a box.
Trouble is, I became a food snob back when I could eat anything and not gain weight. Alas, those days are gone.
Posts: 173 | Registered: Jun 2002
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I believe a more accurate description of that particular hummus would be: It didn’t immediately make me gag. Which is an improvement over all other hummus, I’ll grant you.
Legumes are gross.
I’ll admit an exception for falafel, though. I like falafel.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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(Oh my gosh, where is Annie?? She is a self-proclaimed food snob of the snobbiest sort. And she gets away with it because she's such a good cook!! This thread is for HER!!!)
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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The key to good falafel, imo, is to not make the falafels to big. I like to do small croquettes -- that way it's not overly mealy inside.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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This thread is for me! I am a guilty-conscience sort of food snob. I submit this recent entry in my livejournal:
quote:I'm only recently realizing how pervasive my food snobbery is. I like being the gourmande - the one whose culinary creations are often lauded (sincere or just being nice, I can never tell). I have a problem recognizing, however, how this affects other people.
Very rarely do I ask anyone for a recipe or let them cook something their way. Just last night, Aleza brought some ham and beans to our party and rather than being nice, I "helpfully" suggested to her that she should try putting cumin and onion in them next time. The fact that cumin and onion make beans taste much better is neither here nor there - if I had been in her position, having someone tell me what I should have added to my dish - I would have been indignantly self-righteous and very irritated.
I went shopping with Whitney the other day to get food for our party and would not let her get american cheese slices wrapped in plastic - I insisted on sliced cheese from the deli. Why on earth do I care? Just because I think american cheese is vile, I really don't have to be like that.
I really don't like eating white starches or drinking kool-aid, but how much should I acquiesce in the name of public harmony? It's funny to be a snob a lot of the time, I must admit, but I must come across as a totally arrogant windbag. Maybe I should just shut up and drink the kool-aid for once.
So, yes, I am a snob, but I'm trying not to show it.
I do, however, know where the best place in town to get frog legs is.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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quote: quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you think nothing of dropping $10 on a bar of baking chocolate? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's ScharffenBerger or nothing, baby!
We have not found the full size baking Scharffenberger bars, just the 2 0z snacking ones. We get the Callebut, which is lovely in a bittersweet chocolate torte or chocolate cheesecake. Must go raid my chocolate tin now..... (Edit...found a 62% Mocha bar....and the kids are playing Stratego in another room...)
Chocolate (German, Belgian, French, or Swiss only)
Pies (have to be homemade from scratch)
Oranges - have to come from FL
Peaches and Pecans - have to come from GA
Lettuce - hate Romaine and Iceberg
Grits - cannot stomach instant
Yogurt - cannot stand American yogurt
I don't eat or cook with garlic or bananas, but that's just because I don't like them. I also don't eat or fix mac and cheese. I don't consider myself a food snob because I don't care what other people eat. If I am a guest at someone's house, I will sample everything that they give me and compliment the chef.
We once had to restrain a chef who wanted to take back the salmon he had so carefully prepared because the customer was putting ketchup on it. I can't say that I blamed him.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
So, I stopped by Whole Foods on my way home... dkw, they had a lovely plum mustard that they were sampling with camembert that I thought about getting for you to add to your collection...
Then I looked at the price. If you want a $12 jar of mustard, you can get it yourself.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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