Some people have a bad reaction to escolar, but it does taste really good. Well worth the risk.
How we're scammed into eating phony food
331–340 of 475 posts
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, I live Ireland and moved here after 30 years in the US. I agree that the TTIP is a terrible idea (and feels a bit like imperialism chasing after me as I exit). Food on the continent is a sheer delight for the senses. However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. (To be fair, we _do_ have some pretty great cheese)
I'm ethnically Indian, and grew up in London. So I'm used to having good Indian food both at home and in restaurants. I recently visited Dublin for the first time, and picked an Indian restaurant based on Yelp ratings/reviews. I've never eaten worse Indian food than I did that day. I don't believe that the restaurant operators are unable to make OK food. They were Indian themselves. Perhaps they had to change their f…
Friend of my girlfriend used to own a Chinese restaurant in Canada and said that he had to have alternative recipes for the locals because they didn't like the traditional flavors. It's a shame though, I've had his food cooked in a more "traditional" sense and it was bursting with flavors. I sort of always assumed is how it goes in North America.
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#333My family raises grass-fed beef and sadly, this article is spot-on when it comes to the lack of consistency with that product. We know of farmers who go to cattle auctions and buy the cheapest steers they can find -- often sick and/or emaciated ones coming from farms in financial distress -- then fatten them up on grain while giving them pasture to forage, and sell it as grass-fed at farmer's markets. Just install a…
I only buy grass fed beef from Australia, and lamb from New Zealand.
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#334My family raises grass-fed beef and sadly, this article is spot-on when it comes to the lack of consistency with that product. We know of farmers who go to cattle auctions and buy the cheapest steers they can find -- often sick and/or emaciated ones coming from farms in financial distress -- then fatten them up on grain while giving them pasture to forage, and sell it as grass-fed at farmer's markets. Just install a…
I think that you make some really great points around standards here. This whole notion of organic is nice, but the methods deemed "organic" is not always going to produce the best yields or quality of product. I appreciate the awareness that the organic movement has brought to the mainstream but it is not the panacea. Farmers who use environmentally sounds methods that are not "organic" are becoming more of the norm and I am seeing more "clean" food being promoted because I think the organic movement has swung too far to the other side of the pendulum. The answer will be somewhere in the middle.
I grew up on a farm and my dad produced the best beef I've ever eaten year in and year out. Nothing I can buy from my grocery store or even my local butcher can compare. While we were never certified organic we used sensible methods of raising our animals. We knew the farmers we bought our corn from that we use to make the feed. We bailed our own hay, chopped fresh grass, and yes - fed them grain. None of it certified organic but all very clean. Organic standards are such a mess that it doesn't mean a whole lot anyway as many of the food labels in the US.
Anyway, long rant, sorry. Great post. I really hope somebody steps up and can bring a movement forward that lets transparency back into our food markets again. That will do more for the quality of our food that most of the techniques since the worst offenders will be forced to change or go out of business to have the gaps filled with better providers. Keeping the costs down will be the big hurdle.
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here is a really good example of food differences between USA and Europe. Something as simple as eggs: http://www.thejournal.ie/refrigerate-eggs-usa-europe-1809120... TLDR: European regulations force more stringent regulations on producers of eggs; therefore eggs are cleaner and you can store them for weeks without refrigeration. IMHO they've also got a much nicer colour.
> IMHO they've also got a much nicer colour. The colour is just an additive put in chicken feed. You can get colour charts for the egg colours.
Have you got a source for that? First result on google indicates otherwise http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-color-chart-find-out-w...
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, this is a huge worry for me. The quality of food in the US is atrocious. When I was there, almost nothing tasted as it should, everything tasted bland and mildly sweet. The only way I found to get decent meat was to buy ultra-posh organic stuff at ridiculous prices, and then it would be no more than on par with the cheapest meat I could buy in Spain. Even chocolate is affected! TTIP is one of the worst things th…
For what it's worth, I live Ireland and moved here after 30 years in the US. I agree that the TTIP is a terrible idea (and feels a bit like imperialism chasing after me as I exit). Food on the continent is a sheer delight for the senses. However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. (To be fair, we _do_ have some pretty great cheese)
There's plenty of cheap crap food in Europe, but at least it's labeled as such. Pretending something is something it isn't, is lying to the customer. It should be illegal.
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#337Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why eggs in Denmark (as of my last visit) cost approximately 1.5x to 2.0x as much as eggs in the USA. There is a cost to having free-range eggs. There's a cost to controlling egg-quality so they can remain unwashed, and unrefrigerated for days. Now in the US, you can choose if you want to pay that cost and thus shop at different supermarkets that cater to your tastes. In the EU countries, you must pay the cos…
I buy Pasture Raised eggs from Whole Foods, about $6-$8 per dozen. Expensive but the only eggs I've found in the US with actual orange yolks like I found overseas. Even the farmers markets here disappoint. Pale yellow yolks are a very bad sign.
Pale yolks mean little. It just means the farmer added a different colouring agent.
http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2013/03/influencing-egg-yolk-...
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
> IMHO they've also got a much nicer colour. The colour is just an additive put in chicken feed. You can get colour charts for the egg colours.
Have you got a source for that? First result on google indicates otherwise http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-color-chart-find-out-w...
Ah, those are for the shell. I'm talking about the yolk.
http://blog.chickenwaterer.com/2013/03/influencing-egg-yolk-...
The shell appears to be genetic: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/why_are_chicken_eggs_different_...
Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food
#340I see a lot of Americans claiming that respecting origin naming laws is "stupid". Im guessing this is partly the general "disrupt" mentality At work, and partly because based on your bread, beer and cheese, you clearly have long ago "evolved" to have no tastebuds. Having seen what Americans insist on calling pizza, I can't imagine what you lot would do to other foods.
well the WTC ruled against the US using COO naming recently in the beef trade and it probably occurred elsewhere. So how do you label without having someone claim its unfair trade practices?