Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It’s an age of marvels

blog.plover.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 425 posts

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#241

Post by MisterBastahrd »

selimthegrim wrote: post #220
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. For example, one staple dish of Cajuns is called "rice and gravy." Essentially, you sear thinly cut 7-steaks, remove them, cook down some trinity, then add the steaks back with some water or broth and seasonings. That's it. The steaks simmer in the broth for hours and create their own gravy. We serve it over rice, usually accompanied by some roux peas (tres petit pois cooked in a roux with onions and bacon) and…

Are 7 steaks the same as hamburger steaks? e: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-bone_roast I guess I’ll know now what it means to miss New Orleans when I leave. And here I was worrying about not being able to find collards and turkey necks.

Yeah, that's a 7 steak. I guess most people sorta see it as a trash cut, but it's got enough fat in the spaces between muscles that it ends up being a nice gravy. Collards and turkey necks are not hard to find out here. Just don't ever expect to find any good hoghead cheese. I tried some Boar's Head recently and that reminded me of the 1970s era images of stuff suspended in aspic.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#242

Post by oblio »

RecycledEle wrote: post #182
CooCooCaCha wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at what cost? How much should we sacrifice so that blueberries exist year round?

> But at what cost? How much should we sacrifice so that blueberries exist year round? Look at the price tag on the blueberries. That is the cost. The opportunity cost is that the money could have neen spent on something else. The great thing about a free market is that if you think resources should be allocated elsewhere, you can do that. Your labor is your resource. I find greenhouses to be wonderfully environmenta…

> Look at the price tag on the blueberries. That is the cost.

We're absolute garbage at including externalities like pollution or long term effects into prices. Look at incredibly cheap plastic. It's a massive danger to everything yet a plastic bag costs cents.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#243

Post by oblio »

ks2048 wrote: post #153
boxed wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the cost we are paying that you imply is too high?

People mention environmental costs. There are also geopolitical costs. I write this from Guatemala, where 70 years ago, a budding 10-year-old democracy was destroyed so that Americans could continue to get cheap bananas. And the country never really recovered. Of course, from technology and "globalization", I think the abundance of American supermarkets would still have occurred, but this has been optimized at the ex…

> I write this from Guatemala, where 70 years ago, a budding 10-year-old democracy was destroyed so that Americans could continue to get cheap bananas. And the country never really recovered.

Worse, they mocked it and still do with terms such as "banana republic". They haven't even learned any better.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#244

Post by kjkjadksj »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

There are tradeoffs of course, its not all a direct upgrade. The deli section has certainly gotten a lot worse than 100 years ago. No capicola anywhere that I've seen. Cheese offerings leave a lot to be desired now that they've been reduced to the same half dozen usual suspects. All the food in that deli might be entirely monopolized by boars head or dietz and watson. Pickles, same thing with the vlassic/mt olive race to the bottom. I'm not even sure we can really honestly say the bread situation has improved other than the fact a machine now slices it.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#245

Post by Intralexical »

genewitch wrote: post #189
marcosdumay wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? Well, aluminum was supposed to be luxurious and everything... But I think before that they'd pick a piece of plastic packaging and be without words to explain their marvel.

bakelite was patented in 1909 - i understand franklin was before 1907, but the idea of "plastic" as something separate from wood, metal, and glass has been around over a century.

Bakelite also wasn't very good though. Stiff, heavy, brittle.

Modern sheet plastic packaging gives the impression of a soap bubble that we've somehow frozen in time and made solid.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#246

Post by kjkjadksj »

qlm wrote: post #35
Rinzler89 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists Mate, the 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the Walmart 5-gallon bucket of Snickers and the giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms blows my present day European mind, let alone someone from 1900.

The quantity of chocolate for sale in bulk certainly is surprising. Unfortunately I find American chocolate to be borderline inedible.

You only really see kids eating m&ms. There's good American chocolate too, american chefs can read and follow a recipe just fine.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#247

Post by oblio »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #27
ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

>I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists Mate, the 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the Walmart 5-gallon bucket of Snickers and the giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms blows my present day European mind, let alone someone from 1900.

Those are the ones that scared you?!?

Walgreens/CSV literal buckets of medicine like Advil and whatnot were some of the scariest things I've seen, and worst of all, people DEFENDING them.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#248

Post by mtalantikite »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #208
mtalantikite wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, same with my father. He would tell stories about going to the markets in Algeria when he was a kid and how it was totally normal to have fruit sellers cut into a melon right then and there to give you a sample. If it sucked you just wouldn't buy it, so there was always competition for having the best produce in the market. And this was him complaining to me about poor quality produce in the US when I was a kid in…

> Food just tastes better in other countries. This should be corrected to fruit and vegetables taste better in regions where they are grown. Which is obvious, because picking them before they are ripe and transporting them thousands of kilometers for days or weeks is going to yield a less tasty fruit or vegetable. Also, plants bred for longevity of their fruit will obviously not be optimizing for taste.

Sure, maybe! Although I've generally found that the overall quality of ingredients tends to be better in the places I've traveled compared to the US. That's not to say I haven't picked up great figs at a bodega in the mission, or don't get good berries at the farmers markets near me in NYC. But if I walk into the produce aisle in most grocery stores in the US these days there is abundance, yet a lack of quality.

Personally, when it comes to fresh produce, I'd rather only be able to eat mostly what can be grown in season somewhat close to me (which would include greenhouses), rather than be able to get anything all year round and having it suck.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#249

Post by cess11 »

iamthirsty wrote: post #228
cess11 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people would consider liberalism rather mainstream.

Depends on your point of view, and what you're referring to. The word means two different things, depending on your side of the spectrum.

Weird vague-posting.

Are you aware of some mainstream liberalism that didn't kick off with guillotines or muskets? Then make it clear.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#250

Post by chasd00 »

rmccue wrote: post #237
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. For example, one staple dish of Cajuns is called "rice and gravy." Essentially, you sear thinly cut 7-steaks, remove them, cook down some trinity, then add the steaks back with some water or broth and seasonings. That's it. The steaks simmer in the broth for hours and create their own gravy. We serve it over rice, usually accompanied by some roux peas (tres petit pois cooked in a roux with onions and bacon) and…

As someone who’s not American, I’m unclear; is going to a butcher not an option? Have they been competed out of the market by supermarkets?

from a google search: "A 7 bone steak is a cut of beef from the chuck section of a cow's front shoulder, which is considered a tough area of the animal.". You're not going to find that in a regular grocery store because not many people will buy it. You will find every other cut of beef, pork, and poultry considered edible though.

You can go to a butcher but they're less common than a regular grocery store. Also, butchers usually have less selection since they're a smaller operation.

EDIT: i live in Dallas, Texas and "HEB" is just another brand of grocery store so "having to go to HEB" just means having to go to the grocery store.

Post reply on HN