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Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#111

Post by douche »

beat wrote: post #24
donretag wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobster is another great example. It used to be a poor man's food and now it commands a high price.

Interestingly, lobster is pretty cheap now, due to abnormally high numbers of catch-sized lobsters (probably something to do with global warming). There's a restaurant here in town that specializes in basically lobster everything, and it's not out of line price-wise with standard Minneapolis hipster fare. If lobster prices ever go back up, they're toast. Their whole menu would skyrocket.

The reason lobster catches have been increasing is that the lobstermen are effectively farming them. They are putting out so much bait and providing so much feed, while at the same time only harvesting young, relatively immature lobsters. The amount of eggs a large, full-grown lobster can carry is exponentially higher than what the catchable ones can carry, and lobsters can live a very long time.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#112

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #85
js2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For $50 I'd hope so! That's an expensive meal sans alcohol. I've had great meals at every price point, but above $25/person I'm expecting a good meal, above $50/person a great meal, and above $75-100 an exempelary meal.

Yeah, when I think of great cheap local food, I'm thinking of e.g. this awesome Cajun place where you can get a big plate of amazing chicken etouffee, garlic bread, and a beer for around $10. I might go as far as "cheap for what you get" for a truly great $20/person place. $50/person may be delicious, but it's not "cheap" by any reasonable definition.

Depends what you want out of food. I personally go to high end restaurants because I want to see what chefs are capable of doing with all the new techniques they invent, or come up with new combinations, or use familiar things in new ways. This sort of cooking is not easy or cheap work. So when restaurants are able to be inventive well under the $100 mark, then yes, it's cheap - unless you think labor should be free.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#113

Post by ghaff »

douche wrote: post #110
ghaff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relatively :-) Lobster meat in Maine still runs about $40 per pound. It may be about half that if you cook soft shells and pick your own meat but prices for live lobster are still $1 to $2 per pound higher this year at this time than they were the last few.

No way - it's been $5-8/pound this summer, and that's buying live lobsters from the grocery store, not off the boats on the coast where it's cheaper. Of course, last year and the year before the prices were historically low; I think I bought hard-shells once for $2.50 a pound.

Well, yes. I was talking retail, not wholesale but my point was that lobster is still pricey per pound compared to other protein at retail (and wholesale). Last week soft shells were running about $6 per pound at lobster pounds and other local retail sources. They were more like $4 to $5 last year.

[EDIT: The $40-ish/lb was for picked lobster meat.]

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#114

Post by evgen »

paperpunk wrote: post #94
evgen wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And except for a handful they are all very, very bad. Whenever I travel from London back to the bay area my dining consists of maxican and sushi (London sushi has two modes: terribly sad or incredibly expensive.) As a simple example, the only way to get a corn tortilla that is not a deep fried hard taco shell is to either make your own (by ordering masa from Amazon) or arrange for delivery by a service, you cannot fi…

When I lived in London I would buy corn tortillas "that are not deep free hard taco shells" at least once a week, from the chain grocery stores you find everywhere.

Not real yellow corn tortillas you didn't. I am literally checking waitrose, tesco, aldi, and sainsbury online right now to confirm. Not a single one has a corn tortilla that is not deep fried or else a corn and wheat blend. Perhaps you do not actually know what a corn tortilla looks or tastes like, but there is not one for sale on the shelves in any major chain in London.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#115

Post by DanBC »

evgen wrote: post #114
paperpunk wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I lived in London I would buy corn tortillas "that are not deep free hard taco shells" at least once a week, from the chain grocery stores you find everywhere.

Not real yellow corn tortillas you didn't. I am literally checking waitrose, tesco, aldi, and sainsbury online right now to confirm. Not a single one has a corn tortilla that is not deep fried or else a corn and wheat blend. Perhaps you do not actually know what a corn tortilla looks or tastes like, but there is not one for sale on the shelves in any major chain in London.

Are you look for "gluten free tortilla" or "corn tortilla"? Because gluten free should turn some up.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#116

Post by scholia »

khuey wrote: post #109
scholia wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it's based on a very limited amount of experience, but it has been consistently bad experience. Neither of us is American but we've eaten Chinese food in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the UK, among other places.

Well, if you're ever in San Francisco again, I'd be happy to take you both to good Chinese food. Email is in the profile.

That's a very kind offer. I used to visit San Francisco a couple of times a year, but now I'm semi-retired, I may not make it for a decade ;-)

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#117

Post by evgen »

DanBC wrote: post #115
evgen wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not real yellow corn tortillas you didn't. I am literally checking waitrose, tesco, aldi, and sainsbury online right now to confirm. Not a single one has a corn tortilla that is not deep fried or else a corn and wheat blend. Perhaps you do not actually know what a corn tortilla looks or tastes like, but there is not one for sale on the shelves in any major chain in London.

Are you look for "gluten free tortilla" or "corn tortilla"? Because gluten free should turn some up.

May eldest daughter has a wheat allergy so we ride the gluten-free train frequently. Over here the gluten-free fare generally uses rice flour, some tapoica starch or potato starch, and your standard stabilizers and thickeners. Gluten-free tortilla on the sites is also a fail, but in one case I found a gluten-free wrap that was a tortilla-like thing made from the same ingredients as the standard gluten-free baking mix. As I suggested in my previous comment, for most people in the UK a "corn tortilla" is actually a corn and wheat blend (usually less than 1/3 corn.)

As an example of the sort of corn tortilla that I try to find, here is the place I order from in London when I do not have time to pull out the press and make my own: http://www.coolchile.co.uk/mexican-shop/corn-tortillas

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#118

Post by beat »

barrkel wrote: post #88
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's why waiters at such fancy places seem like they're insulting you - they're actually insulting you! Because of this, the restaurants are expensive. Of course they're expensive. Not because the food is superior, but because the kind of people who would eat there expect it. At the best, putting prices on the menu is a faux pas. If you have to think about the cost, you don't belong. It sounds like you're saying…

And on the counterpoint, the best meals of my life have mostly been in the French style, usually with matched French wines too.

Yeah. Something I think that was lost in the original article was that French and Japanese technique really are superior to other cuisines. There's a reason they're so dominant.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#119

Post by __derek__ »

manachar wrote: post #16
beat wrote: post #11

Something not really touched on here is how poor people's ethnic food can become fashionable and achieve high prices and desirability, often far outside its origins. Consider the recent bone broth craze, for example. Here in Minneapolis, the current trend is Southern food, often made by hipsters who grew up in Minnesota and have no real cultural ties to the South. For me, with my half-southern roots, it's kind of biz…

Quinoa is a great example of this trend and the positive and negative this can bring to poor regions. Small overview: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.h...

The negative, it turns out, was overstated.[1]

[1]: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/31/472453674/you...

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