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How we're scammed into eating phony food

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Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#421

Post by jdminhbg »

rukuu001 wrote: post #84
cyberferret wrote: post #7

I am surprised this isn't more commonly known. Locally (Australia), there has been recent furore over the 'blueberries' in most foods (including blueberry muffins etc.) not actually being blueberries, but a bluey chemical gel. Also, a local delicacy, the Barramundi fish is commonly replaced in restaurants with the cheaper, imported, less tasty, commercially raised Nile perch. Same with prawns, where beautiful sea fre…

Additionally, most Australians (don't know about the rest of the world) have never eaten an actual scallop. Mostly they're discs hole-punched from skate wings (a skate's a bit like a stingray)

Skate wing is legitimately tasty. It definitely has a shellfish taste to it, so I can see how you could fool someone into thinking it was a scallop.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#422

Post by DasIch »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #108
DasIch wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can expect that because EU regulation requires it to be that way.

If that's the reason you expect it, the regulation is the sole justification for its own existence. I feel quite comfortable calling that "stupid".

Now matter how much you may want to get an authentic product, you can't expect to get it without regulation. As the article shows very well. Therefore the reason for the regulation can't be the expectation itself.

The reason for that regulation is a combination of protectionism on one side and a desire to be well informed about the products you're eating.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#423

Post by pvaldes »

bitherd wrote: post #392
pvaldes wrote: post #227

The article is filled with mistakes and misunderstandings or maybe this guy eats in really terrible places: Spanish people weren't buying "fake olive oil" when poisoned. This was canola oil, was advertised as canola oil, and everybody in Spain can spot the difference among the wine and cider or between the cheapest olive oil and other vegetable oils. All this paragraph is false, including the “No one is checking, Olm…

The cheap imported rape seed oil blamed for the Spanish epidemic was probably a cover-up, it was actually pesticides being used in the cultivation of tomatoes. ( Posted earlier today here on HN: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/aug/25/research.h... )

A lot of conspirative theories arose of course, but the oficial version was that some oil destined to industrial uses was imported from French to Spain and sold door-to-door as edible oil by some unscrupulous sellers.

The case was not repeated since that, so tomato pesticides aren't really a strong candidate. A lot of the tomatoes eaten in Germany, Holland and other European countries are from Spain (and pass strict quality tests in those countries) and nobody developped the same symptoms ever. Tomato production created a new type of spanish landscape in fact, that we call "the sea of plastic".

In my family we use exclusively olive oil for all. In any case, I will love to taste the sazanqua oil, that is the equivalent to an olive tree for japanese and is reputed also as excelent. Have somebody tried it?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#424

Post by cylinder »

joshontheweb wrote: post #420
cylinder wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only buy grass fed beef from Australia, and lamb from New Zealand.

The best steak I've ever had in my life was at Rockpool in Melbourne. It has ruined me. I can't really order steak and enjoy it anywhere else anymore.

Hah, I will have to try it. They carry Wagyu steaks from a notable local Victorian farmer, right?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#425

Post by ascagnel_ »

yitchelle wrote: post #70
Tomte wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cannot be, that's the point. If Sri Lanka exports tea as "Darjeeling", it's automatically fake.

Surely, it is just the name that is different. If we can call the tea leaves by their botanical name, would that make it more correct?

Or any other generic name, like sparkling wine vs. Champegne.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#426

Post by casta »

orf wrote: post #273
coldtea wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pies of all kinds, fish 'n' chips, traditional sausages, good old roast dinners, chicken tikka masala Sort of makes my point. None of these have anybody (of statistically significant percentage) outside the UK salivating, or have ever created something like a "British restaurant" to be found abroad (like there are French or Italian restaurants everywhere). And even the best of this list was invented by taking from…

> None of these have anybody (of statistically significant percentage) outside the UK salivating Have you ever tried a traditional English pie? I'm a bit biased obviously, but as an anecdote my Italian co-worker who moved here recently absolutely loves them (and I can't help but say 'who ate all the pies, guido?' to him). They don't have that kind of pastry in their cuisine at all and he can't get enough of them. It'…

Wouldn't an English pie be similar to something like "torta pasqualina"?

It's not usual to see a pie with meat in Italy, usually its filling it's all vegetables/eggs, seldom some ham. There are plenty though.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#427

Post by orf »

Yhippa wrote: post #330
orf wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of these have anybody (of statistically significant percentage) outside the UK salivating Have you ever tried a traditional English pie? I'm a bit biased obviously, but as an anecdote my Italian co-worker who moved here recently absolutely loves them (and I can't help but say 'who ate all the pies, guido?' to him). They don't have that kind of pastry in their cuisine at all and he can't get enough of them. It'…

What do you consider to be a traditional English pie? I need to make sure I have one of these.

Steak and Ale, Steak and Kidney, Chicken and Mushroom, Pheasant and other game (that's not as common though). If you want a great one then make sure it's from a small, non-chain pub somewhere in the countryside for the full English experience.

Pork Pies are pies as well I guess, but they are a different beast and as nice (no gravy, solid filling) unless you get an amazing melton mowbray one.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#428

Post by orf »

casta wrote: post #426
orf wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of these have anybody (of statistically significant percentage) outside the UK salivating Have you ever tried a traditional English pie? I'm a bit biased obviously, but as an anecdote my Italian co-worker who moved here recently absolutely loves them (and I can't help but say 'who ate all the pies, guido?' to him). They don't have that kind of pastry in their cuisine at all and he can't get enough of them. It'…

Wouldn't an English pie be similar to something like "torta pasqualina"? It's not usual to see a pie with meat in Italy, usually its filling it's all vegetables/eggs, seldom some ham. There are plenty though.

> Wouldn't an English pie be similar to something like "torta pasqualina"?

Nope, nothing like that, I think. English pies use thicker pastry, are filled with gravy and never anything green. Something like this[1] gives you an idea. Perhaps it's the sort of equivalent, but the Italian I work with says there is nothing like them that he's ever had in Italy.

1. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3148692/dads-beef-mushroo...

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#429

Post by avree »

Symbiote wrote: post #360
avree wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make snacks any harder to resist than salt. From a food production standpoint, MSG is a popular additive because it offers an affordable way to enhance the flavor of a wide variety of savory foods. MSG can also be used to reduce the amount of sodium in foods - it contains 30 percent less sodium than table salt, but its flavor-boosting ability keeps low-sodium foods palatable. All MSG does is add umami flav…

> All MSG does is add … an indicator of nutrition I think you've made the point: not-very-nutritious food can be dosed with MSG, and then it seems nutritious. That's what people object to.

My point is that salt also produces that effect. And sugar. And bitterness, for that matter. Literally every flavor is a biological indicator of nutrition.

MSG is no 'worse' than anything else.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#430

Post by dragonwriter »

coldtea wrote: post #354
wtbob wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For UK of course it's even worse, they're actively known for the bad taste and cuisine. Only by people who've no idea what they're talking about. British food got a bad reputation due to, I think, three factors: first, it's the native cuisine of the English-speaking world (which means both that people don't notice it and that there are a lot of cheap, poorly-executed examples to hand); second, rationing during and…

> Native English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish cuisines are all delicious. Anybody that cares for it the way people globally care about French, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Japanese, even German etc food? One can find more Korean BBQ joints than British restaurants the world over... Let's put it this way: some countries have more interesting (to the world) cuisines than others. Not every national cuisine is of the sam…

> Anybody that cares for it the way people globally care about French, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Japanese, even German etc food?

As I understand, there was a long down period essentially as a side effect of the way industrialization played out in Britain, but that's turned around recently internally and there is growing international acceptance of the British cuisines among people who are into food.

It hasn't reached the same kind of popular currency as some other cuisines, globally, but I'd not be strongly inclined to think that's due to inherent quality factors, rather than awareness.

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