10 worst dining trends of the last decade

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by Legs

I was referring to the curry that *I* make, which is indeed yellow and not the colours of the rainbow.

They make food coloring, you know. Perhaps some sort of putrescent green?

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Ruby Tuesdays has excellent sliders. They grill the bun with butter.

The crabcake one is to die for.

Krystal? Not so much.

[D. Scarlatti]

How about the "tall food"? Or is that still a good trend? I've had the tall food.

[Legs]

Boneless wings = nasty,

If I'm going to have chicken wings I'll just have chicken wings, thanks.

[D. Scarlatti]

[erimir]

Originally Posted by Cynical-Chick

The crabcake one is to die for.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around something from Ruby Tuesday's being "to die for."

/foodsnob

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

They use jumbo lump crabmeat and top it with a spicy/sweet chili sauce.

[Qingdai]

You're never too poor to starve to death.

Tapas is another one of those things that are good in context (in Spain while out drinking, for example), but end up being little food for much money here.

[seebs]

Originally Posted by erimir

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around something from Ruby Tuesday's being "to die for."

/foodsnob

I actually really, really, like their burgers. Jesse says they have some amazing fish, too.

[Janet]

What I like about Ruby Tuesday is that they make their chicken piccata without garlic, the way it is made in Italy but almost never in American restaurants. As someone with a garlic allergy, it's refreshing to be able to order one of my favorite Italian dishes rather than always making it myself.

Boneless wings is one of my favorite examples of what's wrong with American advertising rules. Apparently you can lie blatantly in your slogan or headline as long as you tell the truth in the disclaimers at the end. I started noticing this when I would hear radio commercials for boneless wings that said very quickly at the end, "made from formed breast meat". I really, really hate that they let advertisers equivocate like that.

Another one that gets me is that Wendy's slogan is, "It's way better than fast food." It is fast food! How is that blatant lie allowed to be their slogan? It's not in Canada, where they had to change the slogan to "It's way delicious." There are so many reasons I love Canada, but seeing that ad on the CBC is a nice reminder of one of them.

[erimir]

Not only that, but those chicken nugget things they started that campaign with aren't even as good as what you could get at Applebee's, much less a real restaurant.

[Legs]

allergic to garlic

[Crumb]

That's tragic is what that is.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I would absolutely die if I suddenly developed a garlic allergy.

[Qingdai]

Of garlic overdose?

[Corona688]

Their dislike of molecular gastronomy looks pretty thin. They make no specific complaint at all, or even explain what it is. Looking it up leaves me no more enlightened, since it's just a logical extension on the basic, basic cooking science they taught us in high school home-ec.

[Ernie Lundquist]

I see what you mean. The wiki article makes it just sound like it's just very precise cooking.

As I understand it, though, it's more just nontraditional cooking techniques and sort of gimmicky presentations and things like that.

Here's a video of some eyelinered hipster explaining some of his techniques:

YouTube - Chicago Molecular Gastronomy Restaurant...

So it's focused more on presentation than on taste.

[Corona688]

Odd. Nothing to do with the term, that. I suspect someone's discipline has been hijacked.

[livius drusus]

Here's an old thread on the subject with a couple of interesting links. I still hurl at the tofu ball bearings.

[Ernie Lundquist]

Originally Posted by Corona688

Odd. Nothing to do with the term, that. I suspect someone's discipline has been hijacked.

Well, yeah, but really most of the article is about things that just got too trendy, overdone, and maybe bastardized, for people who are exposed to that kind of thing a lot.

But what would molecular gastronomy even mean to a purist? It seems like a kind of inherently meaningless term to me. I'm pretty sure Taco Bell burritos have molecules in them.

[Corona688]

Originally Posted by Ernie Lundquist

But what would molecular gastronomy even mean to a purist? It seems like a kind of inherently meaningless term to me. I'm pretty sure Taco Bell burritos have molecules in them.

My brain has coughed up a few more things by now. Science News had a few articles on how chemistry relates to food texture... crystalline and amorphous phases of chocolate, the weird wibbly-slidy-web-chain-thing greasy things tend to link up in, why cooked water chestnut is still crunchy while cooked carrot is not, etc. But they didn't call it 'molecular gastronomy', just 'food chemistry'.

[livius drusus]

That's everything, though. A heaping plate of Fettucine alla Bolognese from your local trattoria is all about polysaccharides and lactic acid tenderizing the protein molecules, but that's not what the term "molecular gastronomy" has come to mean. It began as scientific investigation of cooking processes, but more commonly today (and certainly in the top 10 article) the term refers to cooking methodologies that employ techniques and tools more common to a chemistry lab than a kitchen to produce foods that vary wildly in texture and presentation from their traditional brothers.

[slimshady2357]

I had no idea what it was either and the Top 10 article did nothing to enlighten me.

I was too lazy to find out and just thought "keep checking FF, someone will explain it sooner or later". I have to admit it was more 'later' than 'sooner', but I can hardly complain as I was too damn lazy to find out myself. So thanks to Ernie, Corona and liv for finally coming through

The FF... where everything is explained eventually.

[BrotherMan]

Think Geek! Because serendipity is a filthy money grubbing whore.