Many foods that have become common in my country (the US) since the Great Depression or at least post WWII just don't seem right to me. I'm not talking foods that taste bad, but foods that don't seem good enough to warrant their popularity.
The two big things I see as becoming massively overrated are chicken breast and cheese, worst when put together in dishes like chicken Alfredo, chicken Caesar and chicken pizza, but still odd to me when they're added to a dish that doesn't really benefit from using either.
For example cheap shredded cheese from a bag has gotten into everything it seems. I had some in the house salad in a restaurant the other day. Why put this shit on a salad? It doesn't add any flavor there, just like it's doesn't in your burrito. It's not doing anything in a potato salad, either, but increasingly I've seen it added there as well. And on chili? You just turn it into a gooey mess while undermining whatever heat the chili might have had. It's like they're just throwing it in everything because it's cheap and most people will say yes without even thinking if you offer them cheese on something.
Then there's chicken breast. In a world where just about any protein short of tofu is more flavorful why ever choose chicken breast? I can see it in home cooking where someone is trying to eat "healthy" on a budget. But when going out to eat when more flavorful choices are available? I don't get it.
Other popular things I don't get include ranch dressing on pizza (wtf?), turkey sandwich meat (tastes like salty nothing) and ground turkey (why?).
How about you, /ck/?
autism
>>7417209
chicken breast is fucking delicious, assuming you're talking about a breast from a good chicken.
The reason why chicken breast is flavorless is when it comes from factory farmed chickens. It suffers because the breed is selected for speed of growth rather than flavor, and because they grow so fast the bird isn't old enough at the time of slaughter to be tasty.
This is one of those things that was tasty in your grandma's day (when they killed a chicken from the farm out back) but suffers greatly these days with flavorless factory-farmed birds.
As for the popularity of adding chicken breast to everything (like a salad), people who are concerned about fat content like that: it's a lean, inoffensive meat that can be added to whatever dish for extra protein. Add chicken to a salad and now it's a low-calorie whole meal.
>>7417209
>turkey sandwich meat (tastes like salty nothing) and ground turkey (why?).
People want this for the same reason they want chicken breast: it's lean and low-fat. Nevermind the fact that it's nearly flavorless, and that ground turkey has an awful mealy texture.
chicken breast is easy mode: the meat
also cheese is great in a burrito if it's good flavourful cheese
>>7417255
No turkey breast is terrible. It only works better in a handful of dishes, mostly fried dishes. In literally every single other country in the world thigh meat cost more than breast meat because its much more flavorful
>>7417268
I was talking about chicken, anon. Chicken. Can you read?
Also, same thing that applies to chickens applies to turkeys. Factory farmed meat = flavorless. Wild or close to it = tasty. Ever gone turkey hunting and bagged a wild turkey? Yeah, the dark meat is still better, but the breast is damn good.
Only people who eat the flavorless factory farmed breast meat are health nuts.
>>7417255
Agreed. When I spring for a chicken I get one from a farm I know, and it's far tastier than a supermarket chicken. But what most restaurants are using when they serve chicken breast is pretty much the same commodity grade stuff they sell in bags in the supermarket. I don't get why anyone would ever order that when they go out to eat.
>>7417258
That's what I was thinking. It's not a matter of taste, but belief that this stuff is a better choice than something tasty.
>>7417255
>Add chicken to a salad and now it's a low-calorie whole meal.
Or not, depending on the amount and type of dressing involved.
>>7417275
>Only people who eat the flavorless factory farmed breast meat are health nuts.
Which is kind of funny, considering there's no reason to think industrially farmed meat is a particularly healthy thing to eat.
I notice in the US people go for shitty food in bulk that has shelf life. Like presliced bread. It's garbage, especially that wonderbread shit. I wouldn't feed it to my dog. They also like those shitty frozen burger patties, flavorless shredded "cheez product", iceburg lettuce, canned foods galore, boxed cake mixes, shit like that. I know people who that describes 90% of their diet. It's trash.
I'd rather have high quality ingredients and make something that tastes like something. Fuck iceburg. It shouldn't exist.
I like both chicken and turkey breast, though. Turkey is delicious. I put it with cranberry sauce (homemade). Chickun is good any way you have it. Gains birds.
>>7417450
>I know people who that describes 90% of their diet. It's trash.
I know people like that, too: reluctant to spend money on food because they'd rather spend it on a new truck or a giant television. Advertising plays a part in it. Cheap trash was very successfully sold as modern and convenient to a good chunk of the country to the point where it just became normal for many people. And if you live in a part of the country where doing what's normal is seen as a kind of virtue this is the trash you're eating, especially if you feel like you don't really have the money to spend on something better. Let's not forget that many of these trashy foods are so cheap that many Americans are shocked when they see what something better actually costs in terms of ingredients and time spent cooking.
>>7417548
I eat healthy for less than these kind of people spend on food. And I'm a food snob, too, so that's saying something. They pay more to receive utter garbage. It's not a money problem, it's a stupid problem.
>>7417548
What's sad is that cooking from scratch is often cheaper than buying box meals and other convenience foods. Bulk dry beans are cheaper than canned beans. Buying some produce & and a little meat is cheaper than canned soups. A lot of imitation products (like fake parmesan cheese) are cheaper than their real equivalents (parmagiano-reggiano) on a per weight basis, but the real stuff is so much more flavorful that less of it is required on a given dish and in the end the prices are similar, and often in favor of the real thing.
>>Cheap trash was very successfully sold as modern and convenient
Yes indeed. Sad but true. A lot of convenience foods introduced after WWII resulted in a loss of cooking skills for much of the population.
>>7417552
>it's a stupid problem.
Well it's either not knowing how to cook or not wanting to put the time in to cook well.>>7417560
>A lot of imitation products (like fake parmesan cheese) are cheaper than their real equivalents (parmagiano-reggiano) on a per weight basis, but the real stuff is so much more flavorful that less of it is required on a given dish and in the end the prices are similar
This can be true, but normal folks see the real stuff as luxury foods for rich people..
>>7417255
that's not the only reason why
many lower end brands just are using the old meat glue trick to piece together breasts
