Posted by BOB BLACKSHAW on 24/10/2022 07:07:33:
Just noticed this post, there's no such thing as junk food,… these posts feel like a snob thing to me.
Bob
I agree, except in so far 'Junk Food' is useful shorthand for cheap fare full of fat, salt and sugary goodness! And as such junk food fills a gap – for me usually when travelling, or when I'm too tired to make a 'proper' meal like Baked Beans on toast, but there are many occasions when convenience food is a handy option.
Might be a snob thing, but I suspect small-c conservatism plays a part too: the older me is increasingly reluctant to try anything new! Anyone else remember the joys of curly sandwiches and BR brown windsor soup! Back in the day, British food was either wonderful or horrible, mostly horrible unless you enjoyed gristle or time-expired chip shop oil. May have been accepted because most people where taste impaired smokers!
Am I the only one to have tried everything from Scorpion in Candy to posh restaurants? Classy restaurants usually. not always, serve excellent food but I'm not convinced they're value for money. The best meal I've ever had was fish, chips and mushy peas. Wonderful because they'd just changed the oil, and I was cold, wet and very hungry!
Remember the craze for 'real beer'? Started I think as a rebellion against poorly kept beer and the brewery's attempt to improve keeping with mass-produced homogenous beers like Watney's Starlight. Starlight was a good bet in many pubs, as were chilled lagers, but not as enjoyable as a well-kept conventional beer. Trouble was many pubs struggled with conventional beer and it was often more-or-less 'off'. Not that it mattered after the fourth pint.
Any wine buffs on the forum? Strong evidence that fine wines are believed to be superior despite blind testing showing that no-one can tell the difference between them and less expensive brews.
National taste is peculiar too. Americans think the nasty gritty stuff sold by Hershey is chocolate, and have a peculiar notion about cheese. Scots eat salted porridge and sheep stomachs full of offal. Spam is the Korean national dish and for decades after WW2 the British preferred ice-cream with no cream in it. British bangers are so called because sausages full of water go pop when fried. No way would I eat Norwegian Rakfisk, or live octopus in Japan. Demonstrating I'm a real man by competitively eating an extra strong chilli seems insane to me.
A lot of this stuff is all in the mind. Mere facts matter little when we believe something to be good or bad. I've deliberately eaten horse, it's rather nice. Strangely many Brits jibe at eating Black Beauty for sentimental reasons that don't apply to Larry the Lamb.
We're all bonkers.
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Dave