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The Trite Food List


JPW

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Serious Eats just published the results of their Sriracha taste test. They agreed with you about Shark (came in second to another Thai brand named Polar), but disagreed concerning Sriraja Panich. I am sure that if the rankings were done by someone who is Thai or steeped in Thai food the results might be different.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/06/taste-test-the-best-sriracha.html?ref=title

That's funny. AFAIK Sriraja Panich is the original brand. I would be hard pressed to taste a difference between it and Shark. I alternate brands and they both taste almost exactly the same to me. Both shark and Panich come in various heat levels, with "strong" being the hottest. It sounds like they got the mild one, because their tasters said it wasn't spicy. I only buy "strong". Notice how all the others have crap in them (sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate etc.) including Huy Fong (rooster).

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Slushies and pickled vegetables. I had a strawberry slushie at Radius a few weeks ago that was horrendous. And those damn pickled veggies are everywhere.

Yes to both, and it's rare when mega-restaurants *start* trends, which both 7-11 and Fat Tuesdays did with their slushies; usually, by the time something gets to TGIFriday's, it's made the rounds of every independent restaurant in the country.

And chefs: the pickles just aren't *that* good. I mean, they're okay, but we have nothing special here.

Despite the criticism of the article, small plates are post-trite; "small plates for sharing" are post-post-trite. It's one thing to offer them; it's another altogether to capitalize on them as your marketing plan. This is not Spain, nor will it ever be. Or, if it is, how about some Txakoli for $2 a glass?

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Hazelnuts. They're everywhere. Is there a World Hazelnut Consortium or something that went on a major marketing campaign?

Could it be related to the Nutella obcession? Every pastry chef has something Nutella on the menu.

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I may not be the first to have said this, but I fear we have reached the point where all food is trite.

My bag of Lays "limon"-flavored potato chips says (with emphasis in the original): "It all starts with farm-grown potatoes -"

We might need a whole separate thread on trite phrases.  Artisan and artisanal are ones that became trite long ago.  They come to mind because an hour ago I saw some advertising for "artisan dentistry". :huh:

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We might need a whole separate thread on trite phrases.  Artisan and artisanal are ones that became trite long ago.  They come to mind because an hour ago I saw some advertising for "artisan dentistry". :huh:

Does the dentist paint little Mona Lisas on your chicklets?

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^ I have a nominee! Cooked to, grilled to, whatever to... perfection!

I forget where this comes from, probably from an English-language menu in a non-English-speaking country quite a long time ago, but there's a laugh line in my family: "Grilled to the perfection of your choice."

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..."It all starts with farm-grown potatoes -"

That's greenwashing, which, aside from being trite, is deliberately misleading, flirts with fraud and is consistent with much of the deceptive labeling that plagues this nation's food culture.  Like Clyde's "grass-fed" hamburgers, which are nothing more than grain-finished steers, like 97.5% of all other beef out there, suckers.

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The naming convention DCX, for any value of X.  Especially when the logo incorporates the three stars and/or two bars.  Yeah, we get it.

What about DCDining? :(

I had lunch yesterday at a restaurant with white tablecloths. I fear that if too many more of these open, tablecloths will become trite.

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Countdown to trite: the (nature/f&b noun) and (nature/f&b noun) restaurant/cafe name, with Alexandria's Grape + Bean soon getting joined by Tap and Vine in Arlington and Birch & Barley in Logan Circle, all joining SF's Bourbon & Branch and NYC's Sundaes and Cones, Fig & Olive, and Grape and Grain.

well this got out of control

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Vadouvan is becoming trite. :lol:

Seriously, I've seen it in three restaurants in the past three weeks (and I'd never seen it in the area before), and just saw it mentioned in an article.

(What often happens in situations like this is that a single supplier introduces something to the marketplace, and a few chefs think it's a novel idea and nab it. Little do they know others are nabbing it too. :))

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4 hours ago, Marty L. said:

Things that have become most preposterously overpriced in recent years, presumably because the market will bear it:

-- mussels

-- juice

-- cocktails

-- ice cream/gelato

-- coffee (other than drip)

I find drip prices rising and getting stupid expensive and the other day in the midst of the heat and humidity I got a double scoop of tasty chocolate gelato from boccato in Clarendon that cost $5.  That seemed too high a price, though for the heat and humidity it certainly did the trick, and I realized I really didn't need a rather largish double scoop.  It wasn't the price that did that to me, but 2 scoops from boccato is rather substantial, as I discovered yesterday.

Back to the drip coffee thing...what really got me is that I've been getting pretty regular substandard drip at a local coffee shop...and went on to find that besides being really not that good imho (but oh so convenient) it was priced above everything else in the "hood".  

Ah well.   so much for that drip.

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A few weeks ago a friend suggested meeting for lunch at Fruitive. Nothing on the menu really appealed to me, so I got the avocado toast, which iirc was served with crumbled feta and za'atar (the online menu says something about pesto mayo and oregano). It was delicious.

Last week some friends asked us to join them last-minute at Silver in Bethesda. I went for the company, wasn't really hungry, so I got the avocado toast, which consisted of "Avocado mix, queso fresco, radishes, pomegranate seeds, basil oil on rustic sourdough topped with cilantro". The "avocado mix" was smashed avocado with chopped onion. It was not good, and reinforced my belief that whoever is behind Silver and Silver Diner just doesn't get it.

There seem to be a lot of people who think More is Better.

I believe Less is More.

First time I remember having something like avocado toast was at the newly-opened Cork on 14th St. A friend and I were at the bar and Tom Brown brought us a plate of toasted baguette (I think) with avocado, pistachios, pistachio oil, and duck confit. It was good but too rich, too many flavors. The dish made its way onto the menu without the duck and is still there (I just looked on line). Less is More. I've been making that and serving it at home ever since. 

A really good avocado on really good toast, with a bit of coarse salt, is a delight, even if it does meet the definition of trite.

I have a loaf of homemade Danish rye bread on the counter; I think I'll toast a few slices and put some avocado on it for lunch.

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3 hours ago, porcupine said:

There seem to be a lot of people who think More is Better.

I believe Less is More.

Koji Terano calls this "the cuisine of subtraction." It's also a lot like Bach, and to a lesser degree, Mozart: Think if there's anything else you can remove that won't harm the item.

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19 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Koji Terano calls this "the cuisine of subtraction." It's also a lot like Bach, and to a lesser degree, Mozart: Think if there's anything else you can remove that won't harm the item.

"Too many notes."

Also, Coco Chanel's famous advice.

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