Trendy Foods: Should We Love Them or Hate Them?

[Burt Blank]

4. Things made trendy by journo's, food writers or chefs.

Many years ago Egon Ronay wrote in the Guardian that Liverpool's Yuet Ben served the most authentic Chinese food outside China he had ever eaten. Over night this unlicensed (corkage charge) cafe was inundated by sweater over the shoulders gaurdiannista's brandishing ostentatious bottles of wine.Liverpool has the oldest Chinese community in Europe. I remember as a teenager there were a few caffs, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The terraces in Nelson street would empty the ground floors of furniture and set up tables. The Guardian article was the death knell of authenticity.
Mr Lau's cafe was one of the few authentic noodle places in the UK. All the noodles were hand spun. Old man Lau was proud of his skills and would give a demonstration most nights. He then appeared on the Bruce Forsyth Generation Game. He got so busy he moved from above the abattoir in Stanley Rd to a converted mansion in Sefton Park.
Scratchards was my parents wine merchants, their cellars were amazing. They were the sole UK importers and distributors of Federico Paternina Banda Azul Rioja. Once again the Guardian wrote an article saying this wine was amazing. The vineyard cancelled the contract and signed to a major supermarket distributor. Within 3 years all of our favorite vintages had vanished.

 

[epicuric]

Ah, another dimension! The effect of flawed health arguments, and food snobbery. You could probably go back 70 years and reverse your sequence of beef cuts. Flawed science then dictated that fatty cuts were bad for you, and the trend began towards sirloin and fillet. Recently, balance has returned, and many of us (call us the 'trendy' ones) go in search of the older, fattier and much tastier cuts like skirt, shin, cheek and the holy grail - rib.

 

[epicuric]

Many years ago Egon Ronay wrote in the Guardian that Liverpool's Yuet Ben served the most authentic Chinese food outside China he had ever eaten. Over night this unlicensed (corkage charge) cafe was inundated by sweater over the shoulders gaurdiannista's brandishing ostentatious bottles of wine.Liverpool has the oldest Chinese community in Europe. I remember as a teenager there were a few caffs, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The terraces in Nelson street would empty the ground floors of furniture and set up tables. The Guardian article was the death knell of authenticity.
Mr Lau's cafe was one of the few authentic noodle places in the UK. All the noodles were hand spun. Old man Lau was proud of his skills and would give a demonstration most nights. He then appeared on the Bruce Forsyth Generation Game. He got so busy he moved from above the abattoir in Stanley Rd to a converted mansion in Sefton Park.
Scratchards was my parents wine merchants, their cellars were amazing. They were the sole UK importers and distributors of Federico Paternina Banda Azul Rioja. Once again the Guardian wrote an article saying this wine was amazing. The vineyard cancelled the contract and signed to a major supermarket distributor. Within 3 years all of our favorite vintages had vanished.

We ate in the Chinese quarter of Liverpool a couple of years ago and it was exceptional. It's a fantastic city.

 

[Burt Blank]

We ate in the Chinese quarter of Liverpool a couple of years ago and it was exceptional. It's a fantastic city.

Thank you, next time you go make it a Sunday and eat Dim Sum here. They will give you a menu. They still continuously wheel the stack around on trolleys so old dogs like me don't need a menu we recognize the content by the shape and size of the baskets.
Tai Pan Atlantic Business Park, Great Howard St, Liverpool L5 9TZ, The restaurant is upstairs above a large Chinese supermarket. The buzz is great, the dim sum is good. But if you want the real dogs Dim Sum on Sunday we would make the pilgrimage once a month here.
DIM SUM MENU | Chinese Seafood Restaurant & Takeaway in Manchester

 

[TastyReuben]

When you've calmed down a bit, can you talk me through "hamburgers" please?

Sure...once I've calmed down (it may be a while, I've been griping about this for about a decade).

 

[Windigo]

TastyReuben

Salted Caramel

View attachment 45218

Did I buy because it was trendy? I'm not totally sure. I remember hearing about how great it is, and I did decide to try it because of the popularity. I think that qualifies as a "yes".

My impression? My first bite was - oh, this is weird. The salt is hurting the sweetness!! The second bite was - hey, this isn't so bad. The third bite was - OH. MY. GOD. Holy crap is this good!!

Do I want to have another? The only thing holding me back from having a pile of salted caramel every day is health concerns. I consider it to be absolutely brilliant.

Actually salted caramel is an age old French treat, but only recently got popular in other countries. Caramel au beurre salé — Wikipédia

It's originally from Britanny , but when it was introduced in Paris in 1970 it became widely popular in France.

 

[caseydog]

I concur. I haven't gotten testy about it, though. I just roll my eyes.
At any rate, I either call them burgers or hamburgers..... even though there's no ham in 'em. (I think this is accurate, correct me if I'm wrong, but hamburgers got that name from Hamburg, Germany?)

I've made pork burgers (oink-burgers if I'm feeling silly), lamb burgers, goat burgers, veggie burgers. And burgers (or hamburgers). I suppose if I ever grind up ham and turn it into a patty, I'll call it a ham (looong pause) burger.

My dad calls them hamburgs. "We having hamburgs tonight." Sloppy Joes are hamburg barbecue.

CD

 

[caseydog]

Ah, another dimension! The effect of flawed health arguments, and food snobbery. You could probably go back 70 years and reverse your sequence of beef cuts. Flawed science then dictated that fatty cuts were bad for you, and the trend began towards sirloin and fillet. Recently, balance has returned, and many of us (call us the 'trendy' ones) go in search of the older, fattier and much tastier cuts like skirt, shin, cheek and the holy grail - rib.

Another victim of the "trendy" curse is Flat Iron Steak. It was "poor man's tenderloin." Less than 3 bucks a pound. Cooked medium rare, it was as tender as a filet mignon, and had more flavor (pardon me, flavour -- must use those redundant vowels). Anyway, the TV chefs started talking the stuff up, and now flatiron steak costs as much as a choice ribeye.

CD

 

[TastyReuben]

Another victim of the "trendy" curse is Flat Iron Steak. It was "poor man's tenderloin." Less than 3 bucks a pound. Cooked medium rare, it was as tender as a filet mignon, and had more flavor (pardon me, flavour -- must use those redundant vowels). Anyway, the TV chefs started talking the stuff up, and now flatiron steak costs as much as a choice ribeye.

CD

Tell me about it... remember when flank steak was cheap?

I still hear chefs on TV saying, "...and an added benefit is, this uses flank steak, which is a much cheaper cut of meat, so it's budget-friendly..."

Cheaper than what, exactly, chateaubriand?

 

[Morning Glory]

Another victim of the "trendy" curse is Flat Iron Steak. It was "poor man's tenderloin." Less than 3 bucks a pound. Cooked medium rare, it was as tender as a filet mignon, and had more flavor (pardon me, flavour -- must use those redundant vowels). Anyway, the TV chefs started talking the stuff up, and now flatiron steak costs as much as a choice ribeye.

CD

Co-incidentally I bought a flat iron steak for the first time ever recently. Its not a traditional cut in the UK and I think the idea has been 'imported' so to speak. However, it was not at all expensive. To translate to dollars these two pieces were $5.24. In fact, if I'd bought two packs it would have been even cheaper. There was ample to feed two. It was indeed very tender.

 

[caseydog]

Co-incidentally I bought a flat iron steak for the first time ever recently. Its not a traditional cut in the UK and I think the idea has been 'imported' so to speak. However, it was not at all expensive. To translate to dollars these two pieces were $5.24. In fact, if I'd bought two packs it would have been even cheaper. There was ample to feed two. It was indeed very tender.

View attachment 45286

I haven't seen Flat Iron Steak here at a price near that for a long time. It is up over 8 bucks a pound, so a package that can feed two is about 12 to 15 bucks.

CD

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Many years ago Egon Ronay wrote in the Guardian that Liverpool's Yuet Ben served the most authentic Chinese food outside China he had ever eaten. Over night this unlicensed (corkage charge) cafe was inundated by sweater over the shoulders gaurdiannista's brandishing ostentatious bottles of wine.Liverpool has the oldest Chinese community in Europe. I remember as a teenager there were a few caffs, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The terraces in Nelson street would empty the ground floors of furniture and set up tables. The Guardian article was the death knell of authenticity.
Mr Lau's cafe was one of the few authentic noodle places in the UK. All the noodles were hand spun. Old man Lau was proud of his skills and would give a demonstration most nights. He then appeared on the Bruce Forsyth Generation Game. He got so busy he moved from above the abattoir in Stanley Rd to a converted mansion in Sefton Park.
Scratchards was my parents wine merchants, their cellars were amazing. They were the sole UK importers and distributors of Federico Paternina Banda Azul Rioja. Once again the Guardian wrote an article saying this wine was amazing. The vineyard cancelled the contract and signed to a major supermarket distributor. Within 3 years all of our favorite vintages had vanished.

This is a hazard of being great at what you do. While most places don't achieve the acclaim of Yuet Ben, I have seen places that can't keep their doors open because the property mortgage prices and taxes go up as a district becomes more popular. Royal Oak, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) had a sleepy downtown that had some good dining establishments and reasonably-priced shops in the 1980s. I don't think there was even a charge to park on the street, and you never had to walk too far to get to where you were going after you parked.

By the mid-1990s, Royal Oak became the place to go for the best dining and coolest shopping. All but one of the shops that were there before had closed down because property values had gone up so high. The one shop - The Lantern, a diner, which was "uncool" before - suddenly became a cool hangout. I'm glad they've survived, but it's annoying that I can never get a seat there anymore. These days, the wait at restaurants (before COVID) can approach 3 hours (personally, I would never wait that long to eat somewhere...I sense another new thread about to start!) The quality of the food in downtown Royal Oak is just this side of world class these days. And, of course, the prices you pay also have gone up steadily as the property values rise. I love that, but I really hate what it's done to the local businesses.

 

[Morning Glory]

I haven't seen Flat Iron Steak here at a price near that for a long time. It is up over 8 bucks a pound, so a package that can feed two is about 12 to 15 bucks.

CD

Strange really as I believe that beef is generally cheaper in the US. Here the welfare standards are higher and so is the price, in general. Its a bit of a puzzle...

 

[Morning Glory]

I haven't seen Flat Iron Steak here at a price near that for a long time. It is up over 8 bucks a pound, so a package that can feed two is about 12 to 15 bucks.

CD

Ah - but that is also interesting. Portion sizes are much larger in the US it seems. The pack above is two flat iron steaks with a total weight of 365g. So that would translate to .8 of a pound (or 12 ounces) which is ample in UK terms for two people.

I think I got the maths right...

 

[caseydog]

Strange really as I believe that beef is generally cheaper in the US. Here the welfare standards are higher and so is the price, in general. Its a bit of a puzzle...

Supply and demand. I'm guessing flat-iron steak has just not gotten enough celebrity chef attention in the UK, so it isn't "trendy," at least not yet.

Your cattle welfare standards are better than ours, but it has gotten pretty easy to find grass fed and finished beef. Kroger here sells Nolan Ryan beef that is fed grass from start to finish, in pastures, not feed lots. When pasture fed cattle need their pastures augmented due to weather or seasons, they use hay or straw, which is put in covered feed troughs spread around the property. Normally, they just move the cattle from pasture to pasture as the natural grasses get consumed.

There is a 3,000 acre working cattle and horse ranch a couple blocks from me, and I have never, in 19 years in this house, smelled it. You can smell a commercial feedlot from 20 miles if the wind is blowing in your direction.

CD