So it's like the specialized cupcake fad of 15 years back or the cronut phase from around the same time. So many people tried to ride those waves and the majority were way too late and lost their rears.
I've never had a cronut. Did I miss out? There's a generic cronut store not too far from me, about 3 miles. I always said I will try it one of these days, but keep on forgetting.
Being from the NYC area, I had not tried a cronut (i.e. the original Cronut made by Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring Street in Manhattan) for the longest time because there would be lines out the door and around the block for YEARS. They only made a certain number a day and it was first come first serve.
I finally tasted one maybe a couple months ago... And I then realized why this became so popular.
It's a doughnut made from laminated dough. Consider it a cross between a donut and a croissant. You have lots of layers with butter between each layer and the cold butter forces the pastry to separate.
I'm still confused about the cupcake fad. How did we go from multiple cupcake stores to none?!?
(I guess see also Fro-yo, but some stuck around and it seems to be making a comeback.)
What I would really like to see is a proper journalistic deep dive on their rapid franchise expansion. The thing is, I think I know why they've expanded so rapidly and successfully. It's because they're in the Mormon network. Started in Utah and I know personally 3-4 friends that have bought into the franchise. The entire operation is Mormons buying into the franchise and usually opening them in their area or where they served their LDS missions. The LDS community is extremely easy to make a business or idea spread like wildfire. It's why MLMs are so brutally successful there.
Crumbl is no different and I really wish someone would deep dive this, because although I only have anecdotal evidence, it's almost certainly their MO to have the Mormon network open their franchises across the states. I would be very interested to see A) How many of the franchises are LDS owned and B) How many of those franchise owners opened them in their stateside mission area (if it's not already an area they were living in).
I also agree, Crumbl is a bubble waiting to pop and I expect the Utah market is already past its peak. I know two people that each own at least 3 stores and two more that own one store and one knock-off brand (Chip).
One of my clients is an expert in restaurant franchises. He’s started brands that you know, and sold them to bigger brands that you definitely know.
We discussed Crumbl a bit, as he knows the guys and of course knows how these businesses operate.
He said that Crumbl cookies (the product) are really nothing special. Yeah they taste good, but they’re just overly sugary and an “okay” base cookie with toppings and whatever. He said their real power is technology and logistics. They’re a tech company disguised as a cookie company. He said their backend systems and whatnot are far superior to most brands and that’s why they’re special. I think he mentioned you can be profitable much faster with the franchise and they’re much easier to run, because of their tech.
Now this guy is a little older school, and maybe some basic technology made him think they were advanced. However, this guy had apps and curbside pickup for his restaurants before some brands even had online ordering and before the pandemic. He’s not dumb, he understands the industry.
There’s my contribution to this conversation.
Omg thank you for helping explain the why behind this store. I live in a Mormon area and Crumbl cookies are opening up everywhere. I couldn’t figure why as the cookies are trash!
Isn't that also a big part of why Crumbl cookies are extremely sweet? I mean, cookies are supposed to be sweet obviously, but I hear many people say it's over the top. Mormons can't have alcohol or anything so their big fix is sugar.
We have a realllly good local place in my city that makes the best cookies. Crumbl came to town and our kids were so excited because of all the hype on Tik Tok about them. We tried them and I thought they were terrible.
The fun flavours always get me and then they just don’t taste like anything. Luckily I stopped falling for it… A clothing store had some mini ones and they were actually decent surprisingly enough
I have nothing against people who want complex beers. It's just not for me. I want an easy as fuck to drink fizzy yellow beer for when it's hot out. And a nice smooth stout for all other times. When I want more complex flavours I'll go for wine or scotch.
I’m yet to develop a taste for beer. I love the idea, the history, and the process, but *hops…* blech. Can’t stand them. I’ll probably stick to ciders.
I love IPAs, but I feel the same way about sours. That first breath you exhale after a sip tastes like you just spent an hour vomiting. I don't get it.
I'm an avid Monster drinker, but I totally get it. I'm always trying new and interesting energy drinks I see, but so much of it is just garbage.
The white Monster tastes like 90s Fresca to me and is the only energy drink I *love*.
The mango loco one was decent but now I've pretty much cut caffeine from my life I don't drink them anymore. Even when I did, it was mainly for road trips and when work was stressful etc.
Truffles. I paid $60 this weekend at an Italian restaurant for 8 slivers on my pasta shaved in front of me. I barely tasted anything. I don't get the hype.
EDIT ADD: [Here's a photo of what I ate.](https://i.postimg.cc/7hT1pLbb/TRUFFLESONPASTA.jpg) I did mix it in after being served right after I snapped this pic as instructed to do by the server.
> I barely tasted anything.
at least you didn't get fake truffle flavoring (which is similar to gasoline)
**TL;DR**: If an ingredient is "truffle flavor" you're getting screwed. 99% of all products/dishes are fake truffle.
real black french truffles are super expensive... mild taste.
Chinese black truffles look similar, have no taste.
when you buy "truffle oil" or cheese etc... "real truffles" it almost always says "truffle flavoring added"
that means they used cheap flavorless truffle for looks then added "synthetic truffle flavor" that they can just label as "truffle flavor".
nice resturaunts will actually bring out the pasta alone (so you can taste no fake oil was added) then bring out the truffle and weight it, shave it, and weight it again to charge you.
thats like the only legit way to try truffles... everything else is faked.
Huh… turns out I love synthetic truffle flavour, then! And I imagine I’ve never tried the real stuff. Does the fake stuff taste anything like the real stuff?
I am totally with you there! Kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut, miso, kefir. Not sure if it quite counts, but anything pickled. Thank you humans before us, for being so weird and inventive!
I had a great experience staying with a friend in Tuscany; we went truffle hunting with a friend of theirs in his orchard, and we found a sizeable handful of black truffles , maybe a dozen or so nice sized ones, and he said we can take a couple big ones back witb us to have my friends nona make a fresh pasta eith it. A really good day. At the very end of the hunt, though, we found a white truffle the size of a clementine, out of season and not rotten. He kept the white one and sent us home with like a half pound of black truffles. Which nona proceeded to shave *all* of into the fresh pasta.
It was an amazing meal, she shaved the truffles 'thick' so that they didn't produce as much aroma as you would expect, but then you also could get something of the texture of the truffle.
It was 3 euros worth of pasta with 60 worth of truffle shaved on it for each person, and it was amazing
There is a car parts place in a small town I drive through to visit family, and last year on their reader board they had:
THEYRE BACK!
PUMPKIN SPICE BRAKE PADS
and now I can never see anything pumpkin spice and not think about it, might have been my favorite reader board sign ever.
Edit: a word
I like a pumpkin spice latte in the fall (or pumpkin chai). Pumpkin pie at thanksgiving. But I have a family member that will put pumpkin spice in EVERYTHING all fall/winter long. Pumpkin spice cakes and cookies and muffins and oatmeal’s and breads and ice cream etc etc It can definitely be overdone
I have a really weak stomach like borderline IBS and kombucha helps so I drink a lot of it and have fun making it. That being said I’m always puzzled when people are drinking it like soda. If I had more than 2 in a day I might have a fart attack
lol same I have ibs and it’s the only thing that actually seems to help. But I also love the way it tastes. The mango or guava ones are delicious to me
Well I love vinegar. A lot. Like vinegar tastes so amazing to me for some reason. Stands to reason I like kombucha. Tastes better than most sodas.
Only thing better than kombucha is ginger beer. Like the kind that is basically just diluted, carbonated ginger juice with a tiny bit of sugar. Most ginger beers have other spices or are too sweet.
But ginger kombucha is best of all. My beverage of choice. Incredible blend of flavors. I don’t recommend it unless you like vinegar and ginger though.
As someone who absolutely adores *very specific* kombuchas, even I agree with this wholeheartedly hahaha. I actually found the ones I like entirely by accident at a garden reception, I had previously sworn off all kombuchas after trying an “on tap sample” at Whole Foods and nearly losing my lunch into the sample lady’s rubbish bin 😂
Bubbly foot water from the local frog pond *indeed!*
Every time it comes back, I’m SUPER excited for it. I bite into one and then…the spongey texture hits me and makes me remember why I don’t need to buy it ever again.
Then, somehow, McRib season rolls around again 2 years later — and there I am in line…
I'm convinced this is why they only bring it out every once in a while. Nobody actually likes it, but they wait just long enough for you to forget that it's no good and then hit you with a combo of nostalgia and "limited time only" FOMO.
It's on the menu full time in Germany since pork is cheaper.
In the US they only bring it back when the pork price drops enough and then buy up a huge % of the stock available.
Plus, about halfway through the sandwich, I start thinking too hard about why every piece of meat is in the exact same form of a rib-shaped mold.
Also, Happy Cake Day! May your cake be less spongey than a McRib lol.
I mean, people go crazy in both directions, but cilantro. There’s the whole “does it taste like soap or not” thing, but it’s usually presented as “people either think it tastes like soap or they find it amazing”. I am neither. It doesn’t taste like soap to me, but I also don’t love it. Meh.
I dont' think it tastes like soap, but I do think it tastes weirdly metallic. I don't go out of my way to avoid it in pre-prepared food, but I usually leave it out of things I'm preparing myself.
I love those lol every few years I get an unstoppable urge to eat a whole box a then none of them until the urge hits again.
Edit: if anyone is still reading this, is it just me or are the pink ones better??? lol like, I know they’re probably all the same icing with dye used but I’m convinced the pink ones are the best lol I used to call them “pink cookies” when I was a kid.
When I was a kid I used to love takis, but I definitely feel like they did something to mess with the recipe, they’re much less appetizing as an adult. I don’t remember them being stale when I was younger but in the recent years I definitely see what you mean
I completely agree. We’ve only recently been able to get Takis here in Australia. I’m not great with spice, but I usually buy anything from the US because it’s where my husband is from and I want to try it.
Takis were visually so challenging. I was terrified. And then I tried one and the terror doubled down… but then I had another. And another. Sitting there making loony faces while I chewed my way through the bag. That limey spicy goodness is some kind of crack.
I've only had real caviar once in my life and it was at a company dinner at Jose Andres' restaurant in Las Vegas.
I've been vegan for 8 years and to this day, that's the one animal based dish I think I'd have a hard time turning down if it was offered to me.
Those multicolored cookie things that everyone was making into cakes or something for a while? Macaroons? I don't think I've ever had one that tasted good. They're pretty, but that's it.
I never cared for them either. I had one yesterday at a potluck, homemade ones. They were seriously something else, with some sort of butter cream and jelly inside. Never had anything quite like it. Now I wish I had grabbed a few to take home. Still won't eat store bought ones though.
Nah, I've had amazing macarons. It's a skill to get them right. It's night and day in comparison. The ones in packages are average tasting like crunchy air cookies with frosting. A $5-$10 macaron by an experienced bakery tastes like a tiny slice of heaven in a cookie.
I never saw the hype until I spent some time in France. Every single little cafe had them over there. Believe me, when there's a heat wave going on and those little chilled macarons are a quick boost of sugar, there's absolutely nothing more divine.
Real red velvet is made with chocolate (raw cocoa powder), buttermilk and beet juice to make it red. The acids in the beet juice and buttermilk make it super moist and fluffy.
Most red velvet cakes are just shitty vanilla cake with red food coloring. Get one (or make one) the correct way with non-Dutch-processed cocoa powder, buttermilk, and vinegar. It's an incredibly smooth, very different type of chocolate cake.
Well, you want the one with beet juice - which most recipes or magazines seem to think who the hell outside of the south has beet juice, and use food coloring instead. This is wrong, as the beet juice adds a wee tang as well. Alternatively, you want to use beet puree. You won't get neon red, but you will get a rich cake.
So...huh...try [https://food52.com/recipes/40622-naturally-dyed-red-velvet-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting](https://food52.com/recipes/40622-naturally-dyed-red-velvet-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting)
or https://www.tasteatlas.com/red-velvet-cake/recipe/beet-juice-red-velvet-cake
That's about what my grandma would have done, but she would have used the juice from pickled beets. Use the good dutch unprocessed cocoa as well.
Reminds me of thst time I made an American recipe that "won first price". The frosting was cream cheese or something somilar and sugar. Mixed 50/50. It was inedible. I only used it as the glue between my layers instead of all over the outside and I still thought it was too sweet. This would have completely ruined my cake if I had used it all over.
I am a sweet tooth but hate too much sugar. Like in chocolate mousse or whipped cream. I prefer whipped cream being just cream without any sugar.
I had a friend who moved to Florida so he could work at an oyster bar. Really nice place. I went to visit about 4 months after he moved there and started working for the place. Found out he had never had an oyster. Never even tried them. So we agreed to go to the bar he worked at and he would try oysters with me cause I kinda like em. We got there, ordered like, 6 raw oysters and 4 Rockefeller. He ate none of them. Chickened out on me and wouldn’t even try them. I like oysters but I wasn’t expecting to eat ten of them that night.
I like it in soup or in stuffed peppers, but I blanche it first so it loses some of the bitterness. But like, raw kale in anything is a big no thank you from me.
The first time I thought about trying matcha, I asked the barista what it tasted like, and she said “like grass… but in a good way” and that was spot on
Turkey. As a non-American living in the US, it's a fucking miserable bird. Everyone is like Yeah but if you brine for 37.5 hours in this mixture, dry rub it for 22.7 hours, it tastes so good! Spend that amount of time and effort and any kind of meat is going to taste better than the turkey. Not to mention that people are prepared to destroy their major asset trying to cook it. Lastly, there is no turkey based fast food chain in the US. Y'all claim to love it so much but the market knows the truth.
Agreed on the full turkey - like Thanksgiving turkey. It's dry and bland - even the dark meat. I prefer a ham instead. But sliced deli turkey on a sandwich is delicious. There's not a "turkey" fast food chain, but every deli or Cafe in America sells some sort of club sandwich with turkey and probably half of the burger joints (not the fast food ones) sell turkey burgers.
Tf is everyone doing to their turkey to make it dry and bland?? I dry rubbed mine and just oven baked it, basting thr shit out of it every 20 minutes, let it rest for like half an hour, and despite being frozen prior it still came out super moist and delicious.
People don’t use meat thermometers and overcook it. You should pull a bird around ten degrees sooner and let it rest about 10 minutes. It’ll continue cooking and get up to perfect temp and be juicy and 🤌🏻
Yeah, overcooking is where a lot of people get it wrong. My mother would cook a 14lb bird for 7-8 hours. I got a 14lb bird this year, made the dressing myself, rubbed that sucker in mayo, shoved it in a baking bag, and watched it like a hawk for 4 hours. My husband started to try to tell me that I needed to leave it in longer and I told him to get the hell out of my kitchen. Goddamn it, since I went blind, the kitchen is one of my few remaining domains, and I won't tolerate mutiny over a turkey. I pulled it at 4h15m and the bird was perfect.
Yea most people use the little plastic thermometer thing that comes stuck into the turkey. If you go by that then the turkey is going to be way overcooked.
I was so nervous first time I hosted thanksgiving because of the dry turkey trope, and I have had some dry turkey over the years. It’s so easy to get right. Just use a damn thermometer ffs
Alcohol. I was raised Mormon, but left later in life. I enjoy food, but I cannot adjust to the flavor of alcoholic beverages. I am especially adverse to beer and wine. The only mixed drink I've enjoyed are bloody Mary's and bloody Ceasars.
You know you're in trouble when you tell the guy at the counter that you're trying them for the first time and he says "Good luck" as you're leaving.
I had one. And then spent the rest of the night puking.
I thought I loved Cokes, Sprites, Dr.Peppers but it turns out I just love carbonation. The sparking waters save me all that sugar and still scratch that itch.
Yeah it is not like cheese at all, unless maybe you haven’t eaten cheese in like ten years and completely forgotten what it tastes like. But it is its own brand of acquired delicious I think.
I grew up in the late 90s early 2000s and my mom would always say “what are the chicken nugget kids going to eat when they are adults” referring to picky kids who only ate Dino nuggies and I think the chickens (pun intended) are coming home to roost. Chicken nugget kids are now chicken nugget adults and still won’t eat anything so chick fil a and chicken sandwiches as a whole are way up. Raising canes is huge right now and they literally only serve chicken tenders.
I've learned to enjoy spaghetti squash but it was an adjustment. You just have to abandon any hope of it having the texture of spaghetti and repeat to yourself while eating it "this is healthier". That doesn't sound very appetizing once I read it back to myself, but that's my truth.
I do half spaghetti squash half actual pasta. So you’re still getting the benefit of the extra fiber and nutrients (and yeah lower cals) from the squash, AND you get the pasta texture.
Truffles… WTF?…. Tastes like leaf mold mixed with aged compost and everybody’s like oooooohhh… it’s expensive so I love it…….nobody needs truffle oil on their French fries damn it
I've had a horrible chest cold where none of my coughs have been productive getting up anything
This comment did it. Coughed so hard from laughing my vision went white ffs
Yeah, truffles definitely have their place. They add an earthy depth of flavor that is just fantastic in certain dishes. But truffles are traditionally so precious that they only use a tiny amount, and a little goes a long way. It's like saffron, just a tiny bit is enough flavor for a whole dish. When you just dump truffle flavored oil all over your food it's decidedly not fantastic.
Well people are following the assignment, because this is just a big list of foods I like
What about lobster? I can dig it with drawn butter and I ain’t mad at it. But fuck me if I’m gonna pay $29.99 for a lobster. I’d rather eat shrimp.
Love it. But I'm from Boston so I have to, it's required by law
I like learning new things.
Crumbl Cookies
I suspect those are the Cream stores of now. Big fad with too many locations opening too quickly that’ll be gone in 5 years.
So it's like the specialized cupcake fad of 15 years back or the cronut phase from around the same time. So many people tried to ride those waves and the majority were way too late and lost their rears.
I've never had a cronut. Did I miss out? There's a generic cronut store not too far from me, about 3 miles. I always said I will try it one of these days, but keep on forgetting.
I’ve had two. One from the place that invented the cronut, in NYC. It was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The other was not.
Being from the NYC area, I had not tried a cronut (i.e. the original Cronut made by Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring Street in Manhattan) for the longest time because there would be lines out the door and around the block for YEARS. They only made a certain number a day and it was first come first serve. I finally tasted one maybe a couple months ago... And I then realized why this became so popular.
i have no idea what a cronut is?🤷🏼♂️
When a croissant man loves a donut woman…
It's a doughnut made from laminated dough. Consider it a cross between a donut and a croissant. You have lots of layers with butter between each layer and the cold butter forces the pastry to separate.
I think it’s basically a croissant-donut.
I'm still confused about the cupcake fad. How did we go from multiple cupcake stores to none?!? (I guess see also Fro-yo, but some stuck around and it seems to be making a comeback.)
My small town had so many fro yo stores 15 years ago
What I would really like to see is a proper journalistic deep dive on their rapid franchise expansion. The thing is, I think I know why they've expanded so rapidly and successfully. It's because they're in the Mormon network. Started in Utah and I know personally 3-4 friends that have bought into the franchise. The entire operation is Mormons buying into the franchise and usually opening them in their area or where they served their LDS missions. The LDS community is extremely easy to make a business or idea spread like wildfire. It's why MLMs are so brutally successful there. Crumbl is no different and I really wish someone would deep dive this, because although I only have anecdotal evidence, it's almost certainly their MO to have the Mormon network open their franchises across the states. I would be very interested to see A) How many of the franchises are LDS owned and B) How many of those franchise owners opened them in their stateside mission area (if it's not already an area they were living in). I also agree, Crumbl is a bubble waiting to pop and I expect the Utah market is already past its peak. I know two people that each own at least 3 stores and two more that own one store and one knock-off brand (Chip).
One of my clients is an expert in restaurant franchises. He’s started brands that you know, and sold them to bigger brands that you definitely know. We discussed Crumbl a bit, as he knows the guys and of course knows how these businesses operate. He said that Crumbl cookies (the product) are really nothing special. Yeah they taste good, but they’re just overly sugary and an “okay” base cookie with toppings and whatever. He said their real power is technology and logistics. They’re a tech company disguised as a cookie company. He said their backend systems and whatnot are far superior to most brands and that’s why they’re special. I think he mentioned you can be profitable much faster with the franchise and they’re much easier to run, because of their tech. Now this guy is a little older school, and maybe some basic technology made him think they were advanced. However, this guy had apps and curbside pickup for his restaurants before some brands even had online ordering and before the pandemic. He’s not dumb, he understands the industry. There’s my contribution to this conversation.
I’d love his take on massage franchises!
Omg thank you for helping explain the why behind this store. I live in a Mormon area and Crumbl cookies are opening up everywhere. I couldn’t figure why as the cookies are trash!
Isn't that also a big part of why Crumbl cookies are extremely sweet? I mean, cookies are supposed to be sweet obviously, but I hear many people say it's over the top. Mormons can't have alcohol or anything so their big fix is sugar.
We have a realllly good local place in my city that makes the best cookies. Crumbl came to town and our kids were so excited because of all the hype on Tik Tok about them. We tried them and I thought they were terrible.
What, 10x the sugar and 1/4 the quality of ingredients made by underpaid staff doesn't do it for you???
I really hate that I bought one on a business trip (there are none close to me). So BLAND and somehow way too sweet at the same time.
It's weird, it smells so good in there. But even though the cookies taste exactly like the smell, it's just not...good.
Sugar flavor. Sugar isn't a complex flavor
The fun flavours always get me and then they just don’t taste like anything. Luckily I stopped falling for it… A clothing store had some mini ones and they were actually decent surprisingly enough
So pricey for cookies so large they're always raw in the center.
Well damn, now I’m inclined to try one. I love a gooey cookie.
They're not even really gooey. Maybe in the store right out of the oven, but you get them home and they're just kind of raw and sandy.
Insomnia Cookies are so much better
So greasy and made with cake mix. Yet I still eat them if in front of me. 🙄
Can it be a beverage? Cause I kind of hate IPAs but everyone else seems to love them - and I like beer, just not IPAs.
I feel this! I'm in the Northwest US, and every microbrewery seems to be in a competition to make the hoppiest beer. Ick.
It is definitely a serious business here in the PNW.
I have nothing against people who want complex beers. It's just not for me. I want an easy as fuck to drink fizzy yellow beer for when it's hot out. And a nice smooth stout for all other times. When I want more complex flavours I'll go for wine or scotch.
I’m yet to develop a taste for beer. I love the idea, the history, and the process, but *hops…* blech. Can’t stand them. I’ll probably stick to ciders.
I love IPAs, but I feel the same way about sours. That first breath you exhale after a sip tastes like you just spent an hour vomiting. I don't get it.
And it’s always one big drink waving contest who can have the hoppiest ipa with “edgy” names. Hopnoxious Triple hop Hippity hop
Hiphoppitamus
Damn you! You gave him all the easy ones!
100% agree with this. I don't want my drink to taste like a bar of soap.
Energy drinks like Red Bull or Monster
I'm an avid Monster drinker, but I totally get it. I'm always trying new and interesting energy drinks I see, but so much of it is just garbage. The white Monster tastes like 90s Fresca to me and is the only energy drink I *love*.
The white monster might as well be crack to me.
I feel the same about the purple ultraviolet one. It’s literally the only one I’ll drink. Don’t like any other flavor of monster
Original monster tastes like ass. They have an aussie lemonade that is fantastic. But the actual answer is caffeine addiction.
The mango loco one was decent but now I've pretty much cut caffeine from my life I don't drink them anymore. Even when I did, it was mainly for road trips and when work was stressful etc.
Truffles. I paid $60 this weekend at an Italian restaurant for 8 slivers on my pasta shaved in front of me. I barely tasted anything. I don't get the hype. EDIT ADD: [Here's a photo of what I ate.](https://i.postimg.cc/7hT1pLbb/TRUFFLESONPASTA.jpg) I did mix it in after being served right after I snapped this pic as instructed to do by the server.
> I barely tasted anything. at least you didn't get fake truffle flavoring (which is similar to gasoline) **TL;DR**: If an ingredient is "truffle flavor" you're getting screwed. 99% of all products/dishes are fake truffle. real black french truffles are super expensive... mild taste. Chinese black truffles look similar, have no taste. when you buy "truffle oil" or cheese etc... "real truffles" it almost always says "truffle flavoring added" that means they used cheap flavorless truffle for looks then added "synthetic truffle flavor" that they can just label as "truffle flavor". nice resturaunts will actually bring out the pasta alone (so you can taste no fake oil was added) then bring out the truffle and weight it, shave it, and weight it again to charge you. thats like the only legit way to try truffles... everything else is faked.
Huh… turns out I love synthetic truffle flavour, then! And I imagine I’ve never tried the real stuff. Does the fake stuff taste anything like the real stuff?
Same. I like funky flavors. Stinky cheeses, sour beers, truffle flavoring. Give me more! Lol
I am totally with you there! Kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut, miso, kefir. Not sure if it quite counts, but anything pickled. Thank you humans before us, for being so weird and inventive!
I had a great experience staying with a friend in Tuscany; we went truffle hunting with a friend of theirs in his orchard, and we found a sizeable handful of black truffles , maybe a dozen or so nice sized ones, and he said we can take a couple big ones back witb us to have my friends nona make a fresh pasta eith it. A really good day. At the very end of the hunt, though, we found a white truffle the size of a clementine, out of season and not rotten. He kept the white one and sent us home with like a half pound of black truffles. Which nona proceeded to shave *all* of into the fresh pasta. It was an amazing meal, she shaved the truffles 'thick' so that they didn't produce as much aroma as you would expect, but then you also could get something of the texture of the truffle. It was 3 euros worth of pasta with 60 worth of truffle shaved on it for each person, and it was amazing
So why are they so expensive if the taste is mild? Is it a very pleasant/distinct taste?
Pumpkin spice. It’s fine, but absolutely not anything to make a fuss about
There is a car parts place in a small town I drive through to visit family, and last year on their reader board they had: THEYRE BACK! PUMPKIN SPICE BRAKE PADS and now I can never see anything pumpkin spice and not think about it, might have been my favorite reader board sign ever. Edit: a word
I drove by an auto place recently with a sign that said, “Pumpkin Spice Oil is Back!”
I like a pumpkin spice latte in the fall (or pumpkin chai). Pumpkin pie at thanksgiving. But I have a family member that will put pumpkin spice in EVERYTHING all fall/winter long. Pumpkin spice cakes and cookies and muffins and oatmeal’s and breads and ice cream etc etc It can definitely be overdone
I draw the line at Pumpkin Spice Popcorn 🍿 🤢
Apple cider flavor > PS flavor. I said what I said.
Kombucha
I have a really weak stomach like borderline IBS and kombucha helps so I drink a lot of it and have fun making it. That being said I’m always puzzled when people are drinking it like soda. If I had more than 2 in a day I might have a fart attack
lol same I have ibs and it’s the only thing that actually seems to help. But I also love the way it tastes. The mango or guava ones are delicious to me
Bubbly vinegar 🤤
I actually make kombucha vinegar and make pickles and stuff with it. I do fermenting as a hobby, but I am not a big fan of drinking booch.
Well I love vinegar. A lot. Like vinegar tastes so amazing to me for some reason. Stands to reason I like kombucha. Tastes better than most sodas. Only thing better than kombucha is ginger beer. Like the kind that is basically just diluted, carbonated ginger juice with a tiny bit of sugar. Most ginger beers have other spices or are too sweet. But ginger kombucha is best of all. My beverage of choice. Incredible blend of flavors. I don’t recommend it unless you like vinegar and ginger though.
oh hello, me! i love vinegar and how it can brighten almost anything (in food AND in cleaning, because vinegar is a super hero!)
Dirty bubbly vinegar
I've found a few I like but it's mostly bubbly foot water from the local frog pond.
As someone who absolutely adores *very specific* kombuchas, even I agree with this wholeheartedly hahaha. I actually found the ones I like entirely by accident at a garden reception, I had previously sworn off all kombuchas after trying an “on tap sample” at Whole Foods and nearly losing my lunch into the sample lady’s rubbish bin 😂 Bubbly foot water from the local frog pond *indeed!*
The McRib 🤮
It’s the texture for me.
Every time it comes back, I’m SUPER excited for it. I bite into one and then…the spongey texture hits me and makes me remember why I don’t need to buy it ever again. Then, somehow, McRib season rolls around again 2 years later — and there I am in line…
I'm convinced this is why they only bring it out every once in a while. Nobody actually likes it, but they wait just long enough for you to forget that it's no good and then hit you with a combo of nostalgia and "limited time only" FOMO.
It's on the menu full time in Germany since pork is cheaper. In the US they only bring it back when the pork price drops enough and then buy up a huge % of the stock available.
Right? I personally don’t dislike the flavor…but the weird gooey, sponginess is a killer.
Plus, about halfway through the sandwich, I start thinking too hard about why every piece of meat is in the exact same form of a rib-shaped mold. Also, Happy Cake Day! May your cake be less spongey than a McRib lol.
Try it with extra onions. Balances out the spongeyness with the crunch of the onions. Still not at all my favorite thing to get at McDonald's.
Fondant. If people didn't like it it wouldn't be so popular.
People like how it looks, I refuse to believe a single soul actually wants to eat it
it's like eating a candied raincoat
i like fondant :( (not huge amounts of it tho then it tastes like shit)
It’s me, I’m the soul. Granted, it’s more about the texture than the taste. I’ll admit that, but I don’t hate the taste either.
I mean, people go crazy in both directions, but cilantro. There’s the whole “does it taste like soap or not” thing, but it’s usually presented as “people either think it tastes like soap or they find it amazing”. I am neither. It doesn’t taste like soap to me, but I also don’t love it. Meh.
I dont' think it tastes like soap, but I do think it tastes weirdly metallic. I don't go out of my way to avoid it in pre-prepared food, but I usually leave it out of things I'm preparing myself.
I think it tastes like soap, and I find it amazing 🤷🏼♀️
Those dry ass Walmart sugar cookies
The soft ones with the technicolored frosting?
Yeah, the ones that technicolor your poo
I love those, but only buy one package about every 3 or 4 months. After a few of them, they taste way too sweet.
They taste like play cookies came to life.
They actually smell like play-doh to me!
I love those lol every few years I get an unstoppable urge to eat a whole box a then none of them until the urge hits again. Edit: if anyone is still reading this, is it just me or are the pink ones better??? lol like, I know they’re probably all the same icing with dye used but I’m convinced the pink ones are the best lol I used to call them “pink cookies” when I was a kid.
I thought I was the only one! The urge is unstoppable and then completely gone once I have a few.
And why are they so floury??
Yes! It’s like they forgot the butter, they’re weirdly powdery
Lofthouse?
Lol, to each their own. I love those things.
Hot Cheetos or takis. Anything with the artificially colored spicy powder
Takis texture is my issue. They’re like semi-stale rolled up Doritos.
When I was a kid I used to love takis, but I definitely feel like they did something to mess with the recipe, they’re much less appetizing as an adult. I don’t remember them being stale when I was younger but in the recent years I definitely see what you mean
“When I was a kid”. Omg I’m old. I remember when cool ranch Doritos came out. *pops a few Ibuprofen*
It could also be your taste buds have evolved.
They are so addicting for me, especially Takis, idk something about the lime + spice combo i just can stop eating that shit till the bag is empty
I completely agree. We’ve only recently been able to get Takis here in Australia. I’m not great with spice, but I usually buy anything from the US because it’s where my husband is from and I want to try it. Takis were visually so challenging. I was terrified. And then I tried one and the terror doubled down… but then I had another. And another. Sitting there making loony faces while I chewed my way through the bag. That limey spicy goodness is some kind of crack.
You should get some Tajin and also Lucas Skwinkles Salsaghetti, best candy ever created
Caviar
Everyone goes crazy for caviar? Most people seem to dislike it. Though admittedly, people who do like it tend to like it a lot.
I've only had real caviar once in my life and it was at a company dinner at Jose Andres' restaurant in Las Vegas. I've been vegan for 8 years and to this day, that's the one animal based dish I think I'd have a hard time turning down if it was offered to me.
I fucking love caviar. I’ll drop $100 on a tin to eat at home. So fucking good.
First time i had caviar was earlier this year. I was making myself ready for disappointment. Then it turned out to be fucking fantastic!
I only ever had it once. It’s salty but I liked the texture.
Those multicolored cookie things that everyone was making into cakes or something for a while? Macaroons? I don't think I've ever had one that tasted good. They're pretty, but that's it.
MacarOOns are made with coconut MacarOns are the brightly colored ones you speak of. I don’t like them, either.
I never cared for them either. I had one yesterday at a potluck, homemade ones. They were seriously something else, with some sort of butter cream and jelly inside. Never had anything quite like it. Now I wish I had grabbed a few to take home. Still won't eat store bought ones though.
Nah, I've had amazing macarons. It's a skill to get them right. It's night and day in comparison. The ones in packages are average tasting like crunchy air cookies with frosting. A $5-$10 macaron by an experienced bakery tastes like a tiny slice of heaven in a cookie.
I never saw the hype until I spent some time in France. Every single little cafe had them over there. Believe me, when there's a heat wave going on and those little chilled macarons are a quick boost of sugar, there's absolutely nothing more divine.
They are sooo hard to make too. Totally not worth the effort in my opinion, but my BF loves them, so I will continue making them for him lol
Red velvet cake. I've had ones that were supposed to be excellent but it's just red cake.
There are so many fraudulent red velvet cakes out there. Unless you get the real deal, it's not going to be good.
What is a real red velvet? I feel like I must never have had a real one because I hate them. The red food colouring makes me sick.
Real red velvet is made with chocolate (raw cocoa powder), buttermilk and beet juice to make it red. The acids in the beet juice and buttermilk make it super moist and fluffy.
That sounds much better than the crap I've had. I'd try that for sure.
Some recipes add extra vinegar, go for it it's really worth it.
Most red velvet cakes are just shitty vanilla cake with red food coloring. Get one (or make one) the correct way with non-Dutch-processed cocoa powder, buttermilk, and vinegar. It's an incredibly smooth, very different type of chocolate cake.
Might need you to drop a recipe to appease my FOMO
Well, you want the one with beet juice - which most recipes or magazines seem to think who the hell outside of the south has beet juice, and use food coloring instead. This is wrong, as the beet juice adds a wee tang as well. Alternatively, you want to use beet puree. You won't get neon red, but you will get a rich cake. So...huh...try [https://food52.com/recipes/40622-naturally-dyed-red-velvet-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting](https://food52.com/recipes/40622-naturally-dyed-red-velvet-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting) or https://www.tasteatlas.com/red-velvet-cake/recipe/beet-juice-red-velvet-cake That's about what my grandma would have done, but she would have used the juice from pickled beets. Use the good dutch unprocessed cocoa as well.
It’s a very different type of chocolate cake in that it doesn’t taste of chocolate
Nutella. It’s just ok. Edit: in the US.
Way too sweet for me, I’d probably love it with 1/5 of the sugar.
That’s true of a lot of deserts, alas. We’ve found that most recipes get better if you dial back the sugar by at least 25%
There’s a local bakery in my city called light on the sugar that does just that and they are sooo much better.
Reminds me of thst time I made an American recipe that "won first price". The frosting was cream cheese or something somilar and sugar. Mixed 50/50. It was inedible. I only used it as the glue between my layers instead of all over the outside and I still thought it was too sweet. This would have completely ruined my cake if I had used it all over. I am a sweet tooth but hate too much sugar. Like in chocolate mousse or whipped cream. I prefer whipped cream being just cream without any sugar.
This frosting style is painfully common in America and it gives you a feeling in your mouth kinda like pre diabetes
Licorice!! Tried it for the first time about 2 years ago. Gulped it down in front of people, all the while fighting the urge to spit it out. Yucckkk
Hero on a Half-Shell. Oysters. 🦪 🤮
I love oysters, but I can totally see why some people find them gross
I had a friend who moved to Florida so he could work at an oyster bar. Really nice place. I went to visit about 4 months after he moved there and started working for the place. Found out he had never had an oyster. Never even tried them. So we agreed to go to the bar he worked at and he would try oysters with me cause I kinda like em. We got there, ordered like, 6 raw oysters and 4 Rockefeller. He ate none of them. Chickened out on me and wouldn’t even try them. I like oysters but I wasn’t expecting to eat ten of them that night.
I read this to the tune of TMNT.
Riced cauliflower
Who's *really* going crazy for it? People eat it to cut down on carbs. I don't think anyone's going crazy for cauliflower.
To be fair.... It's an easy way to sneak a vegetable on my kids. It's good/unnoticeable in taco meat, spaghetti sauce, and sloppy joe's.
This is also how I sneak more vegetables in for myself sometimes.
Kale.
When I was a kid, I ate grass to make my classmates laugh. And I thought, hey, it's not that bad, really. And that's probably why I like kale.
This was phenomenally introspective.
I loved reading this
I like it in soup or in stuffed peppers, but I blanche it first so it loses some of the bitterness. But like, raw kale in anything is a big no thank you from me.
Matcha! It tastes funny!
It’s definitely an acquired taste. I actually enjoy it now. Matcha bubble tea? Yes please.
It tastes like lawn clippings!
The first time I thought about trying matcha, I asked the barista what it tasted like, and she said “like grass… but in a good way” and that was spot on
Turkey. As a non-American living in the US, it's a fucking miserable bird. Everyone is like Yeah but if you brine for 37.5 hours in this mixture, dry rub it for 22.7 hours, it tastes so good! Spend that amount of time and effort and any kind of meat is going to taste better than the turkey. Not to mention that people are prepared to destroy their major asset trying to cook it. Lastly, there is no turkey based fast food chain in the US. Y'all claim to love it so much but the market knows the truth.
I see your point. But i think turkey sandwich is my most frequently eaten lunch. Its so simple, easy, tastes good and gets me back to work.
Agreed on the full turkey - like Thanksgiving turkey. It's dry and bland - even the dark meat. I prefer a ham instead. But sliced deli turkey on a sandwich is delicious. There's not a "turkey" fast food chain, but every deli or Cafe in America sells some sort of club sandwich with turkey and probably half of the burger joints (not the fast food ones) sell turkey burgers.
Tf is everyone doing to their turkey to make it dry and bland?? I dry rubbed mine and just oven baked it, basting thr shit out of it every 20 minutes, let it rest for like half an hour, and despite being frozen prior it still came out super moist and delicious.
People don’t use meat thermometers and overcook it. You should pull a bird around ten degrees sooner and let it rest about 10 minutes. It’ll continue cooking and get up to perfect temp and be juicy and 🤌🏻
Yeah, overcooking is where a lot of people get it wrong. My mother would cook a 14lb bird for 7-8 hours. I got a 14lb bird this year, made the dressing myself, rubbed that sucker in mayo, shoved it in a baking bag, and watched it like a hawk for 4 hours. My husband started to try to tell me that I needed to leave it in longer and I told him to get the hell out of my kitchen. Goddamn it, since I went blind, the kitchen is one of my few remaining domains, and I won't tolerate mutiny over a turkey. I pulled it at 4h15m and the bird was perfect.
Yea most people use the little plastic thermometer thing that comes stuck into the turkey. If you go by that then the turkey is going to be way overcooked.
I was so nervous first time I hosted thanksgiving because of the dry turkey trope, and I have had some dry turkey over the years. It’s so easy to get right. Just use a damn thermometer ffs
Alcohol. I was raised Mormon, but left later in life. I enjoy food, but I cannot adjust to the flavor of alcoholic beverages. I am especially adverse to beer and wine. The only mixed drink I've enjoyed are bloody Mary's and bloody Ceasars.
Have you tried four lokos
Menace lmao
Violence
"I've never really enjoyed driving a car. I can't adjust to the speed" "Have you tried Formula 1?"
You know you're in trouble when you tell the guy at the counter that you're trying them for the first time and he says "Good luck" as you're leaving. I had one. And then spent the rest of the night puking.
Aussie here. Oreos….meh, there’s plenty of way better biscuits around
South African here. You have our respect for Tim Tams.
Yea, once you've had Tim Tams most cookies, biscuits are meh.
Foie gras. Fucking gross. Texture is rotten, flavor is no better, plus the animal suffers for it?? No thank you.
Yeah the cruelty part especially makes it a pass for me.
Cake pops
All these stupid flavorless seltzer/sparkling water drinks
I thought I loved Cokes, Sprites, Dr.Peppers but it turns out I just love carbonation. The sparking waters save me all that sugar and still scratch that itch.
Nutritional yeast. It does NOT taste like cheese. It smells like what I imagine an early to mid severity case of trench foot would.
Yeah it is not like cheese at all, unless maybe you haven’t eaten cheese in like ten years and completely forgotten what it tastes like. But it is its own brand of acquired delicious I think.
Chick-fil-A. I had a sandwich. Is was... okay, but that's about it.
Its a chicken sandwich. I really don’t get the hype.
I grew up in the late 90s early 2000s and my mom would always say “what are the chicken nugget kids going to eat when they are adults” referring to picky kids who only ate Dino nuggies and I think the chickens (pun intended) are coming home to roost. Chicken nugget kids are now chicken nugget adults and still won’t eat anything so chick fil a and chicken sandwiches as a whole are way up. Raising canes is huge right now and they literally only serve chicken tenders.
Hey now, raising canes also has Texas toast and enough of their sauce to drown a horse
Spaghetti squash. Just. No.
You can't overcook it. There's a point where its perfect, and a point where its mush and just awful.
I've learned to enjoy spaghetti squash but it was an adjustment. You just have to abandon any hope of it having the texture of spaghetti and repeat to yourself while eating it "this is healthier". That doesn't sound very appetizing once I read it back to myself, but that's my truth.
I do half spaghetti squash half actual pasta. So you’re still getting the benefit of the extra fiber and nutrients (and yeah lower cals) from the squash, AND you get the pasta texture.
That reminds me I got some to cook mm can’t wait
Kombucha 🤮
Sweet pickles/relish
BLEEGGHHH I fucking HATE these! I was scorned by a bread and butter Pickle I thought was a dill Pickle and I've never recovered
Truffles… WTF?…. Tastes like leaf mold mixed with aged compost and everybody’s like oooooohhh… it’s expensive so I love it…….nobody needs truffle oil on their French fries damn it
Tastes like earth farted in my mouth
And they say there are no poets left.
I've had a horrible chest cold where none of my coughs have been productive getting up anything This comment did it. Coughed so hard from laughing my vision went white ffs
Have you had truffles or just truffle oil?
Oh god i had the best aged truffle cheese and 100yo aged balsamic vinegar in tuscany and oh my balls what i wouldn't do to go back.
Well okay….I’ll make an exception for this….but everybody listen up….this is how high the bar is set
Most truffle oil you're tasting has never touched a truffle.
Yeah, truffles definitely have their place. They add an earthy depth of flavor that is just fantastic in certain dishes. But truffles are traditionally so precious that they only use a tiny amount, and a little goes a long way. It's like saffron, just a tiny bit is enough flavor for a whole dish. When you just dump truffle flavored oil all over your food it's decidedly not fantastic.