I live in Berkeley, California, a town so dedicated to gourmet food that if you wanted to find artisanal cheese made with milk from a grass-fed goat that received daily shiatsu massages and affirmations from its own spiritual coach, could You have to go to two stores to find it.
There was a time, before sushi hit malls, chai hit Starbucks, and iron chef aired, that this was considered peculiar.
What is arugula and why does it cost 10 times more than good iceberg lettuce? Berkeley prides itself on being quirky, so it was all good.
However, things have been changing, as they do. I don’t go to Sizzler that often, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t used to have baby spinach and crumbled blue cheese to go with the iceberg lettuce and shredded cheddar cheese.
Pizza chains, once wary of this novel pesto substance, now offer all sorts of psychedelic combinations including artichoke hearts, Thai peanut sauce, hummus, toasted nuts and, presumably, some of that massaged goat cheese if you like. you ask politely.
Options are always good and I crave new taste sensations the same way pandas crave bamboo shoots, so I initially thought this was a good thing. And it would be, except there seems to be a law in food that decent flavor in the country is limited, and as more establishments start offering it, it starts to taste more and more like something you get at a snack bar. aim.
Croissants are more like rolls. Burger chains talk about their “Angus beef,” where “Angus” is apparently Latin for “indistinguishable from other things.” You start getting sandwiches where the bread is decorated with green specks and covered in white dust, but it can also be confetti and sawdust for all that they add to the flavor. I have a word for food that tries to look like something you’d get at the Queen’s birthday dinner, but tastes like something you’d poke holes in before microwaving: gourmet.
I guess there are two reasons why there is so much gourmeh food these days. First of all, the mainstream always prefers to take the unknown and make it more known. The rough edges are rounded. Afrika Bambaataa becomes MC Hammer. In reality, torn and worn clothes become carefully worn and worn fashion. Second, quality food usually costs money. Fresh herbs are expensive, but dried herbs and white flour are cheap, and simply changing “cheeseburger” to “gourmet deluxe cheeseburger” on the menu costs next to nothing.
