What do you think is an overrated food?
Lobster is so so so overrated. 75% of the weight is shell. You could get tiger or argentinian shrimp for the same price per pound if not cheaper and you get 3 times more edible meat by weight.
I'm with the truffles guy saying truffles with the caveat that perhaps I haven't had real truffles properly.
Otherwise, I find KFC too overrated. All fast food chains in general, but KFC in particular gets a hype at least in my circles. From what I hear, you are buying bliss and a heavenly experience in a bucket. Come on. It's just chicken bits with nothing special about them, in fact the cheap deep frying oils can upset my stomach easily.
Ill die on this hill btw.
When a KFC meal is perfect its one of the best fried chicken experiences on earth. When you get everything fresh, well seasoned, drink is ice cold... Bruh... Problem is it almost never is either the bun is stale, the chips were cold, the chicken was dry, the burger has just way too fucking much mayo... theres always fucking something.
But that one perfect Zinger box you had 18 months ago will bring you back monthly to try again.
Chicken loot box
When i lived at my place 2 residences back, they put in a new kfc down the street. When corporate was running it and training everyone, it was amazing. So quick, everything fresh and delicious. We went multiple times a week. The moment corporate left, it was obvious, everything went to shit, and we never went back. That was almost 10 years ago and i still think about it
All the chain chicken joints (Popeyes, Bojangles, Dave's, etc) taste so salty as it is, but KFC is off the charts too salty for me to enjoy.
The best fried chicken (for me) is actually from a gas station chain here, Royal Farms, which I coincidentally had tonight!
I still wouldn't put it as an S-Tier food or anything, but I think it's well ahead of the bigger brands, and especially KFC.
A teeny, tiny bit of real truffle on something that's labeled truffle is fine. Huge amounts of truffle oil on everything sucks! And stinks.
I've always felt KFC is just rated. Obviously the ads by KFC for KFC will claim it to be the best food ever invented but in terms of how people seem to perceive it and how I perceive it, the experience tastes and feels like what it is. It's mostly enjoyable, fatty salty meat and it's deep fried which is kinda the fast food signature taste and texture. It's got a lot going for it, in the way that fried chicken generally as a food does, but it's also extremely poor quality fried chicken and rarely very fresh but that all balances out to something that pretty much works for what you want out of it and it doesn't seem to me like anyone expects much more of it.
KFC was good. it's now slop.
Also weird to me that you’re expected to do all the work to consume the lobster too.
I think canned soup is overrated. The nutritional value is surprisingly low. Salt is high. And when I’m looking for something vegan, I figure soups are an easy genre for option. Nope. Everything has some milk product added to it.
Canned soup is rated?
Yeah, a solid threeve/ ten.
Lobster High Pressure Processing
Text Article if you don't want to watch a video, also has more details
There are now machines that will remove the lobster meat from the shell without cooking it, so you can have 100% of the edible stuff with no shell bits.
It comes at a premium, but if speed and a hassle free experience are what you're after, the tech exists!
Whoa. I appreciate that your provided a non-video option. As arthropods I’m hoping lobsters are on the low end of perceiving suffering and death, but I still found that hard to watch. The tech isn’t even that gruesome, I just find it hard to watch industrialized slaughter of anything in animalia (Disclaimer: still haven’t been able to go 100% vegan)
steak
Avocado is fine, but its not something I seek out to eat. If its included in a dish or in a meal, I'll eat it, but I don't find it especially enjoyable. I'm even a big fan of most fruit and veg, but avocado its kind of forgettable if you ask me. I do like cooking with avocado oil though for its high temp usage and health benefits, but I don't really find the flavor of the fruit in the oil.
The best thing that can happen to avocado is to be turned into guacamole. I'm like you when it comes to avocado, could take it or leave it, but I go nuts for guac.
It's really good to throw in a smoothie. But also kind of a waste
Guac is still "meh" for me. Again, I'll eat it if its there, but I don't seek it out.
What about in California rolls and fresh guac?
I like a California roll, and I like that its all veg and grain, so I'll choose it when thats what I'm looking for, but there are many other rolls I like more. The avocado isn't a selling point except that its not meat or dairy and there are times I'd don't want to eat either of those.
Guac is still “meh” for me. Again, I’ll eat it if its there, but I don’t seek it out.
Anything "truffle" I've ever been offered smells absolutely terrible to me. While not near as powerful as durian, the smell and taste give me a bit of that vibe.
Perhaps it's all just been fake truffle oil type crap and real shaved truffle is amazing, but nobody's ever given me any of that or inspired me to try it.
Truffle oil is the real truffle flavor. It's the synthetic diamond or baking vanilla situation all over again.
I'd take a lab diamond or bottle of vanillin over the truffle stuff I've had any day!
Even the old school beaver anus vanillin! 😅
Truffles* and durian are actually good and you guys are just boring.
*too much truffle oil is nasty
Lol always a possibility. I've tried both a few times to give them a fair shake, and while I taste amazing flavor elements in both those things, the cons just always outweigh the pros. 😅
If you don't like truffle oil, you probably just don't like truffle, and that's fine. Like the other commenter said, it's literally just the same compound that's been synthesized.
2,4-Dithiapentane
Real truffles obviously have some other flavoring compounds in there, but like vanilla vs vanilin, you'd probably have a hard time distinguishing between them in a dish in a blind taste test.
I have eaten shaved truffles, and even that's really a gamble. The problem is that they aren't really good until they are "ripe", but once you dig them up, i don't think they ripen any more. There's also a big counterfeit problem since many species look similar. I've had good truffles, and I've had truffles that literally just taste like nothing.
Huh, that makes sense the real deal would also be a bit more finicky and dependent on a lot of variables that industrialized product wouldn't be affected by.
Agree 10000%. I went to a truffle party a couple of years ago. Plain cheese pizza, grilled asparagus, steak bites, etc. all with small shaved pieces of truffle (that i assume was outrageously expensive). Those were very good and nothing like the typical stinky Parmesan truffle fries that every restaurant sells.
If I were to see someone shaving it off the real deal, I'd give it another try, but at this point I'm done with the stuff otherwise and even if the real deal is a better version of that flavor, it hasn't inspired me enough to cough up the money for a small real truffle for myself.
I second your impression of truffles. I'm yet to appreciate them. So far in my books is a thing that tastes like dirt and shoots up ridiculously the price of whatever it's added into
Agree, the first thing that came to mind, seeing this thread.
100% agree. I don't like the smell to begin with, but what's worse is that the aroma is so powerful, it completely eclipses the taste of whatever food items it's mixed with.
I find lot of seafood disgusting, and the unsustainability of wild caught seafood is just the cherry on top.
Unagi. Doesn't taste that special and has a texture like dried out overcooked fish complete with the occasional sharp scale or bone that stabs your throat. Definitely not worth decimating wild eel populations for.
Related, any kind of fish eggs. Whether caviar or salmon roe sushi. They're like those popping bubbles in bubble tea but instead of a nice sweet fruit syrup it's concentrated fish stink that coats your tongue and overpowers everything else.
Oysters and clams (bivalves in general). You're literally eating its entire digestive system complete with poop. The crunchy sand is just a reminder of that. And eating it raw is a great way to get parasites and hepatitis.
One that's not seafood: asparagus. People say it makes your pee stink but somehow don't talk about how much the vegetable itself stinks going in. Maybe I've just never found a cooking method I like but I've never tasted an asparagus that doesn't make me wince when swallowing. I personally love the vast majority of vegetables, many of which I prefer compared to meat, but asparagus (and Chinese bitter melon) are exceptions.
Any kind of alcohol in general. I think beer tastes and smells like the liquid at the bottom of a dumpster, so does wine, and any kind of spirit tastes like literal poison. Whatever psychoactive effects it has is not worth the constant nausea during and after drinking. If I'm looking for psychoactive effects, I prefer edible cannabis extract, still doesn't taste that great but you only need a tiny amount to get high which you can chase down with regular food to make the taste go away.
Oh my god Chinese bitter melon. During lockdown, I wanted to try cooking something new every week and ended up with a Chinese bitter melon dish and, not only did the shallow fried Thai chilis in the recipe make the air unbreathable, but the entire dish was probably the most bitter thing I've ever tasted. Though I still get the feeling like it might be better in a different dish cooked by someone who is familiar with it and likes it. I don't like disliking foods. Finally starting to be okay with olives now.
I need more food reviews like this.. keep going please!
Almost all fast food.
It's hot candy.
I don't like the food and what it stands for. But most of all i hate that you can tell that you are close to a McDonald's, just by the amount of McDonald's garbage on the floor, that gets more and more when you get closer. I guess it takes a special kind of person
The bread in fast food always is so sweet. Like having two donuts around your burger.
The "two guys burger shop burger".
Maaaate, your burger is shit. It's a precariously stacked abomination that's 8 inches tall, has two ruined patties and half a cup of smoky bbq sauce and melted cheese on it, and then you decided that what it really needed was enough chilli on it so that all you can taste is burning.
Bigger burgers should be wider, not taller. End of conversation.
Agreed.
If I have to dislocate my jaw to try and eat the burger then at that point I'd rather use a knife and fork.
Bacon.
Holy fuck it is very good is made correctly and timely. But somehow it was a Meme that stuck.
It was literally a marketing campaign from Big Hog, who were losing money cause of anti-fat, anti-salt dieting.
See also: Dubai chocolate, affogato, "two best buds running a burger shack" tall burgers... all were amazing, until they became a marketable meme, as you said. And now they're shit.
Taken at a Staples checkout impulse aisle. Yeah, over $50 with tax. As seen by idiots on tiktok.
I don't know why they want to add bacon and cheese to everything. They're fine, but don't have to be in every dish. Is it for the salt?
I don’t know, and unless the bacon is freshly and perfectly cooked it just sucks.
Wagyu, purely for the texture in this case.
I don't want "steak-butter", I want to rip through a raw piece of meat.
I dont think wagyu is overrated but I absolutely cannot justify the cost.
The problem is the taste makes me crave the texture.
I'm a bit abnormal in that I crave texture more than taste though. I love eating steak near raw (blue) with my bare hands so I can do that "nature channel wolf thing" where they rip their prey with a side-to-side wry head movement. It's primal and glorious.
And if I get that flavour without the texture I am left, wanting.
Gollum had it right in the end. Give it to me raw and wriggling. (But preferably free of parasites...)
Italian restaurant food. Why should I pay so much for spaghetti and meatballs???
Spaghetti and meatballs, the classic italian dish. If you're american
The British came up with that one.
I ate Scott Conant's lamb tagliatelle Ragu and it was really good. Fresh pasta hand made to order by a pro is worth it.
Agreed. That's why I always order something cool like gnocchi when I go to an Italian restaurant. It's much harder to make that well at home.
if you have the right kind of potato, it's very easy and it takes less time than most handmade pasta
Pasta gnocchi come from a bag. Potato fresh gnocchi take work.
This is my opinion too! Basic Italian-American stuff seems really simple to DIY, so unless a place has some really killer house made sauce it always feels like such a ripoff. If I'm going out, I typically want something that is either too hard, laborious, or messy to make at home.
Italian food in USA is warm garbage. Everyone overcooks the pasta and puts on two much sauce.
I agree on lobster because I think crab tastes better.
Agree on truffles, I think they are just expensive because they are rare and fragile, not because they are magically delicious.
People here LOVED Dave's hot chicken. I went and really, it's fine, I'd eat it but wouldn't affirmatively choose it, if getting industrial fried chicken Popeyes and Publix are both better.
And man do people love Cuban Sandwiches here. Again, I will eat them they are fine but mostly because the bread is so good. Would rather just have a roast pork on the bread, dressed, without the ham & salami, or even the cheese toast on Cuban Bread I think is so good. There is nothing magical about the 3 meat combo.
salami
Tampan detected. I love a Cuban sandwich, but I've never had one from Tampa, so maybe yours are worse, lol.
It's funny because Tampa does bat way over its league in restaurants generally. We have amazing food here, all over. Why is "the" food that sandwich? It's good but def overrated.
I think they are just expensive because they are rare and fragile, not because they are magically delicious.
Most of the snooty rich people food are like this. It's also why they're so threatened by cheap mass produced alternatives. If the knockoffs were actually significantly inferior in flavour they wouldn't be threatened.
McDonald's - way too expensive for the quality and quantity.
Pork products (excluding bacon). I can't stand the taste of ham, bologna, pork chops, etc. Hot dogs are okay but I prefer beef franks.
Mac n cheese. I like noodles, and I like cheese, but I don't like them put together unless there's a tomato based sauce in between.
Meatloaf. The taste and texture is off-putting.
Lobster and crab was poor person food back in the day, then it switched for some reason? You figure it out?! Bottom dwelling scavenger bugs from the ocean are now en vogue?
Land cockroaches are taboo now..,
Onion rings.
Tried it at I think ALL of the resteraunts in my town. (10-20+). ALL of them tasted like heart faliure. Like, I'm sure chips/french fries are also unhealthy, but I can't feel my heart slowing down with every bite like with onion rings
I actually laughed so hard at your description.
It's really real, each bite doesn't produce a crunch, so much as it produces an audible heart murmur.
I'm going for the jugular vein of this question and say - burgers. They're like a BBQ staple that many people feel can't go without.
I am not much of a burger person.
Bacon. Cheese.
Cheese.
Heresy!
That said, I understand it's not too popular across much of Asia, even beyond any lactose issues.
"with cheese"? Yeah, okay.
Just "cheese"? No, bullshit. That's like saying "meat" or "fruit".
Cheese doesn't need to be added to every dish. It's fine on a charcuterie where you can choose if/how much you want, but i don't need it on/in everything.
Crispy bacon.
Maybe it's because I'm gay, but I like actually having meat in my mouth.
Preach.
Pizza Hawaii.
Not because of the flavor,
but it should have been called Pizza Brazil.
Bubble tea.
MacDonalds foods.
Pizza hut Pizzas.
I think I might not be answering this question correctly.
I think it technically should have been called Canadian pizza but there's already a canadian pizza (pepperoni, mushroom, bacon). Coincidentally, my go to pizza order is half Hawaiian and half Canadian.
Avocado.
It's good, but it's not as good as what they charge for it.
Except Avocado is only like 40% pit usually.
Lowkey I think pizza is a bit overrated.
I mean it’s still good, but there are better foods.
Pizza is probably my favorite food - you can buy/make it 5 times and have 5 totally different things- different crusts, different toppings, dinner, breakfast, dessert, ... For the last year i have been stuck on prosciutto and fig. When we do pizza night we make 4-5 different ones and i save that one for last because it's so good.
Mayo should be outlawed. Aioli is just garlic mayo. Something about the shiny, sliminess of it makes me nauseous.
That shit can clog your arteries. When I learned that, I stopped eating anything with Mayo in it, if only sparingly.
French food (I assume because everything French seems "fancy" for whatever reason, maybe because they're a bit more "civilized" than the Anglo-Saxons? lol) is undeservedly hyped up, right? Or is my palate too underdeveloped to taste the complexities of French cuisine?
I used to agree, then i went to a couple of French restaurants and started thinking of them as the same as Mexican, Italian, etc. - Ok to go for breakfast or lunch; it doesn't have to be white tablecloth anniversary dinner for $100. French is fucking delicious! I didn't know i needed 4 kinds of onions in my soup, but holy crap it's good! Great bread, sandwiches, omelettes, ....
The problem is that French food in the Anglosphere has literally been the fancy food since 1066. That's why English has 2 words for every meat: the germanic peasant word and the french nobleman's culinary word (cow-beef, chicken-poultry, deer-venison, sheep-mutton, swine-pork, etc).
Being the default "fancy" food is going to do damage to any cuisine as the purpose becomes more about fanciness than tasting good or being what people from the place actually eat.
For another example, look at American Italian food. In a lot of small towns, Italian restaurants are the de facto fancy restaurant . It's basically made it so that Italian restaurants in much of the US are either way too expensive and fancy or they've gone the opposite route and just overcharge for really basic pasta with sauce (olive garden).
Animals. We are fucking herbivores. Every herbivore has a basic capacity to consume meat because every herbivore is MADE OF MEAT. If their bodies could not perform catabolism, they would not be able to live. Your body literally digests itself when cells die. But we are not adapted to eat meat except for survival in times of famine. The more meat a human eats, the younger they die, and the more major diseases they experience. THAT'S A FUCKING HERBIVORE.
Not even to consider that the animals we eat are vulnerable individuals whose very creation was an act of abuse. It is wrong to create an intelligent creature and then force it into a situation where it is dependent upon you for its survival. It is wrong to force an intelligent creature to become pregnant and bear a child. It is wrong to take children from their parents for financial gain. It is wrong to murder vulnerable individuals who are not a threat and do not want to die. Every step is wrong, and not just a little bit, these are some of the worst things you can possibly do to another individual. And most people do it several times a day, without giving it any thought at all. It fucking destroys me.
Mexican food in general.
There are levels.
Like all food, cheap mass produced version is generally bad. Home made with the correct ingredients can be wonderful.
Chilaquiles slap.
Tacos al pastor, yum. Never thought I could like pineapple in savory food.
Sopa Tarasca is heavenly.
Simple bean burrito with refried pintos, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped onion & chipotle salsa is something I would eat for breakfast, lunch or supper.
Respectfully disagree, I do rate it highly and think it belongs there. Even the simple stuff (if by mush you mean refried beans) is seasoned well and delicious. Tasty mush.
I suspect the stuff they sell in restaurants isn't what mothers in Mexico cook at home.
I just want to rant about Texan chilli - no beans ? So, it's mince in fact ?
Broccoli has very few ways of actually good preparation. Fuckoli is generally overrated and sucks ass. Pukeoli shouldn't ever be streamed or boiled like some people do to this disgusting vegetable.
You just aren't getting good broccoli. The stuff from the store is usaually weeks old and has hint of a funky rotten garbage or a musty moldy taste to it. Fresh broccoli has a nutty earthy flavor and is amazing.
Yeah, and some people insist on steaming or, worse, boiling broccoli for far, far too long.