FOOD SNOB - or ENOUGH ALREADY!

I have never considered myself a food snob, though there are friends and family who might differ. I will try almost anything and eat dishes prepared by almost anybody. But, once in a while I find that I am bothered by a food fad or language associated with foods. For as long as I can remember, I have always been bothered by celebrity cooks whose first comment about their food is how "pretty" it is. Maybe because it's a term that seems to be used exclusively by women! And it makes their attempt at cooking appear to be frivolous, with rather pedestrian results. But the thing that grates on me like fingernails on a chalk board is foods served in bread bowls (including the taco salad). There is something déclassé about eating your food, then devouring the "Dish" it came in, IMO. I've never seen this food fashion in other countries. Yes, I know that Ethiopian food is served atop Njera, but njera is not the serving dish, and it has been my experience that there is always a basket of njera served alongside the meal as well.
This morning I was watching an episode of The Pioneer Woman where I believe Ree sunk to a new low. She thawed a loaf of frozen bread and rolled it out. Then she draped it over a stainless bowl and popped it into the oven to make a "pizza salad bowl". After it had cooled she made a rather mundane green salad with tomatoes, salami, a few olives and mozzarella cubes to fill the bowl, which was large enough for a crowd. Then she held it up and popped a piece of cheese into her mouth -- end of segment. I was left wondering WHY? And how do you serve and eat this thing? And, WHY? I'm sorry, but thinly rolled and baked bread filled with greens and Italian dressing does not a pizza make! (Have to admit, I'm not a pizza fan either.) I do realize that she referenced her newly engaged daughter and fiancé when she prepared the dish touting it as a quick and easy meal. But, is this really the kind of meal planning you would be teaching your soon to be married child? It's not what she feeds Ladd! How silly. This show moved her into Sandra Lee territory for me -- an edge on which she was already dangerously close. These television shows along with hamburgers that no longer have sides (you just pile everything on top) are either beginning to show the strain of COVID on our culinary imaginations or American dining culture has truly hit bottom. Have I become a food snob in my old age, or is this kind of food idiocy enough already!?

Fads come and go, but sometimes the simplest dish is the most beautiful.

Jo Ann, I think you're close to snob but have not crossed the line.

A pretty plate is worthwhile, I think. Not instead of other qualities like taste, nutrition, value, and so on. But just like a fancy wine label influences your later judgment, I think a pretty plate incites your appetite.

Trenchers are a peasant tradition so "déclassé" is about right. Trenchers were most popular in medieval times but are mentioned as far back as Virgil's Aeneid. They exist in modern cuisine in only one form: the canape. Restaurants that serve chili or a thick soup in a 'bread bowl' are just being precious; ditto for cooks who line a salad bowl with pizza dough.

Learn something new every day. I must admit, for as long as I have been dabbling in cuisines of the world and trying to cook my way through, I have never come across the word trencher used in this way. So I looked it up. After reading the description of Trenchers in Medieval Cookery, I am more convinced now than ever that eating your food container is not a good look!! Though, I think you may be right about my food snobbery. Does anybody remember the Royal Fork all you can eat "restaurants"? I never did like going to those places, but my mother thought that was a pleasant night out with the grans. I remember going to a place like that for breakfast once when I saw a man with two plates in his hand. one had nothing but bacon, piled as high as could be balanced, and another with various sweets. He was rotund, along with the wife and kids who followed behind him, each carrying their own tugboat of dishes. I couldn't figure out why management didn't say something to them, and the spectacle didn't seem to be noticed by anyone else. I couldn't finish my "meal". There are a few exceptions though. I ate at a casino buffet a couple times, and the food was really good -- especially their prime rib. I remember being startled at how satisfied I was with the meal, though I still ate only one plate of food. All you can eat -- really!!? But, lest I fall into full on food snobbery, I'm going to go to a fast food Mexican restaurant soon and order the taco salad to see what it must feel/taste like to nibble the edge of the bowl. Will let you know how I fare. The Thought!

In my younger days, there was a Royal Fork a couple of blocks away. I figured they had to close because of me, especially because of Fridays, which were shrimp nights, in addition to the carving stations.

Chinese cuisine has several soups where the soup is cooked and served in the vegetable--pumpkin soup in the hollowed-out pumpkin, for example. But in these cases you're not expected to eat the container.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

I am more convinced now than ever that eating your food container is not a good look!!

Ethiopan food served on injera, though ...

[Jenise]

I am more convinced now than ever that eating your food container is not a good look!!

Ethiopan food served on injera, though ...

She mentioned that; but I ask you, is that any different than a taco?

All the tacos I’ve ever eaten came served on a plate or in some type of inedible basket. Yes, different.

And when I talk about “pretty” in reference to food, I’m not talking about artful presentation, I’m talking about a sprinkling of parsley or scallions atop a dish of macaroni or red and green peppers stirred into queso Blanca because the colors compliment each other. Really!?

After reading the description of Trenchers in Medieval Cookery, I am more convinced now than ever that eating your food container is not a good look!!

That's a nice source. His Royal Squashiness is well-versed in English and French history and he has read the same as one of the quotes on that page: in Tudor times, the 'broken meats' were given to the poor, partly because they could not be kept, partly because you wouldn't serve the Lord half-eaten things, and partly to make a show of the Lord's generosity.

...I'm going to go to a fast food Mexican restaurant soon and order the taco salad to see what it must feel/taste like to nibble the edge of the bowl. Will let you know how I fare. The Thought!

They're usually deep-fried so it'll be good. You can think of it as an unusually-large and badly-folded taco.

I was browsing through Julia Child's second volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I came across a recipe for courge soup or puree baked and served in the squash/pumpkin. When serving, one scoops out some of the inner walls of the squash and serves it with the cooked innards. So this is almost exactly like bread soup bowls except with squash instead of bread.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

All the tacos I’ve ever eaten came served on a plate or in some type of inedible basket. Yes, different.

But the taco bowl salad would also be on a plate, no?

Anyway, while we're beating up on bread bowls, is there anything worse than the party dip (usually spinach) served in a large sourdough round? After the first ten people have been near it, it's totally trashed. Disgusting--I never go near those things.

She thawed a loaf of frozen bread and rolled it out. Then she draped it over a stainless bowl and popped it into the oven to make a "pizza salad bowl".

I struggling to envisage this; was it really a loaf of bread or was it frozen dough?

She thawed a loaf of frozen bread and rolled it out. Then she draped it over a stainless bowl and popped it into the oven to make a "pizza salad bowl".

I struggling to envisage this; was it really a loaf of bread or was it frozen dough?

You are correct, Peter. I unintentionally left off the word dough. It was in fact frozen bread dough!

But the taco bowl salad would also be on a plate, no?

Right! Which is the only reason I would consider nibbling, or breaking off a piece of the edge. Otherwise, I would just order a taco, which is the same thing in a much more manageable form. I've only eaten a taco salad a couple of times, which I've asked to be plated and served with a side of chips.

Anyway, while we're beating up on bread bowls, is there anything worse than the party dip (usually spinach) served in a large sourdough round? After the first ten people have been near it, it's totally trashed. Disgusting--I never go near those things.

Right! Unless I am at home enjoying one of my own dips, I don't eat dips out of the container at a potluck/buffet gathering. If I find one interesting, I always spoon out about a tablespoon's amount and put it on the side of my plate. No communal dipping for me! But, there are lots of things people do with food that I find disgusting. I am never able to get through a movie where there is a food fight scene, or a pie in the face, or the couples who find it amusing to smash wedding cake in one another's face. And I was never one of those kids who played the game "close your eyes and open your mouth". I just can't do it.

Pie fights aren't about the pies, you know.

It's about watching Laurel and Hardy, or Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, or Elmer Fudd and Humphrey Bogart being... ridiculous.

Pie fights aren't about the pies, you know.

It's about watching Laurel and Hardy, or Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, or Elmer Fudd and Humphrey Bogart being... ridiculous.

You forgot Soupy Sales.

[Jenise]

No communal dipping for me, either.

There is something déclassé about eating your food, then devouring the "Dish" it came in, IMO. I've never seen this food fashion in other countries.

You've never had an ice-cream cornet?

There is something déclassé about eating your food, then devouring the "Dish" it came in, IMO. I've never seen this food fashion in other countries.

You've never had an ice-cream cornet?

No. But I have had an ice-cream cone on occasion. Thing is, like a taco, you eat it by hand. A fork or spoon is not required -- which you would then put down (I assume) to eat the container!

She thawed a loaf of frozen bread and rolled it out. Then she draped it over a stainless bowl and popped it into the oven to make a "pizza salad bowl".

I struggling to envisage this; was it really a loaf of bread or was it frozen dough?

My guess is it was something like a loaf of frozen dough such as Bridgford sells in the U.S. You can thaw and bake it into a loaf or roll it out into a thinner sheet of white bread. Very tasty, a key ingredient in one of our family's Christmas foods.

[Jenise]

I didn't know Bridgford was still around! Will admit, long ago I loved it and bought it often.

But definitely not a Ree Drummond fan. I watched part of an episode the other day in which she made a sheet pan quesadilla that, as usual, was built up out of multiple unenhanced and ordinary canned and packaged ingredients and about eight burrito sized flour tortillas that with multiple folds became a single unit for slicing with a pizza cutter. The result would no doubt feed the kids but overall lacked sophistication and was probably underseasoned for adult tastes (or, at least, mine).

Plates or bowls made out of "food", that you are supposed to eat as part of the meal, aren't something I've come across. Dare I hope that idea hasn't made it to these shores? Most likely, next time I go anywhere I'll see it. I'm always late to know about these things.

To be honest, the idea doesn't appeal to me. I assume waiters carry the bread basin full of salad or whatever else in their bare hands? And does the bread basin then get plonked onto the table or place-mat without benefit of plate beneath? I hope the waiters wash their hands and insert at least a disposable paper mat underneath!