Poll: Fighting foods

What foods would you fight for?
Do cinnamon raisin bagels send you over the edge? Have you become violent when discussing pizza?
Does the thought of someone having a pastrami sandwich on white bread make you want to choke them until they turn blue?
Please select one option.

I voted for pizza.
I believe there have been more arguments started over what genuine pizza is, what can and cannot go on a pizza, how pizza is properly eaten, and who makes the best pizza, than any other food discussion topic out there.
But I may be wrong. Certainly, there have been heated discussions, many pages long, over barbecue. And the recent bagel thread demonstrates that this circular breakfast food is capable of starting a robust debate.

In the end, I voted pizza. But I'm wondering what fellow forumites think. Maybe I'm missing an obvious choice?

John-
You missed Chili==> with or without beans, etc.
Bagel Boy

I chose barbeque. It annoys me when someone says they barbequed, when actually they grilled.

more fights over bread than anything else.

In Israel the two most contentious are probably humous and felafel. Not only competing shop owners but their customers have come to vicious arguments over just whose and which is "best". And of course then there are the arguments about just who invented felafel in the first place (heck - Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis have gone to war over less serious issues)

Best
Rogov

In Israel the two most contentious are probably humous and felafel. Not only competing shop owners but their customers have come to vicious arguments over just whose and which is "best". And of course then there are the arguments about just who invented felafel in the first place (heck - Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis have gone to war over less serious issues)

Best
Rogov

Ahh, the Falafel Wars. Those crazy Favists.

Arguing and becoming angry over food? Not worth the effort. I'd rather use the energy to eat it!

[Jenise]

Based strictly on the number of conversations here on FLDG in which pizza (frozen yes or no, snobs or not, picnic food or not...) has created great divides, I had to vote for pizza. But outside of this board? I can't remember the last time a food 'fight' erupted among friends (besides yesterday, involving crab cooking--whole or halved first, boiled or steamed--but this is too local) that put people on either side of an issue involving food. Am I too mellow, or do I simply have the wrong friends? I know I lack nothing in the way of opinions, so maybe it's my friends who are too mellow.

I chose barbeque. It annoys me when someone says they barbequed, when actually they grilled.

Amen, Patti! BBQ is a food, not an activity. Unless, of course you're BBQing barbeque! Just yesterday, we were standing in line at our local grocery store--Berkeley Bowl. They happen to be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers (on a grill!!!!) outside and it was really smoky smelling at the checkout stands. The couple behind us said, "What's burning?". Someone replied, "they are BBQ-ing outside". It must have shown on my face what I was thinking, because next thing I know Tony is grabbing my arm and saying, "just leave it alone".

We get invited to a lot of "BBQ's". I've come to find understand that here that just means we're cooking on the grill. As a Texan, if you get invited to a BBQ, you're getting brisket, ribs, chicken, etc.. and it has a BBQ sauce.

I chose barbeque. It annoys me when someone says they barbequed, when actually they grilled.

Amen, Patti! BBQ is a food, not an activity. Unless, of course you're BBQing barbeque! Just yesterday, we were standing in line at our local grocery store--Berkeley Bowl. They happen to be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers (on a grill!!!!) outside and it was really smoky smelling at the checkout stands. The couple behind us said, "What's burning?". Someone replied, "they are BBQ-ing outside". It must have shown on my face what I was thinking, because next thing I know Tony is grabbing my arm and saying, "just leave it alone".

We get invited to a lot of "BBQ's". I've come to find understand that here that just means we're cooking on the grill. As a Texan, if you get invited to a BBQ, you're getting brisket, ribs, chicken, etc.. and it has a BBQ sauce.

I'm with Patti and Traci on this one too.

My husband would say deli, but more specifically "subs." When he thinks of a sub, he thinks of a little Italian joint in Boston's North End, or Federal Hill in Providence with the best Italian cold cuts, real provolone, roasted peppers, good olive oil. A lot of other people think of Subway.

if great love can lead to great debate; then i'm reminded that GBS is quoted as saying: "there is no more sincere love than the love of food".

I agree with the chili, beans, no beans battles, hell, wars have been fought over it!
FYI, sanctioned championship chili cookoffs don't allow beans as an ingredient, and those who make their chili with ground hamburger, need not apply either.
Also agree that in the contentious food arena, that BBQ and pizza are probably rated 1 & 1A
A couple other close contenders are hot dogs, how to cook them, what kind to use, what to put on them etc., and burgers if you take into account the countless threads about who makes the "best" burger and how to do it.

... then i'm reminded that GBS is quoted as saying: "there is no more sincere love than the love of food".

George Bush Sr.?

[Jenise]

Someone replied, "they are BBQ-ing outside". It must have shown on my face what I was thinking, because next thing I know Tony is grabbing my arm and saying, "just leave it alone".

He's right--you're in California now, accept it. It's a regional thang.

[David M. Bueker]

Got to be BBQ - I've seen people in North Carolina threaten bodily harm because the wrong sauce was mentioned.

Someone mentionned "frozen pizza". Is there such a thing on this planet or any other? Reminds me of Woody Allen's aphorism to the effect that "He who lies with chickens is weird"

Best and indeed, chuckling......
Rogov

I know I lack nothing in the way of opinions, so maybe it's my friends who are too mellow.

We pick the friends we need!

Pizza and barbecue are high on the list (although I don't see the fights over pizza as most of the types people fight over are great) but I'd put chili at #1.

Just watch this:


Hey Cowboy! Chili without beans is NOT CHILI!!!!!!

Someone replied, "they are BBQ-ing outside". It must have shown on my face what I was thinking, because next thing I know Tony is grabbing my arm and saying, "just leave it alone".

He's right--you're in California now, accept it. It's a regional thang.

I know, I know! I just bite my tongue and eat my BBQ'ed hamburger...

Someone replied, "they are BBQ-ing outside". It must have shown on my face what I was thinking, because next thing I know Tony is grabbing my arm and saying, "just leave it alone".

He's right--you're in California now, accept it. It's a regional thang.

I know, I know! I just bite my tongue and eat my BBQ'ed hamburger...

You know, I thought more about this last night. Do you think we Americans are being influenced by the Outback commercials?? "Let's throw some shrimp on the barby?" So now we are calling anything cooked on an outdoor grill, barbecue?
When we were kids we'd call them "cookouts."

BBQ!...A basting sauce, yeah...but none of those commercial sweet sauces on the meat! Sauce on the side if ya gotta have it.

Richard

I actually misread the question when I voted. I personally would never get into a fight about any food because I'm just not that sort of person (though I love trolling the lageb lovers over their perfidious tastes), but as an interested observer I have no doubt that passions run even higher among BBQ lovers than they do among pizza lovers. There, one not only has the BBQ vs. grilling debate but the internecine debate about regional variants a la Dale's video (though that pig f%^&er likes N Carolina Q )

Mark Lipton

I'd think chili would be the most likely to raise discussion, at least in my experience.

Real chili, of course, has no beans.

BBQ would be next, but I have no particular iron in those fires. We did a grill up this summer by two rib specialists, presenting one dry and one wet rub and concluded that they are all good to one degree or another!

The foodstuff that would cause me the most reason to jump up and down and fuss would be foie gras, which many people seem incapable of cooking properly. Anyone that thinks you need to serve this ambrosial substance with a side of what amounts to frickin' jam, or worse, under a coating of some crap mistakenly called sauce has his/her head up their respective butt!!