On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:27:59 +0100, Pete C
wrote:


I find with basic food, quality and preparation is everything, I'd
rather have that than some bland pre-processed ingredients smothered
in garlic, chilli etc.

As would I Pete, so what sort of things do you mean and to what
please?

Anything really, bread, tomatoes, lettuce, olive oil, coffee beans,
bananas, cheese, even pepper corns.

So, ok, let's take one from the list that I don't mind (as in 'will
eat if handed to me but probably would never buy myself') .. bananas.
(I am no fan of tomatoes, coffee or pepper).

Take lettuce, a normal round or iceberg lettuce are fine, but
romaine/cos lettuce and curly lettuce are better. There was a program
about them on BBC radio recently which is worth a listen:

Doh (I chose bananas g) . I really can't get excited about plain
lettuce (only some garnishes allow it to be edible to me). I wait till
a narna stops being green (told you 'green' wasn't a good thing g) ,
open it up and stuff it in my gob .. job done? I will eat them from
quite firm to nearly liquid (avoiding the brown bits) and 'enjoy' it
all the same (as in 3/10).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/foodprogramme_20050619.shtml

Ok, thanks for that .. I'll give it a listen later ..

There's also loads of info on the web worth a look:

http://www.foodreference.com/html/artromainecoslettuce.html

Good grief .. so much information on letti ;-)


OTOH if buying pre-prepared food, the ingredients are dictated by the
manufacturer, and if it's quite cheap then the ingredients themselves
will need to be very cheap to compensate for manufacturing costs.

Understood. A friend has (had) been growing tomatoes commercially for
the last 40 years but over the last couple of years been beaten down
on price by the supermarkets to a level where it now costs him money
to grow them. This is because they can sell highly uniform and bright
red tasteless (like I can tell .. ) balls from (typically) Poland.


It's probably as much about texture as well as taste, chips that are
fried at too low a temperature can be too greasy and soggy, and
overcooked chips can be quite indigestible. Bad oil can give chips an
unpleasant bitter flavour.

Understood.

There isn't much (any?) texture in a McD's, but it will still be
better than badly cooked chips. But excellent chips have much better
texture, and probably taste better too.

Someone said there isn't any potato in a McD's chip?

Ripe vine cherries are the opposite, very
sweet and full of flavour.

So why would one eat them Pete. Do you eat them for variety (I'll
pass), because you 'like' the taste (I'll pass) or because they are
supposed to be good for you balanced diet and that (I'll eat a few but
don't 'enjoy' them as such)?

For the taste mainly, also they are pretty easy to prepare. They also
have a better flavour than when used in ketchup. What tastes do you
enjoy?

Do you know I really don't know Pete ;-( What would I actually bother
buy and eat myself .. Dime / Curley wurly bars, Walkers Cheese and
Onion crisps .. Sweet and Sour Chicken (take away) .. Chicken Tikka,
vegeatable korma, pillau rice ..(delivery)?


http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=refrigerate%20tomatoes&btnG=Google+ Search&meta=

Ta ..

As a knock -on from this type of conversation my wife and I were
discussing what she can offer me food wise. She is currently cycling
20 miles a night and eating 'sensibly' and has lost a stone over a
couple of months (11 st now).

The problem is I could never answer the question "what would you like
to deat tonight" because I really don't care (in a nice way). That
said there are loads of things I would prefer not to eat (like veg ..
boring / tasteless) but there are only a couple of things I would
actually spit out .. like obergines / courgettes or if I find any
'tubes' in liver gag ;-( I generally will leave peppers to one
side if I find any in a meal.

As much as she finds finding stuff I might like a problem, our 15yr
old will pretty well eat anything put in front of her but asked what
she would like will often choose 'a fried egg sarnie' ;-) The
'problem' though is my wife knows if *she* doesn't sort ot my food
I'll probably not bother / eat rubbish when I suddenly realise I'm
very hungry? (not good for me) ;-(

So, I wonder if it's that I rarely eat socially (just not my thing /
can't justify the time / cost for the return), don't actually taste
the same way *most* folk taste (whatever that means) or simply have no
intrest in treating the concept of keeping this machine running into a
hobby (like does my car really care what make / spec diesel I give
it?).

Thanks for your time Pete ;-)

All the best ..

T i m