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So is most truffle oil. Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed wi

So is most truffle oil. Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed. If you travel the developing world, you may find that what is sold as chocolate actually has no cacao in it. Lots and lots of disappointments out there in the food world. I find reading labels carefully and doing research online revelatory.

pushpop 8y ago
I few years ago I was was reading the back of a can of New York style hotdogs and realised the main ingredient was chicken. By a substantial margin too. Ever since then I’ve been sceptical about the contents of products I buy.
- nightfly 8y ago
  > can of New York style hotdogs I think they've already failed at being "New York style".
- toomanybeersies 8y ago
  I think that by the time that it gets processed and put in a can, you can't really tell the difference between the taste of the different meats. It just tastes like generic processed meat and sodium.
- throwaway2048 8y ago
  Are you in Europe? I notice the things they call "hot dogs" there are almost always canned, which is exceedingly odd coming from an American perspective, where the concept of a canned hot dog basically does not exist.
  - pushpop 8y ago
    Yes I'm in Europe. You can also buy hot dogs that are not canned - though we usually call them "sausages".
  - ryanbrunner 8y ago
    Ironically, canned "hot dogs" are usually called Vienna Sausages in North America.
naravara 8y ago
All because everyone wants champagne taste on a beer budget. It reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright quote when someone asked for a $5k house and he says “Are you sure you want a $5,000 house? Most people want a $10,000 house for $5,000.” They could just pitch these as cheaper substitutions and it wouldn’t be so annoying.
- tptacek 8y ago
  You could say the same thing about vanilla, for which Cooks Illustrated was infamously not able to triangle-test a meaningful preference between artificial and real in a baked goods panel (IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla). Sometimes, the artificial ("beer-grade") version is a legit advance. A big problem with truffle oil is that it's too easy to overdo it, which is something you're less likely to do with a $200 black truffle. It's also too easy to add truffle notes to things that aren't really improved by truffle notes. And those two problems compound each other. It can work pretty well on french fries, though!
  - naravara 8y ago
    >You could say the same thing about vanilla, for which Cooks Illustrated was infamously not able to triangle-test a meaningful preference between artificial and real in a baked goods panel (IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla). Sometimes, the artificial ("beer-grade") version is a legit advance. True. (And TBH I prefer a decent beer to an equivalent tier of champagne) People get wrapped up in the status element of the luxury good and lose sight of the actual use/enjoyment function of the good itself. If we were more comfortable letting the cheap stuff sing in its own right instead of trying to imitate the expensive things we might open a lot of doors for new innovations. Your point about truffle oil makes me think of all those 50s cookbooks doing all kinds of weird stuff with gelatin since gelatinizing stuff wasn’t some absurdly laborious and expensive process anymore. It seems like it took a while for people to realize that entombing all foods in gelatin just because you can is actually. . . Not very good. Haha
tru3_power 8y ago
Another one is Kobe beef. Real Kobe beef is from the city of Kobe in Japan and is only served in a handful of resturaunts in the US (I think 1 in NYC and a few in LV). So next time you see Kobe beef on the menu- you know it’s most likely a lie.
- berbec 8y ago
  I got Wagu at Morimoto's in Philly. I've never had beef I could cut with my tongue.
- tptacek 8y ago
  You can get A5 wagyu all over the place in the US. The "tell" that you're looking at fake "kobe beef" is when you could take the dish and swap "kobe" for "angus" and the dish would still make sense; so, for instance, a "kobe burger" always going to be silly and shady, and nobody would ever buy "certified angus nigiri".
  - tru3_power 8y ago
    Yup and honestly the two times I’ve had Kobe I really couldn’t tell the difference between the same cut as non Kobe(yet still A5 Wagyu)- except for when the bill came.
  - gotocake 8y ago
    I’d add that if you don’t like ultra-rare beer then it’s kind of a waste. I’m not a fan of anything that isn’t medium, and by that temp a lot of the fine marbling is effectively lost. In short, when I finally had some real A5 I realized it was totally wasted on me. If you liked carpaccio though, it would probably be amazing. I think too often people attach value judgements to grades or things, to wine and the like, when the truth is thst individual taste is highly variable. If you like a sensibly priced bottle of wine, rejoice, it’s a good wine for you. If you’re someone who skews to the high priced bottles then that’s going to be rough on the wallet, but again that’s your taste. The biggest mistake we make with food and drink is to “want the best” instead of wanting the best for us. There is subsitute for trying lots of different types of food and drink and choosing what you like the taste of most, not what’s most applauded by experts or in vogue.
Ozzie_osman 8y ago
Baby carrots are not, in fact, small carrots. They are misshapen carrots that would not sell unless they were carved into "baby carrots".
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > Baby carrots are not, in fact, small carrots The ones I've gotten that still have the tops on them, and the outer skin, absolutely are; IME, what you are referring to are generally sold as “baby-cut” or “petit” carrots, rather than “baby" carrots.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mda 8y ago
  And these fake, shaped baby carrots are truly vile. No taste, disgusting texture.
- OJFord 8y ago
  I've heard this online a few times, but it doesn't gel with my experience shopping at all; I suppose it must be a regional thing. In the UK the closest I've seen or heard of are both 'real' (whole) carrots: Chantenay - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-chantenay-carrots/085124-43219-43220 https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-chantenay-ca... 'Baby topped' - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-1-baby-topped-carrots/085888-43818-43819 https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-1-baby-toppe...
  - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
    I remember a video of a processing plant that 'lathed down' regular carrots to make baby carrots. I always thought that's what they were. Since nobody buys big carrots any more, pretty much all carrots are made into baby carrots. Because they sell.
    - OJFord 8y ago
      > Since nobody buys big carrots any more What?! Citation sorely needed. I do, and in my experience 'big' (I would've said 'normal') carrots are stocked more abundantly than any other.
lainga 8y ago
>Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed. Is this because brewed soy sauce isn't Halal? ED: why the downvotes? That's a legitimate reason for why vinegar in most chip shops is actually "non-brewed condiment". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642x2Y3Zla0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642x2Y3Zla0
- VirtualAirwaves 8y ago
  Grape/wine vinegar (usually) isn't Kosher either.
  - justtopost 8y ago
    Sounds like old abrahamic superstitions are still making food worse.
    - tradertef 8y ago
      >> Sounds like old abrahamic superstitions are still making food worse. This comment is so ignorant.
      - VirtualAirwaves 8y ago
        It is. But Y Combinator Management supports this type of thinking.
    - VirtualAirwaves 8y ago
      What's wrong with you? Why are you so hateful?
notyourday 8y ago
There's no such thing as a non-synthetic truffle oil. It is not made from truffles what so ever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_oil
- seszett 8y ago
  There absolutely is such a thing as truffle oil made with real truffles, and you link also says so.
  - notyourday 8y ago
    This is today as described in wikipedia Truffle oil can be produced using any oil. Common versions use olive oil, or a more neutral flavorless oil such as canola or grapeseed oil.[6] Some truffle oils are made with truffle residues incurred during collection or preparation for sale. Many truffle oils sold in retail markets are not made from truffles[1] but instead use manufactured aromatic compounds including 2,4-dithiapentane (one of many aroma active compounds that can be found in some truffle varietals) with an oil base. There are no regulations regarding the labeling of 2,4-dithiapentane and it can legally be called truffle aroma, truffle flavor, truffle concentrate or other similar terms, even though it is not extracted from truffles. In the United States, the ingredient may use the modifiers "organic" or "natural" as long as the components meet the federal requirements for those terms. Truffle oils range from clear to cloudy, and yellow to green, depending on the base oil used. Some include a piece of truffle in the bottle.[2] These pieces can be from any of over 200 different truffle species and may be listed as "black truffle" or "white truffle" even if not one of prized culinary varietals such as the black Périgord or white Alba truffle. This is historic and no longer the case: Truffle oil is frequently used as a bait for truffle-hunting dogs and pigs. Modern Italians often use a strufion, a ball of rags scented with truffle oil.[7](p87) Truffle oil has been used for this purpose since at least 1756, made by boiling truffles in olive oil and given to hunting dogs.[9]
    - seszett 8y ago
      Well, this does say that "some truffle oils are made with truffle residues". Now maybe this is rare in the US, but at least in France it's the only kind of oil that is allowed to be called truffle oil (well, "huile à la truffe"). It could be called "olive oil with truffle taste" otherwise ("huile d'olive/tournesol/colza au goût truffe"). It's really not difficult to find here, and it is absolutely made with real truffle (the broken pieces that can't be sold as truffles). I don't have any at home because I don't care for it, but one I can find at my usual supermarket for example contains "TUBER AESTIVUM (1.1%)". This is known to be a so-so variety of truffle at best. The next-level product (at almost 40 €/L) specifically says that the truffle in its ingredients is "Périgord truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) 1%". This is probably a good enough truffle oil if you like that. Looking up the products here in Belgium though, it seems like only "truffle taste" oils are available in the regular supermarkets, but that is also clear from the product names ("Bereiding van Olijfolie van Eerste Persing 99,7% met Truffelsmaak").
Semaphor 8y ago
The store brand soy sauce here has 12% soy sauce and 7.1% soy sauce powder. I've been wondering if this is actually 12% soy sauce as the product is quite cheap. > you may find that what is sold as chocolate actually has no cacao in it In the western world, most people seem to want little to no cacao but sugar instead.
- joecool1029 8y ago
  >In the western world Nah really just the US has the giant value bags of Hershey's product with almost no cacao solids. The commonwealth western nations are still sweet but have higher minimums. Don't believe me? A good benchmark is kitkat bars. Try the regular from US, Canada, England, and Japan. Only the US one tastes overwhelmingly of sugar and not chocolate. Japan's chocolate is far less sweet but they don't seem to emphasize solids as much as UK does.
  - dmos62 8y ago
    I've been recently pondering sugar tolerance. I've been avoiding it for the last few years, eating it only sometimes and moderately, checking sugar contents of processed food I buy, etc. I'm at a point where anything with more than ~30% sugar tastes bad: it gives a sort of mouth-wrinkling shock to my taste receptors; my sugar tolerance is decreasing. Given that sugar is addictive and most producers seem to have the attitude that the more sugar you sneak into the product, the cheaper it is and the more it sells, maybe Nestle (Kitkat's producer, right?) tests for regional tolerance and puts in the maximum amount of sugar, where the person still doesn't feel an overwhelming sugar shock when tasting? Just speculation, but it's a possibility I'd investigate if I were an evil food industry mogul.
    - Tor3 8y ago
      Many (many!) years ago a friend brought some bottles of Pepsi from a trip to Egypt. I still had a couple of the bottles left until last year, when I finally ditched them. The reason he brought them was to show how the Egyptian version of Pepsi had much more sugar added (I didn't actually think that was even possible..). Then again refined sugar was invented in that region of the world and was used hundreds of years before anywhere else. As for myself, I just hate how shop-made cakes are mostly sugar - it feels like my mouth is burning. I don't understand why they do it. Nearly everyone I know prefer home-made cakes (made from basic ingrediants, not mix bags).
Tor3 8y ago
> Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. On the other hand the frozen sliced reindeer meat is 100% reindeer. The canned stuff is meatballs, which is difficult to make from reindeer or moose -- the meat contains no fat whatsoever. Thus the pork mix. As for wasabi, what my wife says (she's Japanese) is that wasabi isn't there for its own flavor - its only job is to enhance the flavor of the food it is served with (she talks a lot about tasting the nuances, which is what Japanese food is about - it's not about taste explosions like in so many other cultures). So if you use so much wasabi ('fake' or not) that it only functions to open up your sinuses you're doing it wrong. Same with soy sauce and the like - it's not something you add just to make whatever you're eating taste like soy sauce. And she's horrified when she sees people around here (we're not in Japan) dip vegetable tempura into soy sauce. It destroyes the taste. You're supposed to only add a little salt, the same as a little salt enhances the flavor of eggs. (Add too much though and you only taste salt).
- dalbasal 8y ago
  A lot of traditional European dishes (inc Swedish meatballs) mix minced pork with a darker meat, usually beef or veal. You get the savoury flavour and colour from the red meat and the mild flavoured fat from pork. It's a similar affect "grain fattened" beef produces in a single animal, but the animal doesn't need to be an obese cow. If you have venison in a resteraunt, it's often rare steak dishes. It's cooked rare because it's so lean, and dries up when cooked for longer. Usually the meat is trimmed, because the fat/grisle isn't as good as beef (in ye old times, venison fat was used for tallow candles instead of lard) But, not every cut is steak. If you make sausages or minced meat dishes (meatballs, etc.) from venison, cutting it with pork or pork fat makes it much more suitable for most recipes. Lying to consumers is not ok, but combining venison and pork is legit. My guess is that it's traditional.
- thegeekpirate 8y ago
  > And she's horrified when she sees people around here (we're not in Japan) dip vegetable tempura into soy sauce. FWIW, tempura dipping sauce is usually ginger/mirin/daikon/sugar/soy sauce, and is far sweeter than soy sauce alone—a wonderful combination for tempura.

pushpop 8y ago

I few years ago I was was reading the back of a can of New York style hotdogs and realised the main ingredient was chicken. By a substantial margin too. Ever since then I’ve been sceptical about the contents of products I buy.

nightfly 8y ago
> can of New York style hotdogs I think they've already failed at being "New York style".
toomanybeersies 8y ago
I think that by the time that it gets processed and put in a can, you can't really tell the difference between the taste of the different meats. It just tastes like generic processed meat and sodium.
throwaway2048 8y ago
Are you in Europe? I notice the things they call "hot dogs" there are almost always canned, which is exceedingly odd coming from an American perspective, where the concept of a canned hot dog basically does not exist.
- pushpop 8y ago
  Yes I'm in Europe. You can also buy hot dogs that are not canned - though we usually call them "sausages".
- ryanbrunner 8y ago
  Ironically, canned "hot dogs" are usually called Vienna Sausages in North America.

naravara 8y ago

All because everyone wants champagne taste on a beer budget. It reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright quote when someone asked for a $5k house and he says “Are you sure you want a $5,000 house? Most people want a $10,000 house for $5,000.” They could just pitch these as cheaper substitutions and it wouldn’t be so annoying.

tptacek 8y ago
You could say the same thing about vanilla, for which Cooks Illustrated was infamously not able to triangle-test a meaningful preference between artificial and real in a baked goods panel (IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla). Sometimes, the artificial ("beer-grade") version is a legit advance. A big problem with truffle oil is that it's too easy to overdo it, which is something you're less likely to do with a $200 black truffle. It's also too easy to add truffle notes to things that aren't really improved by truffle notes. And those two problems compound each other. It can work pretty well on french fries, though!
- naravara 8y ago
  >You could say the same thing about vanilla, for which Cooks Illustrated was infamously not able to triangle-test a meaningful preference between artificial and real in a baked goods panel (IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla). Sometimes, the artificial ("beer-grade") version is a legit advance. True. (And TBH I prefer a decent beer to an equivalent tier of champagne) People get wrapped up in the status element of the luxury good and lose sight of the actual use/enjoyment function of the good itself. If we were more comfortable letting the cheap stuff sing in its own right instead of trying to imitate the expensive things we might open a lot of doors for new innovations. Your point about truffle oil makes me think of all those 50s cookbooks doing all kinds of weird stuff with gelatin since gelatinizing stuff wasn’t some absurdly laborious and expensive process anymore. It seems like it took a while for people to realize that entombing all foods in gelatin just because you can is actually. . . Not very good. Haha

tru3_power 8y ago

Another one is Kobe beef. Real Kobe beef is from the city of Kobe in Japan and is only served in a handful of resturaunts in the US (I think 1 in NYC and a few in LV). So next time you see Kobe beef on the menu- you know it’s most likely a lie.

berbec 8y ago
I got Wagu at Morimoto's in Philly. I've never had beef I could cut with my tongue.
tptacek 8y ago
You can get A5 wagyu all over the place in the US. The "tell" that you're looking at fake "kobe beef" is when you could take the dish and swap "kobe" for "angus" and the dish would still make sense; so, for instance, a "kobe burger" always going to be silly and shady, and nobody would ever buy "certified angus nigiri".
- tru3_power 8y ago
  Yup and honestly the two times I’ve had Kobe I really couldn’t tell the difference between the same cut as non Kobe(yet still A5 Wagyu)- except for when the bill came.
- gotocake 8y ago
  I’d add that if you don’t like ultra-rare beer then it’s kind of a waste. I’m not a fan of anything that isn’t medium, and by that temp a lot of the fine marbling is effectively lost. In short, when I finally had some real A5 I realized it was totally wasted on me. If you liked carpaccio though, it would probably be amazing. I think too often people attach value judgements to grades or things, to wine and the like, when the truth is thst individual taste is highly variable. If you like a sensibly priced bottle of wine, rejoice, it’s a good wine for you. If you’re someone who skews to the high priced bottles then that’s going to be rough on the wallet, but again that’s your taste. The biggest mistake we make with food and drink is to “want the best” instead of wanting the best for us. There is subsitute for trying lots of different types of food and drink and choosing what you like the taste of most, not what’s most applauded by experts or in vogue.

Ozzie_osman 8y ago

Baby carrots are not, in fact, small carrots. They are misshapen carrots that would not sell unless they were carved into "baby carrots".

dragonwriter 8y ago
> Baby carrots are not, in fact, small carrots The ones I've gotten that still have the tops on them, and the outer skin, absolutely are; IME, what you are referring to are generally sold as “baby-cut” or “petit” carrots, rather than “baby" carrots.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mda 8y ago
And these fake, shaped baby carrots are truly vile. No taste, disgusting texture.
OJFord 8y ago
I've heard this online a few times, but it doesn't gel with my experience shopping at all; I suppose it must be a regional thing. In the UK the closest I've seen or heard of are both 'real' (whole) carrots: Chantenay - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-chantenay-carrots/085124-43219-43220 https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-chantenay-ca... 'Baby topped' - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-1-baby-topped-carrots/085888-43818-43819 https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-1-baby-toppe...
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  I remember a video of a processing plant that 'lathed down' regular carrots to make baby carrots. I always thought that's what they were. Since nobody buys big carrots any more, pretty much all carrots are made into baby carrots. Because they sell.
  - OJFord 8y ago
    > Since nobody buys big carrots any more What?! Citation sorely needed. I do, and in my experience 'big' (I would've said 'normal') carrots are stocked more abundantly than any other.

lainga 8y ago

>Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed. Is this because brewed soy sauce isn't Halal? ED: why the downvotes? That's a legitimate reason for why vinegar in most chip shops is actually "non-brewed condiment". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642x2Y3Zla0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642x2Y3Zla0

VirtualAirwaves 8y ago
Grape/wine vinegar (usually) isn't Kosher either.
- justtopost 8y ago
  Sounds like old abrahamic superstitions are still making food worse.
  - tradertef 8y ago
    >> Sounds like old abrahamic superstitions are still making food worse. This comment is so ignorant.
    - VirtualAirwaves 8y ago
      It is. But Y Combinator Management supports this type of thinking.
  - VirtualAirwaves 8y ago
    What's wrong with you? Why are you so hateful?

notyourday 8y ago

There's no such thing as a non-synthetic truffle oil. It is not made from truffles what so ever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_oil

seszett 8y ago
There absolutely is such a thing as truffle oil made with real truffles, and you link also says so.
- notyourday 8y ago
  This is today as described in wikipedia Truffle oil can be produced using any oil. Common versions use olive oil, or a more neutral flavorless oil such as canola or grapeseed oil.[6] Some truffle oils are made with truffle residues incurred during collection or preparation for sale. Many truffle oils sold in retail markets are not made from truffles[1] but instead use manufactured aromatic compounds including 2,4-dithiapentane (one of many aroma active compounds that can be found in some truffle varietals) with an oil base. There are no regulations regarding the labeling of 2,4-dithiapentane and it can legally be called truffle aroma, truffle flavor, truffle concentrate or other similar terms, even though it is not extracted from truffles. In the United States, the ingredient may use the modifiers "organic" or "natural" as long as the components meet the federal requirements for those terms. Truffle oils range from clear to cloudy, and yellow to green, depending on the base oil used. Some include a piece of truffle in the bottle.[2] These pieces can be from any of over 200 different truffle species and may be listed as "black truffle" or "white truffle" even if not one of prized culinary varietals such as the black Périgord or white Alba truffle. This is historic and no longer the case: Truffle oil is frequently used as a bait for truffle-hunting dogs and pigs. Modern Italians often use a strufion, a ball of rags scented with truffle oil.[7](p87) Truffle oil has been used for this purpose since at least 1756, made by boiling truffles in olive oil and given to hunting dogs.[9]
  - seszett 8y ago
    Well, this does say that "some truffle oils are made with truffle residues". Now maybe this is rare in the US, but at least in France it's the only kind of oil that is allowed to be called truffle oil (well, "huile à la truffe"). It could be called "olive oil with truffle taste" otherwise ("huile d'olive/tournesol/colza au goût truffe"). It's really not difficult to find here, and it is absolutely made with real truffle (the broken pieces that can't be sold as truffles). I don't have any at home because I don't care for it, but one I can find at my usual supermarket for example contains "TUBER AESTIVUM (1.1%)". This is known to be a so-so variety of truffle at best. The next-level product (at almost 40 €/L) specifically says that the truffle in its ingredients is "Périgord truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) 1%". This is probably a good enough truffle oil if you like that. Looking up the products here in Belgium though, it seems like only "truffle taste" oils are available in the regular supermarkets, but that is also clear from the product names ("Bereiding van Olijfolie van Eerste Persing 99,7% met Truffelsmaak").

Semaphor 8y ago

The store brand soy sauce here has 12% soy sauce and 7.1% soy sauce powder. I've been wondering if this is actually 12% soy sauce as the product is quite cheap. > you may find that what is sold as chocolate actually has no cacao in it In the western world, most people seem to want little to no cacao but sugar instead.

joecool1029 8y ago
>In the western world Nah really just the US has the giant value bags of Hershey's product with almost no cacao solids. The commonwealth western nations are still sweet but have higher minimums. Don't believe me? A good benchmark is kitkat bars. Try the regular from US, Canada, England, and Japan. Only the US one tastes overwhelmingly of sugar and not chocolate. Japan's chocolate is far less sweet but they don't seem to emphasize solids as much as UK does.
- dmos62 8y ago
  I've been recently pondering sugar tolerance. I've been avoiding it for the last few years, eating it only sometimes and moderately, checking sugar contents of processed food I buy, etc. I'm at a point where anything with more than ~30% sugar tastes bad: it gives a sort of mouth-wrinkling shock to my taste receptors; my sugar tolerance is decreasing. Given that sugar is addictive and most producers seem to have the attitude that the more sugar you sneak into the product, the cheaper it is and the more it sells, maybe Nestle (Kitkat's producer, right?) tests for regional tolerance and puts in the maximum amount of sugar, where the person still doesn't feel an overwhelming sugar shock when tasting? Just speculation, but it's a possibility I'd investigate if I were an evil food industry mogul.
  - Tor3 8y ago
    Many (many!) years ago a friend brought some bottles of Pepsi from a trip to Egypt. I still had a couple of the bottles left until last year, when I finally ditched them. The reason he brought them was to show how the Egyptian version of Pepsi had much more sugar added (I didn't actually think that was even possible..). Then again refined sugar was invented in that region of the world and was used hundreds of years before anywhere else. As for myself, I just hate how shop-made cakes are mostly sugar - it feels like my mouth is burning. I don't understand why they do it. Nearly everyone I know prefer home-made cakes (made from basic ingrediants, not mix bags).

Tor3 8y ago

> Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. On the other hand the frozen sliced reindeer meat is 100% reindeer. The canned stuff is meatballs, which is difficult to make from reindeer or moose -- the meat contains no fat whatsoever. Thus the pork mix. As for wasabi, what my wife says (she's Japanese) is that wasabi isn't there for its own flavor - its only job is to enhance the flavor of the food it is served with (she talks a lot about tasting the nuances, which is what Japanese food is about - it's not about taste explosions like in so many other cultures). So if you use so much wasabi ('fake' or not) that it only functions to open up your sinuses you're doing it wrong. Same with soy sauce and the like - it's not something you add just to make whatever you're eating taste like soy sauce. And she's horrified when she sees people around here (we're not in Japan) dip vegetable tempura into soy sauce. It destroyes the taste. You're supposed to only add a little salt, the same as a little salt enhances the flavor of eggs. (Add too much though and you only taste salt).

dalbasal 8y ago
A lot of traditional European dishes (inc Swedish meatballs) mix minced pork with a darker meat, usually beef or veal. You get the savoury flavour and colour from the red meat and the mild flavoured fat from pork. It's a similar affect "grain fattened" beef produces in a single animal, but the animal doesn't need to be an obese cow. If you have venison in a resteraunt, it's often rare steak dishes. It's cooked rare because it's so lean, and dries up when cooked for longer. Usually the meat is trimmed, because the fat/grisle isn't as good as beef (in ye old times, venison fat was used for tallow candles instead of lard) But, not every cut is steak. If you make sausages or minced meat dishes (meatballs, etc.) from venison, cutting it with pork or pork fat makes it much more suitable for most recipes. Lying to consumers is not ok, but combining venison and pork is legit. My guess is that it's traditional.
thegeekpirate 8y ago
> And she's horrified when she sees people around here (we're not in Japan) dip vegetable tempura into soy sauce. FWIW, tempura dipping sauce is usually ginger/mirin/daikon/sugar/soy sauce, and is far sweeter than soy sauce alone—a wonderful combination for tempura.