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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3363 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 21, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Many weeks ago, I asked about content related to food science. I came across a New Yorker article that scratched my itch and kept the inevitable snark and superiority to an acceptable level:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/24/taco-bells-innovation-kitchen-the-front-line-in-the-stunt-food-wars

I'm an unabashed Taco Bell/general fast-food fan and love getting some glances under the hood.

Bourdieu said that food preference is the most stable indicator of one's social class of origin.

Thus I am completely unashamed to admit that I love Pizza Hut and McDonald's and all the rest of it. I am especially fond of the double Pizza Hut/Taco Bell combo locations. It always resonates with me as a deeply spiritual place.

You might enjoy this food class test by researchers at UPenn.

I'm surprised at how the researchers sorted upper- and upper-middle-class food. Upper-class food just seems to be cheap food with weird extra shit in it (like gold on a soft-serve) or pairings of peasantry and luxury (grits + lobster), while shit like caviar is upper-middle class? Really?

In what world is a truffle burger upper-class but caviar is upper-middle?

See, that's the odd thing to me - I think upper-middle class people would enjoy truffle burgers and lobsters with grits just as well. I certainly like foie gras burgers and truffle burgers (when made well and not with machine truffle oil). In fact does truffle and foie gras not exude a very similar sense of decadence and luxury as caviar? Yet truffle (+ foie gras) gets evaluated as "upper class".

Perhaps it's the relative placement of e.g. a soft serve with gold, which I would see as pure conspicuous consumption and an absolute waste of money, vs. caviar? Though this still does not explain the relative placement of truffle vs caviar.

I guess truffle is a more recent fad?

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