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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2832 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 26, 2024

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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Why is food waste just turned a blind eye to in Asian cooking? Here are a few recent ones I can think of.

  • Ramen broth. Does anyone ever actually finish the entire bowl of broth? Do we need the noodles to swim in the broth as opposed to just idk have enough broth to still sip, but not throw out 3/4ths of it? After all all the work of making ramen is just making the broth.
  • Same for pho.
  • All the dips they bring out in a Middle Eastern restaurant. Yeah, I have never seen anyone finish all the dips.
  • All the greens and pickles they also bring out in the middle eastern restaurants.
  • The banchan in Korean restaurants. Once again, no one finishes all of these.
  • All that fucking oil that certain Sichuan dishes come with. I once got served a fish that was swimming in a salad bowl full of oil.
  • All that hotpot broth!!, does every table need a dutch oven sized amount of broth? I'm sure a small saucepan is more than enough for the amount of broth you actually need to cook an average hotpot serving.

I understand broth for the most part is made of scraps and is cheap. But this is just money sitting on the table. You can solve itt by.. serving smaller portions. What about not wasting food on principle? I've not noticed such obvious food waste in western cooking, even though I am sure a lot of it is happening behind the scenes.

I understand trying to not waste things probably has diminishing and probably negative returns past a certain point, but is that a fact of the universe or just an excuse that we are okay with accepting ?

In a similar vein, in 2024, do we not have the technology to produce deep fried results without wasting vats of oil? Deep fried foods are significantly improved by using better (more expensive) fats such as olive oil, butter or beef tallow. If we could get deep fried results without using a barrel of oil, we could have better fats as the default. It won't show up in the GDP figures, but it will be increased QOL.

There have to be some things where switching from a home setting (but still trying to signal authenticity) causes the waste. Kimchi is more like condiments that would go back in the fridge if they weren’t in a public setting. The western counterpart would be, I don’t know, those peppers that come with pizza delivery? Ketchup packets?

American portions are just generally huge, so smaller people waste a surprising amount.

And I’m with the various other commenters asking how you don’t finish your broth. It just seems wrong. Do you pick pasta out of its sauce, too?

Do you pick pasta out of its sauce, too?

No, but I never got served a ramen broth amount of pasta sauce.

And I’m with the various other commenters asking how you don’t finish your broth.

Most of the time I do. I just think drinking 500ml of salty liquid is not worth it when I could rather fill up stomach real estate with starters and desserts. I would rather there just be enough liquid to flavor the noodles and take a few sips here and there.

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