Why is something like foie gras still a thing?
It’s organ meat ground into a homogenous paste. With a little effort, you can quickly, cheaply, and easily create a vegan version.
But that’s not the point.
It’s about it being rare and being made at the expense of other living things. It’s only good because others are suffering for it. Either in making it or in trying to afford it.
It’s why cheap food gets maligned so much. MSG can make food taste better. There are cheaper and easier alternatives to French truffles. But under capitalism it’s the knowledge of exploitation and excess that a lot of people want.
I mean I can’t think of any other reason people go to restaurants that use gold foil in cooking. Then you get people trying to retroactively justify why that food was good.
I mean consider the lobster (:jbp:). It was considered food for poor people until rich people tried it and then they went out of their way to change history and perception to make it a luxury food. That happens to food all the time. And then there are experts who pop up as authorities of what the good version of whatever food looks like.
Real foie gras is better actually because of ‘reasons,’ but give them a taste test, and any of those reviewers would fail. It’s happened with wine, especially. Wine tasters can’t tell cheap from expensive wine, but they’ll sure pretend.
And the fucked up thing is that this doesn’t just lead to scarcity, like with overfishing or other supply chain issues it leads to artificial scarcity.
I never really understood the point about Lobsters being considered poor-people food until rich fucks tried it. The way lobster was prepared changed massively, as when it was a poor person thing it was ground into a paste while in its shell, which is pretty obviously going to taste terrible. Only when people learned to cook it "properly" and remove the meat from the shell, did it turn into a delicacy.
The rest of your post is fine, and I agree with most of it, despite myself not being vegan.
I get it, and I know with lobster, it's more complicated, but I really really wanted to reference jbp.
I used a little reference for the bit, that's all. It's my nature, CTHlurker! I... I... I... can't help it, somebody gives me an angle, I play it. I don't deserve to die for that. Do you think I do?
Your Jordan Peterson brain is better than mine. I yield the floor to a true understander of the :sicko-wholesome: mind.
Aww, I was hoping I could beg you to look in your heart, but this is good too. Thanks for enabling the Sicko Grindset, comrade.
Also, thanks for that neat bit of info about how lobster was consumed. I had no idea that it was ever prepared like that.
It'll definitely inform my writing on this subject if I get the confidence to publish an article like this somewhere that's not anti-capitalist.
I never understood grinding up the damn shells. It’s as if the colonists had never seen a clam before.
Also looking up that quote took way way way too long. Google just wasn't leading me there.
Another thing to add on is that a lot of Southern cooking was invented by enslaved black people. Mac N' Cheese, and Gumbo being prime examples.
They were comfort foods because they were their treats served in comfort by the slaves
And now there are gourmet Mac N' Cheese and Gumbo restaurants without any knowledge of that exploitation and history. How people survived making good food for many people with the little resources they could acquire. I can really tie in my cultural history with this. Thanks, comrade!
consider the lobster
I raise my battle axe, charging at the creature - do I roll initiative or strength or what
Another thing to consider with food and capitalism I find interesting, is time. Who spends how much time on either food preparation or food consumption. Like, imagine having multiple hours to just lazily sit around, talk to your peers and brunch - I surely can't. On the other hand, spend some time to prepare a big pot for the whole neighborhood and you'll inevitably sit, chat, drink, be merry and communal for way longer than it would take you to consume the calories.
I'd say you caught it by surprise so you can do an attack roll first.
Time in eating is a big thing. The concept of fast food vs dining at a formal restaurant. Or even having someone cook for you and what that says about the luxuries you have.
There are so many things you can accomplish when you have time to stop and think or talk with others.
Of course capitalism would put the quality and/or time for food behind a paywall.
:d20-ah-fuck: oh shit
Yes, having the time to gather and share food in a big group is such an integral part of the human experience, of being a social being - it's incredibly concerning how rare it has become (for most, I'd say). If you want to look at how capitalism is quite literally tearing us apart from each other (and further from ourselves, internally) food is such a good lens to use. It provides clarity and depth. Food is, after all quite literally, what constitutes us after being metabolized, it makes us what we are in much more than one sense.
yeah, like, if you really want fancy paté you can simply harvest the livers of the overstuffed swine who eat foie gras
A large swimming pool of billionaires and you get to pick the one you want to eat like you're at red lobster.
The only rich people food that I can think of that is actually significantly better than the normal priced versions is like wagyu beef vs normal cuts of beef. Everything else is good as long as it isn't completely bottom of the barrel stuff.
Ngl, I think the effort to output ratio falls off closer to like...$25-30 per entree (I'm not rich, I just like Valentine's day). And even then, I'd rather have some $10 indian food that uses the same number of spices. I've yet to eat anything with more complex flavor than a good curry. But anything above 30 per dish is just price wanking unless it's some molecular gastronomy bullshit.
I suppose it depends how many courses and how many people are eating as well. I figured the $1000 meal would be including starters, main courses, desserts, wine pairings, etc. It's still way more than I would ever pay, but I'm the kind of person who considers Toby Carvery or Beefeater Grill to be 'fancy' - You can get an entire vegan roast dinner for less than £7! :shrug-outta-hecks:
That's only for the midweek roast though, the weekend roast is just under £12. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure it used to be £10 before covid :disgost:
I'll put grass-fed, Argentine beef up against Wagyu any day of the week. You can get a parrillada for two and a bottle of wine in a really nice restaurant in Buenos Aires for about 30 USD.
Huh, I'll have to read more about it. Either way, it would definitely inform my understand of capitalism and its relationship with food. Thanks!
Fatty tuna sashimi is also much better tasting than regular tuna sashimi but it often comes from Bluefin which is over-fished and subsequently endangered :cringe:
Alternative titles to this article:
"Keep my comrade's pain out my fucking mouth"
"Consider the lobster."
"In Poor taste, or (Thesis statement)"
Feel free to add more and be silly.
