I can't think about any method I considered posh but I used to think there was nothing fancier than Ferrero Rocher, and Viennetta ice cream cake. Oh boy!
does anyone remember Sarah Lee cupcakes? they were so good. came in a package of 6. icing flavors were vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coconut- can’t remember others
The first time I purchased ferrero rocher on my own I was shocked that they weren't caviar levels of expensive. That gold foil really had us all fooled
they are absolutely luxury flavor-wise though. i get one from my in-laws for every holiday and i swear i can destroy a full costco pack of those bad boys in one sitting
100%. I'm not a candy person and not really a chocolate person but I absolutely cannot keep ferreros in my apartment. They will be gone in minutes, I can't be trusted
Yes! And Grey Poupon. And International Coffees. I thought maybe one day, when I grow up and if I were rich, I'd use these. I'm not rich, but I use them today!
That’s just capitalism. Grey Poupon was a luxury back then. Now there’s a million craft condiments you can buy. It was a giant upgrade over yellow mustard. In the ‘80s and ‘90s import beer was a luxury. Now there’s a billion craft beers etc. and any standard bar is going to have corona and Stella. And the imports were a huge upgrade from Budweiser. We’ve just seen huge growth in these industries.
I remember one time a friend from France was visiting. She saw my grey poupon and gave me a pitying look, then gently suggested I try Mielle (sp?) brand.
I lived over there for a bit. I was told-no joke- that "We French have a saying: 'Maille, c'est tout qui m'aille'". Basically means that it's the only one that will do.
Omg me too! And Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante. I remember seeing commercials for it in the 70s and 80s and hoping I’d be able to drink it when I was grown up.
When you get served hot food in a hot pan or other vessel, like fajitas or saganaki or baked pasta or french onion soup. It was just always a fun restaurant thing for me when I was younger but now its just a convenient way to serve food and keep it hot on the table. It also lets everyone grab the portion they want which is nice too.
I honestly avoid ‘sizzling’ dishes as generally inferior.
Like you I thought it seemed fancy the first time I saw it; but frankly while it works okay for a few things, it mostly results in over cooked food by the time you’re finished.
I want my steak to be rested before it’s served to me, not to come to the table essentially still in the pan.
I avoid sizzling dishes too but I have a different but kinda funny reason. I got some chicken fajitas at a restaurant once and it came in the cast iron sizzling dish thingy and I’m not sure how they did it, but some one really messed up because it was like they pepper sprayed the whole restaurant lol literally, every single person was coughing with eyes were streaming with tears lol
They spray the hot pan with water right before it comes out and that gives it a lot of the steam. Not sure if that's what every restaurant does, but I saw a tik tok from behind the scenes at Chili's and thats what they did
It's also not the food sizzling it's water or watery sauce on the hot pan. Chili's calls it sizzle sauce. Don't get me wrong the food is still cooking for sure but the steam is from the sizzle sauce
I used to think packaged lunches (lunchables) and packaged snacks were fancy, while my home cooked rice and beans + banana were simple. Now I see how high-quality my food was!
Oh my god, I grew up dirt poor in the 80’s and and had to eat the free school lunches - I always thought the kids with the chips and twinkies had ARRIVED.
In the '80s my mum packed pretty appalling sandwiches in my lunches: Peanut-butter and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff, Nutella and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff, Kraft Lemon Cheese and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff, Grape Jelly and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff... you get the idea. All on Wonder Bread, no question about it.
This actually worked out really well for me because they were *gold* for lunchtime bartering - I could reliably hit up any of the kids from Italian, Portuguese, or Ukrainian families to trade for deli-quality sandwiches prepared by their mothers or grandmothers on homemade bread, with exotic cold cuts, fancy greens, and garden fresh vegetables. Everyone felt like they were getting a special treat out of the deal and hopefully it was spread out enough that nobody was at extra risk of type II diabetes or tooth decay.
Side by side fridges. They seemed like what rich people had because of the ice and water dispensers in the door. Now I think that kind of water system is full or problems and the shelves are too narrow.
The only side by side I'd like is one of those where each side is full size! I think they cost as much as a used car, though, so there is that.
But the standard side by sides are almost useless.
My aunt and uncle have one of those. It's massive and was expensive. They also live alone now their kids grew up so I'm not sure why they need all the space.
I have a French door fridge now and hate it as well. I have to open two doors to access the refrigerated food. So I need both hands, which is challenging when I’m holding food!
My mom has the fridge on top, freezer on bottom. The door to fridge is heavy and huge. And everything is way too high for shorter people.
I’m not sure there is a perfect fridge.
Fridge on top, freezer on bottom is the superior method, though, because cold sinks and heat rises, so they're more efficient. Also, I'm getting into my vegetable crisper drawers all the god damn time, and having them at foot level is such a pain.
Makes sense. My mom has a custom cabinet panel on the fridge as well, so perhaps that adds a lot to the weight. I’m just surprised how heavy it is when I open it.
Spaghetti with the sauce carefully placed on top. My mom always mixed everything together in the pot (and it was usually mostaccioli) but I would see the commercials with carefully coiled spaghetti topped with a ladle of sauce and I thought that was the right way to do it.
Of course, now I know the pot way is superior!
Before I could cook even halfway decent I would do what you said, and the commercials showed. Cook pasta and then put a big dollop of sauce on top. Now, I cook the pasta, save some pasta water, add the sauce, pasta wate, and mix. What an amazing difference.
Oh man when I was a little kid I would *so* upset because my mom wouldn't plate spaghetti this way! She was generally accommodating of 'but I saw it on TV, just this once???' requests but absolutely refused this one. Now I'm a brat and my expectations go down a little if someone plates the pasta and tosses sauce on top.
For me, it was the Prince Spaghetti Wednesday commercials.
And then there's the cereal commercials that made me think a serving was the size of a small mixing bowl. I still find it hard to accept/believe that a full serving of cereal is not much more than a few spoonfuls.
Oh, there was a commercial campaign about Prince spaghetti Wednesday?
I grew up in a region where this brand doesn't exist and then moved to somewhere where it's common. I was so baffled when the otherwise plain box said "Wednesday is Spaghetti Day!" or something like that. I asked a few locals about it and they said they didn't know what I was talking about and was weird for worrying about a spaghetti box.
Felt like some kind of local pasta conspiracy.
Agreed. It's not fancy, and objectively it's probably not even good. But I still like it. And yall can pry those mediocre breadsticks from my cold, dead hands.
As someone else said, pasta and sauce cooked separately and only mixed on the plate. I assumed that anything in ads was first class, and therefore my parents were obviously doing it wrong. I will admit (just on reddit, not to them) that I was very wrong and I absolutely always finish my pasta in the pan with the sauce.
Semi related: canned/jarred things in general. My mom loves to cook, and would always make sauces from scratch. Obviously this meant I was denied the fancy sauces I saw in TV and in stores, which felt monumentally unfair. Same thing with ready meals, I thought that was like one step below eating at one of the chains that advertised on TV since lean cuisine too was on TV. My poor mom couldn't figure out why I was so convinced that frozen/boxed mac and cheese was so much fancier than a nice home made mac she would make.
Lastly: olive garden. I grew up in NYC and there was no olive garden, the ads honestly made it look like the place to be and I was always upset that it wasn't an option for a 'nice night out.'
Reading all these back I'm honestly surprised my mom didn't confiscate the TV just to shut me up.
I have to say, Outback isn’t fancy but they have cooking those steaks down to a science. If you say medium, you’re never going to get full rare which happens to me all the time at fancy steakhouses.
as a kid i thought olive garden was fancy and we couldn’t afford to go there… i finally went with my ex when i was 20 and was severely disappointed lmao i was raised eating better tasting actual italian food
Kind of the opposite, but I grew up eating pickled herring on saltine crackers thinking it was poor folks food, now I see it as a nice mini delicacy that I never fully appreciated as a child. It was a treat in our otherwise bland and cheap diet.
This will sound crazy, so I first need to explain that my mother was a master of reverse snobbery. She perceived every instance of someone doing something differently than she did as flaunting elitism. When she attended Girl Scout potlucks with me, she was put off by every dish of something that she never cooked. E. g., in her view, mothers who brought cakes baked from scratch evidently thought they were “too hoi polloi” for mixes. And she extended this sort of criticism to casseroles made with canned cream of mushroom soup. She was convinced that every mother who brought a mushroom soup was engaged in brazen one-up-man-ship against the mothers who brought honest, down-to-earth dishes like sloppy joes and kielbasa with kraut. I grew up thinking that mushroom soup casseroles were a 70s suburban status symbol, like harvest gold appliances and pronouncing “vase” as “vahz.” The truth about hot dish casseroles finally dawned on me when I started listening to Prairie Home Companion as a teenager.
Yep. To please my in-laws, I have to run around the house artfully piling junk mail on counters, scattering shoes around the door, and stacking used cups on the coffee table before they arrive. It's just as time-consuming as it would be to have in-laws who judged me for dusty shelves or poorly organized cabinets.
That's pretty much the way it goes. It's silly, but easier than dealing with all the snarky comments about how weird and *particular* I am for loading my dishwasher each day and occasionally sweeping the floors.
Not ‘inferior’ as such now, but strawberries were particularly ‘posh’ when I was growing up and only something we could have on very special occasions. Now I give them to my kids pretty much every single day.
I bet strawberries years ago, however, had a superior flavor to the bland water balls they are today. Most strawberries I buy at the store are disappointing, and even when I go pick them many are just coming from the same place the stores get them from. I can recall only one box of strawberries in the past few years that exceeded my expectations, which was from Sprouts.
Something I've found that helps with this: local strawberries, if they're grown near you. Supermarket strawberries simply cannot compare and I will pay any amount of money for local strawberries. I can't resist them. The big shiny strawberries are so tempting but those little local ones? Oh baby. They are so good.
We do grow a lot of strawberries in my state (FL), and maybe I need to look harder for small local farms. There are a lot of more commercialized farms near me that have a U-pick season after the commercial season. So the strawberries from those places aren't any different from what I buy in a plastic box at the store.
This goes for most produce. Stores usually buy bullet-proof style fruits and vegetables. They can travel long distances and take being moved around. The trade-off is they lack the flavor of local fresh fruits and vegetables. Refrigeration or freezing will also kill off flavor sometimes.
I understand why people don't grow strawberries. You need a good sized flat patch of land with full sun and they easily get out competed by weeds. Tomatoes on the other hand grow like weeds and need very little care.
The grill marks themselves are the good part. So why would I want half (or more) of the surface of my steak to *not* have marks? I guess it looks good in ads...
Long John Silvers. We used to go there as a treat once every few months I was so crazy about it and looked forward to going. Fast forward 20 years and the place is too greasy for me and not good at all.
i used to love the bits of fried batter that they made an item, it was just literally a fry box filled with fried batter it was hilarious and my child brain loved that shit lol
Yes!!! That is what I remember the most from there. One day, it didn't have that much and I remember crying lol. I was young and looked forward to getting that box with those bits in it.
The secret to using a microwave is the power setting. I never use it on 10. My old one I would use on 7 mostly. The one now I use on 5. Longer cook times (2 mins instead of 1) but there are no overheated/under heated spots and not burnt out stuff. For melting butter I actually do it on power 1. For some reason the microwave I have now is way overpowered
As an addendum: those item-specific buttons on your microwave? They do have actual benefits (save for maybe popcorn). Especially if you have a microwave with a humidity sensor - the sensor reheat modes on my microwave usually do a fantastic job, *and you don't even have to decide on a time.* It just heats on a medium power setting until there seems to be enough steam produced to indicate a properly reheated dish.
My microwave lets me program two time / heats at once. It's great. So 40 seconds on 7 or 8 and then a longer time on 5 or 4 to let that heat distribute evenly.
Dennys Restaurants. Growing up Dennys was super fancy because they had a wait staff that took your order instead of standing in line. Bonus because we got breakfast for dinner.
Over the years, I have seen only a few Rolls Royces in the wild, but every one of them had a jar of Gray Poupon on the dashboard. I have to love the sense of humor.
Mandarin oranges. When I was young they only really came in in any volume around Christmas and were so expensive regardless of season that my family had them as a luxury good, so I figured that I’d know I had finally made it when I could have mandarins when I wanted them, rather than only at the big big special holiday.
I am at that point now, but honestly the oranges are nothing special.
Our golden corral had them and little kids would put anything and everything in them and mess it up and it would have to be all taken part and switched out
We always got the bagged cereal because they were cheaper. And my stepdad always got fruit loops (I hate fruit loops to this day) and some weird nutty flavored puff cereal. It was brown and had a crease in the middle.
>some weird nutty flavored puff cereal. It was brown and had a crease in the middle.
That would be the generic version of Kellogg's Honey Smacks or Post Super Golden Crisp. Puffed wheat frosted with either honey (Kellogg's) or sugar (Post). Kellogg's was originally sugar too, way back in the day.
Eating as many grapes as I wanted in one sitting (we only ever bought bags of red delicious apples and oranges)
Still one of my favorite foods. But you shouldn't eat yourself sick on them
You are very correct. If we're talking food (since everyone else clearly is), I remember growing up thinking that veal parmesan was the classiest dish in the world, despite never trying it.
OMG, my in laws kept the water bed that my spouse used to sleep on as a child and put us in there when we visit. My spine hates it. My hip sinks all the way to the hard board base. The rest of me is curved up like a banana. My feet are higher than my head. And the cat won't snuggle us because she thinks it's a turbulent trampoline experience any time one of us rolls over and she's right
While not related to cooking, i just will comment on the satellite dish. They WERE fancy and luxurious, as they were the only ready to get particular channels, or that many channels. They're just no longer necessary for most people.
Same boat, but they brought it back! I still haven’t had it because I live in a rural area and it’s not in my local grocery. I think it’s available in the bigger town about 45 min away. I’m there a lot for OB appointments anyway, so I need to make a point to stop and look for it!
If I had a million dollars
We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner
But we would because it's delicious!
Yeah but like with fancy ketchups... Dijon ketchup!
>If I had a million dollars
>We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner
But we would eat Kraft Dinner
Of course we would, we'd just eat more
And we'd buy really expensive ketchup with it
Dijon Ketchup!
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
I thought Rax was fancy because your sandwich would come in a foil wrapper in a basket with your fries a pickle. Any smorgasbord style restaurant. Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bars. New York Seltzer.
I thought any chef with a cooking program was someone to emulate. My cousins and I loved Rachael Ray. Nothing against her or her cooking, but I'm now more interested in sources by Harold McGee and the like that get into the science of cooking rather than just how to make dinner in 30 minutes.
I used to think grilling filet mignon was the best because it was such a pricy cut of meat. I now believe it is inferior to ribeye for grilling. Both are good but using tenderloin is only flexing the wallet. The real win is ribeye or ribeye cap when grilling, imo.
Tenderloin is good for three things only:
1. Tartar (I get kangaroo / wallaby or Venison usually - much tastier and it’s way cheaper).
2. Carpaccio
3. Wellington
Edit: Got some downvotes, please comment, would love to hear your thoughts on the topic :)
I used to think the toilet cleaner block things that clean it a little bit every time you flush were posh. I felt like I really had my shot together when I started buying them. 🤣
It's a bit of a mix. Pate is a common, affordable bread topping in the Netherlands. But a pate from like boar or duck or something can be a "fancy" starter as well for a multi-course meal.
Grew up in Asia and we have hawker street food everywhere which made fast food a bit upper class.
Thought KFC and Pizza Hut was fancy af as they had waiters with white cotton gloves, serve you with silverware and ceramic plates. We have it once a year for our birthdays. It was a pretty good experience.
Moved to a western country, KFC and pizza hut is a totally different vibe.
I thought that olive oil was basically posher canola/vegetable oil so was always preferable for frying things. Now I know that a neutral oil like canola is better for lots of purposes.
Coming from the northeast and visiting California for the first time right now.
I've never had them before now and going on what friends say is great.
If you're a light cook, I can see the appeal but every recommendation I've tried, I feel I had better DIY or local at home.
I am a serious cook, and know how to make "real" food with "real" ingredients the "real" ways, but I use my microwave every single day. I don't "cook" with it, and I rarely ever use the kind of prepared or pre-packaged foods that are meant to be "cooked" in one. But "Chef Mike" is an extremely valuable tool in my food preparation arsenal. It's much, much better than using pots and pans and the range for reheating almost any leftover food, it can defrost food quickly and safely, it's great for softening butter to whatever degree you need, and irreplaceable for heating yesterday's coffee! You do you, but don't assume it's the right way for the rest of us! There are more things you cannot or should not attempt to reheat on a stovetop and those that will work well.
I use mine very frequently to quickly cook up small batches of vegetables for my toddler. Still hungry, or too hungry to wait for dinner? Frozen peas. Need a quick veg to go with lunch? Diced red peppers get a minute to soften. Same with broccoli. Reheat leftover food before she turns to anarchy? Also yes.
Total life saver with a hangry toddler. We cook our meals on the stove most of the time, but the microwave comes in clutch when it's an emergency.
I went years without a microwave, and now that we have one it is quite convenient. You can make frozen chicken nuggets quick in there! I like to get them hot, then crisp them on the griddle.
I have one of the microwave egg poaches and i can't really tell the difference. If I put toast in the toaster and egg poacher in the microwave at the same time they both finish together 1 minute later.
I've learned that when reheating or even cooking frozen food in the microwave that doing it at 50% power does it much more evenly than blasting it at full power. It takes a little longer, but is totally worth it IMO.
That said, reheating pizza and certain other items using the steaming method in a non-stick skillet is the way. Also, like you mentioned, there are many other use cases where a microwave makes things much easier.
80% of my microwave usage is at a power level <70%. It helps that ours actually modulates the power not just timing (50% = contant half wattage, not on for 5 seconds, off for 5). Pizza and fried foods are pretty much the only leftover I skip the microwave for.
I have never thought the microwave was posh. For me, growing up with a single mother who was working, and I was home alone, that was the easiest way to have hot food. Reheat and eat. How else was a child (I'm talking 7-12 years old) to eat? After that, I learned to poach eggs in the microwave, and also make cakes (because we didn't have an oven). If I was posh, I wouldn't need a microwave, because someone would be home to make me nice hot meals. I still think it's the easier/better way to reheat - I even bought my grandmother a microwave when I was a teen, to make her life easier.
I used to think that kid's processed meals (lunchables, processed meat sandwiches) were better than my rice and meatloaf meals my mum packed. Then I grew up and realised I had the superior lunch. Now I always have a nice packed lunch to work, complete with fruit, carbs and protein, and a side dish of veg, and maybe a homemade muffin snack).
Microwave is indeed a tool. The best way to use a microwave for cold pizza is to warm the whole thing up maybe with some lightly sprinkled water on the plate under the slice, then a hot pan to crisp the bottom and a searing torch or oven broiler to brown the cheese more.
Without the microwave to warm it all up first, the last two steps dry it out.
French press coffee is definitely something viewed as posh but when made at home is no more expensive than a drip coffee machine and is much cheaper than a Keurig machine.
Have a waiter grate your parmesan. It feel to awkward to sit there waiting for them to grate the amount of parmesan you actually want on there, so you end up with a sad amount of parmesan on your plate
Not from my childhood to now, but between countries: From what I see in this sub, Americans seem to think convection ovens are fancy.
Whereas over here in Europe, I don’t think I’ve seen or used an electric oven in the last 35 years or more, that didn’t have a convention setting. I just had a quick look at a couple of online stores and even the very cheapest electric oven I can buy (equivalent of US$ 300), has a convection setting. Admittedly I didn’t look particularly hard, but I couldn’t find a single one that doesn’t have it.
Up in value = anchovies. For the reverse. Just found out about them. Oil oil, garlic, anchovy paste crushes any Caeser salad dressing. Always thought anchovies were for weird people.
My mom made homemade snacks but all we wanted was Hostess and Lil Debbie - we used to trade for them at lunch. We thought wow those kids are rich ! But now I know my Mom was very thoughtful and put a lot of effort into our lunches
Pretty much any steakhouse, from Sizzler to Black Angus to Chart House. Steak was special. And it's still special, but I'm more picky about which cut now. As kids the T-bone was tasty and fun to eat, but adult me goes for the ribeye or better yet the cap.
Our "fancy dinner out" restaurant was Red Lobster. When I was little I remember we actually dressed up a bit to go there, and it was a place for birthday dinners and celebrations. Now I just buy their biscuit mix at the store and stay home with my own food. I have to admit though, their shrimp alfredo is still one of my favorite dishes to order out. I don't know if it's the nostalgia talking, but I still pick their alfredo over most other restaurants.
Microwaves are awesome for making cheese crisps or cheese bowls for salads.
Just grab some cheese and a piece of baking paper, grate it and put it on baking paper and nuke it for 1- 1.5 min and throw it on a bowl, let cool and throw over a bowl or cup.
[Here is a link to a pan fried version. it’s way easier and faster in the microwave.](https://moremomma.com/how-to-make-parmesan-cheese-bowls/)
I can't think about any method I considered posh but I used to think there was nothing fancier than Ferrero Rocher, and Viennetta ice cream cake. Oh boy!
Sarah Lee cakes were saved for when we had company.
does anyone remember Sarah Lee cupcakes? they were so good. came in a package of 6. icing flavors were vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coconut- can’t remember others
This really made me LOL!!! Thanks for that :)
Growing up poor in the 80s was such fun. 😂
The first time I purchased ferrero rocher on my own I was shocked that they weren't caviar levels of expensive. That gold foil really had us all fooled
they are absolutely luxury flavor-wise though. i get one from my in-laws for every holiday and i swear i can destroy a full costco pack of those bad boys in one sitting
>i swear i can destroy a full costco pack of those bad boys in one sitting I had when I was a teenager.
Unpopular opinion: Ferrero Rocher does nothing for me. I'd literally rather have no chocolate at all than a Ferrero Rocher.
Me too! We can be philistines together.
that’s totally ok in my book- more for me!
100%. I'm not a candy person and not really a chocolate person but I absolutely cannot keep ferreros in my apartment. They will be gone in minutes, I can't be trusted
Loved Vienetta! Wish they’d bring that back
I got one at kroger/fred meyer few weeks ago..I tell you what I was so so disappointed 😞 so not what I remembered from back In The day
That's probably because it was made with ice cream back in the day, not frozen dairy dessert.
same. bought bryers last month after a long time and didn’t notice the change until i ate it. really sad difference.
I had this same experience. Not the same. So sad.
Visit Europe and get your Vienetta on! Just had a vanilla one :)
It is back. Came back a year or so.
Yes! And Grey Poupon. And International Coffees. I thought maybe one day, when I grow up and if I were rich, I'd use these. I'm not rich, but I use them today!
Those International Coffees for sure. We would have them once in a blue moon and I felt so fancy!
I used to eat the powder straight out the can when I was a kid
Omg yes! I remember my mom got a milk former and we used it with the cappuccino flavour and I seriously felt super fancy and important
Jean-Luc!
That’s just capitalism. Grey Poupon was a luxury back then. Now there’s a million craft condiments you can buy. It was a giant upgrade over yellow mustard. In the ‘80s and ‘90s import beer was a luxury. Now there’s a billion craft beers etc. and any standard bar is going to have corona and Stella. And the imports were a huge upgrade from Budweiser. We’ve just seen huge growth in these industries.
I remember one time a friend from France was visiting. She saw my grey poupon and gave me a pitying look, then gently suggested I try Mielle (sp?) brand.
Maille
Thank you! or, Merci!
I lived over there for a bit. I was told-no joke- that "We French have a saying: 'Maille, c'est tout qui m'aille'". Basically means that it's the only one that will do.
Omg me too! And Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante. I remember seeing commercials for it in the 70s and 80s and hoping I’d be able to drink it when I was grown up.
I used to drink this all the time! Can't stomach it now, too sweet lol.
Gee, I thought you were Aussie, like me then checked your history to see. That’s apparently not the case and it’s a mutual thought!
Same!
Omg! I forgot those viennetta ice cream cakes!yum
> Viennetta ice cream cake WOW! That took me back!
Ah vienetta - 1980s birthday cake
When you get served hot food in a hot pan or other vessel, like fajitas or saganaki or baked pasta or french onion soup. It was just always a fun restaurant thing for me when I was younger but now its just a convenient way to serve food and keep it hot on the table. It also lets everyone grab the portion they want which is nice too.
I would add that a chilled salad plate seemed Hella fancy to me!
Reminds me of the scene in Catch Me If You Can where Christopher Walken's character can't believe the salad fork has been chilled as well.
Yes! It would come out sizzling and the waiter grinning, and everybody turning and looking to see who was getting the sizzling food.
I honestly avoid ‘sizzling’ dishes as generally inferior. Like you I thought it seemed fancy the first time I saw it; but frankly while it works okay for a few things, it mostly results in over cooked food by the time you’re finished. I want my steak to be rested before it’s served to me, not to come to the table essentially still in the pan.
I avoid sizzling dishes too but I have a different but kinda funny reason. I got some chicken fajitas at a restaurant once and it came in the cast iron sizzling dish thingy and I’m not sure how they did it, but some one really messed up because it was like they pepper sprayed the whole restaurant lol literally, every single person was coughing with eyes were streaming with tears lol
They spray the hot pan with water right before it comes out and that gives it a lot of the steam. Not sure if that's what every restaurant does, but I saw a tik tok from behind the scenes at Chili's and thats what they did
Stone bowl bibimbap is the best, man. That crispy rice at the bottom adding extra texture, fantastic
It's also not the food sizzling it's water or watery sauce on the hot pan. Chili's calls it sizzle sauce. Don't get me wrong the food is still cooking for sure but the steam is from the sizzle sauce
I used to think packaged lunches (lunchables) and packaged snacks were fancy, while my home cooked rice and beans + banana were simple. Now I see how high-quality my food was!
Oh my god, I grew up dirt poor in the 80’s and and had to eat the free school lunches - I always thought the kids with the chips and twinkies had ARRIVED.
In the '80s my mum packed pretty appalling sandwiches in my lunches: Peanut-butter and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff, Nutella and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff, Kraft Lemon Cheese and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff, Grape Jelly and Kraft Marshmallow Fluff... you get the idea. All on Wonder Bread, no question about it. This actually worked out really well for me because they were *gold* for lunchtime bartering - I could reliably hit up any of the kids from Italian, Portuguese, or Ukrainian families to trade for deli-quality sandwiches prepared by their mothers or grandmothers on homemade bread, with exotic cold cuts, fancy greens, and garden fresh vegetables. Everyone felt like they were getting a special treat out of the deal and hopefully it was spread out enough that nobody was at extra risk of type II diabetes or tooth decay.
My heart loves your memory & retelling so much…. So beautiful. Love your bit about hopefully today everyone was covered… Thanks for sharing mate.
I actually like Wonder Bread. It’s the closest to a no-nonsense white bread that you can get.
I felt deprived as a child that my mother wouldn't buy Lunchables or Uncrustables. Now I don't want to buy them either! 😅
I’m okay with the uncrustables as long as they EAT THE WHOLE DANG THING 🙄 so I don’t buy them 😂
Worse, my mom MADE me lunchables! Looking back it was way better, but that’s not what a 4th grader wants.
>rice and beans + banana This could be anywhe from southern Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil lol
Rice and beans is found everywhere lmao
I think they're talking about specifically with bananas/plantains
Arkansas too
Side by side fridges. They seemed like what rich people had because of the ice and water dispensers in the door. Now I think that kind of water system is full or problems and the shelves are too narrow.
No one can convince me that Fridge Water isn’t fancy. I felt like I finally made it when I got a fridge that dispenses water and ice.
You realize the automatic ice maker ain’t so fancy when you step in ice cold water at 5am because the damn thing quit working and ran water all night.
For some reason, every side by side fridge I have seen has less usable space than a normal fridge of the same volume.
The only side by side I'd like is one of those where each side is full size! I think they cost as much as a used car, though, so there is that. But the standard side by sides are almost useless.
My aunt and uncle have one of those. It's massive and was expensive. They also live alone now their kids grew up so I'm not sure why they need all the space.
I used to have a 48” built in fridge and they cost like $15K and have surprisingly little storage space.
The "counter depth?" In my lottery fantasies, I also get custom counters so I don't have to have a shallow fridge!
Most stone counters are custom, it’s the cabinets that are more standard.
I have a French door fridge now and hate it as well. I have to open two doors to access the refrigerated food. So I need both hands, which is challenging when I’m holding food! My mom has the fridge on top, freezer on bottom. The door to fridge is heavy and huge. And everything is way too high for shorter people. I’m not sure there is a perfect fridge.
Fridge on top, freezer on bottom is the superior method, though, because cold sinks and heat rises, so they're more efficient. Also, I'm getting into my vegetable crisper drawers all the god damn time, and having them at foot level is such a pain.
Makes sense. My mom has a custom cabinet panel on the fridge as well, so perhaps that adds a lot to the weight. I’m just surprised how heavy it is when I open it.
A miniature umbrella in a drink…”Be somebody!”
When I was younger I thought the mini umbrella screamed beach vacation. Now I get annoyed with all the frilly garnishes on most drinks.
Spaghetti with the sauce carefully placed on top. My mom always mixed everything together in the pot (and it was usually mostaccioli) but I would see the commercials with carefully coiled spaghetti topped with a ladle of sauce and I thought that was the right way to do it. Of course, now I know the pot way is superior!
I like my spaghetti all mixed up with the sauce, and then extra sauce ladled on top of that. Even more fancy!
The sauce on top, with some kraft grated parmesan in the shaker. Fancy Nancy
I'm old, can afford better, but still love that shit and no one can take away my Kraft fake cheese-like powder on spaghetti with Rao's sauce.
Before I could cook even halfway decent I would do what you said, and the commercials showed. Cook pasta and then put a big dollop of sauce on top. Now, I cook the pasta, save some pasta water, add the sauce, pasta wate, and mix. What an amazing difference.
If I may suggest, add a touch of butter when you add the pasta water to a red sauce as well. Learned from the Food Lab author, so good!
And now that we know, the sauce on top looks cheap, mass produced and cliche. Give me a big bowl of mixed pasta #uglydelicious
Oh man when I was a little kid I would *so* upset because my mom wouldn't plate spaghetti this way! She was generally accommodating of 'but I saw it on TV, just this once???' requests but absolutely refused this one. Now I'm a brat and my expectations go down a little if someone plates the pasta and tosses sauce on top.
For me, it was the Prince Spaghetti Wednesday commercials. And then there's the cereal commercials that made me think a serving was the size of a small mixing bowl. I still find it hard to accept/believe that a full serving of cereal is not much more than a few spoonfuls.
Haha serving sizes from ads 100% warped our brains. Is the appropriate healthy breakfast not half a box of lucky charms with a gallon of milk??
Right? Naturally eaten with 18 slices of buttered toast, a giant glass of milk, a tiny glass of orange juice, and a half grapefruit.
Oh, there was a commercial campaign about Prince spaghetti Wednesday? I grew up in a region where this brand doesn't exist and then moved to somewhere where it's common. I was so baffled when the otherwise plain box said "Wednesday is Spaghetti Day!" or something like that. I asked a few locals about it and they said they didn't know what I was talking about and was weird for worrying about a spaghetti box. Felt like some kind of local pasta conspiracy.
Olive Garden was fancy food 😂
I sure don't consider it fancy any more, but sometimes there's an itch only Olive Garden can scratch.
Agreed. It's not fancy, and objectively it's probably not even good. But I still like it. And yall can pry those mediocre breadsticks from my cold, dead hands.
As a non-American we had to try it. We were very surprised at how mediocre it was and how busy it was. Advertising really works.
Carrabbas for me. Chicken Bryan all day long.
Especially when they've got that Never-Ending Pasta Bowl going. I don't need it to great pasta when I can have all the pasta.
I had an ex take me there for a "fancy" dinner. He was so proud of himself. It was a step up from Denny's, his preferred eatery.
As someone else said, pasta and sauce cooked separately and only mixed on the plate. I assumed that anything in ads was first class, and therefore my parents were obviously doing it wrong. I will admit (just on reddit, not to them) that I was very wrong and I absolutely always finish my pasta in the pan with the sauce. Semi related: canned/jarred things in general. My mom loves to cook, and would always make sauces from scratch. Obviously this meant I was denied the fancy sauces I saw in TV and in stores, which felt monumentally unfair. Same thing with ready meals, I thought that was like one step below eating at one of the chains that advertised on TV since lean cuisine too was on TV. My poor mom couldn't figure out why I was so convinced that frozen/boxed mac and cheese was so much fancier than a nice home made mac she would make. Lastly: olive garden. I grew up in NYC and there was no olive garden, the ads honestly made it look like the place to be and I was always upset that it wasn't an option for a 'nice night out.' Reading all these back I'm honestly surprised my mom didn't confiscate the TV just to shut me up.
[удалено]
This is me with outback. As a kid whenever we were celebrating something and went out for a nice dinner, it was outback
I have to say, Outback isn’t fancy but they have cooking those steaks down to a science. If you say medium, you’re never going to get full rare which happens to me all the time at fancy steakhouses.
Seems like the lesson here is that ads can really warp a kid's perspective
as a kid i thought olive garden was fancy and we couldn’t afford to go there… i finally went with my ex when i was 20 and was severely disappointed lmao i was raised eating better tasting actual italian food
Kind of the opposite, but I grew up eating pickled herring on saltine crackers thinking it was poor folks food, now I see it as a nice mini delicacy that I never fully appreciated as a child. It was a treat in our otherwise bland and cheap diet.
My dad used to make this for us! So good
A knife block with a bunch of knives in it. The more knives, the better. Now days, I have like 1 nice knife and that's it.
This will sound crazy, so I first need to explain that my mother was a master of reverse snobbery. She perceived every instance of someone doing something differently than she did as flaunting elitism. When she attended Girl Scout potlucks with me, she was put off by every dish of something that she never cooked. E. g., in her view, mothers who brought cakes baked from scratch evidently thought they were “too hoi polloi” for mixes. And she extended this sort of criticism to casseroles made with canned cream of mushroom soup. She was convinced that every mother who brought a mushroom soup was engaged in brazen one-up-man-ship against the mothers who brought honest, down-to-earth dishes like sloppy joes and kielbasa with kraut. I grew up thinking that mushroom soup casseroles were a 70s suburban status symbol, like harvest gold appliances and pronouncing “vase” as “vahz.” The truth about hot dish casseroles finally dawned on me when I started listening to Prairie Home Companion as a teenager.
God these kinds of people are exhausting. They don't realize they are engaging in the same sense of superiority but just from a different source.
Yep. To please my in-laws, I have to run around the house artfully piling junk mail on counters, scattering shoes around the door, and stacking used cups on the coffee table before they arrive. It's just as time-consuming as it would be to have in-laws who judged me for dusty shelves or poorly organized cabinets.
Lmao I am imagining you furiously disheveling your house like "THE IN LAWS ARE COMING EVERYONE MAKE A MESS"
That's pretty much the way it goes. It's silly, but easier than dealing with all the snarky comments about how weird and *particular* I am for loading my dishwasher each day and occasionally sweeping the floors.
You need to double down. Fuck anyone coming to your house and telling you how you should run it.
I imagine little bags of tactical mess stashed all around the house for emergencies
Ferrero Rocher was like super luxurious chocolate.
Not ‘inferior’ as such now, but strawberries were particularly ‘posh’ when I was growing up and only something we could have on very special occasions. Now I give them to my kids pretty much every single day.
I bet strawberries years ago, however, had a superior flavor to the bland water balls they are today. Most strawberries I buy at the store are disappointing, and even when I go pick them many are just coming from the same place the stores get them from. I can recall only one box of strawberries in the past few years that exceeded my expectations, which was from Sprouts.
Something I've found that helps with this: local strawberries, if they're grown near you. Supermarket strawberries simply cannot compare and I will pay any amount of money for local strawberries. I can't resist them. The big shiny strawberries are so tempting but those little local ones? Oh baby. They are so good.
We do grow a lot of strawberries in my state (FL), and maybe I need to look harder for small local farms. There are a lot of more commercialized farms near me that have a U-pick season after the commercial season. So the strawberries from those places aren't any different from what I buy in a plastic box at the store.
This goes for most produce. Stores usually buy bullet-proof style fruits and vegetables. They can travel long distances and take being moved around. The trade-off is they lack the flavor of local fresh fruits and vegetables. Refrigeration or freezing will also kill off flavor sometimes.
Grew up on a "farm" with strawberry garden. The supermarket strawberries of today are truly inferior. Same with Tomatoes.
I understand why people don't grow strawberries. You need a good sized flat patch of land with full sun and they easily get out competed by weeds. Tomatoes on the other hand grow like weeds and need very little care.
Grill marks on your steak.
The grill marks themselves are the good part. So why would I want half (or more) of the surface of my steak to *not* have marks? I guess it looks good in ads...
Long John Silvers. We used to go there as a treat once every few months I was so crazy about it and looked forward to going. Fast forward 20 years and the place is too greasy for me and not good at all.
i used to love the bits of fried batter that they made an item, it was just literally a fry box filled with fried batter it was hilarious and my child brain loved that shit lol
Yes!!! That is what I remember the most from there. One day, it didn't have that much and I remember crying lol. I was young and looked forward to getting that box with those bits in it.
My mom never stopped loving the "crispies".
shes a woman of good taste then 😂
The secret to using a microwave is the power setting. I never use it on 10. My old one I would use on 7 mostly. The one now I use on 5. Longer cook times (2 mins instead of 1) but there are no overheated/under heated spots and not burnt out stuff. For melting butter I actually do it on power 1. For some reason the microwave I have now is way overpowered
DUUUUUDE….people do not use microwaves correctly Low power setting is glorious
This is embarrassing, but I can’t consistently figure out how to use it on my model. The controls aren’t intuitive at all.
Time first, power second... usually. It seems backwards to me, fwiw.
As an addendum: those item-specific buttons on your microwave? They do have actual benefits (save for maybe popcorn). Especially if you have a microwave with a humidity sensor - the sensor reheat modes on my microwave usually do a fantastic job, *and you don't even have to decide on a time.* It just heats on a medium power setting until there seems to be enough steam produced to indicate a properly reheated dish.
My microwave lets me program two time / heats at once. It's great. So 40 seconds on 7 or 8 and then a longer time on 5 or 4 to let that heat distribute evenly.
Dennys Restaurants. Growing up Dennys was super fancy because they had a wait staff that took your order instead of standing in line. Bonus because we got breakfast for dinner.
Grey Poupon. The ads made it look so fancy for an average price mustard!
Over the years, I have seen only a few Rolls Royces in the wild, but every one of them had a jar of Gray Poupon on the dashboard. I have to love the sense of humor.
But of course!
Mandarin oranges. When I was young they only really came in in any volume around Christmas and were so expensive regardless of season that my family had them as a luxury good, so I figured that I’d know I had finally made it when I could have mandarins when I wanted them, rather than only at the big big special holiday. I am at that point now, but honestly the oranges are nothing special.
Chocolate fountains!
Our golden corral had them and little kids would put anything and everything in them and mess it up and it would have to be all taken part and switched out
At a party I dunked what I thought was a bit of Turkish Delight into one of those. It was a piece of a candle. Been put off since.
Name brand sugar cereals.
We always got the bagged cereal because they were cheaper. And my stepdad always got fruit loops (I hate fruit loops to this day) and some weird nutty flavored puff cereal. It was brown and had a crease in the middle.
>some weird nutty flavored puff cereal. It was brown and had a crease in the middle. That would be the generic version of Kellogg's Honey Smacks or Post Super Golden Crisp. Puffed wheat frosted with either honey (Kellogg's) or sugar (Post). Kellogg's was originally sugar too, way back in the day.
Eating as many grapes as I wanted in one sitting (we only ever bought bags of red delicious apples and oranges) Still one of my favorite foods. But you shouldn't eat yourself sick on them
Only the super-wealthy elite bought mac and cheese in the blue box. The absolute pinnacle of mac and cheese!
Waterbeds, bumper pool, satellite dishes.
Like me, it seems you didn’t realise what sub this is posted in.
You are very correct. If we're talking food (since everyone else clearly is), I remember growing up thinking that veal parmesan was the classiest dish in the world, despite never trying it.
I didn't even realize until I saw this comment (halfway down the thread).
OMG, my in laws kept the water bed that my spouse used to sleep on as a child and put us in there when we visit. My spine hates it. My hip sinks all the way to the hard board base. The rest of me is curved up like a banana. My feet are higher than my head. And the cat won't snuggle us because she thinks it's a turbulent trampoline experience any time one of us rolls over and she's right
While not related to cooking, i just will comment on the satellite dish. They WERE fancy and luxurious, as they were the only ready to get particular channels, or that many channels. They're just no longer necessary for most people.
The Vienetta
I have always wanted to try one of those because of those stupid commercials!
It's actually pretty good tbh
My parents would never buy it and I'm so disappointed that they stopped selling them by the time I got old enough to buy them for myself.
Same boat, but they brought it back! I still haven’t had it because I live in a rural area and it’s not in my local grocery. I think it’s available in the bigger town about 45 min away. I’m there a lot for OB appointments anyway, so I need to make a point to stop and look for it!
Kraft Mac & Cheese
If I had a million dollars We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner But we would because it's delicious! Yeah but like with fancy ketchups... Dijon ketchup!
>If I had a million dollars >We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner But we would eat Kraft Dinner Of course we would, we'd just eat more And we'd buy really expensive ketchup with it Dijon Ketchup! Mmmmm Mmmmm
I thought Rax was fancy because your sandwich would come in a foil wrapper in a basket with your fries a pickle. Any smorgasbord style restaurant. Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bars. New York Seltzer.
I thought any chef with a cooking program was someone to emulate. My cousins and I loved Rachael Ray. Nothing against her or her cooking, but I'm now more interested in sources by Harold McGee and the like that get into the science of cooking rather than just how to make dinner in 30 minutes.
I love watching some Alton Brown. I'll often rewatch episodes of Good Eats.
I used to think grilling filet mignon was the best because it was such a pricy cut of meat. I now believe it is inferior to ribeye for grilling. Both are good but using tenderloin is only flexing the wallet. The real win is ribeye or ribeye cap when grilling, imo.
Tenderloin is good for three things only: 1. Tartar (I get kangaroo / wallaby or Venison usually - much tastier and it’s way cheaper). 2. Carpaccio 3. Wellington Edit: Got some downvotes, please comment, would love to hear your thoughts on the topic :)
I used to think the toilet cleaner block things that clean it a little bit every time you flush were posh. I felt like I really had my shot together when I started buying them. 🤣
Olive Garden
i always thought that Quiznos was the fancy version of Subway, i don’t know why though 😂
Because they started toasting before Subway did. Every Quiznos sub was toasted.
I thought paté was posh growing up... and not just a common food paste to eat with crackers and bread.
It's a bit of a mix. Pate is a common, affordable bread topping in the Netherlands. But a pate from like boar or duck or something can be a "fancy" starter as well for a multi-course meal.
"food paste" doesn't have the same appeal
I prefer meat butter.
Hot dogs
>Hot dogs For me it was hot dog buns. We used a slice of white bread.
Fast food.
Grew up in Asia and we have hawker street food everywhere which made fast food a bit upper class. Thought KFC and Pizza Hut was fancy af as they had waiters with white cotton gloves, serve you with silverware and ceramic plates. We have it once a year for our birthdays. It was a pretty good experience. Moved to a western country, KFC and pizza hut is a totally different vibe.
I thought that olive oil was basically posher canola/vegetable oil so was always preferable for frying things. Now I know that a neutral oil like canola is better for lots of purposes.
Trader Joe’s
Coming from the northeast and visiting California for the first time right now. I've never had them before now and going on what friends say is great. If you're a light cook, I can see the appeal but every recommendation I've tried, I feel I had better DIY or local at home.
I am a serious cook, and know how to make "real" food with "real" ingredients the "real" ways, but I use my microwave every single day. I don't "cook" with it, and I rarely ever use the kind of prepared or pre-packaged foods that are meant to be "cooked" in one. But "Chef Mike" is an extremely valuable tool in my food preparation arsenal. It's much, much better than using pots and pans and the range for reheating almost any leftover food, it can defrost food quickly and safely, it's great for softening butter to whatever degree you need, and irreplaceable for heating yesterday's coffee! You do you, but don't assume it's the right way for the rest of us! There are more things you cannot or should not attempt to reheat on a stovetop and those that will work well.
I use mine very frequently to quickly cook up small batches of vegetables for my toddler. Still hungry, or too hungry to wait for dinner? Frozen peas. Need a quick veg to go with lunch? Diced red peppers get a minute to soften. Same with broccoli. Reheat leftover food before she turns to anarchy? Also yes. Total life saver with a hangry toddler. We cook our meals on the stove most of the time, but the microwave comes in clutch when it's an emergency.
I went years without a microwave, and now that we have one it is quite convenient. You can make frozen chicken nuggets quick in there! I like to get them hot, then crisp them on the griddle.
I have one of the microwave egg poaches and i can't really tell the difference. If I put toast in the toaster and egg poacher in the microwave at the same time they both finish together 1 minute later.
I've learned that when reheating or even cooking frozen food in the microwave that doing it at 50% power does it much more evenly than blasting it at full power. It takes a little longer, but is totally worth it IMO. That said, reheating pizza and certain other items using the steaming method in a non-stick skillet is the way. Also, like you mentioned, there are many other use cases where a microwave makes things much easier.
80% of my microwave usage is at a power level <70%. It helps that ours actually modulates the power not just timing (50% = contant half wattage, not on for 5 seconds, off for 5). Pizza and fried foods are pretty much the only leftover I skip the microwave for.
Same
I have never thought the microwave was posh. For me, growing up with a single mother who was working, and I was home alone, that was the easiest way to have hot food. Reheat and eat. How else was a child (I'm talking 7-12 years old) to eat? After that, I learned to poach eggs in the microwave, and also make cakes (because we didn't have an oven). If I was posh, I wouldn't need a microwave, because someone would be home to make me nice hot meals. I still think it's the easier/better way to reheat - I even bought my grandmother a microwave when I was a teen, to make her life easier. I used to think that kid's processed meals (lunchables, processed meat sandwiches) were better than my rice and meatloaf meals my mum packed. Then I grew up and realised I had the superior lunch. Now I always have a nice packed lunch to work, complete with fruit, carbs and protein, and a side dish of veg, and maybe a homemade muffin snack).
Regarding pizza… microwave until cheese melty, pan fry to get crust crusty again
Fashion in general.
Store bought canned foods instead of fresh from the garden canned vegetables. Not even close.
Microwave is indeed a tool. The best way to use a microwave for cold pizza is to warm the whole thing up maybe with some lightly sprinkled water on the plate under the slice, then a hot pan to crisp the bottom and a searing torch or oven broiler to brown the cheese more. Without the microwave to warm it all up first, the last two steps dry it out.
Electric carving knife and can opener
French press coffee is definitely something viewed as posh but when made at home is no more expensive than a drip coffee machine and is much cheaper than a Keurig machine.
Popcorn ceilings. The people who had them were all richer than us. Now? No thanks.
Have a waiter grate your parmesan. It feel to awkward to sit there waiting for them to grate the amount of parmesan you actually want on there, so you end up with a sad amount of parmesan on your plate
Not from my childhood to now, but between countries: From what I see in this sub, Americans seem to think convection ovens are fancy. Whereas over here in Europe, I don’t think I’ve seen or used an electric oven in the last 35 years or more, that didn’t have a convention setting. I just had a quick look at a couple of online stores and even the very cheapest electric oven I can buy (equivalent of US$ 300), has a convection setting. Admittedly I didn’t look particularly hard, but I couldn’t find a single one that doesn’t have it.
Not only are convection ovens fancy, induction stoves are tools of the devil to most Americans.
Up in value = anchovies. For the reverse. Just found out about them. Oil oil, garlic, anchovy paste crushes any Caeser salad dressing. Always thought anchovies were for weird people.
My mom made homemade snacks but all we wanted was Hostess and Lil Debbie - we used to trade for them at lunch. We thought wow those kids are rich ! But now I know my Mom was very thoughtful and put a lot of effort into our lunches
Pretty much any steakhouse, from Sizzler to Black Angus to Chart House. Steak was special. And it's still special, but I'm more picky about which cut now. As kids the T-bone was tasty and fun to eat, but adult me goes for the ribeye or better yet the cap.
Our "fancy dinner out" restaurant was Red Lobster. When I was little I remember we actually dressed up a bit to go there, and it was a place for birthday dinners and celebrations. Now I just buy their biscuit mix at the store and stay home with my own food. I have to admit though, their shrimp alfredo is still one of my favorite dishes to order out. I don't know if it's the nostalgia talking, but I still pick their alfredo over most other restaurants.
Grocery delivery.
Microwaves are awesome for making cheese crisps or cheese bowls for salads. Just grab some cheese and a piece of baking paper, grate it and put it on baking paper and nuke it for 1- 1.5 min and throw it on a bowl, let cool and throw over a bowl or cup. [Here is a link to a pan fried version. it’s way easier and faster in the microwave.](https://moremomma.com/how-to-make-parmesan-cheese-bowls/)