The Swamp

Drop em if you got em. We need a catchall.

Mussels are terrible.
Filet mignon is incredibly overrated.
Bacon is the true nectar of the gods.

Filet mignon is overrated compared to what? Because it's hard to argue that it's not damn near the best part of the cow. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a good ribeye, but you're almost never gonna be disappointed in a filet. Will say it depends on the restaurant and how familiar you are with their cuts of beefs and how it is prepared (i.e. if it is prepared to order properly, which you would assume most steakhouses could do consistently, but you'd be wrong).

In the vein, anyone who orders steak well-done or even medium-well should be shot into the sun.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:24 pm Filet mignon is overrated compared to what? Because it's hard to argue that it's not damn near the best part of the cow. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a good ribeye, but you're almost never gonna be disappointed in a filet. Will say it depends on the restaurant and how familiar you are with their cuts of beefs and how it is prepared (i.e. if it is prepared to order properly, which you would assume most steakhouses could do consistently, but you'd be wrong).

Filet is overpriced for what you get, and the flavor isn't nearly as good as any ribeye, especially a bone-in ribeye.

And I completely agree about ordering a well done or medium-well steak. It's a waste of good meat.

The single best part of grilling steak is slicing off a small morsel of beef when it's still raw and popping it in my maw like carpaccio.

I don't find filet to be especially expensive here and these days I seldom can eat all of the meat from a bigger cut. I'd rather pay $28 for an 8-ounce filet and finish it all than $25 for a 14-oz ribeye and feel like I either have to stuff myself or bring leftovers home.

Mostly I think cut of meat doesn't really matter though as long as you're going to the right places.

Some of the better steakhouses here are doing pretty cool shit with hanger steak even. My favorite place in town cooks it in a chile broth and serves it with some broccoli rabe and mushroom fried rice. It's amazing.

Sabo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:22 pm Mussels are terrible.
Filet mignon is incredibly overrated.
Bacon is the true nectar of the gods.

Agree on all counts.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:30 pm The single best part of grilling steak is slicing off a small morsel of beef when it's still raw and popping it in my maw like carpaccio.

Fuck yes

A bistro filet or teres major is better than filet mignon in my mind. I doubt many steak houses have it on the menu. Can get from a reputable butcher though.

- Bacon is good but overrated and overused, it dominates most dishes
- Avocado on a sandwich is for dummies who want their sandwich to slip apart, guac is fine
- Tomatoes in a sandwich usually suck and if you keep them you should cut out the seeds
- Chicken is underrated by food snobs
- You should never eat jarred pasta sauce
- The best "bread" for an egg sandwich is a biscuit and the worst (of the otherwise good breads) is a bagel
- Real homemade stock > simmering whatever you have in water for a bit > water > boxed stock

My take: Taking into account taste, healthiness, price and ease of preparation, salmon is the world’s best food.

One could live cheaply (relative to other proteins) and without any lack of versatility on salmon and chicken thighs alone. Also, crunchy salmon skin is better than any meat skin.

for my steak money give me a ribeye. a filet just doesnt have the same marbling and i enjoy a lot of fat

These are 100% correct as far as I've eaten.

Peppers and onions cooking may be a top 5 smell for me.

Hot take: you can cook a piece of steak on a stovetop and it can be and usually is better than steak cooked on a grill.

Liberally douse a room temperature steak in kosher salt. Have a pan heated up super hot. Pour in the evoo. Flip the steak in it every 30 seconds for 5-6 minutes and you're done. Medium rare and delicious. For me it's a ribeye.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:56 pm - You should never eat jarred pasta sauce

My best friend from high school graduate from Le Cordon Bleu. He's worked in food service as a living ever since. Hotels, restaurants, prisons. When he goes for shopping, it's a science experiment more than a chore. He said he'll never make sauce from scratch again. You can just buy a jar and flavor it yourself. He's also Italian, so it's borderline sacrilege to say that. But he stands by it.

Ick, I've seen that hack and I so strongly don't agree. Its just all too sweet. But agree on the steak. I'm getting a sous vide later this month and I'm expecting that plus a quick and hard sear to be peak steak, regardless of whether its grilling weather.

So many hot takes.

I love a great filet. I love a great ribeye. Depend on my mood for the day. At home, we sometimes get filet tail. It's filet at a much lower price.

Grilling beats pan frying every day of the week.

To keep salmon filets from getting stuck on the grill, grill the filet on top of lemon slices. You don't have to turn the salmon and you get a hint of lemon flavor.

I agree that bacon is great but can overpower foods it's paired with.

Avocado make a salad sing.

Mussels are great if they are cooked in a good sauce. Mussels > Clams every day of the week.

I very much agree with the sentiment regarding rubes who order steak well done or medium well done. Kill them now.

Pork tenderloin, marinated and grilled, is a very underrated entree.

Fresh pineapple first thing in the morning is an awesome eye-opener. A natural anti-inflammatory. Shown below is my favorite kitchen tool to use. Gets all the succulent meat out of the pineapple.

- Ranch dressing is awful
- Buttermilk herb dressing, which ranch is the bullshit version of, is wonderful
- Drums > Flat for wings
- Southern american is the best major ethnic(?) cuisine
- Chinese is the worst
- The better the fries are, the more ketchup detracts from them

Sabo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:22 pm Mussels are terrible.

Good mussels are fantastic. But I have had far, far too many mussels that smell like dirty hooha or have a stale taste to ever order them again (unless I can see the body of water they lived in).

Ranch dressing is a disgraceful food product.

Blueberries suck.

I could eat roast turkey 4 days a week.

I have never had a pancake that was more than 10% better than a bad pancake.

Japanese cuisine > Italian cuisine > Spanish Cuisine > Thai Cuisine > Middle Eastern Cuisine > Chinese Cuisine > French Cuisine > Old Time Jewish Cuisine

People who eat fast food on the subway should be sent to a gulag.

Matcha is amazing.

Pineapple is phenomenal.

Oooo, good one above. Anyone who prefers pancakes to waffles is either under the age of 5 or wrong.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:42 pm Oooo, good one above. Anyone who prefers pancakes to waffles is either under the age of 5 or wrong.

I used to make pancakes for my kids. Toss a blueberry or two in there, some chocolate chips or banana slices... and you've still got fried dough covered in sugar syrup.

Sure, but you can add the same things in a waffle and its infinitely better.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:40 pmBlueberries suck.

You. Yes, you. Get out of the Swamp.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:45 pm Sure, but you can add the same things in a waffle and its infinitely better.

It's a texture thing I guess, but you're right.

Lobster may be the world's most overrated food.

Sabo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:49 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:40 pmBlueberries suck.

You. Yes, you. Get out of the Swamp.

NO!!

I don't like them, and I am not ashamed!!!

I also hate pears and plums. There, I said it - other than bananas, mangoes and apples, I pretty much hate all fruit.

JFC.

- The less breading on a chicken wing, the better
- The more breading on actual fried chicken, the better
- Agree on a good fry not needing ketchup
- Mayo is good on a burger
- yellow mustard is for regular hot dogs, spicy mustard is for all other cased meats
- ribeye steaks are great, but give me a new york strip cooked perfectly
- seared then finished in oven in cast iron is best (and easiest way to not fuck up) a good steak
- pork tenderloin is indeed great
- those full bellied clams suck ass and taste like sand
- salmon blows
- swordfish is the truth
- ham salad, egg salad, and tuna salad are all excellent
- fried bologna is delicious
- regular bologna on white bread is delicious
- Bobby Flay is the best Iron Chef
- Alex Guarnaschelli is the best judge on all the food network shows
- GUY FIERI IS AWESOME

I'm with Pruitt on blueberries. They taste like vaguely fruity sugar-water and the texture is gross.

It must have been A_B the Intoxicated who wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:28 pm - regular bologna on white bread is delicious

Worst.Take.Ever

Sabo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:22 pm Mussels are terrible.

Good mussels, done right, are amazing. Luckily, I live close to Penn Cove, home to a bunch of mussel farms.

Filet mignon is incredibly overrated.

Filet mignon is a relatively lean piece of meat, so it doesn't have that marbling/fat content. Which is why you'll see it served wrapped in bacon so often.

Bacon is the true nectar of the gods.

Bacon is good, but its not the end-all, be-all.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:00 pm Liberally douse a room temperature steak in kosher salt. Have a pan heated up super hot. Pour in the evoo. Flip the steak in it every 30 seconds for 5-6 minutes and you're done. Medium rare and delicious. For me it's a ribeye.

I was taught that you only want to flip a steak once.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:56 pm - You should never eat jarred pasta sauce

I'll use jarred sauce (almost always the Classico tomato and basil) and then I 'doctor it up'...meaning I'll saute some onion and garlic, and add some red pepper flakes, and some fresh basil. Not a purist's first choice, but it works on a weeknight.

- Agree on a good fry not needing ketchup

The key to making good fries (or pomme frites, if you prefer) is to have two deep fryers, and two different temperatures. Do the lower one first, to cook the inside of the fry, then the higher temp to put the crispy finish on the outside. Most places don't do that.

- pork tenderloin is indeed great

Yeah it is. I did chipotle pork tenderloin tacos the other night, and they were great.

- salmon blows

Pump the brakes there, my friend

- swordfish is the truth

Halibut is better

- GUY FIERI IS AWESOME

Two words: Fuck and no.

mayo is disgusting, this ruins the burger.
egg salad is gross
tuna salad is gross
,ost mayo based things are gross

that beimg said ranch dressing is delicious.
drums are worse than flats, because some drums have inedible bits that disguise themselves as fatty.
honey mustard is the only mustard

mussels are disgusting.
spicy ketchup can improve any fry
season salt is the most versatile spice, and the most useful
Morimoto is a million times the iron chef bobby flay is
medium and medium rare are the only acceptable steak temps
waffles are better than pancakes
chicken and waffles is the best brunch dish
kale is gross
brussell sprouts taste like unwashed assholes

To be clear about fieri, I’ve never had a bite of any of his food. I just think he is an awesome dude.

- Fried burgers > grilled
- A good regular orange is better than any of the 8,000 different types of mutant hybrids people keep coming up with.
- The fake "watermelon" flavor used in candies tastes way better than actual watermelon.
- Anyone who professes to like dark chocolate more than milk chocolate is lying.
- Prime rib just makes me wish I had ordered a nice steak instead.
- Anyone who orders their steak cooked less than medium-rare doesn't actually enjoy eating it and is just trying to look like a bad-ass.
- The effect of using really good olive oil is greatly underrated.

Dark chocolate is terrible.

Coconut is delicious.

I'm with AB on steak. Perfect mid-rare NY Strip for me any day. Also on method. Searing on stovetop and finishing in a nuke hot oven in cast iron is the best way.

Anyone who eats chicken breast is a sucker. Thighs are where it's at.

In above vein, anyone who touches white meat at Thanksgiving is a sucker. Also, unless it's lunch meat, turkey pretty much blows no matter how you do it. This is of course exempting the 11:30pm cold turkey sandwich on white bread with mustard and mayo on Thanksgiving night, eaten while standing in the kitchen, maybe with the fridge door still open, which is the best sandwich ever.

Brussel Sprouts/Broccoli/Cauliflower are trash unless they're roasted, which turns them into absolute gold. I would have eaten a lot more veggies as a kid if mom would have just thrown broccoli in the oven instead of boiling/steaming it to death.

Melons are trash. All of them.
Flats>Drums
Waffles>Pancakes

Making your own marinade and then letting that go for 24 hours before cooking can turn 2 lbs of pork tenderloin into 3 Michelin Star food.

Fried Bologna is awesome.

If you own a pineapple corer or any other weird unitasker, you violate our lord and savior Alton Brown's commandments and I disavow you.

I strongly disagree with the anti-dark chocolate takes. Dark chocolate Hershey kisses are my go-to candy snack and they are especially good with a cup of black coffee.