Strange times

In the past 10 years, I've seen a huge change in the way us Americans are viewing food. We've started to move away from processed foods towards locally grown, organic food. We're shopping at nicer stores (Whole Foods, etc.) and craft beer, microdistilleries and California wines are becoming increasingly more popular. Everyone is interested in gourmet food.

When I was a kid, everyone was drinking Bud and Coors and a steak dinner with mash potatoes was the once a week "gourmet" meal. The times they are-a-changin'.

Your perspective is very limited. People living the lifestyle that you observe are the minority.

Sadly that just isnt the case....

[ame]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39371100#39371100[/ame]

I'm pretty sure you are turning into a yuppie (or are they called hipsters nowadays?)

Checks profile, yep, under 30. No worries though there are a lot of us, and once the boomers die off we will take over.

cinderbike said:

In the past 10 years, I've seen a huge change in the way us Americans are viewing food. We've started to move away from processed foods towards locally grown, organic food. We're shopping at nicer stores (Whole Foods, etc.) and craft beer, microdistilleries and California wines are becoming increasingly more popular. Everyone is interested in gourmet food.

When I was a kid, everyone was drinking Bud and Coors and a steak dinner with mash potatoes was the once a week "gourmet" meal. The times they are-a-changin'.

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If you changed "American" to West Coast in your first sentence, you'd almost be right.

RogerMcAllen said:

I'm pretty sure you are turning into a yuppie (or are they called hipsters nowadays?)

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Sadly most Americans are not eating fresh, locally grown food. However, there are a lot of people that have been eating seasonal, fresh garden grown produce all their lives - before it became hip or whatever. I didn't eat canned veggies until I went off to college... and would bet there are a lot of folks who grew up eating like a "yuppie" too.

I think most of us that grew up on Ranches and Farms get a good laugh out of the fact that this is "HIP" now. People from the country have been eating this way out of necessity since America was founded. I am not trying to be "HIP" I am trying to eat good food. I think it is only considered "HIP" if you are over paying for said food at Trader Joes, or Whole Foods. Other than that its just how we eat.

I walked outside this afternoon briefly and picked from some of my plants. An our later I had homemade caprese salad, and I didn't have to run out to the store for the tomatoes or the basil... it's just something I had fresh on hand lol.

Funny, I still find a good Steak & Mashed Potatoes to be gourmet enough.

BeerWars said:

Your perspective is very limited. People living the lifestyle that you observe are the minority.

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True, but unfortunate in many respects. High calorie diets rich in fat and simple sugars are still overwhelmingly popular despite the fact that we now "know" obesity is a problem.

Hopefully next year, I'll be moving to a more garden friendly home and climate. I would love to grow more foods. Right now, I only have rosemary and it's awesome just to pick some and smell it. I was going to grow hops, but don't have a place for them.

I think the "organic" movement is hilarious though. My dad is a organic food type. He assumed organic foods were locally grown, pesticide free and fresher than "non-organics". I did a little research and found that a carrot he bought was grown in China and did use pesticides. The non-organic carrots next to them where grown in NY, if I remember correctly. By the way, the "organic" carrots where 3x the price.

I dig whole foods for the selection and that they have an awesome salad bar. I don't care for their prices or the general "smugness" when I shop there.

Unfortunately, I wish this were true. 99% of people out there aren't going to go through the effort to join a CSA, or seek out farms that raise beef in pastures. People who have no concept of seasonality of food. People who are perfectly content eating convenient mass produced processed foods

Its really a shame that the bigger Organic style grocery stores are really nothing more than outlets for big industrial organic products. Some are just as processed as their non organic counterpart. I'm not a fan of organic for the sake of being organic. Whole Foods seems like a place for smug 30 year old moms to think they are doing so much better buying organic. Little do they know the "organic peaches" were really imported from Argentina and are overall probably worse for the environment than non organic peaches at a normal supermarket which were probably grown in Florida, SC, or Georgia (or CA depending on which side of the country you are on).

I buy as much local food as I can. I get butter and cheese from a local creamery. Fruits and veggies from local farms. Grass fed beef, pasteured chickens etc. None of these have official organic licensing from the government, but I've talked with the growers and farmers. I generally know how they raise their food, and trust them to deliver a great product to me.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

Funny, I still find a good Steak & Mashed Potatoes to be gourmet enough.

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I'm simple man with simple desires. Steak and potatoes is one of the best things ever.

TxBrew said:

I'm simple man with simple desires. Steak and potatoes is one of the best things ever.

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Steak from a local grass fed cow

Edcculus said:

Steak from a local grass fed cow

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I'll reference my dad again. He always brings us steaks from his local "custom meat" store where he lives. All their meat is grass fed, organic, local (to him) and is massaged with rainbows and lives with unicorns. I can't tell the difference. In fact, Costco meat tasted the same or better and is about 1/3 the price. We even did a blind taste test at an spontaneous BBQ we had. None of the guests could tell.

He simply talks about the "hormones" and antibiotics, but all his "research" ends up with a "nutritionist" (read: internet degree) spewing their religion all over. His best argument is always something about girls going into puberty faster. But the same phenomenon is happening in the UK and they don't use those "toxins".

If I am going to pay 3x what I would otherwise, I need something better than "toxins" in the argument.

ndsgr said:

I'll reference my dad again. He always brings us steaks from his local "custom meat" store where he lives. All their meat is grass fed, organic, local (to him) and is massaged with rainbows and lives with unicorns. I can't tell the difference. In fact, Costco meat tasted the same or better and is about 1/3 the price. We even did a blind taste test at an spontaneous BBQ we had. None of the guests could tell.

He simply talks about the "hormones" and antibiotics, but all his "research" ends up with a "nutritionist" (read: internet degree) spewing their religion all over. His best argument is always something about girls going into puberty faster. But the same phenomenon is happening in the UK and they don't use those "toxins".

If I am going to pay 3x what I would otherwise, I need something better than "toxins" in the argument.

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I have just the opposite experience with our local beef. We have been buying from a local guy for the last few years. I can tell right away the difference with grocery store meat. I used to always marinate my steaks there is no need with the meat we get now.

If I had the money I would be shopping at Central Market but I'm too poor to be a trendy hipster foodie. I definitely feel the urge and need to get away from processed food though.

Now that we have hijacked to talk about yuppie meat, I figure I should chime in about now. I buy sides of bison. BEST MEAT AROUND. Have to cook it medium rare and carefully not to overdo it, but in tacos, fajitas, a porterhouse, lasagna, chili, etc, you just cannot beat it. Lower in fat and cholesterol than boneless skinless chicken breast, higher in omega fats and iron than any of the major commercial meats. It is the perfect meat, IMO.

Got a side of bison (225 pounds) for $3 a pound butchered, packaged, and flash frozen.

Randar do you ground your own Bison or is part of that butchering grounding? Also how many cuft of a freezer does that 225 lbs take up?

ndsgr said:

His best argument is always something about girls going into puberty faster.

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Your dad is really drinking the hippie Kool-Aid. Keep him away from the China Study.

The reason that girls go into puberty sooner has nothing to do with hormones in food; is because they are FATTER and exercise less than ever before. Both are key factors in the onset of puberty in females.

Has he ever see a Olympic gymnast? Many of them do not enter puberty until adulthood due to the factors of low body fat and physical activity.

I buy local beef. Its usually $1.99 a pound. Regardless of the cut. Which is a decent price when you get ribs, rib eye, flat iron, brisket, etc.

As for veggies. We eat out of our garden during the summer. We have been thinking about putting in a winter garden.
except this year was horrible. It was very wet and cold up until June. Our garden produced a quarter of what we had last year. The only thing that grew well was the weeds. We are going to put in raised beds this winter, and see if we can cull the weeds down.



ETA, I still believe that Americans have a huge disconnect between where thier food comes from and them eating it. Most people choose not to think about the cow being raised in a stockyard a few thousand miles away. Or how it was butchered. Same with veggies.

I like to remove a few steps

I always get a laugh out of farmer's markets. Around here, 90% of what is being sold got trucked in from the Central Valley in CA or Mexico.

Grass seed, hay, hops. That's about sums it up.

When I was a kid, the poor folks (my family included) ate grass-feed beef.

Hmmm, Grass fed Texas Beef. Bought a side of it this year. I weighed every package and it netted out to $3.43 a pound and 60 lbs of it was hamburger.

Grass fed beef hamburger sells for $6 in the grocery store.

It's fantastic and very lean. The best steaks & burgers I've ever cooked on the BGE.

I grew up eating our own grass raised beef as well as eggs from free range chickens. The part that gets me is that people buy it from these "uppercrust" stores not knowing what they are buying. I have seen what it takes to be able to claim your eggs come from free range chickens and all it takes is for them to be able to walk outside into a barren pen, thats it. I am not saying all egg producers do this cause they dont. If you haven't seen where your beef and eggs come from, you might as well pay the much lower prices at Wallyworld.

I guess I'm hipster then. We buy 90% of our food at WF. At least the stuff we don't grow/hunt. I think we spend LESS on food now that we shop there. But we are careful to buy the reasonably priced basic ingredients. The prepared stuff gets pricey. Often the same stuff & brand costs less than it did at safeway, but we admittedly bought the expensive brands at safeway.

Randar said:

Now that we have hijacked to talk about yuppie meat, I figure I should chime in about now. I buy sides of bison. BEST MEAT AROUND.
Got a side of bison (225 pounds) for $3 a pound butchered, packaged, and flash frozen.

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Care to share where you get this? I wouldnt mind in on some of that action.

Randar said:

Now that we have hijacked to talk about yuppie meat, I figure I should chime in about now. I buy sides of bison. BEST MEAT AROUND.

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Have an uncle in Colorado that shoots a bison every year (hunting) for the freezer. The meat from it is really amazing. Lean, but very flavorful and not much saturated fat. Better than most grass fed cows IMO.

American steaks taste terrific! I don't give a crap how many countries won't import it, or how much it shrinks my testicles!

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

American steaks taste terrific! I don't give a crap how many countries won't import it, or how much it shrinks my testicles!

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I'm a fan of British beef myself. Incurable brain disease is just ONE of the perks of eating Britain's finest mince!

bierhaus15 said:

I'm a fan of British beef myself. Incurable brain disease is just ONE of the perks of eating Britain's finest mince!

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Curious. I was just sitting here thinking about this and LGI and suddenly a lot of things are starting to make sense!

Meh. Call me a hippie if you want to, I'd prefer that you just call me a snob. There *is* a huge difference in the quality of the food I can buy at Whole Foods versus at the local supermarket.

Is this because it's organic? Not necessarily... but it's absolutely of a higher quality.

Do I pay a premium for it? Of course; it's better!

Do I do it often? Nah, but if I'm trying to really enjoy cooking, why would I skimp on the ingredients? Why would I intentionally buy lesser-quality food? It's still cheaper to go to a place like Whole Foods than it is for us to go out to a decent restaurant. I ain't cheap. I mean, crap, I wouldn't put feed-store grain in my beer.

Whole Foods is s bit of a drive for me, so I usually go to a smaller local place, Guido's. Absolutely outstanding meat and fish counter. Stuff I never see in the regular supermarkets. They have this andouille sausage that's incredibly spicy and flavorful.... I mean, the "andouille" I buy in the regular grocery store tastes like keilbasa. The beef.... spendy, but I bought these grass-fed steaks when the BIL and his wife were in town, just a little salt and pepper, tossed them on the grill until they stopped mooing... worth every penny.

What's wrong with being willing to spend a little bit more money to be able to REALLY enjoy cooking and being able to put some really, REALLY tasty food in front of my friends and family? When did that become a bad thing?

Shopping at places like that are generally a time/cost issue for me. If it was close then I would shop there even if it was more money, if it was further away but the same price as Albertsons across the street I would make the drive. But the closest place is a 20min drive and its expensive.
I usually make it out to a Central Market when they are having their craft brew sales, like right now (so I'm going tonight).

the_bird said:

Meh. Call me a hippie if you want to, I'd prefer that you just call me a snob. There *is* a huge difference in the quality of the food I can buy at Whole Foods versus at the local supermarket.

Is this because it's organic? Not necessarily... but it's absolutely of a higher quality.

Do I pay a premium for it? Of course; it's better!

Do I do it often? Nah, but if I'm trying to really enjoy cooking, why would I skimp on the ingredients? Why would I intentionally buy lesser-quality food? It's still cheaper to go to a place like Whole Foods than it is for us to go out to a decent restaurant. I ain't cheap. I mean, crap, I wouldn't put feed-store grain in my beer.

Whole Foods is s bit of a drive for me, so I usually go to a smaller local place, Guido's. Absolutely outstanding meat and fish counter. Stuff I never see in the regular supermarkets. They have this andouille sausage that's incredibly spicy and flavorful.... I mean, the "andouille" I buy in the regular grocery store tastes like keilbasa. The beef.... spendy, but I bought these grass-fed steaks when the BIL and his wife were in town, just a little salt and pepper, tossed them on the grill until they stopped mooing... worth every penny.

What's wrong with being willing to spend a little bit more money to be able to REALLY enjoy cooking and being able to put some really, REALLY tasty food in front of my friends and family? When did that become a bad thing?

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The issue isn't with spending money on quality ingredients. It's over spending on ingredients because it has a label telling you it's better without knowing better and the reason behind the purchase being to look trendy vs necessarily caring about your health.

Meh. Everyone I know that shops at places like Whole Foods (and there's a lot of them) does so because it's obvious the quality is better. Don't know anyone who shops there because "OOOH, it's ORGANIC, it MUST be HEALTHY!"

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

American steaks taste terrific! I don't give a crap how many countries won't import it, or how much it shrinks my testicles!

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For the record, I meant what I said there. I wasn't being sarky.

the_bird said:

Everyone I know that shops at places like Whole Foods (and there's a lot of them) does so because it's obvious the quality is better.

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I going to say this despite the fact that I don't approve of a few (many?) things WF does..

Food is is better because they visit their suppliers regularly, write reports (I have seen a few), and suggest improvements to be made by suppliers.

Yes the "organic" feature is somewhat lost, certainly compared to the way it was with many regional stores they acquired. BTW, some guy built is a "family tree" of organic suppliers, starting with dozens 15 yrs ago, down to three now!

Wow, this thread sure bloomed. :O

I grew up in Southern California, so my perspective probably is 'limited'. For the past 5 years or so, I've grown as much of the produce I eat as possible, which has been hard since moving into a 1 bedroom apartment with no balcony.

FWIW, I do shop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, but that is more because selection, not due to an inherit need to spend more on groceries or thinking that the USDA organic sticker on foods makes them automatically better.

But, I do feel that, at least in the little bubble of SoCal, there is much more awareness on food quality than there was just 5 or 10 years ago, arguably due to 'hipsters'. I'm okay with that, as the number of farmers markets and selection of produce has absolutely exploded in recent years, which is great for people who love to cook, like myself.

The related aspect of this...

Seeing so many more restaurants these days that are focused on locally-sourced product, seasonal product. Such a positive development. Environmental issues (better to ship a turnip twenty miles instead of three thousand). Fresher. Places we go like that... the chefs seem very respectful of the food they're preparing.

Couple dining experiences we've had in the Finger Lakes recently. Red Newt Bistro; expensive, but everything was outstanding. Seasonal, fresh. Not over-complicated. Another place we went a few years back, Madderlake Cafe (since shut down, owners went back to NoCal, it seems). Same deal; great, local food, you know the chef is talking directly to the farmers and that he's getting the farmer's absolute best product.

We also went out to a steak/seafood joint with the in-laws, that felt like I was going back in time twenty years. Nothing fresh. Everything was bland. Nothing seemed to be local, not just no local fish but nothing really "Finger-Lakey" about the whole menu.

And, it sucked. And - was just as goddamn expensive!

If it is a trend, I love that trend, I hope it continues forever. To hell with bland food! To hell with "seafood" that tastes no different than if you were eating out in Des Moines.

I'm older than most of you guys on here, so my perspective is a bit different than yours. First, when I was a kid, there were very very few fast food places nationwide, and so it was a very rare treat to go to McDonald's. Soda pop was also in the "special treat" area- no one I knew had soda in the fridge or potato chips or other junk food. Most of us were playing outside, since there was no such thing as cable TV or computers or video games. No one I knew (except my own mother) was overweight or had any illnesses like diabetes.

Fast forward 40 years- every kid sits in front of a computer or TV for HOURS every day. McDonald's drive thru (and other fast-food and take out) are daily occurances. Working moms don't really have time to run home and make from scratch food, and when they do it's "Noodle Roni" or "hamburger helper" type stuff or canned spaghetti sauce. Even the school lunches have kid-friendly foods like breaded chicken patties and pizza.

Diabetes has soared. In my years as a health care provider, we changed the name of Type II diabetes. It used to be called AODM, Adult Onset Diabetes Mellitus because it wasn't a juvenile diabetes from childhood. However, too many sedentary fat kids had diabetes, so new thinking went into its cause.

Now, many of us are trying to eat more healthy food choices. However, industrialized farming (read "The Omnivore's Dilemma) make even the seemingly healthy choices a bad bet.

It's amazing to me how much the American diet has changed over the last 40 years. I'm glad we're starting to go back to eating the way our farming ancestors did- it's better for our health (and weight!) and for our environment. I think it's a small minority, though.

Yooper_Brew said:

It's amazing to me how much the American diet has changed over the last 40 years. I'm glad we're starting to go back to eating the way our farming ancestors did- it's better for our health (and weight!) and for our environment. I think it's a small minority, though.

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I watch any documentary I can find. See my user name

I saw two in rapid succession about diabetes and other health problems related to diet. If you know someone with diabetes you should have them check out "Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days" and "The Truth About Food" that put a group of people in a zoo and fed them raw food. Both groups were able to immediately control their diabetes or other health problems (cholesterol, high blood pressure, excess fat) with diet alone in a VERY short period of time. Pretty amazing