Food Trends that Need to Die

12 Responses to Food Trends that Need to Die

1. Pal says:

   April 28, 2011 at 6:06 pm

   B.Y!
   Good call on the meatballs , cocktails and foams!
   I would add a few to my list..
   1. Truffles…everyone cook in Vancouver thinks that throwing in”truffle paste ” makes any dish better! It does not. I love truffles but they don’t belong everywhere. Case in point: I was at a Kobe beef tasting and the chef preparing the food decided to do a beef carpaccio with TRUFFLE AIOLI! why? its so overpowering ! I am here to taste the beef not the damn truffles!
   2. beet , goat cheese and arugula salad. I get it . I really do. Its a great combination but when it is onevery menu from earls to miles tones to cactus club…well enough is enough!

   Like the blog B.Y. ,

   Reply
   • Britt says:

     May 1, 2011 at 3:10 pm

     Pal,

     Thanks for your comments. Although I LOVE truffles, I agree they’re are over used! I think it’s a great way to make mediocre food taste good. Case and point I love making Anne’s Mac and Cheese at home and then putting truffle oil on it. It’s cheap easy and quick to make.

     Also I agree about the beet, goat cheese salad. So over them.

     Love to meet up for some yummy Asian with your hilarious GF, when you are back in town.

     Reply
2. Paul D says:

   April 28, 2011 at 11:38 pm

   Hey Dumpling, nice blog! There are a couple of points in your “Die” column that I couldn’t let go by without comment.

   1) I’d rather drink a Lucky, too, but PBR is 20% cheaper than Bud or Kokanee and has 20% more alcohol than Lucky, so it actually IS the cheaper way to get drunk. While Lucky has a lot of local history, it’s owned and brewed by Anheusier Busch who also make Budweiser. So it’s not Canadian and not that cool anyway.

   2) Expensive cocktails. Your argument is sort of like saying that since you can get a burger from A&W for $1.99 that all burgers everywhere should be $1.99.

   I can understand a complaint about paying a bunch for a double of a mainstream liquor where the cost of ingredients is less than $2, but honestly, in Vancouver that only happens on Granville St. and a few Yaletown spots and mostly on Fridays and Saturdays.

   I’ve been to a bunch of premium cocktail places (Diamond, Refinery, Boneta, George) that earn their prices with great drinks, well made. I’m happy to give them $12 because there’s $4-5 worth of premium booze in the glass and a lot of care and attention in making it.

   Cheers,
   Paul

   Reply
   • Britt says:

     May 1, 2011 at 3:01 pm

     Hey Paul,

     Great, well thought out comments! I love a good debate!

     1. Fair enough. Pabst is cheaper and higher alcohol but I think we both know that these factors have nothing to do with it’s recent popularity and presence in the local bar scene. This picture says it all.

     

     2. Actually my argument is like saying burgers at A&W use to be $1.99 and now you can’t find a burger for less than $5.00. Of course Vera’s burgers have always been more expensive and that is understandable but if a I want a decent $3.00 burger I should be able to get one.

     I think most restaurants in the city are charging $10-$12 a cocktail, regardless of the liquor or effort that goes into making this cocktail. When did making a good mojito or whiskey sour become worthy of $12? It must have been around the same time that all bartenders started calling themselves “mixologists” or when adding bitters to any drink made it a classic cocktail. If you disagree I would love to hear of some places that serve good cocktails at an average of $8-$9.

     Reply
   • Food to Miss Your Plane For says:

     May 1, 2011 at 4:10 pm

     Just to uninvitedly throw my two cents at the cocktail debate:

     Coming from someone who bartended for too many years, there is a grand difference between a good bartender & a great bartender. I think great bartender is sufficient, but if you have a penchant for superfluous differentiation, then fine, let’s call them ‘mixologists’. I believe great bartenders or mixologists are artists. And just as any who paint for a living can call themselves artists, it doesn’t mean they are great artists. Mixologists or ‘great’ bartenders, as with great artists, are rare.

     Now perhaps we are particularly blessed in Vancouver or there is something in our crystalline mountian water that correlates to liquor slinging virtuosity, or we have far too many bartenders who believe they are great artists. I suppose it is possible that we are living in a Renaissance of imbibition , which centuries from now will be talked about as the Golden Age of Muddling. Or what I think is more likely, we need to get over ourselves a bit. If you’re a bartender and make a delicious cocktail, well done, you’ve done your job. Stop admiring it, and make another one – this is also your job.

     Although Paul’s point about higher costs of inputs demands higher drink prices is fair, the argument isn’t awfully sound for most drinks out there. We’re all rather innumerate, which allows even the most basic of drinks to be overpriced. We also equate stuff we’ve never heard of as being good/expensive. The $12 or $13 cocktail that Dumpling is talking about is usually protected by a clever process of making the most basic of ingredients sound rather special.

     For instance, Boneta’s R.B.Y.C. Cocktail uses Flor de Cana Rum, Cointreau, lime juice and house-made falernum syrup. $12.

     What is it? Nicaraguan Rum that is $1.30 more expensive per bottle than Bacardi – albeit much nicer (marginal cost/ounce = $0.96). Cointreau (mc/ounce = $1.34). Half a lime (mc =$0.13). Fancy sounding simple syrup that has extra flavour from spices like cloves and vanilla(mc = $0.01-$0.15).
     Estimated cost per drink assuming 2oz of booze 3/4 rum to 1/4Cointreau proportions – very rough proportions as I’m no mixologist – $2.24-$2.39

     Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a perfectly nice drink. But you would have a lot more trouble charging $12 for a double Bacardi and lime juice, which has a very similar cost structure.

     I don’t mean to pick on Boneta – I could easily do the same breakdown of drinks at places like Diamond, Refinery and George. I would also say that these places do make tasty cocktails. I’d just like to debunk the myth that premium cocktails in our city are priced on a cost plus basis. What’s far worse than paying a lot for a drink at a place like Boneta, is paying a lot for a drink at a place trying to be like Boneta, which is what I believe the Dumpling is referring to. The fact that almost every restaurant in the city now has a classic cocktail which is $12+ is a precedent that is absurd. Unless we are at the dawn of the Golden Age of Muddling, we should demand to be ripped off selectively rather than ubiquitously.

     Reply
     • @grapesofkath says:

       May 1, 2011 at 4:43 pm

       Bam! Take that, “mixologists”.

       Reply
3. Ron says:

   May 1, 2011 at 4:28 pm

   Stick to chains if you want shitty $8 short poured cocktails made with juice from the gun, crap ice, and bad well brands. Those companies also get huge deals from big brands, so stop picking on independant places putting love and thought into cocktails. Also FYI, is the most expensive place in North America to buy booze. If you want Dbl highballs on special for $8 I hear Granville St is awesome

   Reply
   • Britt says:

     May 1, 2011 at 5:27 pm

     Ron,

     When one of my favorite bartenders in the city gets mad I know shit just got real. I will pay $12 for a cocktail made by you any day but I have to agree with “Food to Miss Your Plane For” that there are a lot of restaurants/bars jumping on the band wagon and not putting in the same care or effort as some of the great independent bars do.

     I am not saying that the aforementioned Diamond, Boneta, George and Refinery cocktails aren’t worth $12, I’m saying that the prices in Vancouver have slowly creeped up across the city and it has now become a standard price for most restaurants, including some of the big chain restaurants, no matter how great or shitty the cocktails are.

     I don’t think I should be banished to Granville Street or the restaurant chains for thinking the ever rising prices of drinking in Vancouver are getting out of control.

     Reply
4. Food to Miss Your Plane For says:

   May 1, 2011 at 5:59 pm

   I’d like to append a bit of an apology to Boneta et al if it appears that I’m picking on you. I’m not, I’m just refuting the argument that cocktails are expensive because of the cost of inputs. They are expensive because we’re willing to pay expensive prices for things that give us pleasure. You are pricing according to demand and willingness to pay, which is what any sensible business owner would do.

   What is annoying, however, are the copycat joints – which seems to be every new restaurant – that are charging $12+ for very, very ordinary cocktails that have very, very verbose names and ingredients.

   Reply
5. followmepoopie says:

   May 2, 2011 at 11:56 am

   Dear foodies, mixologists, connoisseurs…etc etc…

   We’re talking about consumption right?

   … combining edible ingredients so that people can insert them inside of face, masticated them with the exposed bone inside of said face, and then passed it down to their pharynx in a wet lump?

   Get a grip people.

   Reply
6. Cee Breeze says:

   May 3, 2011 at 3:47 pm

   The act of eating and drinking can’t be trivialized, simply put! It tops everyones priority list, whether the destination is a local watering hole or a high end restaurant, seeking the atmosphere and communal spirit around this social rite is what most of us give the utmost importance. Every significant occasion in our lives is christened over dinner or drinks and unless were shitting, showering, sleeping or copulating, our time is spent working so that we have the money to enjoy the privilege. If most Vancouver-ites stop to add up what percentage of their monthly incomes are squandered on overpriced drinks and expensive tapas, brunches, lunches or dinners, most would have to say that it far exceeds their disposable income and IF we refrained from social eating and drinking for a period of a month we could most likely afford to fly to Paris and back on that same budget. No exaggerating here! Why IS everything in Vancouver is sooo expensive, when you can take a forty minute drive across the border and eat and drink like a king for a fraction of the price? It makes me wonder why I chose to live here when I could have much more quality of life for a lot less cost almost anywhere else. I am all for the comments made by “Food to miss the plane for,” why should such and essential social ritual cost us our right arm? I mean it’s not like were living in Monaco here, THIS IS CANADA! The land of the free and home of the brave, where deer and the antelope play… the land flowing with beer and honey’s! What happened? Did that pass into myth and legend? We priced ourselves right out of our local demographic and apparently only foreigners can afford to enjoy the “Canadian lifestyle,” way to go Vancouver! “

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