Also curious about things that are the other way around where they look really good but taste awful.
Rendang
Used to eat it as often as I could when I visited southeast asiaIll trust your opinion on that. haha
That plating in particular looks like a stainless steel prison toilet
Its in a wok.
That’s how it’s traditionally served.
One of the most delicious dishes I’ve had as a fan of curry though I’ve only ever eaten it at a Malaysian restaurant and not homemade.
This is a pretty normal aesthetic for food in South and South East Asia so it looks amazing to me…Seems like the appearance of food is very culturally subjective.
Is it easy to make?
I am by no metric an expert, hell I am barely proficient, as I found a recipe online after I got back from Malaysia, but it’s somewhat simple. It just takes a lot of time and a lot of ingredients that isn’t easy to find where I live.
That is the problem I find with a lot of more complex Asian dishes. It’s impractical to stock a bunch of ingredients for 1 meal that I otherwise won’t use for anything else. Obviously got soy sauce and curry powder though.
But I have loads of rosemary and sage as that grows in my garden. Goes nicely with roast potatoes.
I mean, it looks like any Indian or curry dish, in terrible lighting. I’m sure something could be added to make the color more appealing. And yeah, that plate looks nasty.
It reminds me a bit of the “mud porridge” that we liked to make in a concave tree stump in the schoolyard when I was in preschool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_ghanoush
Looks like slop, tastes like a party in your mouth.
Babar Ganesh!
So we can add hummus and… probably lots of other sauces / dips as well.My candidate might be guacamole, which looks like it could almost be toxic ooze at first sight.
Honestly a lot of Mexican food looks kind of rough. Molé sauce looks like something you’d have to eat during a fraternity hazing. Birria, looks greasy and almost violently red. Nachos even, are not the most appealing food. But they’re all amazing. So much flavor. The texture is exquisite despite appearances. Largely we’ve learned to maybe adapt our visual palates, I feel.
I honestly believe that the Mexican cooks invented the burrito because everything inside, especially mushed together, looks fucking gross. But if you wrap it in a tortilla so you don’t have to look at it, it tastes fucking awesome.
There’s a Mexican place that opened very close to me, and I’ve been a bit bewildered by the general lack of flavor in their stuff. Examples would be their barbacoa, birria, pastor, chicken tinga, and carnitas. Funnily-enough, they load up the spices in their ground beef, so that’s most usually my protein filling. 😕
I really don’t know quite what to say in trying to suggest to a Oaxacan-style restaurant that their meats need more spices…
Because you don’t speak Spanish?
Hablo bastante castellano, pero ese no era la problema.
The founders spoke perfectly fine English, but at least one of them seemed sensitive about the issue, so I didn’t pursue.
I once threw away baba ghanoush that was intended for dinner because I thought it was discarded remains. I thought I was being helpful, but I was not.
So good!
I frequently watch videos of people from outside the US trying biscuits and gravy for the first time. Every one starts with “I’m not trying that disgusting slop” and ends with “I want to eat this every day for the rest of my life”
Random pic from the Internet for reference.
This was my experience with poutine before and after visiting Canada. No one truly gets it until they’ve had it. The real stuff. Not shredded mozzarella over fries.
White cheddar cheese curds/squeakers over fries with piping hot brown gravy poured directly over.
Now I live in Canada and eat it all the time.
Got a picture because that sounds awesome.
Edit: NVM I saw the other comment
I have not found a better hangover cure than biscuits and gravy.
Well, except moderation of course, but you know… the everything.
Hashbrowns covered in chili, cheese, and sausage gravy. Aka the waffle House smothered hashbrowns
Waho is almost cheating, everything there is great hangover and drunk food
Pretty much all seafood. Shrimp in particular tastes fantastic but looks like something you’d try to flatten with a shoe.
Yum, ocean bugs
Shrimps is bugs after all.
Oysters. Snails. Mussels.
Mussels look like tiny brains. I like them, but very often I pass on the brains.
Usually that is only in their unprocessed state though. You don’t put whole prawn and crab in a sandwich
Kebab:
legit looks like a fat greasy turd, not sure I could physically go for it
I do t know where you got that, but change place. Doesn’t look like kebab at all.
Dude, that’s poop… from a butt.
Open up, here comes the airplane…
Not generally, but this one takes the turd.
A good split pea soup, for sure.
Edit: and macarons look super pretty but taste…meh? Imo. Like if you were to imagine what Barbie food tasted like, it’d be a macaron.
I dunno who your macaron guy is but I’ve had some absolute bangers.
Agreed, Barbie is a meringue at best.
Dutch Pea Soup is the absolute best. My girlfriend calls it fart juice
To be clear, you mean the French sandwich cookies, not macaroons, right?
Yes. Coconut macaroons are S-Tier cookies, especially when the bottoms are dipped in chocolate.
Macarons are awesome. That light airy slightly crispy “bun” things plus the creamy middle. Based on the comments I wager I put a lot more emphasis on mouth feel than a lot of people here.
Peanut brittle.
Some may disagree, but I always thought it looks like frozen vomit
That’s interesting - it looks quite different to the peanut brittle we get in the UK. That’s peanuts in a hard crack caramel which is a fairly dark brown and translucent. Does your have cream or peanut butter or something in the brittle?
(Attempting to paste in a typical image of the brittle I’m used to…)
yeah i’m not really sure why the difference, but that does indeed look better
interesting. I generally associate peanut brittle with texture (dry but slightly sticky, and of course brittle).
I’m gonna catch hate for this, but I don’t care. I have a thing that physically looks awful, but also seems conceptually awful.
Sometimes, if I have the money and I wanna get a little treat, I’ll buy a block of cheese, Nutella, and bread, and make a Nutella and cheese sandwich. I do not know why or how I got to the point where I ate it, but I did and I love it.
Usually, I’d get like a pecorino romano cheese, cut a couple slices of dark (full grain) bread, and just paste it in place with Nutella, and that would be a little desert for me. If I have a lot of cheese on there, I might add raspberry jam (not too much or it gets waaaaay too sweet).
Are you, by chance, a rat who controls a French man and helps him with cooking?
If the position’s open, I’m there! But alas, I am a rat for free at this time. :3
I’m sure there’s a French man to be ridden and controlled around here somewhere.
Nutella is swimming in palm oil IIRC. Maybe a cocoa-based version could work?
Is palm oil bad?
I’m having a bit of trouble understanding what it’s saying about how bad it is, but I get the impression less is just better always? Either way, though, you can for sure swap out Nutella with anything else vaguely in the same ballpark. What makes the sandwich so good is the cheese and vaguely chocolate flavor. If you do try something else out and decide it’s good, please let me know!
I got plenty of results with:
https://www.google.com/search?q=healthy+nutella+alternativeThat’s where I followed on as well, but it kept seeming like I was finding mixed results on the articles. I don’t know enough about which studies are funded by which groups, and I’m pretty sure I’m finding biased stuff. It’s okay, though, I’m not asking you to look things up for me, I just was curious if you had some kind of insight into the industry or not.
I think if you drill down a bit past the first paragraph citing uncertainty, you’ll find there’s a pretty consistent body of scientific findings naming various ill-health effects. Maybe follow up on those specific studies, supplementing with ScienceDaily and PubMed material as needed?
I’m not a nutritionist, and haven’t spent much time myself researching palm oil studies, but I can tell you as someone who’s tried to keep abreast of nutritional news for decades, so far I’ve only seen negative findings upon palm oil, both as a food and as an ecological agent of destruction.
It’s a cheap and tasteless alternative to cocoa butter, it’s used in shit tier chocolate.
My first thought was the only way this could be good is with sharp parmesan. Pecarino will do better. I’d probably smash this, but it sounds better on crackers.
I’m not going to hate on this at all. I’d probably eat it myself.
I do PB and cheese sometimes; it’s awesome. Not a big fan of Nutella, but I imagine it’s the same kind of combo with the sweet and savory mix. Sometimes I’ll add a piece of salami into the mix also, but it’s fine without it, too.
Though, in my opinion, if you want a home run quick sandwich, make a PB&J but then butter the outside and cook it like a grilled cheese. To die for.
Imo honey works better with cheese. Also can handle some added sausage, as suggested by another commenter — though I prefer parboiled sausage like hotdogs rather than that with globs of fat.
In Nice there’s a kind of swisschard gnocchi that’s called merda de can (dog’s shit) because of its appearance.
Judge by yourself (image taken from here).
The shape can be different depending on how you make them, but it always looks a bit suspicious.
I think the dogs in Nice eat too much grass.
Damn that has to be amazing
If think it’s pretty good! I can’t find any where I live, unfortunately, I’ll have to try to make it myself one of these days. Chard is awesome.
Invented in Nice, called dog shit in Italian.
“We’d never eat French dog shit!”
It’s not Italian, actually, it’s Nissart.
Oh cool, TIL. Haven’t heard of many different French dialects, historic or otherwise.
The tater tot hotdish I grew up with. … Under the tots at least.
Shepard’s pie? My mother was obsessed with this. I hate the vegetable water at the bottom
Pretty close! Swap the mash for tots and the gravy for cream soup.
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Yep, cream of mushroom or cream of celery. A staple for the upper Midwestern hotdish.
Not to boast but i’ve never seen it with water at the bottom like this. Is this perhaps the outcome of layering the top with potato nuggets from the freezer rather than mashed potato?
That would make sense. Maybe this is a much better way of doing it then if it allows vegetables moisture to bake out evenly
You could probably defrost them first. It’s hard to overcook tots. You can also defrost frozen hash browns and then squeeze out all the moisture. It’s a handy potato pancake cheat. You’d get a super crispy top, and no water, but you do need to squeeze like it’s a stone.
Lutheran church basement potluck favorite!
Okay, see what’s under the potato gems? Put it on toast and make jaffles. Cold day, hot mince jaffles for lunch.
Ground beef in gravy? I mean, some might scoff at the frozen veggies, maybe.
“gravy” is a stretch. This picture looks way better than the reality. Cream soup and usually some bread crumbs or noodles to stretch it. If there was flavor, it was the salt from the tots.
That’s too bad, all those basic ingredients could make something good.
Spam. When it comes out of the can, it looks like a disgusting gelatinous blob. But when you cut it thin and pan fry it, it’s actually pretty tasty.Pretty much any canned meat. Ever seen a whole canned chicken? Although most canned meat doesn’t taste nearly as good as fresh. But there really isn’t a “fresh” spam. So I think it fits the question. https://c8.alamy.com/comp/CW0NEJ/luncheon-meat-on-plate-CW0NEJ.jpg
The first time my hawaiian friend fried the spam my mind was blown. No one I knew had ever cooked it, and we all thought it was nasty.
From Hawai’i here. I recently learned a new trick from a Filipino woman in regards to Spam: fry it until it screams. You put a thicker layer of oil in the pan and fry it until either the bottom side takes on a kind of yellow hue or you can hear a little whistle come out of it. This causes the fat to render and brings out the meat flavor in the Spam. Plus it gets crispier. Makes GREAT Spam musubi.
Spam, egg, and rice is a favorite of my kids (and me). Can get it at McDonald’s here. Also good on pizza.
Spam is great. Straight up looks and smells like dog food before cooking though lol
The dog thinks it looks and smells like dog food at any stage of the cooking process.
Fried spam with some cheap yellow mustard was a regular Sunday lunch. Usually with some boxed waffle mix topped with watery mapleine homemade “syrup”.
Vienna Sausages are similar. I love those things, but you have to rinse the slime off before eating.
I prefer spam to sausage on my breakfast sandwiches.
it’s also amazing fried on white bread and mayo.
Poutine tastes a lot better than it looks
I’m sure poutine tastes great but this picture just looks like a bowl of human teeth to me.
For sure, but good cheese curds are amazing.
I thought it was mixed nuts. Like peanuts and pecans.
Maybe you should see a dentist?
Okay? Its not a bowl of nuts either.
Maybe you should see your nut guy?
I can see how it looks that way. The cheese curds don’t melt the way regular cheese would. If the cheese curds don’t squeak, it’s not done right!
Do… do you smoke?
Looks amazing to me
Looks somewhat like cheesy chips with gravy
Looks nothing like chips to me, but it does look delicious. I love fries with cheese curds & gravy!
Xinxin de bofe. A brazilian food made (As far as I know) only in Bahia, created by the slaves during imperial time. It’s good af, but it was hard to convince me to try the first time.
Looks awful, tastes great? Lots of fried foods are the first things that comes to mind. They look beige and bland more often than not, but can be really good (in moderation, too much makes me sick).
Looks great and tastes awful goes to bananas. They look good and all but my goodness they suck.
Refried beans literally look like diarrhea doodoo. Thankfully they taste way better.
I used to avoid refried beans. Until I did a little work at an orphanage in Honduras and refried beans were served as breakfast (with tortillas and sliced avocado and eggs). Completely changed me. These were thicker than what I’m used to seeing, but I’m down for all kinds of refried beans now.
I haven’t liked them that much when i had them
I live in a part of the US Southwest with a decidely different food culture. I don’t know why, but refried beans from certain restaurants just rock. Others not so much. Is it because Sysco is crap and the good ones don’t use that? I’m going to ask next time I get a smothered burrito from my favorite hole in the wall place, I seriously don’t know.
The same can be said for Spanish rice.
Easiest spanish rice I learned from my Mexican friend’s mom is to get some chicken and tomato boullion and just put a cube in with the rice as it cooks in a rice cooker.
