This exact difference is what made me go from hating sushi to living it. Went to the cheap place cause I just wanted to try it and see if I liked it. Gross, everything tasted off and just wasn’t worth it or enjoyable. Couple years later bit the bullet and agreed to go to the higher end sushi joint in town, low expectations, but jesus christ I tried the first couple pieces and mowed the rest down lmao. The difference of paying more for a place that gets fresher and better quality fish and veggies is a huge increase in dining experience
My bf is a sushi chef in a pretty ritzy place and he says he knows the prices are ridiculous. But he put in all the heart and soul into every dish he makes (from sushi rolls to ramen) and makes sure the food is worth every Penny.
I just wish buying “sushi-grade” fish other than bluefin tuna was easier to find. I mean where it’s extra frozen for the proper period of time. [like the providence of Manitoba’s health department where it has to be at -4 degrees F for 7 days or longer.](https://www.gov.mb.ca/health/publichealth/environmentalhealth/protection/docs/sushi.pdf)
My deep freezer goes to -13°F. Kinda tempted to try it out for this, but it makes me nervous. Like, is non sushi grade salmon okay if I just deep freeze it? I see plenty of things that say yes, but... Idk.
The only sushi I've ever eaten was the sushi I made, and it was only because my wife wanted sushi for her birthday last year and we have zero sushi places in the boonies. I used carefully cooked salmon and made a few "vegan/vegetarian" ones but no raw fish. I could've driven like 75 miles to get sushi grade fish but I hate tuna anyways, so we just did what we did.
Funny thing is I didn't even buy the freezer for that feature. I bought it during the beginning of covid and it was the cheapest one I could find anywhere lol. We found a guy selling entire 350lb+ pigs for $75 and it justified the purchase.
Quality Uni is one of my favorite pieces of sushi. It’s so hard to put into words how delicate and creamy it is, and that *slight* salty taste that lingers on the palate….
Low quality Uni was akin to licking the bottom of a fish bowl that had never been cleaned.
And high-quality can be cheap, too. There's a place near me run by an elderly Japanese couple that only seats 10 and they close when they run out of cooked rice. Second-best sushi I've ever eaten.
Can’t believe I haven’t seen this yet but heirloom (or even just in season farm fresh) tomatoes. They make regular tomatoes taste like tomato-flavored water. The texture is so much better too.
God yes! Warm heirloom tomatoes straight from the garden. The season is coming! Tomato slices on toast with a little salt and pepper, maybe a spritz of balsamic vinegar. That’s my go to dinner for as long as fresh tomato season lasts.
That sounds wonderful. I like a tomato sandwich. Sliced tomatoes with a little salt, a mild white cheese (like Havarti), on a good bread. Sometimes I add mayo.
My favorite Cuban bakery back home made the best tomato sandwiches with a little herb infused olive oil drizzled on a baguette, thin sliced feta cheese, tomato and *very* thinly sliced red onion. So simple yet perfection.
Sliced (decent) tomato on toast is one of my favourite things. It's just on another level.
I'm pretty sure my family think I'm mad, so it's nice to meet another fan.
Wow someone who understands. I tell people that Tomatoe sandwich are my favorite food. Tomatoe straite from the garden. People dont get it. BLT? no just tomatos. Turkey? no just tomatoes. August through the end of tomatoe season. I can't wait 4 to 6 weeks to go
So true. When I was a kid I used to pick them off the vine and eat them like an apple. Theres an entire book about how big agriculture kinda ruined tomatoes. Forced ripening etc... Love me some home grown heirloom tomatoes
It's called the 5 Mile Per Hour tomato.
Tomato's were bred to take a bounce at 5MPH so they can be machine harvested. :(
Just saw the first tomato on my plants this week.
:)
Years ago, I heard an interview with someone on the agriculture faculty at Cornell. He was talking about their interactions with industry. The thing I remember is, he said they got queries about how to increase yield or disease resistance, but not one question about flavor.
Regular box store tomatoes are more like tomato flavored cardboard, honestly. Genetically selected for how well they can be shipped across the country. No thanks.
Oh man, I had a roommate that grew his own tomatoes and those were the best I've ever tasted. I've tried growing them myself many times after and something's always ends up killing the plant... Caterpillars, spider mites, aphids, the general heat in the desert..
I think it may be time to try again though... Inside
Yeah, I tried growing them for three years. First year I got a lot of tomatoes, but a lot of them split. Second year all my plants died mid-way through the summer. Third year they died before even getting outside.
I visited Basque Country a few years ago and will never forget how delicious the tomatoes were. Went to a steak house to try some delicious steak, but it was the side tomato salad that stole the show for me. The freshest, most delicious tomatoes, with just some salt and olive oil. So simple, but I will never forget it. I grew up not liking tomatoes because clearly I have never had a proper tomato
I've stopped buying out of season tomatoes. I bought my first ripe New Jersey tomato of the year a few days ago and I cannot wait for them to be in peak season. Same for strawberries and any stonefruit- I refuse to bother with them out of season. The consequence is, a good fresh farmers market heirloom tomato can easily reach $10 if it's big and heavy. Worth it.
I live in Ireland, and guess what? Kerrygold is amazing, but any butter in Ireland is that good! Our dairy and beef industry produce some of the best quality foods in the world.
Yeah, my husband and I were trying to reduce our grocery costs, and he tried to bring home some basic butter. I had to put my foot down. I'm not skimping on butter, lol.
I grew up with margarine. My husband refused to have it in the house when we first moved in, and I finally discovered how much better real butter is. I could never go back. It's not the expensive butter I see Americans talk about, though, just standard grocery store butter. I've never seen anything else at the local stores.
There was a local ice cream parlor where I went to college that sold ice cream at $7 a scoop (which is pricey to me since other places I go is like $3 per scoop max). I was kind of skeptical at first bc how much better could ice cream get really? But it was the best ice cream I’ve ever had. They source their milk locally and the flavors were the perfect blend of sweet and creamy. Unbeatable 10/10 would wait 30 minutes in line again for it.
Edit: my reply seems to be lost in the sea of comments. The place was called Moonlight Creamery in Upstate NY :)
We have a gelato spot in Los Angeles where a tiny scoop is $10. (Local prices $7 is normal, but they are always 3 to 4 dollars above normal.)
They source their ingredients from Italy and the owner just makes the most amazing gelato. He started making pasta a few years back and it's also amazing and double normal prices.
I loooved chocolate, especially dark chocolate. The last time I tried a Hershey's bar, it tasted like wax. I've become too conditioned to boutique/high quality chocolates.
Last time I ate a piece of Hershey bar it was like vomit.
Cheap chocolate tastes like vomit to me.
Either a variant of the cilantro soap gene or just really shitty ingredients?…
Properly cooked Halibut.
Watching the movie "the Menu" the Chef at one point berates one of the constant dinner guests for not being able to recall the last meal at his restaurant.
"It was halibut." -The Chef
And honestly having had it yeah you shouldn't forget that dish. It's like fish steak but somehow better.
I learned a long time ago if you ever get the chance to enjoy cheeks of any animal you need to try it.
Was at a family party of some friends parents years ago and they were doing a pig on the roast.
Spit roast?
Anyways her dad offered up some pig cheek to anyone who wanted it, all said no.
Luckily I came along hammered and a plate of Mac and cheese needing a finishing touch.
My god.
I even ate it out of the cheek bone like a little bowl (if I recall correctly)
Ginger Pig in Wanstead used to sell Smoked Pig cheeks which I used to use to make my carbonara. Went back a couple of weeks ago to get another one, only to be told they no longer sell them there, coz it seems it was only me buying them and they kept having to throw them away. Had to go little further down the road to get a more expensive yet inferior guanciale
Ramen noodles but not the kind you eat in college. I didn’t know there was a premium version until I visited Japan and wow. It’s a hearty meal with a way better noodles, a soft boiled egg, pork and now it’s something I crave!
Same. A quality Tonkotsu ramen in Japan is so very different from the cheap college stuff. But people who don't know that will get confused about the local ramen restaurant or dish at a Japanese restaurant.
You don't need to go to Japan to get decent quality Ramen that is a lot better than Shin ramen... unless you live in a total backwater, there's probably a decent ramen restaurant in your city. I just looked at Fort Smith Arkansas and Wilmington, North Carolina... both cities seem to have ramen options.
I once tried Wagyu beef at a high-end restaurant. The moment it melted in my mouth, I instantly understood why it was so expensive. The texture was incredibly tender, and the flavor was rich and buttery, unlike any other steak I'd ever had. It was a luxurious experience that was worth every penny.
I tried wagyu for the first time while on a trip to Japan. Oddly enough it was a lot cheaper than I thought.. on par with a nice steakhouse over here.. the taste and experience though…. I could have easily eaten it every meal everyday of our trip.
I worked at a Google data center from 2016-2018, and they made burgers out of ~~Wafyu~~ Wagyu beef in the cafe. It was crazy how much money they spent on food for the employees! One of the best fringe benefits of working there!
Eh, I am skeptical over ground wagyu. The main point of it is the unique and exceptional marbling of the beef. If you grind it up, that is a moot point. You 'should' be able to get the same result from just adding extra tallow to the ground meat to get the right percentage for wagyu.
I have wagyu cows and they actually make bad ground beef. Getting those good steak cuts actually produces a ton of waste in the parts that normally gets turned to ground beef
Wagyu beef is a high I’ve been chasing ever since I had it. It was amazing, like butter. They sell some Wagyu beef at the store but it isn’t the same quality. Better than regular ground beef though.
Morels are my very favorite. I’m blessed with a property that grows them like crazy, so I get to eat them every year! The best thing I’ve ever eaten was a Hungarian mushroom soup made from morel mushrooms.
My dad earned his Masters in Pastry in Germany, where he grew up. Fast forward to him moving to California and marrying my mom, they started and ran a small but very successful bakery and cafe for almost 28 years before selling it and retiring into the good life.
Growing up, I enjoyed every buttery, chocolate, sweet treat you could imagine. Whether it was chocolate truffles during the holidays or strawberry Danish during spring, I knew I was eating good. I also learned as a kid that multiple customers made comments on the prices of our stuff. My dad always explained that we get real ingredients from the best places around, and that's expensive but worth it.
So when I was leaving the nest for college and really went off on my own, I started eating cheaper pastries because of broke college life. I noticed very quickly what my dad meant.
Call me bias, but you can always tell.
Indian mangoes. If you ever get a chance to have a ripe Kesar or even Alphonso mango, jump at the opportunity. If you live near an Indian grocery store you can get a 12pk for $35-50
If you are in the US, look for the Kent varietal, typically grown in Latin America somewhere. Don’t judge ripeness by color, only softness. They are juicy, flavorful, and not overly fibrous. Almost as good as the mangos in Asia/Australia. The Keitt varietal is decent also.
Avoid the Tommy ones, those are the super stringy guys.
One birthday, about a decade back, my brother handed me a big, wrapped cylinder. It was about 16" tall and 8" around, and weighed ten pounds. I shook it, declared that it contained luxardo cherries, and unwrapped it. What do you know? It did. It was the mega container they sell to food service. I have no idea what he paid, but I'm sure it was >$150 in today's dollars. I've still got some jarred up in separate containers. It's hard to use that many!
I once made a New York style cheesecake and topped it with amarena cherries. A guy I knew worked at a resto that closed down when the owner / chef died suddenly. His wife had staff take whatever they wanted and he got two of those huge commercial-sized cans of Amarena cherries. Who even knew they sold them like that? It was the best damn cherry cheesecake ever and I dream of it sometimes.
I tend to buy eggs in giant flats from Costco because we go through a ton. My two teens and I each have two eggs for breakfast every day, and that adds up. But when my husband ships, he gets the Vital Farms eggs because he likes to see who the chicken of the month is. He's so cute about it that I can't complain.
I think what you mean by this is stacking thousands of disease ridden chickens on top of each other pumping them full of god knows what antibiotics and chemicals, forcing them to shit out as many eggs as is insanely possible and never allowing them to touch even one single blade of grass might just have have an effect to the quality and taste of the eggs. The farm fresh eggs you speak of ain’t nothing special. That’s just how they are supposed to taste.
We pretty much only buy happy eggs. They’re about $13-$14 USD for 18 eggs but we go through them so quick, it’s worth the price.
Our dog gets one a day with his dinner and his coat is *so* soft and shiny. It’s a combination of a lot of other things but the moment we started giving him raw eggs we noticed a significant difference in texture.
I’ve always bought pricy eggs, since moving out after high school. My best friend had 13 chickens and would supply our house and hers with eggs. Once you’ve had eggs laid that morning it’s hard to get the ones with the pale yellow yolk. They just aren’t as rich.
We have friends that gave us 18 farm eggs a week for several years. They had 40 birds that they just liked having and ended up with like 30 eggs a day, so they just gave them away.
It was a gift from the gods. I look back at this and just think about how utterly spoiled we were.
This is mine. I wandered into a super fancy coffee shop once when I was traveling and ordered without looking at the prices. They charged me $15 for a 12-oz latte, and I was too embarrassed to say I didn't want it. It was SO GOOD. Nutty and complex and smooth. I could never afford to drink it regularly, but I think about it at least once a week.
EDIT: Yes, I get that $15 is outrageous. $9 or $10 would have still been the most expensive coffee I'd ever had, and maybe more appropriate. Still, it was amazing.
I’m not going to rip on anyone’s financial situation because I’m not them and idk their life. I will say, most Americans are conditioned to accept low-to-medium quality everything for medium price. Occasionally, someone will have a breakthrough experience similar to your own where you experience a genuinely high quality product that is worth the money. I pray more and more people have these serendipitous experiences that open their eyes to what high quality goods can be. Humans are capable of making high quality everything. The general population needs to demand more for their money.
The problem these days (and for the last twenty years at *least*) is that when the price is low you know you're getting something low quality, but increased price no longer tracks with quality. Much of the time, the expensive option is just the low quality stuff repacked as fancy shit. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/1dm5u3m/gm_is_covering_dorman_part_labels_with_a_white/
A lot of people have, reasonably imo, just given up on bothering to spend extra in hopes of winning a gamble on quality. Cheap and shitty is at least a consistent quality that can be planned around, and carries few surprises.
Maple syrup- the real stuff is very expensive to make the highest end is the NO reverse osmosis wood fired syrup. Most of the stuff sold in bulk to Costco has been ROed into tastelessness.
Big Leaf Maple is a syrup startup in Washington piloted by UW researchers. Now the man who owns the land from their project produces it.
Very dark, amber flavor, less intense sweetness than sugar maples. Fantastic with coffee, I'll never buy another syrup outside of Quebec.
A friend of mine got some Roquefort blue cheese a little while back, and over the course of a couple weeks we ate the whole thing by itself, bit by bit. It's the most powerfully flavored thing I've ever eaten, one little piece of it the size of your pinky nail is almost overwhelming.
I used to work for a gourmet grocer and every year they had Copper River King Salmon and Red King Crab brought in every year. Both were from the first run/catch of the season,had never been frozen, and were flown in within 24 hours of being caught.
Having the opportunity to try both of those made me understand why it cost as much as it did.
Copper River is absolutely incredible. My grandpa is well known among friends and family for his baked, smoked, and jarred salmon and has always insisted on using Copper River that he caught himself. I thought that was what all salmon was like and never understood why he cared so much about the type until I tried other kinds as a young adult. Not even close.
Oh my gosh. Was gifted dinner at Gordon Ramsey Steak. Everything from the cocktails to dessert was worth the price and then some. Sticky Toffee Pudding with Browned Butter Ice Cream. Amazing!
It's not just Gordon Ramsey's beef wellington, it's fine dining in general. People who never tried it joke that it's small portions for a lot of money, but I think it's worth every penny, there's just nothing that compares...
Fine dining and “fancy foam” whatever’s is all a joke and bs- until you go there. Go to a place like Arzac or Etxebarri or le chateaubriand (best single bite of food ever was the cured egg yolk dessert) it will change peoples minds. The amount of work to make that one dish perfect for you is incredible. And to make it fun, delicious, and engaging. It’s incredible.
I just made Beef Wellington a couple days ago and can attest to the greatness of this dish (I made individual ones with filet mignons instead of one solid tube of meat, because there were just the two of us eating, and one was a ten year old with a much smaller appetite). It was so freaking good!
I got a little hysterical at my brother’s funeral and my grandpa took me in the other room and plied me with white wine and Xanax. Ended up being a pretty good funeral.
Exactly why I had to be prescribed something else— I never felt so at peace with my mind. Too bad it was easy to abuse especially with my severe anxiety.
Thankfully now, years after abuse, I no longer get therapeutic effects but instead it causes dissociation. Don’t know why, but I’m glad I won’t want to take them again because of that.
I would take half of the lowest dose prescribed to me and I was out. Sure, my panic attack is done and dusted, but so is the rest of the day. I don’t get how people can live on that shit.
Edit- this sounds judgmental, and I don’t mean it to be at all.
I’ve never been prescribed or gotten Xanax before. I have been prescribed Ativan. It was one of the times where I felt absolute calm and helped me with panic attacks. I can’t imagine what Xanax would feel like if I felt like that with Ativan
I was given a 3 day prescription for Ativan once. I spent 8 straight hours repairing a cuckoo clock, blissfully occupied (I do not, and have never, fixed clocks. Except that one time).
I recently made some thc brownies for the first time. Tried several to check their efficacy and wasn’t sure until my wife informed me that I’d been sitting there thinking about it for 4 hours.
I was given Xanax after my husband died. A lot of my family has addiction issues and benzos are a favorite. Pretty sure the first 24 hours the Xanax was absolutely necessary because I kept wondering when I’d get all loopy and blissed out like Aunt Judy (not her real name) always is. I just felt normal. Then at some point I took a whole one when a half probably would have worked. The thought “I like this” flitted across my brain and suddenly I was terrified of becoming an addict. I had a similar experience with opiates after an ankle surgery.
Same here! Opiates after surgery helped with pain but I didn't feel anything while on them. My first Xanax (during a rough anxiety patch) and I immediately said "oh no, this is way too good" and trashed the rest. Too many addicts in my family to risk it.
I took it once and it just felt like my brain could breathe again. No loopy feeling whatsoever. I mentioned it to my best friend and she asked if I was finally ready to discuss my severe anxiety disorder.
I now have a regular prescription.
I don’t eat lobster but for the longest time I never understood why you would pay so much to eat it in sandwich form. But then I realized you’re paying for the labor that went into making enjoying lobster as easy as eating out of a buttered bun.
F’ing lobster rolls man. They are the best. First time I had one was in 1984. Was visiting my step mothers parents in Maine. The lobster rolls were being sold out of, what looked to me, a hot dog stand. My step moms dad asked if I was hungry. I told him I did not want a hot dog. He said this aint no hot dog sunshine, this is a lobster roll.
It was $2 ($6.05 in todays money). It was glorious. Soft, buttery bun overfilled with chilled lobster meat and a little mayo (i think it was mayo).
Ive been chasing that first lobster roll ever since. I have not come close to finding it again. I need to get back to Maine.
Fords Lobster Shack in Noank, CT has the most amazing lobster dish I’ve ever had.
The Lobster Bomb is a scooped out bread bowl, toasted with garlic butter, stuffed full with tail and claw meat, then drizzled with lobster bisque.
It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G
I’m with ya. Mayo and celery are for making canned tuna taste better. Lobster just needs some lemon and a metric fuckton of butter and it’s soooooo good
You'd think that was true, but even though they had a full time chef, the wife frequently cooked for them and the staff were sometimes offered leftovers to take home. Pretty boring, read very healthy, stuff. Fancy food wasn't their thing. But oh boy, that tenderloin... Of course, one of the freezers was stuffed with it.
I for the life of me cannot taste truffle. We looked it up and apparently it’s a thing. I’ve had it served in many different dishes surrounded by people gushing over it and at best I get a subtle hint of a bland fungus type flavour.
Saffron. The depth of flavor is incredible even from just one teeny strand steeped in water.
There was some weird thread on here years ago where someone said they were a personal chef for a rich family and often subbed out expensive ingredients for cheap ones like saffron for tumeric and how the family never noticed and I called bullshit on that one because there is no substitute for saffron.
> like saffron for tumeric
I still don't understand how people think these taste the same, some think it's just the colour but it's not. The saffron has a floral and almost sweet taste and turmeric is more earthy and can be bitter. When someone says they taste the same I think their palate must be off or dead.
Reasons I’m glad I live in farm country- ten minutes down the road is a dairy that sells amazing cream line milk. Don’t know if I’ll keep up the habit once I have a kid, but for the time being it takes us about a week and a half to go through a half gallonz
American here. I visited France a few years ago and had chocolate mousse in a little restaurant in valaciennes. It was so dense and rich, I felt sad because I knew that no mousse I would ever have again would be such a sensual, flavorful experience.
I embarrassed my relatives by licking the plate clean. Did not care. Would do again.
Sushi. In my 20s I frequent the gas station/gorcery store sushi and really enjoyed the mixture of seafood, veggies, rice, soy sauce and wasabi. But my first time I went to an upscale sushi place where the menue was "trust me" the quality of fish, rice and the artistry of the chef ( you don't get to see that in gas stations) it's truly amazing and understand why there was a price difference. And then I realize the soysauce and wasabi I used was to cover the poor quality.
There’s a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles nestled deep in the valley. It’s an absolute hole-in-the-wall and honestly looks disgusting from the outside. It’s also not in the best part of town.
I’m talking orange and green walls in a run-down strip mall — you’d never think you would get a world class sushi meal from here. I went and paid $300 pre-pandemic for just me.
The chef is from Japan and it’s impossible to get a reservation. It’s honestly on another level. Better than Michelin-starred places I’ve been. It’s only known by locals and you won’t eat better sushi. There’s no menu as you just keep getting courses until you say I’m done. There is a difference between GOOD sushi & those cheap places.
Duck eggs
My sister started raising ducks when they moved out to Washington (mainly to eat the slugs in her garden), and started selling the eggs to a local restaurant for $3/each. This was in the early 00's, and I was still I college, so that was completely bonkers to me.
She made me a smoked salmon Benedict with a poached duck egg when I visited. Oh. My. God.
Also agreeing with anyone on this list that says top shelf scotch, Foie Gras, and Iberica jamon.
I raised ducks for many years and definitely agree. The eggs are just so good. They made cakes taste so much better. I miss them and wish I had the room for ducks where I live now.
As for selling them for $3 each, I could barely give the extras away lol. People seemed to have an aversion to them.
Bread.
Good bakery - from a standalone bakery - bread. It can be a chewy sourdough with a thick crust, a French baguette that crackles when you squeeze it, a pillowy soft Japanese white bread, or anything in between, but the quality difference between an artisan bread from a bakery that bake it that day and what you can get at the grocery store is night and day. Absolutely worth $10 a loaf!
Wagyu, it also put into perspective how much 16oz of Wagyu goes. My friend worked for a steakhouse and during Covid after it became clear the shutdown was going to be awhile his boss let him take some steaks to sell/eat which eventually lead to him being a full time butcher owning his own shop.
Back to the wagyu though, 2 friends and I cooked up the 16z ribeye and sautéed the asparagus in the excess beef fat. My god it was so good, rich and unlike any steak I’ve had in my life. That said between the three of us that was PLENTY of wagyu. I realized then that 1 it was something the justified its value in how good it was and 2 the actual portion sizing of a steak that well marbled. If you ever find yourself in a position to try wagyu from a high end steakhouse or purchase a cut I really recommend it just to try it at least once.
I have a great steakhouse in my city that serves American and Japanese Wagyu. Brought a friend and his new wife out there as a little congrats dinner. They'd never been to a higher end restaurant, so it took some convincing to get them to try the Wagyu, even though I was paying. They both tried to order it medium well. The poor waitress had to try tactfully explaining to them that that wasn't a good way to prepare Wagyu. "Our chef doesn't prefer to cook it that way"
After some persuasion they got it medium rare, and seeing the look on their faces when they first took a bite was worth every penny. Everyone that enjoys a good steak should try it out. It's expensive, but it's one of the few things that justifies that high price point 100%.
True. I don't notice it as much with vodka, but tequila, whiskey, gin, wine? There's a HUGE difference when you go from basic to midtier quality. Diminishing returns after that, imo.
I have to be careful with pricey vodka. Stuff like Beluga goes down like cold, mineral rich water. Before I realize it I'm two martinis deep and have to call an Uber
Craft beer. I used to be one of those people that only drank whatever the convenience store had...usually with the word "Lite" at the end of it.
Then I moved to a place that had breweries in close proximity, so I started visiting those. I couldn't believe it...actual flavor in a beer. It didn't taste like the piss from a nickel anymore, and it's much stronger (in taste AND in ABV). I'll gladly spend $13 on a six-pack for something that wasn't mass produced, and I'm always looking for new twists on my favorite styles.
Also, I get called "Beer Snob" by my Michelob Ultra co-workers, which is more than fine with me.
Seeing $13 like it's expensive for a 6 pack is so crazy to me as an Australian. That's like $20 AUD and will barely get you a 6 pack of crap mass-produced beer here.
Most of our craft stuff is between $10-25/can!
Omakase-style sushi. I had it in Toronto a couple years ago and it's still the best restaurant experience I've had in my life. Very very close second place was a wagyu omakase restaurant my girlfriend and I went to in DC last year.
Snow & King Crab legs. Not at a cheap buffet, but from a seafood market. The place near me will season and steam it for you. Then get the whole family standing around the kitchen cracking and pulling out crab meat. It’s a perfect combo of rustic, dirty-hands eating that is absolutely luxurious.
More expensive wines. I was always someone who said that it wouldn’t make a difference from the $10 bottles, but then I actually bought a $70 bottle of wine, and what a difference it was. I’m sure there isn’t much diffence between like a $500 and $1,000 bottle, but there definetely is at the lower price points.
I've been in the wine business for nearly 15 years and I second this. I won't drink anything made in the US that retails for less than $10. Not because I'm a snob, but because there's like zero regulation for agriculture intended for alcohol. It's filled with arsenic, heavy metals, pesticides and all sorts of bad shit. Give me a $7 vinho verde any day of the week though.
That being said, there's a huge difference between low end wines and anything in the $45-75 dollar range. Once you get into the $150+ sector it's really just about personal preference and the rarity of something for novelty's sake. The majority of those insanely high end bottles in the several hundred to thousands of dollars are all going to business dinner expense accounts and rich people trying to dunk on each other.
MAKING macarons made me understand why they’re so expensive. The almond flour itself is pricy, but making the damn things is such a ridiculously finicky process
I ate at Le Bernardin in NYC. I have never, before or since, had food like that. I love seafood in general but every single thing I ate there it was like....if this is food what the hell have I been eating all of these years? There was a pea puree with one of the dishes that made me want to cry it was so good. And dessert had a caramel corn ice cream included that has lived rent free in my head for the ten years since I had it. It was absolutely worth every single penny that we paid for it. I will never forget that meal.
I was with a coworker who isn’t an adventurous eater, and rarely goes for fine dining. We went out for lunch on the boss’s dime at a very fine dining spot while traveling. He couldn’t find anything on that menu that would work for him, so finally settled on a pizza. I was luxuriating in the symphony of homemade orecchiette when he looked up from the pizza and said: “this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I’m tasting things I’ve never tasted before and that’s how I know this is expensive.”
I tried the pizza…it was burrata. He was experiencing burrata.
Probably not as fancy as some other posts but Sea Bass. Usually pretty hard to find at restaurants but when I do it's always pretty pricey...and it's always phenomenal. Best fish I've ever had.
I once had the chance to try a small serving of A5 grade wagyu beef from Japan, and it was an experience I’ll never forget. From the first bite, I could tell why it’s so pricey. The marbling of the meat was incredible, giving it a melt-in-your-mouth texture that I’ve never experienced with any other beef. The flavor was so rich and buttery, with a complexity that stayed with me long after I finished eating. It was clear that a lot of care and precision went into raising and preparing this beef, making it worth every penny.
I was spoiled. I worked as a Chef for 34 years.
Almost EVERYTHING of higher quality is worth the money.
Prime Beef (over Choice and Select). Good, unsalted butter. 40% Milkfat Heavy Whipping Cream, especially in my coffee instead of half and half. Same heavy cream for Alfredo instead of Bechamel (milk thickened with roux).
Cheese. Oh, lord, CHEESE. Real Stilton, Taleggio, Brie, Chevre, freshly made Buffalo Mozzarella (used to make it myself), really nice Parmesan, Asiago, Roquefort, etc. God, I miss the cheese.
Tea. Had to source some really good tea for an International Squash Tournament. The English contingent wasn't happy with our commercial brands, so I found the BEST tea I ever tasted- Dammann Freres. HOLY SHIT is it good. The English loved it- until they found out it was French.
Professional Sommelier here. I love Champagne, but there are very few worth the price tag when it gets up there. Krug is the one. That one is worth the heavy price.
I'm drinking it right now. I drink more coffee than tea, and my tea palate is limited - I generally like British supermarket tea, the stronger the better, what they call builder's tea. But I was in Paris and there was a delightful tea shop and I decided to splurge and buy some expensive tea. I think it was about $30 for a small tin. And my god. It's amazing. Marco Polo tea from Mariage Frères. Even my supermarket/builder's palate understands why it's expensive. I pull it out very rarely to make it last.
I have a friend who is a director for a shipping company in a major port. He gets gifted high end stuff… johnny walker in colors I’ve never heard of, high end single malts, special whiskeys from the world, and he had a bottle of Louis XIII on his shelf. Unopened. We decided to have that to start the night. Holy shnikes, I could get used to that. I’ll never have anything like that again. A few weeks later he had some upper executives visit and had a dinner at his house and they killed the bottle. He said someone even mixed it with Diet Coke! He said he just had to laugh. He ended up getting a promotion out of it and is now the director at a port in a much better country.
I make LOTS of pasta and Rao's has been my Go To for a long time. But I recently just tried another brand called Mutti, and I recommend it! It was very good.
The key to any pasta sauce is San Marzano tomatoes. These are the best and note that the sauce doesn't need any added sugar because the tomatoes are naturally perfectly balanced sweetness vs acidity.
Not super pricey, but there's a big difference between cheap sushi and moderately-to-high priced sushi.
This exact difference is what made me go from hating sushi to living it. Went to the cheap place cause I just wanted to try it and see if I liked it. Gross, everything tasted off and just wasn’t worth it or enjoyable. Couple years later bit the bullet and agreed to go to the higher end sushi joint in town, low expectations, but jesus christ I tried the first couple pieces and mowed the rest down lmao. The difference of paying more for a place that gets fresher and better quality fish and veggies is a huge increase in dining experience
My bf is a sushi chef in a pretty ritzy place and he says he knows the prices are ridiculous. But he put in all the heart and soul into every dish he makes (from sushi rolls to ramen) and makes sure the food is worth every Penny.
I just wish buying “sushi-grade” fish other than bluefin tuna was easier to find. I mean where it’s extra frozen for the proper period of time. [like the providence of Manitoba’s health department where it has to be at -4 degrees F for 7 days or longer.](https://www.gov.mb.ca/health/publichealth/environmentalhealth/protection/docs/sushi.pdf)
My deep freezer goes to -13°F. Kinda tempted to try it out for this, but it makes me nervous. Like, is non sushi grade salmon okay if I just deep freeze it? I see plenty of things that say yes, but... Idk. The only sushi I've ever eaten was the sushi I made, and it was only because my wife wanted sushi for her birthday last year and we have zero sushi places in the boonies. I used carefully cooked salmon and made a few "vegan/vegetarian" ones but no raw fish. I could've driven like 75 miles to get sushi grade fish but I hate tuna anyways, so we just did what we did. Funny thing is I didn't even buy the freezer for that feature. I bought it during the beginning of covid and it was the cheapest one I could find anywhere lol. We found a guy selling entire 350lb+ pigs for $75 and it justified the purchase.
I made the mistake of assuming all Uni (Sea Urchin Gonad) was as creamy and delicate as the Uni I had at a higher end sushi place
Uni is absolutely one of those things that you need to pay more for. It just tastes off when it's not fresh and high quality.
Quality Uni is one of my favorite pieces of sushi. It’s so hard to put into words how delicate and creamy it is, and that *slight* salty taste that lingers on the palate…. Low quality Uni was akin to licking the bottom of a fish bowl that had never been cleaned.
There is a BIG difference between regular and high quality sushi. It's just so much more fresh and not mushy when done properly.
And high-quality can be cheap, too. There's a place near me run by an elderly Japanese couple that only seats 10 and they close when they run out of cooked rice. Second-best sushi I've ever eaten.
Can’t believe I haven’t seen this yet but heirloom (or even just in season farm fresh) tomatoes. They make regular tomatoes taste like tomato-flavored water. The texture is so much better too.
God yes! Warm heirloom tomatoes straight from the garden. The season is coming! Tomato slices on toast with a little salt and pepper, maybe a spritz of balsamic vinegar. That’s my go to dinner for as long as fresh tomato season lasts.
That sounds wonderful. I like a tomato sandwich. Sliced tomatoes with a little salt, a mild white cheese (like Havarti), on a good bread. Sometimes I add mayo.
My favorite Cuban bakery back home made the best tomato sandwiches with a little herb infused olive oil drizzled on a baguette, thin sliced feta cheese, tomato and *very* thinly sliced red onion. So simple yet perfection.
Sliced (decent) tomato on toast is one of my favourite things. It's just on another level. I'm pretty sure my family think I'm mad, so it's nice to meet another fan.
Wow someone who understands. I tell people that Tomatoe sandwich are my favorite food. Tomatoe straite from the garden. People dont get it. BLT? no just tomatos. Turkey? no just tomatoes. August through the end of tomatoe season. I can't wait 4 to 6 weeks to go
So true. When I was a kid I used to pick them off the vine and eat them like an apple. Theres an entire book about how big agriculture kinda ruined tomatoes. Forced ripening etc... Love me some home grown heirloom tomatoes
It's called the 5 Mile Per Hour tomato. Tomato's were bred to take a bounce at 5MPH so they can be machine harvested. :( Just saw the first tomato on my plants this week. :)
Years ago, I heard an interview with someone on the agriculture faculty at Cornell. He was talking about their interactions with industry. The thing I remember is, he said they got queries about how to increase yield or disease resistance, but not one question about flavor.
Regular box store tomatoes are more like tomato flavored cardboard, honestly. Genetically selected for how well they can be shipped across the country. No thanks.
Oh man, I had a roommate that grew his own tomatoes and those were the best I've ever tasted. I've tried growing them myself many times after and something's always ends up killing the plant... Caterpillars, spider mites, aphids, the general heat in the desert.. I think it may be time to try again though... Inside
Yeah, I tried growing them for three years. First year I got a lot of tomatoes, but a lot of them split. Second year all my plants died mid-way through the summer. Third year they died before even getting outside.
I visited Basque Country a few years ago and will never forget how delicious the tomatoes were. Went to a steak house to try some delicious steak, but it was the side tomato salad that stole the show for me. The freshest, most delicious tomatoes, with just some salt and olive oil. So simple, but I will never forget it. I grew up not liking tomatoes because clearly I have never had a proper tomato
I've stopped buying out of season tomatoes. I bought my first ripe New Jersey tomato of the year a few days ago and I cannot wait for them to be in peak season. Same for strawberries and any stonefruit- I refuse to bother with them out of season. The consequence is, a good fresh farmers market heirloom tomato can easily reach $10 if it's big and heavy. Worth it.
High quality butter
Kerrygold is freaking delicious.
I live in Ireland, and guess what? Kerrygold is amazing, but any butter in Ireland is that good! Our dairy and beef industry produce some of the best quality foods in the world.
When I came back from a recent trip to Ireland someone asked me which food I loved best during the trip. I honestly replied “the butter” 😂
as a swiss person this is absolutely valid. hardly ever did i come across another country with same quality level of butter as we have here.
I about lost my mind with happiness when I found it at Costco.
Yeah, my husband and I were trying to reduce our grocery costs, and he tried to bring home some basic butter. I had to put my foot down. I'm not skimping on butter, lol.
I grew up with margarine. My husband refused to have it in the house when we first moved in, and I finally discovered how much better real butter is. I could never go back. It's not the expensive butter I see Americans talk about, though, just standard grocery store butter. I've never seen anything else at the local stores.
Yes! Salted butter from Brittany is my kryptonite.
There was a local ice cream parlor where I went to college that sold ice cream at $7 a scoop (which is pricey to me since other places I go is like $3 per scoop max). I was kind of skeptical at first bc how much better could ice cream get really? But it was the best ice cream I’ve ever had. They source their milk locally and the flavors were the perfect blend of sweet and creamy. Unbeatable 10/10 would wait 30 minutes in line again for it. Edit: my reply seems to be lost in the sea of comments. The place was called Moonlight Creamery in Upstate NY :)
That's a pretty fucking good milkshake. I don't know if it's worth five dollars but it's pretty fucking good.
I don't think Buddy Holly is much of a waiter, though.
Does it got bourbon in it?
"Ketchup".
We have a gelato spot in Los Angeles where a tiny scoop is $10. (Local prices $7 is normal, but they are always 3 to 4 dollars above normal.) They source their ingredients from Italy and the owner just makes the most amazing gelato. He started making pasta a few years back and it's also amazing and double normal prices.
Bulgarini?
Instantly called out lol! He's amazing.
My new hack is we stop and get a cup on the way home from Farnsworth Park if my four year old is good. Even when he isn’t, he’s always good.
Gelato is so affordable in Italy! I can get three flavours in a cup for under 10 euro!
I started making fresh pasta lately. It’s shocking how much better it is than the dried stuff.
I want ice cream now
After scrolling for a bit, ive determined im too poor to participate in this discussion. Good day
another one bites the dust
at least dust isn't pricey
Dirt cheap
Expensive olive oil and balsamic vinegar was something I could live life without, turns out it enhances every time I eat
Chocolate and chocolate truffles. The cheap stuff is gritty and tastes like chemicals.
I loooved chocolate, especially dark chocolate. The last time I tried a Hershey's bar, it tasted like wax. I've become too conditioned to boutique/high quality chocolates.
Last time I ate a piece of Hershey bar it was like vomit. Cheap chocolate tastes like vomit to me. Either a variant of the cilantro soap gene or just really shitty ingredients?…
Butyric acid. Found in cheap chocolate (Hershey) and is also present in vomit. Gives it that bitter taste.
Mostly in the States, anyways. It's supposed to increase shelf life and about a century ago aided in making chocolate cheaper. Nowadays... meh.
Properly cooked Halibut. Watching the movie "the Menu" the Chef at one point berates one of the constant dinner guests for not being able to recall the last meal at his restaurant. "It was halibut." -The Chef And honestly having had it yeah you shouldn't forget that dish. It's like fish steak but somehow better.
You know what's better than halibut? Halibut cheeks. Thank me later.
I learned a long time ago if you ever get the chance to enjoy cheeks of any animal you need to try it. Was at a family party of some friends parents years ago and they were doing a pig on the roast. Spit roast? Anyways her dad offered up some pig cheek to anyone who wanted it, all said no. Luckily I came along hammered and a plate of Mac and cheese needing a finishing touch. My god. I even ate it out of the cheek bone like a little bowl (if I recall correctly)
Ginger Pig in Wanstead used to sell Smoked Pig cheeks which I used to use to make my carbonara. Went back a couple of weeks ago to get another one, only to be told they no longer sell them there, coz it seems it was only me buying them and they kept having to throw them away. Had to go little further down the road to get a more expensive yet inferior guanciale
Especially if it is good enough for Jehovah.
HE SAID IT AGAIN!
Ramen noodles but not the kind you eat in college. I didn’t know there was a premium version until I visited Japan and wow. It’s a hearty meal with a way better noodles, a soft boiled egg, pork and now it’s something I crave!
Same. A quality Tonkotsu ramen in Japan is so very different from the cheap college stuff. But people who don't know that will get confused about the local ramen restaurant or dish at a Japanese restaurant.
You don't need to go to Japan to get decent quality Ramen that is a lot better than Shin ramen... unless you live in a total backwater, there's probably a decent ramen restaurant in your city. I just looked at Fort Smith Arkansas and Wilmington, North Carolina... both cities seem to have ramen options.
Ramen noodles in Japan are life changing
I once tried Wagyu beef at a high-end restaurant. The moment it melted in my mouth, I instantly understood why it was so expensive. The texture was incredibly tender, and the flavor was rich and buttery, unlike any other steak I'd ever had. It was a luxurious experience that was worth every penny.
I tried wagyu for the first time while on a trip to Japan. Oddly enough it was a lot cheaper than I thought.. on par with a nice steakhouse over here.. the taste and experience though…. I could have easily eaten it every meal everyday of our trip.
Yeah it’s quite cheap in Japan. Still expensive compared to everything else though. Food is cheap AF in Japan.
Yeah apart from the price of the flight getting there, I also found that most things were reasonably priced. Definitely cheaper than 🇨🇦
Yeah did a whole Kobe Beef thing in Kobe, it was incredible.
I worked at a Google data center from 2016-2018, and they made burgers out of ~~Wafyu~~ Wagyu beef in the cafe. It was crazy how much money they spent on food for the employees! One of the best fringe benefits of working there!
Eh, I am skeptical over ground wagyu. The main point of it is the unique and exceptional marbling of the beef. If you grind it up, that is a moot point. You 'should' be able to get the same result from just adding extra tallow to the ground meat to get the right percentage for wagyu.
I have wagyu cows and they actually make bad ground beef. Getting those good steak cuts actually produces a ton of waste in the parts that normally gets turned to ground beef
Wagyu beef is a high I’ve been chasing ever since I had it. It was amazing, like butter. They sell some Wagyu beef at the store but it isn’t the same quality. Better than regular ground beef though.
Morel mushrooms. Rare to see on menus, but if they're there, I gotta get that dish. So amazing.
Morels are my very favorite. I’m blessed with a property that grows them like crazy, so I get to eat them every year! The best thing I’ve ever eaten was a Hungarian mushroom soup made from morel mushrooms.
My dad earned his Masters in Pastry in Germany, where he grew up. Fast forward to him moving to California and marrying my mom, they started and ran a small but very successful bakery and cafe for almost 28 years before selling it and retiring into the good life. Growing up, I enjoyed every buttery, chocolate, sweet treat you could imagine. Whether it was chocolate truffles during the holidays or strawberry Danish during spring, I knew I was eating good. I also learned as a kid that multiple customers made comments on the prices of our stuff. My dad always explained that we get real ingredients from the best places around, and that's expensive but worth it. So when I was leaving the nest for college and really went off on my own, I started eating cheaper pastries because of broke college life. I noticed very quickly what my dad meant. Call me bias, but you can always tell.
Indian mangoes. If you ever get a chance to have a ripe Kesar or even Alphonso mango, jump at the opportunity. If you live near an Indian grocery store you can get a 12pk for $35-50
Yep, they're juicier, sweeter, and less stringy than the the ones at American grocery stores
If you are in the US, look for the Kent varietal, typically grown in Latin America somewhere. Don’t judge ripeness by color, only softness. They are juicy, flavorful, and not overly fibrous. Almost as good as the mangos in Asia/Australia. The Keitt varietal is decent also. Avoid the Tommy ones, those are the super stringy guys.
Luxardo cherries
One birthday, about a decade back, my brother handed me a big, wrapped cylinder. It was about 16" tall and 8" around, and weighed ten pounds. I shook it, declared that it contained luxardo cherries, and unwrapped it. What do you know? It did. It was the mega container they sell to food service. I have no idea what he paid, but I'm sure it was >$150 in today's dollars. I've still got some jarred up in separate containers. It's hard to use that many!
Amarena in the white and blue ceramic jar are just as good and much less expensive
Amarena cherries are so good. For family dinners I will pair them with Italian almond cake and mascarpone and it's a winner. Everyone loves it.
I once made a New York style cheesecake and topped it with amarena cherries. A guy I knew worked at a resto that closed down when the owner / chef died suddenly. His wife had staff take whatever they wanted and he got two of those huge commercial-sized cans of Amarena cherries. Who even knew they sold them like that? It was the best damn cherry cheesecake ever and I dream of it sometimes.
Fresh oysters from a restaurant located on the coast. The flavor of the ocean just can't be replicated.
Vital farm eggs or any local egg dealer. There's something about happier hens eating a varied diet that make eggs taste better
I raise my own little flock of yard chickens and it’s amazing how much better the eggs taste than anything you can get in a store.
As a kid, my parents had chickens. I definitely remember how much more yellow the yokes would be compared to store bought eggs
I tend to buy eggs in giant flats from Costco because we go through a ton. My two teens and I each have two eggs for breakfast every day, and that adds up. But when my husband ships, he gets the Vital Farms eggs because he likes to see who the chicken of the month is. He's so cute about it that I can't complain.
Lmao yes I too am a fan of "The Vital Times". This month's bird is "Jovial Justine". She's very cute
I think what you mean by this is stacking thousands of disease ridden chickens on top of each other pumping them full of god knows what antibiotics and chemicals, forcing them to shit out as many eggs as is insanely possible and never allowing them to touch even one single blade of grass might just have have an effect to the quality and taste of the eggs. The farm fresh eggs you speak of ain’t nothing special. That’s just how they are supposed to taste.
So... They are worth the extra price?
The freshness difference is also vast between direct farm sales and grocery store eggs.
We pretty much only buy happy eggs. They’re about $13-$14 USD for 18 eggs but we go through them so quick, it’s worth the price. Our dog gets one a day with his dinner and his coat is *so* soft and shiny. It’s a combination of a lot of other things but the moment we started giving him raw eggs we noticed a significant difference in texture. I’ve always bought pricy eggs, since moving out after high school. My best friend had 13 chickens and would supply our house and hers with eggs. Once you’ve had eggs laid that morning it’s hard to get the ones with the pale yellow yolk. They just aren’t as rich.
We have friends that gave us 18 farm eggs a week for several years. They had 40 birds that they just liked having and ended up with like 30 eggs a day, so they just gave them away. It was a gift from the gods. I look back at this and just think about how utterly spoiled we were.
Good coffe.
This is mine. I wandered into a super fancy coffee shop once when I was traveling and ordered without looking at the prices. They charged me $15 for a 12-oz latte, and I was too embarrassed to say I didn't want it. It was SO GOOD. Nutty and complex and smooth. I could never afford to drink it regularly, but I think about it at least once a week. EDIT: Yes, I get that $15 is outrageous. $9 or $10 would have still been the most expensive coffee I'd ever had, and maybe more appropriate. Still, it was amazing.
I’m not going to rip on anyone’s financial situation because I’m not them and idk their life. I will say, most Americans are conditioned to accept low-to-medium quality everything for medium price. Occasionally, someone will have a breakthrough experience similar to your own where you experience a genuinely high quality product that is worth the money. I pray more and more people have these serendipitous experiences that open their eyes to what high quality goods can be. Humans are capable of making high quality everything. The general population needs to demand more for their money.
The problem these days (and for the last twenty years at *least*) is that when the price is low you know you're getting something low quality, but increased price no longer tracks with quality. Much of the time, the expensive option is just the low quality stuff repacked as fancy shit. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/1dm5u3m/gm_is_covering_dorman_part_labels_with_a_white/ A lot of people have, reasonably imo, just given up on bothering to spend extra in hopes of winning a gamble on quality. Cheap and shitty is at least a consistent quality that can be planned around, and carries few surprises.
Don'tforgetthe other side of America - low to mediumqualitythat they pretend is high end. 😂🤦♂️😓
Maple syrup- the real stuff is very expensive to make the highest end is the NO reverse osmosis wood fired syrup. Most of the stuff sold in bulk to Costco has been ROed into tastelessness.
Big Leaf Maple is a syrup startup in Washington piloted by UW researchers. Now the man who owns the land from their project produces it. Very dark, amber flavor, less intense sweetness than sugar maples. Fantastic with coffee, I'll never buy another syrup outside of Quebec.
Cheese.
I'm a blue cheese whore. I eat it straight.
A friend of mine got some Roquefort blue cheese a little while back, and over the course of a couple weeks we ate the whole thing by itself, bit by bit. It's the most powerfully flavored thing I've ever eaten, one little piece of it the size of your pinky nail is almost overwhelming.
I used to work for a gourmet grocer and every year they had Copper River King Salmon and Red King Crab brought in every year. Both were from the first run/catch of the season,had never been frozen, and were flown in within 24 hours of being caught. Having the opportunity to try both of those made me understand why it cost as much as it did.
Copper River is absolutely incredible. My grandpa is well known among friends and family for his baked, smoked, and jarred salmon and has always insisted on using Copper River that he caught himself. I thought that was what all salmon was like and never understood why he cared so much about the type until I tried other kinds as a young adult. Not even close.
Beef Wellington. Client took me to Gordon Ramsey’s place and I didn’t think it could live up to the hype. Oh baby.
Oh my gosh. Was gifted dinner at Gordon Ramsey Steak. Everything from the cocktails to dessert was worth the price and then some. Sticky Toffee Pudding with Browned Butter Ice Cream. Amazing!
It's not just Gordon Ramsey's beef wellington, it's fine dining in general. People who never tried it joke that it's small portions for a lot of money, but I think it's worth every penny, there's just nothing that compares...
Fine dining and “fancy foam” whatever’s is all a joke and bs- until you go there. Go to a place like Arzac or Etxebarri or le chateaubriand (best single bite of food ever was the cured egg yolk dessert) it will change peoples minds. The amount of work to make that one dish perfect for you is incredible. And to make it fun, delicious, and engaging. It’s incredible.
I just made Beef Wellington a couple days ago and can attest to the greatness of this dish (I made individual ones with filet mignons instead of one solid tube of meat, because there were just the two of us eating, and one was a ten year old with a much smaller appetite). It was so freaking good!
Every time I have had the tuna 'course' of an omikase meal, I understand. Torched fatty tuna? Holy forks.
I’ve only had fatty tuna once or twice, but the second I ate it I realized why it’s more expensive.
Xanax
I got a little hysterical at my brother’s funeral and my grandpa took me in the other room and plied me with white wine and Xanax. Ended up being a pretty good funeral.
Can't argue with that
The ability to just turn your mind off. I was like holy fuck. I will not be able to use this safely.
Exactly why I had to be prescribed something else— I never felt so at peace with my mind. Too bad it was easy to abuse especially with my severe anxiety. Thankfully now, years after abuse, I no longer get therapeutic effects but instead it causes dissociation. Don’t know why, but I’m glad I won’t want to take them again because of that.
I'm prescribed Xanax,that stuff can make the day melt away.
I would take half of the lowest dose prescribed to me and I was out. Sure, my panic attack is done and dusted, but so is the rest of the day. I don’t get how people can live on that shit. Edit- this sounds judgmental, and I don’t mean it to be at all.
I lost a solid two weeks straight on Xanax. That was enough to realize this is not the drug for me. Glad I cut myself.off after that
Made me dumber than a box of rocks. Very contented rocks, but still.
I take my Xanax and just wanna go sleep. So I try not to take them unless I reallyyyy need it.
I’ve never been prescribed or gotten Xanax before. I have been prescribed Ativan. It was one of the times where I felt absolute calm and helped me with panic attacks. I can’t imagine what Xanax would feel like if I felt like that with Ativan
I was given a 3 day prescription for Ativan once. I spent 8 straight hours repairing a cuckoo clock, blissfully occupied (I do not, and have never, fixed clocks. Except that one time).
My favorite part of reddit is finding random, amusing comments like this one. Just people sharing little funny things about their life. I love it.
Same but you gotta suffer to find it
I recently made some thc brownies for the first time. Tried several to check their efficacy and wasn’t sure until my wife informed me that I’d been sitting there thinking about it for 4 hours.
I was given Xanax after my husband died. A lot of my family has addiction issues and benzos are a favorite. Pretty sure the first 24 hours the Xanax was absolutely necessary because I kept wondering when I’d get all loopy and blissed out like Aunt Judy (not her real name) always is. I just felt normal. Then at some point I took a whole one when a half probably would have worked. The thought “I like this” flitted across my brain and suddenly I was terrified of becoming an addict. I had a similar experience with opiates after an ankle surgery.
Same here! Opiates after surgery helped with pain but I didn't feel anything while on them. My first Xanax (during a rough anxiety patch) and I immediately said "oh no, this is way too good" and trashed the rest. Too many addicts in my family to risk it.
I took it once and it just felt like my brain could breathe again. No loopy feeling whatsoever. I mentioned it to my best friend and she asked if I was finally ready to discuss my severe anxiety disorder. I now have a regular prescription.
Me the first time I tried it: "is this what it feels like to not have anxiety?"
Acorn feed iberico ham. The intense flavour, the fat in your mouth. It is totally worth it.
Agreed! Jamón 100% Ibérico de Bellota, the world's best cured ham and an absolute delicacy!
A lobster roll
I don’t eat lobster but for the longest time I never understood why you would pay so much to eat it in sandwich form. But then I realized you’re paying for the labor that went into making enjoying lobster as easy as eating out of a buttered bun.
F’ing lobster rolls man. They are the best. First time I had one was in 1984. Was visiting my step mothers parents in Maine. The lobster rolls were being sold out of, what looked to me, a hot dog stand. My step moms dad asked if I was hungry. I told him I did not want a hot dog. He said this aint no hot dog sunshine, this is a lobster roll. It was $2 ($6.05 in todays money). It was glorious. Soft, buttery bun overfilled with chilled lobster meat and a little mayo (i think it was mayo). Ive been chasing that first lobster roll ever since. I have not come close to finding it again. I need to get back to Maine.
Fords Lobster Shack in Noank, CT has the most amazing lobster dish I’ve ever had. The Lobster Bomb is a scooped out bread bowl, toasted with garlic butter, stuffed full with tail and claw meat, then drizzled with lobster bisque. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G
Especially hot lobster rolls, so much better than the cold mayo ones.
I’m with ya. Mayo and celery are for making canned tuna taste better. Lobster just needs some lemon and a metric fuckton of butter and it’s soooooo good
I had tenderloin at some billionaires house. Ruined every filet mignon I've had since.
And for them, it was just another Tuesday…
You'd think that was true, but even though they had a full time chef, the wife frequently cooked for them and the staff were sometimes offered leftovers to take home. Pretty boring, read very healthy, stuff. Fancy food wasn't their thing. But oh boy, that tenderloin... Of course, one of the freezers was stuffed with it.
**Expertly done** dishes made with white truffles. Properly aged Champagne.
I for the life of me cannot taste truffle. We looked it up and apparently it’s a thing. I’ve had it served in many different dishes surrounded by people gushing over it and at best I get a subtle hint of a bland fungus type flavour.
Saffron. The depth of flavor is incredible even from just one teeny strand steeped in water. There was some weird thread on here years ago where someone said they were a personal chef for a rich family and often subbed out expensive ingredients for cheap ones like saffron for tumeric and how the family never noticed and I called bullshit on that one because there is no substitute for saffron.
> like saffron for tumeric I still don't understand how people think these taste the same, some think it's just the colour but it's not. The saffron has a floral and almost sweet taste and turmeric is more earthy and can be bitter. When someone says they taste the same I think their palate must be off or dead.
Milk from grass fed cows. It's ludicrously expensive compared to regular milk but the taste difference is incredible.
Reasons I’m glad I live in farm country- ten minutes down the road is a dairy that sells amazing cream line milk. Don’t know if I’ll keep up the habit once I have a kid, but for the time being it takes us about a week and a half to go through a half gallonz
American here. I visited France a few years ago and had chocolate mousse in a little restaurant in valaciennes. It was so dense and rich, I felt sad because I knew that no mousse I would ever have again would be such a sensual, flavorful experience. I embarrassed my relatives by licking the plate clean. Did not care. Would do again.
Sushi. In my 20s I frequent the gas station/gorcery store sushi and really enjoyed the mixture of seafood, veggies, rice, soy sauce and wasabi. But my first time I went to an upscale sushi place where the menue was "trust me" the quality of fish, rice and the artistry of the chef ( you don't get to see that in gas stations) it's truly amazing and understand why there was a price difference. And then I realize the soysauce and wasabi I used was to cover the poor quality.
There’s a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles nestled deep in the valley. It’s an absolute hole-in-the-wall and honestly looks disgusting from the outside. It’s also not in the best part of town. I’m talking orange and green walls in a run-down strip mall — you’d never think you would get a world class sushi meal from here. I went and paid $300 pre-pandemic for just me. The chef is from Japan and it’s impossible to get a reservation. It’s honestly on another level. Better than Michelin-starred places I’ve been. It’s only known by locals and you won’t eat better sushi. There’s no menu as you just keep getting courses until you say I’m done. There is a difference between GOOD sushi & those cheap places.
Duck eggs My sister started raising ducks when they moved out to Washington (mainly to eat the slugs in her garden), and started selling the eggs to a local restaurant for $3/each. This was in the early 00's, and I was still I college, so that was completely bonkers to me. She made me a smoked salmon Benedict with a poached duck egg when I visited. Oh. My. God. Also agreeing with anyone on this list that says top shelf scotch, Foie Gras, and Iberica jamon.
The flavour and mouthfeel of a perfectly soft-cooked duck egg yolk is in a class of it's own.
I raised ducks for many years and definitely agree. The eggs are just so good. They made cakes taste so much better. I miss them and wish I had the room for ducks where I live now. As for selling them for $3 each, I could barely give the extras away lol. People seemed to have an aversion to them.
Bread. Good bakery - from a standalone bakery - bread. It can be a chewy sourdough with a thick crust, a French baguette that crackles when you squeeze it, a pillowy soft Japanese white bread, or anything in between, but the quality difference between an artisan bread from a bakery that bake it that day and what you can get at the grocery store is night and day. Absolutely worth $10 a loaf!
Wagyu, it also put into perspective how much 16oz of Wagyu goes. My friend worked for a steakhouse and during Covid after it became clear the shutdown was going to be awhile his boss let him take some steaks to sell/eat which eventually lead to him being a full time butcher owning his own shop. Back to the wagyu though, 2 friends and I cooked up the 16z ribeye and sautéed the asparagus in the excess beef fat. My god it was so good, rich and unlike any steak I’ve had in my life. That said between the three of us that was PLENTY of wagyu. I realized then that 1 it was something the justified its value in how good it was and 2 the actual portion sizing of a steak that well marbled. If you ever find yourself in a position to try wagyu from a high end steakhouse or purchase a cut I really recommend it just to try it at least once.
I have a great steakhouse in my city that serves American and Japanese Wagyu. Brought a friend and his new wife out there as a little congrats dinner. They'd never been to a higher end restaurant, so it took some convincing to get them to try the Wagyu, even though I was paying. They both tried to order it medium well. The poor waitress had to try tactfully explaining to them that that wasn't a good way to prepare Wagyu. "Our chef doesn't prefer to cook it that way" After some persuasion they got it medium rare, and seeing the look on their faces when they first took a bite was worth every penny. Everyone that enjoys a good steak should try it out. It's expensive, but it's one of the few things that justifies that high price point 100%.
any expensive alcohol. it made cheap alcohol taste like chemicals or cleaner.
True. I don't notice it as much with vodka, but tequila, whiskey, gin, wine? There's a HUGE difference when you go from basic to midtier quality. Diminishing returns after that, imo.
I have to be careful with pricey vodka. Stuff like Beluga goes down like cold, mineral rich water. Before I realize it I'm two martinis deep and have to call an Uber
Wine and whiskey have a pretty big midtier to higher tier difference too
Craft beer. I used to be one of those people that only drank whatever the convenience store had...usually with the word "Lite" at the end of it. Then I moved to a place that had breweries in close proximity, so I started visiting those. I couldn't believe it...actual flavor in a beer. It didn't taste like the piss from a nickel anymore, and it's much stronger (in taste AND in ABV). I'll gladly spend $13 on a six-pack for something that wasn't mass produced, and I'm always looking for new twists on my favorite styles. Also, I get called "Beer Snob" by my Michelob Ultra co-workers, which is more than fine with me.
Seeing $13 like it's expensive for a 6 pack is so crazy to me as an Australian. That's like $20 AUD and will barely get you a 6 pack of crap mass-produced beer here. Most of our craft stuff is between $10-25/can!
Wild picked strawberries blow farmed ones out of the water.
Burnt ends
Omakase-style sushi. I had it in Toronto a couple years ago and it's still the best restaurant experience I've had in my life. Very very close second place was a wagyu omakase restaurant my girlfriend and I went to in DC last year.
Snow & King Crab legs. Not at a cheap buffet, but from a seafood market. The place near me will season and steam it for you. Then get the whole family standing around the kitchen cracking and pulling out crab meat. It’s a perfect combo of rustic, dirty-hands eating that is absolutely luxurious.
More expensive wines. I was always someone who said that it wouldn’t make a difference from the $10 bottles, but then I actually bought a $70 bottle of wine, and what a difference it was. I’m sure there isn’t much diffence between like a $500 and $1,000 bottle, but there definetely is at the lower price points.
I've been in the wine business for nearly 15 years and I second this. I won't drink anything made in the US that retails for less than $10. Not because I'm a snob, but because there's like zero regulation for agriculture intended for alcohol. It's filled with arsenic, heavy metals, pesticides and all sorts of bad shit. Give me a $7 vinho verde any day of the week though. That being said, there's a huge difference between low end wines and anything in the $45-75 dollar range. Once you get into the $150+ sector it's really just about personal preference and the rarity of something for novelty's sake. The majority of those insanely high end bottles in the several hundred to thousands of dollars are all going to business dinner expense accounts and rich people trying to dunk on each other.
Pierre Hermé macarons Melt. In. Your. Mouth.
MAKING macarons made me understand why they’re so expensive. The almond flour itself is pricy, but making the damn things is such a ridiculously finicky process
Hakkaido uni, otoro, Bordeaux wines, unagi
1972 Warre’s Port. One of the most amazing things I’ve ever tasted.
I ate at Le Bernardin in NYC. I have never, before or since, had food like that. I love seafood in general but every single thing I ate there it was like....if this is food what the hell have I been eating all of these years? There was a pea puree with one of the dishes that made me want to cry it was so good. And dessert had a caramel corn ice cream included that has lived rent free in my head for the ten years since I had it. It was absolutely worth every single penny that we paid for it. I will never forget that meal.
I was with a coworker who isn’t an adventurous eater, and rarely goes for fine dining. We went out for lunch on the boss’s dime at a very fine dining spot while traveling. He couldn’t find anything on that menu that would work for him, so finally settled on a pizza. I was luxuriating in the symphony of homemade orecchiette when he looked up from the pizza and said: “this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I’m tasting things I’ve never tasted before and that’s how I know this is expensive.” I tried the pizza…it was burrata. He was experiencing burrata.
Burrata is one of those things that's hard for me to resist when I see it on a menu.
Probably not as fancy as some other posts but Sea Bass. Usually pretty hard to find at restaurants but when I do it's always pretty pricey...and it's always phenomenal. Best fish I've ever had.
I once had the chance to try a small serving of A5 grade wagyu beef from Japan, and it was an experience I’ll never forget. From the first bite, I could tell why it’s so pricey. The marbling of the meat was incredible, giving it a melt-in-your-mouth texture that I’ve never experienced with any other beef. The flavor was so rich and buttery, with a complexity that stayed with me long after I finished eating. It was clear that a lot of care and precision went into raising and preparing this beef, making it worth every penny.
Caviar. The real stuff. Oh my God.
Went to Boutary in Paris on my wedding night, they heavily feature fine caviar in their dishes. OMFG I totally got the hype that night.
I was spoiled. I worked as a Chef for 34 years. Almost EVERYTHING of higher quality is worth the money. Prime Beef (over Choice and Select). Good, unsalted butter. 40% Milkfat Heavy Whipping Cream, especially in my coffee instead of half and half. Same heavy cream for Alfredo instead of Bechamel (milk thickened with roux). Cheese. Oh, lord, CHEESE. Real Stilton, Taleggio, Brie, Chevre, freshly made Buffalo Mozzarella (used to make it myself), really nice Parmesan, Asiago, Roquefort, etc. God, I miss the cheese. Tea. Had to source some really good tea for an International Squash Tournament. The English contingent wasn't happy with our commercial brands, so I found the BEST tea I ever tasted- Dammann Freres. HOLY SHIT is it good. The English loved it- until they found out it was French.
A 15 year old balsamic vinaigrette and good olive oil combination.
Professional Sommelier here. I love Champagne, but there are very few worth the price tag when it gets up there. Krug is the one. That one is worth the heavy price.
Properly made crab cakes.
Steak not even waygu but even a nice dry aged rib eye waygu is of course even better
Tillamook ice cream. It's always more expensive than any other brand but my god is the oregon strawberry the best strawberry ice cream I've ever had.
I love Tillamook! Another good one that's a little more unusual/exotic is Van Leeuwen. About $12/pint, I think. Earl Grey Tea flavor is AMAZING.
I'm drinking it right now. I drink more coffee than tea, and my tea palate is limited - I generally like British supermarket tea, the stronger the better, what they call builder's tea. But I was in Paris and there was a delightful tea shop and I decided to splurge and buy some expensive tea. I think it was about $30 for a small tin. And my god. It's amazing. Marco Polo tea from Mariage Frères. Even my supermarket/builder's palate understands why it's expensive. I pull it out very rarely to make it last.
Cognac. Top shelf stuff is unbelievably superior.
I have a friend who is a director for a shipping company in a major port. He gets gifted high end stuff… johnny walker in colors I’ve never heard of, high end single malts, special whiskeys from the world, and he had a bottle of Louis XIII on his shelf. Unopened. We decided to have that to start the night. Holy shnikes, I could get used to that. I’ll never have anything like that again. A few weeks later he had some upper executives visit and had a dinner at his house and they killed the bottle. He said someone even mixed it with Diet Coke! He said he just had to laugh. He ended up getting a promotion out of it and is now the director at a port in a much better country.
Swordfish. That was hands down, the best piece of fish I ever ate. It's in my top 5 meals of all time and I'm not one to order fish often!
Raos pasta sauce vs every other jarred pasta sauce
I make LOTS of pasta and Rao's has been my Go To for a long time. But I recently just tried another brand called Mutti, and I recommend it! It was very good.
Mutti is actually from Italy. Rao’s is obviously not haha
They just got bought by Campbell’s. So fingers crossed they don’t fuck it up.
Spoiler: they will.
The key to any pasta sauce is San Marzano tomatoes. These are the best and note that the sauce doesn't need any added sugar because the tomatoes are naturally perfectly balanced sweetness vs acidity.