Post your most controversial food/drink opinions

[Mrs Miggins]

I suspect the main preference for black pepper over white, is that it's easier to distinguish from salt when placed in adjacent unlabelled shakers (assuming most people are consistent with the 'more holes for pepper' rule, when in doubt)

Says the person who can't see the point of cheese pfft.

 

[The39thStep]

I suspect the main preference for black pepper over white, is that it's easier to distinguish from salt when placed in adjacent unlabelled shakers (assuming most people are consistent with the 'more holes for pepper' rule, when in doubt

I think you’ll find that most people on most occasions managed to tell the difference for a good century or so before black pepper became popular via cookery programmes, holidays , Italian restaurants and home dining.

 

[kittyP]

Yes! I am on a One-Person-Crusade to Rehabiliate White Pepper!

I bought some to go in some Chinese recipes from the delightful Ching-He Huang and have since found it is the better pepper in leek and potato soup, many cheesey dishes and anything made with white wine. Nigella's Coq au Riesling for example. It's perfect in that.

I am not at this stage advocating it as a condiment but I urge you all! Get some white pepper! You won't regret it.

White pepper goes well as a condiment with seafood, some white sauce dishes, light coloured soups (as you said like leak and potatoe) and is an absolute must on top of proper pie, mash and liquor with vinegar

 

[ash]

.....also....I don't know whether I want any pepper until I've tasted it and then I would want to put some on and taste it again. I might want some more later on. Just leave the damned pepper on the table

Some see it as a hilarious throw back to the 1970s - I just get really annoyed !!

 

[spanglechick]

Boyfriend (Irish) swears by white pepper on cabbage and on mashed potato. Otherwise black.


I think Delia Smith was instrumental in the suburban ubiquity of the pepper mill in the early eighties. I remember all her shows exhorting viewer to add “plenty of freshly ground black pepper”. Always “freshly ground” was specified, which suggests something about its unfamiliarity previously.

 

[Orang Utan]

Didn't realise they were seen as a novelty. What did people have before pepper mills? They seem a permanent fixture at home to me.

 

[Riklet]

Milk from animals is the only nice milk. The plant-based alternatives can fuck off and jump in a wax-coated tetrapak non-recyclable bin of shit. Oat milk is just about drinkable and even that can fuck off and die.

Lard is the best for shallow frying things in. Def not a popular opinion...

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

OK, so apologies for blatantly stealing this off twitter.
I'll start with three:
Instant coffee is better than real coffee
Fizzy soft drinks are for kids
Beans in an FEB should always be served in a ramekin so the customer has the choice to mix them with the rest of the breakfast or not.

I also prefer instant, but it has to be a nice one.
I'm not even sure fizzy drinks should be for kids. Yuck.
I do like fizzy water though.

 

[Proper Tidy]

I've got really into cheese spread sandwiches lately. Nice cheese spread butty and a packet of wotsits.

 

[keybored]

Abbreviating the word "coleslaw" to "slaw" is the mark of a wrong 'un.

I've also just noticed people on the Macaroni Cheese thread referring to the dish as "mac and cheese". The List grows.

 

[Orang Utan]

I've also just noticed people on the Macaroni Cheese thread referring to the dish as "mac and cheese". The List grows.

What next? Spaghetti and bolognese?

 

[danny la rouge]

Didn't realise they were seen as a novelty. What did people have before pepper mills? They seem a permanent fixture at home to me.

Pepper was ready ground. You had pepper pots with sprinkle holes on top. Salt had one. Pepper had several.

Actually a bit stunned that this is a generational bit of knowledge.

 

[fishfinger]

Pepper was ready ground. You had pepper pots with sprinkle holes on top. Salt had one. Pepper had several...

It's still like this in all of the cafes that I've been in.

 

[maomao]

We always had both white and black pepper on the table when I was a kid. Black pepper won because you got to do the turny thing.

 

[danny la rouge]

We always had both white and black pepper on the table when I was a kid. Black pepper won because you got to do the turny thing.

That must have been a transitional period. The Great Pepper Shift.

 

[Spymaster]

Boyfriend (Irish) swears by white pepper on cabbage and on mashed potato.

He's absolutely correct. White pepper seasons mash perfectly. Black pepper fucks it up. It's got a completely different flavour that doesn't suit mash at all.

 

[Rosemary Jest]

I remember white pepper was always a pub thing, on occasions when you went out for Sunday dinner, it was on the table alongside the salt. So that was exotic to me, as we always had pre ground black in our house.

Probably didn't see a pepper mill/grinder thing till the 90s.

 

[The39thStep]

One of the unforgivable consequences of the changing pub/bar scene is the loss of fresh pies, toasted sandwiches , pickled eggs , and cheese and onion baps.

 

[Rosemary Jest]

I like it when some pubs put the leftovers from the Sunday dinner on the bar, like roasties or spare Yorkshire puddings.

That's a real pub when that happens.

 

[The39thStep]

I like it when some pubs put the leftovers from the Sunday dinner on the bar, like roasties or spare Yorkshire puddings.

That's a real pub when that happens.

And hotdogs or hotpot or chilli or curry when the football is on on a Sunday. Completly unrelated but when I was over in the UK at the weekend both the local traditional pubs have signs up for Seniors Xmas Party which I have always thought is a nice gesture.

 

[Spymaster]

Crispy fish skin tastes better than the fish.

Same with chicken.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I like it when some pubs put the leftovers from the Sunday dinner on the bar, like roasties or spare Yorkshire puddings.

That's a real pub when that happens.

Not seen it in years, but it used to be a thing in East London (and perhaps elsewhere) for pubs to have free bar snacks on Sunday afternoons - chicken wings, sausages, prawns, that kind of thing. I really liked that, but it's a tradition that appears to have died out entirely.

 

[Idaho]

It's a sign of the age that what are simply personal food preferences, of no great importance or interest to anyone else, are presented as "controversial truths" to be declared, defended and assailed.

 

[The39thStep]

Crispy fish skin tastes better than the fish.

Same with chicken.

I was at a mates house ( he's a chef) and he served crispy salmon skin as a nibble with drinks. Fantastic

 

[Proper Tidy]

You can buy bags of crisps made of fish skin now. They're fucking horrible though

 

[The39thStep]

Perhaps I should revisit tripe, only ever had it once .

How tripe went from popularity to a hard-to-stomach speciality

Known in some circles as the ‘Lancashire calamari’, tripe was known for being nutritious, with rumour even suggesting it could boost the libido

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

 

[colacubes]

Not seen it in years, but it used to be a thing in East London (and perhaps elsewhere) for pubs to have free bar snacks on Sunday afternoons - chicken wings, sausages, prawns, that kind of thing. I really liked that, but it's a tradition that appears to have died out entirely.

Still happens. There's a pub in Crystal Palace that often has a big old cheese board and a couple of platters of roasties, Yorkshires etc for free on a Sunday, and another in West Norwood that has just the latter. They are both old school regulars pubs and they are both ace

 

[Teaboy]

Still happens. There's a pub in Crystal Palace that often has a big old cheese board and a couple of platters of roasties, Yorkshires etc for free on a Sunday, and another in West Norwood that has just the latter. They are both old school regulars pubs and they are both ace

I've found a couple of pubs near me that still do it. They are very traditional pubs though, I mean proper throwbacks. Though one is such a throwback its more like a museum and deliberately so I think.

The Sunday roast leftover things in bowls on the bar is also quite common round my way. We're very lucky with pubs.