I think "foodie culture" is pretty artificial, especially in the USA (and the UK too, those people were eating nothing crap until 20 years ago! ). What the heck do Americans *really* know about Italian food, or Thai food, or whatever?

I know Italian because I grew up there, and Japanese because I spent years cooking and serving in Japanese restaurants (and this is still superficial knowledge - I'm not effing Japanese!)

But it seems to me that everyone wants to be an expert on all things food, and the more recherché the meal and ingredients, the better. Nevermind that many of these people have never stepped foot outside of the lower 48... they get the Food Network and they've eaten at Spago, so they *must* be experts.

I don't claim to be an expert, and am always happy to profess ignorance, even about things I should know more about (like in the pizza thread). What I can't stand is all the puffery and arrogance about organic this, and free-range that, and rare Scottish pigs bred only in upstate New York every five years (although the latter do make stupendous whole-hog sausage... )