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Feel free to be sort of maybe impressed

"Super Size Me" was about eating at McDonalds, but the same applies to any commercially prepared food, including the finest haute cuisine. It is simple unhealthy to eat daily! For lots of reasons. Flavour is punched up using salt and butter at the best restaurants, and with MSG, saturated fats and worse additives at most restaurants. Lots of preservatives are added (thankfully so, otherwise it would be life threatening to eat at many places!).

At home you can control these, and in some parts of the world you can source high quality ingredients. Great progress has been made in that respect in the past decade; so it is possible to prepare food that is tastier and healthier at home than any restaurant can. For example I use free-range eggs now, because the taste is so much better than cage eggs. Meat that is "heart smart" is also available in some countries (though the US lags in that!), and it is both leaner and tastier ... as well as hormone and antibiotic free. Cost is far less than restaurant food, yet better in every way. Of course restaurants could use such ingredients and cook that way; a few do, but most find it is not commercially viable except at the high end.

i give you credits for guessing so close for a yank but the pictures are from luling

Thanks. But at least I was close. The plate of food could have easily been from Blacks. And boy did it make me hungry to look at it

Pretty much this. I don't spend too much on food when I'm dining (bachelor life), but my job sees me eat at some of the finer restaurants both domestically and internationally. I'm rarely impressed by fine dining, especially all the pomp and circumstance. I would rather eat some defining ethnic food that can usually be found at a reasonable price, though moving to San Diego and then Orange County makes it hard to find legitimate hole-in-the-wall ethnic food since it's so expensive to live here.

If I may digress, an episode of Top Chef completely represents who I am not. There was an episode where the competitors grouped up and made food for some soldiers. Since it was a picnic, a group decided to make a potato salad. I'm sure it was fantastic! Padma scolded that team, saying that the dish was "clich�." IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE SHOW, THAT WAS THE ONLY POTATO SALAD. PICNIC FOOD AT A PICNIC, OH MY. So, if someone offers her the FOTM, she'll eat it. She's the type to praise 7 different scallop dishes in a row because that obviously wouldn't be clich�. If it's peasant food, she'll reject it-- unless peasant food is en vogue, of course.

She's a miserable human being and I hope she cries herself to sleep at night.

Anyway, do I love some lobster bisque, foie gras, and a filet? Sure. Do I also love burritos? Cheeseburgers? You bet. Do I find it necessary to spend $100 on a meal to be satisfied? Of course not. I'd rather go find a sloppy burrito, explore some Afghani food, or experience something where the spice is more important than price. Of course, I'm the type that normally drinks $2 Pabst Blue Ribbon, but also enjoys a $20 bottle of Hitachino Nest White Ale. I would rather live alone than date someone who judges food by its price or the restaurant at which its served.

We look at fine dining as a reward for when we dine at less than stellar places.

Meh--I like to think I've eaten pretty well both abroad and at home, but I still prefer Cracker Barrel or a $5 panini (if done right) to just about any "haute" cuisine I've ever tried.

That being said, I do become a bit of a snob about ethic food. For instance, having spent a lot of time in China, I find myself turning my nose up at "Chinese" food in America (well, I've finally gotten mostly over that one), even though the truth is that, while not authentic, it tastes darn good, and at the end of the day, isn't that the point?

If you prefer Cracker Barrel to haute cuisine, you might need to reevaluate your cuisine (or at least your haute). Im sorry, that is just wrong.

lol--Hey, we all have our guilty pleasures .

Obviously, I prefer Joel Robuchon to Cracker Barrel (at least when I'm not jonesing for a trucker breakfast), but I think my general point stands.

� chacun son go�t

In general yes, but have you actually been in a Cracker Barrel.

If you would have said White Castle, or Purina okay, but Cracker Barrel........

Oh, seriously? You have a particular thing against Cracker Barrel?

Have you ever TRIED their chicken fried chicken, catfish, or just about anything on the breakfast menu??

A stop at CB is a REQUIREMENT on any road trip I take.

Yes. I have been to them. My mom used to like to go there. I would have to go sometimes when I visited. It made me sad to just go in there.

Fried eggs, grits, and biscuits & gravy served with a heaping helping of southern-style friendliness makes you sad?