Is "regular" food just really bland? page

[SarahW]

I haven't been around here long, but I've been adventurous with food during the past few months. I've made sauerkraut and kombucha. Besides grass-fed meat, I've eaten whole roasted chicken hearts and have been playing around with other offal. I've made bone broths and have been adding copious amounts of self-rendered bacon/beef/pig/chicken fat to meals. I've made my own salad dressings with raw egg and real anchovies. Raw dairy, milk, cheese, and cream, are stuffed in my fridge. All forms of coconut are my friends.

I've gone to chain restaurants and expensive restaurants since "going primal" and...the food is generally tasteless. Except for the time I ordered foie gras (I wasn't paying the bill), I've been pretty underwhelmed. Foie gras is awesome, btw. But even when I ordered steak (or veal) the meat was like chewing puffed cardboard.

When we were staying with family over Thanksgiving my aunt made steak for dinner because I had requested it in advance (she likes it too) and, as is my custom, I started munching on the strip of fat on the edge of my piece. The fat, I swear, tasted like rancid vegetable oil. Yuck. Turkey day at my mother's was also a gastrointestinal disappointment. It didn't help that I was constantly having to navigate my way around the Country Crock and Miracle Whip (which are not just unhealthy, but taste terrible). But the turkey was not just bland (which was to be expected) but the carcass looked positively ill. My mom offered to boil it up and bring over the turkey soup the next day and I nicely declined. No, I don't bone broth soup from a bruised and sick bird.

Is this the way "normal" people usually eat? I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it. No wonder sugar and sugary sauces are so common, they give the taste buds something to taste.

Yes, I know "foodie" restaurants exist, that serve actual food. But the vast majority of people don't eat at those places or eat that food. All they eat is bland food, that tastes like nothing or tastes like vegetable oil. Sad.

[JoanieL]

I think it depends how much you buy into CW. I already didn't eat at chain restaurants, and while I loved the occasional sandwich/po' boy/hero/sub, pizza, and lasagna at Christmas, I never deluded myself that those foods were good for me. I didn't eat a lot of legumes, but it was mostly because they are a lot of calories for very little nutrients. I didn't know that grains and legumes were actually bad for me. Just that they weren't particularly good for me.

People who grew up living on prepared foods or fast foods probably don't know what good food tastes like. But I'm fairly old, and my perspective is different. There are people here whose parents cooked nutritious, if SAD meals, and their perspective is different from those whose parents thought a big night out was eating at TGIFs.

I think this is one instance where people who live in larger, more trendy cities win out a bit. When you look at the posts of people who have problems finding grass fed meats, etc., they are generally from smaller states and cities. (Smaller as in population, not area.) For eg., though I can find almost everything I need locally or online, cowshares in my area are far away, and barely justify the gasoline to go get them.

So, I agree with you. SAD is boring. Vegetable oils, cereal, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts are sad faire indeed.

[jfreaksho]

Not necessarily bland, but often either nasty, or containing flavor additives to make them appealing somehow. A perfect example is chocolate, actually- the commercial brands in the US have very low cacao content, and the fats that they use are nasty. The nasty oils and other fillers lead to a waxy taste that is just terrible. If you buy some chocolate that is 70% or higher, most of those companies will use better-quality beans and less nastiness.

Some friends brought a store-bought apple pie over on Thanksgiving Day. I had a piece and it wasn't good. I had a piece the next day and felt ill for hours. The homemade pies that my wife makes don't do that to me. I don't know what was in that pie, but it made me sick and it didn't taste very good.

[Kata]

I've noticed a lot of the food I used to eat has an off, kinda chemical-y taste to it after eating it again. Especially fast food. Mostly it's just a weird aftertaste, but some things that I used to love now just taste bad to me. I don't know why, maybe it's all psychological, but I guess it's a good thing if it makes me less inclined to indulge in the future.

[Dirlot]

Def nasty, but most grain based stuff is bland and stodgy.

[joelwlcx]

Sounds like certain individuals just need to learn to cook...

[sbhikes]

I think it all just tastes the same. The same over-salted taste, the same overly-sweet taste. The same "seasonings". When you clear your palate of the chemical flavor enhancements you can taste real food again and every real food tastes different from each other.

[Leida]

I dunno, I have always eaten at home, so the food always tasted good to me, not bland or anything. I baked my own bread, and I made cereals from my culture background, like buckwheat, millet, and barley, and I love using spices. Dunno. Fast food is crap, and restaurants are a waste of money. I still miss fruit and hot chocolate a lot. And, no, 'primal' hot chocolate is not hot chocolate, sorry.

[PHaselow]

I find the 'regular' food you describe still tastes pretty good! I do know what you mean by munching on a rancid piece of fat, though. I've been eating grass fed beef for a few years now and it makes a huge difference. But, I had a $50 Delmonico steak (no mention of being grass fed on menu; I wasn't paying!) last month that made me cry it was so good!

I think it all depends on the cook. I had the most amazing piece of homemade lasagna a few weeks ago. Very regular. Very non-primal. Very delicious. I guess my family (who is NOT primal) has never had Miracle Whip and Country Crock on the table: all butter and Hellman's. I was lucky to grow up with a mother who valued good food and whole ingredients (plus I'm too old for the microwave generation).

What tastes horrible to me now are processed foods like chips and bagged cookies and even bread. I wasn't one to crave them in the first place, but the taste is, well, tasteless.

I think you are in the Holier Than Thou phase of PB. I hope that isn't too offensive of a comment.

[SarahW]

Holier than thou? Meh, maybe.

But really, where in "regular" food do you get the full mouthfeel of raw cheese? where in "regular" food do you get the acidic tang of an actual fermented beverage or food? where in "regular" food do you get the deep taste of a bone broth? where in "regular" food do you get the melt-on-your-tongue fatty goodness of a piece of roasted actually-beef fat?

The best food I had on my Thanksgiving road trip was the Mongolian lamb dish at P.F. Changs, and the whole time I was thinking - where's the lamb taste? where's the fat?

I did, unfortunately, grow up with Country Crock and Miracle Whip and the fake whipped cream. My mother now has hypertension and numerous health problems, and as much as I try to tell her to ditch the vegetable oil, I don't think she makes the connection.