Hipsters, tourists, and "artisinal" devil crabs...

[Zombie_61]

To be honest, I've had pasture-raised beef and I've had plain old styrofoam-tray beef, and I honestly can't tell the difference. I'm sure the steer can, but from a gastronomic point of view they seem to me and my prole palate to be indistinguishable. Is this like wine, and I'm supposed to be able to pick out top notes of clover and alfalfa over a supple meadow-fescue finish?

Except for certain cuts like Prime Rib or Tri-tip, the only differences I've noticed are that the "better" cuts generally have less gristle, more fat (for flavor), and have been beaten into submission so severely that they're easier to chew. Otherwise, the flavor generally depends on how they're prepared before the meat meets the heat (i.e., marinades and seasonings).

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
My training (such as it is) has it that the cheaper cuts are generally the more flavorful, but tougher. So they require lower, slower cooking.

I'm about to cook a pot roast, per the little lady's (hah!) request when she departed home this morning. Luck had it that nice fat boneless chuck roasts were on sale this afternoon at King Soopers for $2.98 a pound. I bought three, two of which are are now in the freezer.

 

[Harp]

^^^^^


I'm about to cook a pot roast, per the little lady's (hah!) request when she departed home this morning...

that's sweet.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My beef technique is simplicity itself. Buy the least expensive slab of rib-eye in the meat case, throw it in a frying pan with some butter and some Worcestershire sauce, cook it five minutes on each side, and eat it. Then put the plate down on the floor and let the cat lick up anything left behind. If they saw me on the same side of the street as one of those black-turtleneck places they'd bar the door.

 

[Paisley]

Originally, it had more to do with omega-3 v. omega-6 fatty acid ratios. Some people preferred pasture-raised because it was better for the environment.

Don't get me started on wine, and everything else the "whole, unprocessed food" crowd adores. It takes a lot of processing to turn grapes into wine, cocoa beans into dark chocolate, and leaves into stevia. There's nothing wrong with any of those foods, but they're far from whole and unprocessed.

 

[Paisley]

My beef technique is simplicity itself. Buy the least expensive slab of rib-eye in the meat case, throw it in a frying pan with some butter and some Worcestershire sauce, cook it five minutes on each side, and eat it. Then put the plate down on the floor and let the cat lick up anything left behind. If they saw me on the same side of the street as one of those black-turtleneck places they'd bar the door.

I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes.

 

[scottyrocks]

The other day, while food shopping, I noticed that the rather wilted bundles of broccoli that were twice as expensive as the heathy-looking bundles of broccoli were the organic ones. So let's see, twice as much money for less stuff that looks like it's been in a washing machine? No thanks.

 

[Frankie Fingers]

I blame the hipsters. So many young kids today are more than willing to pay exorbitant amounts for not only their food but their living spaces. It's the main reason Brooklyn (or North Brooklyn at least) has gone to hell in a handbasket. And everyone rushes to cater to these knobs because they're more than willing to spend a fortune, so everyone wants a piece of that pie.

Why would you sell someone a $6 hamburger when you can sell some young hipster a free-range, kobe beef and kale burger for $28? Millennials love crying about how they have debt and no work, yet they'll spend $2700 in rent to live in Greenpoint (Greenpoint?! That place always was bottom of the barrel because I'm a native New Yorker. No one in their right mind would spend that much to live in Greenpoint!) and spend a fortune on their food because it's artisanal.

There was a local Greek place in Astoria that my fiancee and I loved. We'd go there at least once a week. Real mom and pop. Small-ish eating area, maybe 5 medium tables (4-6 people) and 5 small tables (2 people), warm brick and wood interior, well lived in, old posters on the wall of Anthony Quinn and travel agency type posters of Greece. We've been going there religiously for at least 12 years.

Last summer they closed for "renovation". What reopened there is an atrocity. They bought the building behind them, connected them and opened it all up into a gigantic restaurant style place. Modern hipster-loving industrial design, very sterile and cold. Lots of steel and glass. Entirely killed the welcoming family feel of the space. Gutted my fiancee and I. We've gone there maybe twice since they reopened and neither of us can really bear or tolerate the vibe of the place. Same owners, same waitress but has none of the local charm of the old place. Astoria's getting heavily gentrified as hipsters find more places to destroy, like locusts, and a lot of the restaurants in the area have gone under similar renovations so that their aesthetic appeals to hipsters, so it was just a matter of time.

Maybe selling out their old customers to win over the new ones worked out for them, I don't know. That place was very out of the way for us but we'd make the trip every week because we loved it tons. But we really haven't been back there so maybe they're flourishing.

Sometimes it's hard not to feel like an analog man in a digital world.

 

[Frunobulax]

I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes.

And big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer...


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Paisley]

Hipsters in my neck of the woods go to the very unpretentious little grocery co-op that sells pastured meat, eggs and dairy from family farms here in Indiana, with a deli that serves meat from a local charcuterie. One one hand, it sounds precious; OTOH, it supports old-school jobs and ways of life.

 

[Bamaboots]

And big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer...

good God almighty, which way do I steer....


I'll never amend my carnivorous habits!

 

[MisterCairo]

Hipsters in my neck of the woods go to the very unpretentious little grocery co-op that sells pastured meat, eggs and dairy from family farms here in Indiana, with a deli that serves meat from a local charcuterie. One one hand, it sounds precious; OTOH, it supports old-school jobs and ways of life.

There is nothing wrong, and a whole lotta right, with buying locally grown and raised produce.

If someone can tell me vegetables from China are better than those from up the road, please do so.

We buy corn on the cob in season from a farm that is about 400 feet up the road from us. We have pork, beef and chicken producers galore, and even a wild boar farm (I know, contradiction in terms, but they roam the farm's woodlot and need to be captured).

It helps living in farm country, but still, supporting the locals when possible? Nothing hipster about that.

 

[blueAZNmonkey]

The other day, while food shopping, I noticed that the rather wilted bundles of broccoli that were twice as expensive as the heathy-looking bundles of broccoli were the organic ones. So let's see, twice as much money for less stuff that looks like it's been in a washing machine? No thanks.

As someone who grows his own heirloom in the backyard, I have to say the flavor of a truly organic, heirloom vegetable is much better than the flavor of a larger, bland, Monsanto-manipulated steroid vegetables. If someone is willing to pay a little extra for the purity of heirloom/organic, I see nothing wrong with that. Of course, many businesses have been able to manipulate the system and find ways to label things "organic" and markup the price even though the product is far from organic. I'm definitely opposed to this practice.

I blame the hipsters. So many young kids today are more than willing to pay exorbitant amounts for not only their food but their living spaces. It's the main reason Brooklyn (or North Brooklyn at least) has gone to hell in a handbasket. And everyone rushes to cater to these knobs because they're more than willing to spend a fortune, so everyone wants a piece of that pie.

Why would you sell someone a $6 hamburger when you can sell some young hipster a free-range, kobe beef and kale burger for $28? Millennials love crying about how they have debt and no work, yet they'll spend $2700 in rent to live in Greenpoint (Greenpoint?! That place always was bottom of the barrel because I'm a native New Yorker. No one in their right mind would spend that much to live in Greenpoint!) and spend a fortune on their food because it's artisanal.

I'm not entirely convinced that millennials generally pay more for food simply because it's labeled "artisanal." I think in many instances, an artisanal ware has a distinct taste and is usually offered in a distinct atmosphere. Sometimes that's what you want when going out on date night. I'm also not convinced that it's just the millennials who are feeding this trend. I know a lot of folks who are into the hip wine bar in downtown who are not themselves twenty-something hipsters. I mean -- my dad is a software engineer nearing retirement, and he'd much rather buy the 16$ sirloin burger than the 6$ Carl's Jr one.

As for the housing prices -- If the area you're referring to is anything like San Diego, I'm not sure the consumer has much of a say at all regarding how much their residence costs. All anyone can do is weigh the ideal area vs affordability and make their decision accordingly. It's also possible that young money coming into an old neighborhood allows that neighborhood to invest in itself for the better.

Maybe selling out their old customers to win over the new ones worked out for them, I don't know. That place was very out of the way for us but we'd make the trip every week because we loved it tons. But we really haven't been back there so maybe they're flourishing.

Sometimes it's hard not to feel like an analog man in a digital world.

I would guess that this business's decision to change was profit-driven, otherwise it's really not a good "business."

 

[Paisley]

good God almighty, which way do I steer....


I'll never amend my carnivorous habits!

There is a restaurant near my house called the Steer-Inn with a picture of a steer on the sign.

 

[sheeplady]

As a point, a significant portion of beef in markets is from former dairy cows. When I went through Ag school they were recommending no more than 6 years (a dairy cow will easily live 12 and be productive at least until 10), bit you see a production drop off at around 4-6 years. They don't just sing Betsy out to pasture. Dairy cows are also culled for illness as the risk of antibiotic contamination in the milk is higher than culling. No large farm ive ever seen treats it's sick cows... they go on the processing truck.

Also, if I remember right, a cow is only producing milk for about 14 months per breeding... even if 2 years, that's more than replacement rate. (And bulls aren't generally kept at all by 95% of farmers now... And I do not blame them.)

Nothing is wrong with any of this. If you consume dairy, you have to be ok with dairy cows being culled and made into hamburger. Your cheap hamburger at the market is not all beef cattle- a good portion of it is ground up dairy cow that walked on the truck...

 

[Benny Holiday]

Along those lines...here in Texas, we have plenty of real working cowboys, but also more than our fair share of the drugstore kind too. A cowboy you say? You live in a downtown loft and drive a Prius.

You get that in Newtown here, an inner city Sydney suburb on the doorstep of the CBD. There are hillbillies that drive pick up trucks and wear cowboy hats, shirts and boots, an they've never seen so much as a blade of grass in their lives, and gasp at the thought of actually driving 20 minutes west of the city, let alone a hour where you might see some trees or a horse.

 

[scottyrocks]

As for the housing prices -- If the area you're referring to is anything like San Diego, I'm not sure the consumer has much of a say at all regarding how much their residence costs. All anyone can do is weigh the ideal area vs affordability and make their decision accordingly. It's also possible that young money coming into an old neighborhood allows that neighborhood to invest in itself for the better.



I would guess that this business's decision to change was profit-driven, otherwise it's really not a good "business."

That section of Brooklyn has been going through a building boom I don't think I ever seen the likes of previously around here. If you drive up Flatbush Ave to near its northern end, you suddenly come to what is beginning to look like mid-town Manhattan.

 

[tonyb]

The least misty-eyed people I know are my dairymen relatives bank in Wisconsin. Modern agriculture IS industrial, for the most part. The producers' economic survival demands they adopt "factory" practices.

There's a place for the more traditional farming methods, but if you'd rather pay a buck ninety-nine per gallon for your nonfat milk, as I do, rather than twice that much or more, well, "factory farming" is what you get.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are still family-run dairy farms in Maine, because farmers organized to protect their interests in the 1930s and we have price controls on milk, but the days of going out with a stool and a pail to milk old Bossy are long gone. Milking machinery was in widespread use here by the end of the thirties, and remains so today.

 

[blueAZNmonkey]

My best friend runs a goat share here in San Diego, so fresh goat milk and cheese is readily available at a very low cost. Regulations breed creativity.