What seperates "golden era" from "midcentury"?

[LizzieMaine]

The point, of course, being that Mr. Slamin never had any illusions of being anything more than what he actually was -- a small-town baker who made small-town donuts for small-town people. He didn't try to get into glossy magazines, he didn't make a big deal about his "locally sourced lard," and he didn't try to create a synthetic "hip" atmosphere about his shop, which was a simple tin-fronted hole-in-the-wall between the First National grocery and a Sherwin-Williams paint store. The most important ingredient in Mr. Slamin's products was sincerity. That and the lard.

Ethan D. Baker, on the other hand, goes out of his way to get profiled in "Maine The Magazine," talks your ear off about his ingredients in hopes you'll think that justifies his jacked-up prices, and decorates his shop to look like it's straight out of Williamsburg because he saw an article in "Vice" talking about how cool Nieuw Brukelyn is. And in the end, his insincere, marketing-focused donut is no better than the one Mr. Slamin used to make.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I used to go into Slamin's Bakery in Belfast and get a sincere lard-fried plain donut for fifteen cents. I can't imagine anything to come out of Yupville that would ever taste as good as that. Of course that donut was made by an overweight, sweaty WW2 vet in a stained T-shirt, and not a rail-thin neck-bearded hipster who thinks he's a "chef."

That's my point though...I don't think wearing a sweaty tshirt and having greasy fingernails is required to fry a quality donut, anymore than such precludes you from doing so. It's about the food, not the image of the "chef".

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Ethan D. Baker, on the other hand, goes out of his way to get profiled in "Maine The Magazine," talks your ear off about his ingredients in hopes you'll think that justifies his jacked-up prices, and decorates his shop to look like it's straight out of Williamsburg because he saw an article in "Vice" talking about how cool Nieuw Brukelyn is. And in the end, his insincere, marketing-focused donut is no better than the one Mr. Slamin used to make.

And the shop is largely subsidised by Ethan's parents the Connecticut transplants who bulldozed that 1905 house off of Main Street and built a McMansion in its place.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's my point though...I don't think wearing a sweaty tshirt and having greasy fingernails is required to fry a quality donut, anymore than such precludes you from doing so. It's about the food, not the image of the "chef".

If the food is good, then he shouldn't need to position himself as a preening "artisan" to sell it. It would be just as good if he sold it out of a nondescript storefront without all the pretentious foodie blather. I'm not interested in supporting that kind of ridiculous, insincere marketing. I'd rather eat a day-old cellophane-wrapped mass-produced donut from the outlet store, because it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it actually is. I really, really hate self-conscious food.

 

[Fading Fast]

I get the obnoxiousness of some of these young pretentious "chefs" making a "gourmet" grill cheese sandwich or doughnut who blather on about the locally sourced blah, blah, blah. I can't stand that nonsense and when it also comes with a silly stupid price tag, I just walk away. But I think HH has a point too - some of the new ways food is being prepared and some of the new ingredients are very good and interesting and not all of it is overpriced. Since in most cases, I don't have to hear the chef, I only care if the food is good and decent value.

Also, and living in NYC, I see every extreme (maybe people do everywhere, but I didn't see it growing up in New Jersey) - from pretension-on-steroids "artisan" marshmallows (for $10 a bag or some stupid price) to an old-world bakery founded in 1890 by immigrants and still run by the same family, in the same building, with the same ovens (or the "new" ones from 1927) where the prices seem to be from twenty years ago.

But there is a lot in between. I was at a outdoor markets the other week and a guy (who I don't think is making squat at this) was selling chocolate bars off of what looked like a card table from the 1960s (not "precious," but what he could find) and explaining how different beans and different ways of preparing the chocolate changes the taste and texture - and he was happily giving away samples as he explained that this piece would be a touch bitter for this reason or that. Was he also selling, yes, but my impression is that this young man simply loves what he is doing, has an outsized passion for chocolate, its history, its variety, its processing and its flavors.

I'm glad this country affords him the opportunity to pursue that passion. Maybe one day he'll become successful and will be grateful or maybe he'll become a pretentious snob. I don't know and don't care because that is in an unknown future. Today, he is a nice guy, pursuing a very narrow passion who seemed genuinely happy to share that passion with anyone who cared.

Last point. Do I love a good Hersey bar - yep, a good Three Musketeers bar - yep, and this time a year, a good Russell Stover fake orange-flavored marshmallow pumpkin - yep, but I can also appreciate that there are - and I'm going to say it - better ingredients that can produce a higher quality product with more nuanced flavors and textures. In my small brain - one isn't better in a cosmic sense, or a political sense, or a social justice sense - they are just different products with different purposes and I can enjoy them both.


.

 

[dh66]

Sadly, today there is a whole generation of folks out there who have bought into the sham that you have to go to some kind of school to do anything, and they genuinely believe that because they accrued a mountain of debt going to culinary school that they are now somehow endowed with an ability to make a better donut or cupcake or barbecue sandwich or whatever than a fat veteran in a dirty t-shirt or someone's grandma.

 

[dh66]

And that attitude ain't golden era or mid-century.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think that's a big part of it, and it just gets ridiculous when you're talking about a commodity as simple as a plain donut.

I got a bit of insight into how the game works this past summer. Two of my theatre kids got part time jobs in a local boutique donut bakery -- they didn't last long because getting up at 3 am didn't agree with them, which I warned them would happen -- but while they were there, they'd bring me boxes of culls. These were off-shaped, broken donuts that weren't suitable for sale, but which were otherwise perfectly edible. And ed them I did -- they were quite tasty. *But they didn't taste objectively better than the ones I used to get from Mr. Slamin forty years ago,* and for good reason. They were using the same basic ingredients he used -- flour, milk, eggs, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract -- and frying them in lard. There was nothing mystical about the ingredients -- they were bulk sacks of King Arthur flour and Domino sugar from the local wholesale store, plain old Rumford baking powder, McCormick cinnamon and nutmeg, Morrell's lard, nothing you wouldn't find on the shelf of any supermarket today. There was nothing artisanal or special about the way these two minimum-wage kids made up the batter or dropped them in the fat, and nothing intrinsically boutique about the finished product --- except the marketing.

And that's what you pay extra for in these high-end places. The marketing. The image. And the sense that you, yourself, are a connoisseur of the Finer Things quite unlike those lumpy old proles eating their breakfast out of a paper bag.

Meanwhile, I just had a twenty-something fish clerk say to me, and I quote, "Smoked haddock? Nobody eats that anymore." And then he tried to sell me smoked salmon.

Nieuw Brueklyn now extends all the way to Penobscot Bay, and the eradication of my native culture is complete.

 

[jamespowers]

Nieuw Brueklyn now extends all the way to Penobscot Bay, and the eradication of my native culture is complete.

You are lucky you can even remember the culture. Those types came out here and by the 70s they had screwed up what we used to have for hippie dippyism. :doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are advantages to growing up in a time bubble.

 

[jamespowers]

There are advantages to growing up in a time bubble.

Mine burst a long time ago---darn it!

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

nothing intrinsically boutique about the finished product --- except the marketing.

And that's what you pay extra for in these high-end places. The marketing. The image.

Yes. This is why I despise those fancy coffee stands with their "baristas" or whatever the hell they call them. Just give me a cup of coffee fer cryin' out loud! :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

Yes. This is why I despise those fancy coffee stands with their "baristas" or whatever the hell they call them.

And the hipster morons behind the counter and the ones that hangout in the place drinking coffee.:doh:

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

wow! We sound like our dads! :rofl:

 

[jamespowers]

wow! We sound like our dads! :rofl:

My father would say he couldn't care less if he was still around.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Thinking about this discussion made me go to Shipley this morning and get donuts. They weren't $3 a piece either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm just about to head off to a fifteen-hour day at work and my first stop will be Dunkin's drive-thru. One of those split-smoked-sausage egg-and-cheese deals will see me thru till suppertime.

 

[jamespowers]

I'm just about to head off to a fifteen-hour day at work and my first stop will be Dunkin's drive-thru. One of those split-smoked-sausage egg-and-cheese deals will see me thru till suppertime.

Get me one too.

 

[Bugguy]

Don't get me going about Dunkin Donuts... We owned an independent bakery on the Illinois/Wisconsin state line for a couple of years and my wife, a genuine, schooled pastry chef, had her heart set on operating the only first-class bakery in Antioch, IL. The competition was reheated DD donuts at the local gas stations. By necessity we fried and sold donuts.

There are about 25 grades of commercial flour based on the amount of egg they contain. Dunkin Donuts falls about 23, while we were bakers and bought at about 5 or 6. Long story short... we had folks drive about 20 miles round trip to save 50 cents on a dozen donuts at DD. Quality meant nothing - we lost to brand and cheap. Demoralizing. We're both back "working for the man", figuratively, of course.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Don't get me going about Dunkin Donuts... We owned an independent bakery on the Illinois/Wisconsin state line for a couple of years and my wife, a genuine, schooled pastry chef, had her heart set on operating the only first-class bakery in Antioch, IL. The competition was reheated DD donuts at the local gas stations. By necessity we fried and sold donuts.

There are about 25 grades of commercial flour based on the amount of egg they contain. Dunkin Donuts falls about 23, while we were bakers and bought at about 5 or 6. Long story short... we had folks drive about 20 miles round trip to save 50 cents on a dozen donuts at DD. Quality meant nothing - we lost to brand and cheap. Demoralizing. We're both back "working for the man", figuratively, of course.

Maybe your tshirts weren't sweaty enough.