Accidental Hedonist - The Great Food Debates

The Great Food Debates

09/11/08, by Kate Hopkins

1230 views • Categories: Food

Over the course of my life, I have had dozens of lively discussions with people debating a wide range of topics relating to foods. Some of these were as short as a minute long, others lasted well beyond thirty minutes. Some of you will recognize these as recent polls.

Coke or Pepsi? Neither. Gimme an RC Cola made from cane sugar.

Thick crust or thin for your Pizza? What, are you kidding me? Thin crust is the only way to go.

Rare or Well Done for you steak? Medium Rare please. Only a hamburger is acceptable as well done.

Hot Dogs or Hamburgers? Hamburgers I can eat any time. I have to be in the mood for hot dogs.

Ketchup or Mustard on your hot dog? No matter how much one may argue, ketchup never belongs on a hot dog. *shudder* blech.

Cake or Pie? Are you mad? Pie.

Brownies with a fine, glossy crust, or soft cake brownies? Soft cake brownies are not brownies, they are, in fact, a soft cake.

Nuts in the brownies?Hell yes. But only walnuts, and only a limited amount. Anything else is pretentious.

Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream? Vanilla, as it can be used as a base for so many different flavors and toppings.

Blue cheese or ranch dressing with your Buffalo wings? What, do you want to make the people in Buffalo cry? Blue cheese is the only way to go, no matter what Pizza Hut tries to foist upon you.

Soup or Salad? I'm only choosing salads because I'm over forty and roughage is now a concern.

Butter on your Popcorn? Only if it's real butter. That crap they use at movie theaters is not butter and is best used in 4-cylinder engines.

Pork or Beef barbecue? Pork shoulder makes a far better barbecue.

Coffee or tea? Dude. I live in Seattle. Coffee.

Beer from a can or a bottle? There is no circumstance where I can see me purchasing beer from a can.

Oreos or Hydrox? Hydrox if memory serves, but they've been off the market for so long, I can no longer be certain.

Little Debbie or Hostess? When I was younger, Little Debbie won out, although I do miss the Tastycakes that came from Eastern Pennsylvania. Alas, this is another taste lost to childhood.

Bacon or Sausage? I'm leaning toward sausage here, mostly due to chorizo.

Eggs Scrambled or Fried? Fried, over easy, dippy if you know how to do it.

Permalink • 20 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: justcorbly [Visitor]

Your list includes several things i don't eat, or eat so infrequently that they don't count. That said....

Pizza should have a thin crust that doesn't overwhelm the toppings. The crust needs to be chewy, not paper-thin and crumbly like a potato chip.

Mustard is better than ketchup on just about everything.

Pie now, pie tomorow, pie forever. (Exception: The devil's food chocolate scratch cake with thick fudgy caramel icing my mother made when I was a kid.)

Brownies are not brown cake! They need nuts. Brownies, though, aren't candies. Watch the sugar.

I don't put toppings on ice cream. It's a tie between really excellent vanilla and really dark bitterish chocolate ice cream. Many vanillas don't make the cut.

Usually homemade soup at home, and salads out.

Coffee, although these days its decaf. Strong.

Bottled beer. (I'm also an advocate of screwcaps or real corks for wine. Those fake corks are annoying. They expand when they're pulled making it difficult to recork the bottle.)

Oreos from 20 years ago. I'm sure the recipe changed.

Scrambled eggs, but usually an omelette.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 07:27

Comment from: amanda [Visitor]

· http://foodporndaily.com

I'm with you on almost everything... except that imho cake most certainly competes with pie for being number one and (sadly) i grew up with parents who ate ketchup on hotdogs so i too eat ketchup on hotdogs! ;-)

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 07:48

Comment from: SunshineGrrrl [Visitor]

Coke or Pepsi? I only drink diet varieties anymore so I have to go with coke over pepsi these days. Used to be the other way around though.

Thick crust or thin for your Pizza? Thin, chewy, a little bit crackery and a light yeasty flavor. And remember, salt is our friend.

Hot Dogs or Hamburgers?
Chili Dogs are a rememberance of my grandfather, whom I miss very much. So I eat them in honor of him.

Ketchup or Mustard on your hot dog? Mustard, cheap and yellow.

Cake or Pie? Oh cruel fate. This is like choosing between your son or your daughter. If I had to choose, it would come down to the pie filling, but would likely end with pie.

Nuts in the brownies? Not on my watch bub.

Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream? Agreed, and I will add, that vanilla by itself is incredibly tasty and added to other sweet flavors generally tends to enhance.

Blue cheese or ranch dressing with your Buffalo wings?Whatever, I'm here for the wings.

Soup or Salad? Depends on the establishment. I refuse to pay for tiny bits of iceberg lettuce with a few shreds of carrot smothered in some god-forsaken sauce. These days, a lot of salad IS soup, and I'd rather have regular soup.

Butter on your Popcorn? Only if it's that crappy butter they put on at the movie theatre. Real butter in this case makes my jaw ache and I don't know why. It's weird.

Pork or Beef barbecue? Beef Brisket and ribs are the only real barbecue.

Coffee or tea? Tall Double Shot Vanilla and Caramel Syrup Latte please. Easy on the syrup pumps.

Beer from a can or a bottle? 9 times out of 10 I like beer from a keg. Whatever is on draft and not too hoppy. I bring home the bottles, BUT nothing beats a cold can of PBR on the perfect set of circumstances.

Oreos or Hydrox? Oreos actually taste like chocolate. As long as I' can scrape most of the white stuff off, I'm happy.

Little Debbie or Hostess? Usually hostess. I love the pies and LD just doesn't have a good equivalent.

Bacon or Sausage? Bacon with fried eggs, sausage with everything else or in a sandwich.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 07:49

Comment from: sarah [Visitor]

Hydrox!! And they're out again here in the East. It is just regional?

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 07:54

Comment from: scott (one food guy) [Visitor]

· http://onefoodguy.blogspot.com

I can think of one instance where you would want to buy beer in a can...beer can chicken! Also you could probably use an RC Cola, I wonder how RC Cola Chicken would taste?!

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 07:57

Comment from: ryan [Visitor]

Wittekerke is a decent witbier in a can. I enjoy it more than most bottle beers.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 10:07

Comment from: Matt [Visitor]

· http://breakerbreaker.wordpress.com

We align on most everything else, but if you think that good beer only comes in bottles, you're sorely mistaken.

If you can find it, Caldera brewing out of Ashland, OR has great pale ales and IPA's- all canned. Oskar has a whole line of good beer in really artful cans.

And then there's PBR.

Cans have a big place in the beer world, and its not just for shotgunning.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 10:19

Comment from: maura [Member]

· http://maurarose.livejournal.com/

1. Coke
2.I'm not too concerned about whether the crust is thick or thin, but I hate underdone crust. It has to be crispy.
3. Medium rare
4. Hamburgers, but I'm also a fan of the hotdog.
5. Mustard. There's no place for ketchup in my diet.
6. Pie, although cake is a close second.
7. What Kate said.
8. Also what Kate said.
9. Vanilla. Yum.
10. Blue cheese. Ranch dressing is just wrong.
11. Salad
12. Again, what Kate said.
13. Nothing beats barbecued brisket.
14. Coffee. Maura without her coffee is a very bad thing.
15. Mostly bottled beer, although some beer is much better from the tap.
16. Oreos. Is there even a debate?
17. I've never had a Little Debbie or a Hostess. I find them both very suspicious.
18. Bacon. No sausage. No, wait. Beh!
19. Fried eggs. I just wish I could fry them successfully.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 12:11

Comment from: Dave [Visitor]

When I was out in Boulder, CO I had some really good microbrew out of cans. Unfortunately, most beer out of cans is crap. PBR is an exception; however, if I'm drinking PBR, it's because I'm on a mission

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 12:51

Comment from: Nicole [Visitor]

Tasty cakes are still alive and well and easily purchased... at least on the east coast.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 14:47

Comment from: Melissa [Visitor]

· http://alosha7777.blogspot.com

The beer in a can thing - hubby and I drink Boddington's and also recently bought Old Speckled Hen. Because of that little carbonation thing that drops into when you open it, we really love it. And the taste is so mild. Mild, not weak.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 17:42

Comment from: Melissa [Visitor]

· http://aloshaskitchen.blogspot.com

Dammit, I keep leaving my personal blog linked in here...

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 18:14

Comment from: Dave [Visitor]

Kate - Hydrox are back!

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/thursday/partii/ny-fdsc5836073sep11a,0,5856764.column

Apart from that, I would only argue tea over coffee, but I am also a bourbon over scotch guy.

Permalink 09/11/08 @ 20:39

Comment from: Kate D. [Visitor]

Putting peanuts in your brownies is pretentious?! How do you figure? Honestly, it's really hard to take someone seriously with a proclamation like that...

Permalink 09/12/08 @ 07:53

Comment from: Kate Hopkins [Member]

· http://www.accidentalhedonist.com

Kate D,

I was being ironic. Peanuts clearly are not pretentious. My apologies for the seemingly unfunny joke.

Permalink 09/12/08 @ 08:07

Comment from: Kerry [Visitor]

· http://kerrysblahblahblog.blogspot.com/

Oh, yeah, the canned Caldera IPAs are AWESOME. And the can is totally cute. Very good packaging.

Thanks for pointing out, emphatically, that Buffalo wings should only ever come with blue cheese. Anything else is sacriledge. This from a south-of-Buffalo-born girl. And I don't even like wings.

Permalink 09/12/08 @ 21:26

Comment from: Wade [Visitor]

· http://juniorbird.com

Mmm... Krimpets. But they're not lost to youth, you can get them online! http://www.tastykake.com/

Permalink 09/13/08 @ 16:56

Comment from: Patricia Eddy [Visitor]

· http://www.cooklocal.com

Two suggestions.
1. Maui Brewing Company (if you're ever in Hawaii) sells their beer in cans. Their CoCoNut Porter is AMAZING. They are a small, local, brewery and only ship to a couple places outside of Hawaii including Japan and a few stores in CA.

2. Skagit River Ranch bacon deserves evaluation if you've never had it. Not saying it is better than chorizo, because of course, they are very different. But if you haven't, give that a try and see if chorizo still wins.

Permalink 09/14/08 @ 21:44

Comment from: jennifer [Visitor]

· http://attractions.uptake.com/florida/miami/157986478.html

"No matter how much one may argue, ketchup never belongs on a hot dog. *shudder* blech."

I'm one of those who would have to argue with you. Hot dog (or veggie dog, in my case) with ketchup, Dijon, and relish. Oh, and some diced onion if you have a sweet one handy.

"Brownies with a fine, glossy crust, or soft cake brownies? Soft cake brownies are not brownies, they are, in fact, a soft cake."

Thank you. When I read the question I had to ask if there IS any other kind of brownie than that with a fine, glossy crust!

"Butter on your Popcorn? Only if it's real butter. That crap they use at movie theaters is not butter and is best used in 4-cylinder engines."

:small voice: But I still love it. I know, I know....it's ending my life by weeks each time I have it. I still hafta have it when I go to the movies, tho.

Permalink 09/22/08 @ 09:56

Comment from: steve [Visitor]

RC is great, much better than coke or pepsi i totally agree with you

Permalink 09/18/09 @ 06:30

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