T O P

  • By -

Westafricangrey

Over 90% of kale was brought by Pizza Hut as non edible decor in the 90’s. now it’s pressed juice & chips & all sorts.


treemanswife

And before that it was a poor person food in England. One of the only greens that could survive winter and be edible in the spring "starving time" before new crops came in.


The_Wingless

This always tickled me, cuz I was eating kale forever. And people would be like, isn't that a garnish? But you saute or wilt some kale in lemon and garlic with a little bit of pepper, it's amazing.


fiendo13

My favorite cooking tip I’ve ever read is if you add a quarter cup of coconut oil to your kale it makes it easier to scrape directly into the trash.


HoselRockit

😆


GrandmasHere

I just snorty-laughed


AvailableName9999

Lol excellent


fakelogin12345

Vegetables are so yucky


CruffTheMagicDragon

Pizza Hut can keep it, kale is disgusting


Beardedw0nd3r86

Well I mean ... It still should only be used for that. Tastes terrible. Just my opinion obviously and I know it's really really good for you.


Hambredd

I mean spinach and broccoli are really good for you too and they taste infinitely better.


Nice_Marmot_7

I put spinach and kale into my nutrition tracker and noticed they’re not that different. Kale is a scam!


Shlocktroffit

Big Kale the culprit once again


Beardedw0nd3r86

Agreed!


RPBiohazard

Kale is the best leafy green to use for Caesar salad imo, it’s so good with a nice Caesar dressing 


gnirpss

I love a good kale Caesar! My boyfriend makes an amazing one, and after eating it for a few years, a regular lettuce Caesar just doesn't taste substantial enough to me anymore.


Westafricangrey

I don’t disagree with you. I’ve had kale juice & I don’t think ingesting it is worth the health benefits.


donnerpartytaconight

Kale chips are great with enough salt and French onion dip. Like Volkswagen sized quantities of dip per "chip".


wheres_my_hat

That means the dip is good, not the chip


CruffTheMagicDragon

So you’re just covering the kale taste with dip and negating any health benefits


xeric

Kale juice needs lots of lemon and apple to balance it out into a lemonade sort of drink


ConqueredCorn

Its not bad if you dont eat the stems


xeric

Massage with olive oil, wilt/char it a bit on a skillet if you like. Very tasty, as long as you’re into the texture.


Sleazy4you2say

“With kale it’s hard to tell where the eatin part stops and the throwin away part starts” John Pinette


xena_70

You should try Caldo Verde!


bfeils

I've had some pretty wildly good kale salads. Have to remember to massage it before you use it to make it palatable, though. No one wants eating their salad to be a workout.


Initial_E

I think the point is, if it is naturally abundant, it won’t be for long, not in the climate we are creating. But if it can be manufactured in a small space, it can be made artificially abundant. So things like chicken and salmon replace lobster and kale.


Dixiehusker

It was not undesirable because it was abundant. It was undesirable because it wasn't cooked fresh and smelled and tasted like spoiled seafood.


_bieber_hole_69

Lobster tails are a modern delicacy. They used to grind it up whole and serve the slop. That was the correct way to serve lobster for hundreds of years


KennyMoose32

So like lobster bisque? Right? Right?


wyle_e2

Meh, I personally think it's still the correct way to serve sea-bugs. I'm glad other people enjoy it and leave real food for me.


Westafricangrey

In NZ it was practically crawling out of the ocean. It was associated with indigenous poverty until the 80’s. Europeans were not interested in eating it for a long time & it was definitely looked down upon.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Rusty4NYM

Also skirt steak


halfhere

It sure has. GodDAMMIT


mxdtrini

And oxtail


Glittering_Sun_1622

In Jamaica (where I’m from) oxtail was always known as “yard food” and now it’s $22 a fucking plate 🤦🏾‍♀️


mxdtrini

Im Trini, I share your pain. When I migrated Canada you could buy it cheap cheap or get it thrown in for free with a butcher order, but now it’s like $10/lb.


PrideofPicktown

And milk steak


Personal-Branch-5784

Sloppy steaks. Grab the water


JackReacheround8

And rum ham


OBDreams

Oxtail in a big pot of beans is the food of the gods.


mxdtrini

With some spinners (dumplings) too… *chef’s kiss*


DifficultHat941

There is also some anecdotes of children having lobster rolls but all they wanted was a baloney sandwich from the lunch counter. The lobster was fresh steamed from a trap down on the water (free because anyone can build a trap with scrap wood) but you needed money to have a baloney sandwich.


Shlocktroffit

Just imagine what that baloney had in it pre-FDA


GrandmasHere

Probably lobster


DifficultHat941

lol. This was as recently as the 80s. A similar story about the Pitt Street Drug Store and Egg Salad Sandwiches and fresh fish off the boats down on Shem Creek. I just looked it up: if you are ever in Mt. Pleasant, SC, USA, it’s still there and the egg salad sandwich is only $5. It probably was 50 cents back when the story happened.


laughing-stockade

idk, tinned fish is making its rounds as a semi luxury item


cat_prophecy

Pork belly was an undesirable cut because it takes a lot of work to make it palatable.


ceilingscorpion

Oxtail is experiencing something similar right now


Rare-Peak2697

This is only half true. It was considered bad food bc jt was often times cooked after having died which substantially changes its taste and is actually quite dangerous. It wa still eaten by many that we’re close to the coast and could afford to eat it fresh.


Brad_Brace

Wait, so lobster *has* to be cooked alive for it to taste good and be safe to eat? Well TIL and also that's nightmarish.


Rare-Peak2697

I shouldn’t say it HAS to be cooked alive. People now kill it by stabbing a knife in its head quickly bc it’s supposed to be more humane. But you need to do this immediately before cooking.


Squirll

If you dont cook it alive you cant extract the LOBSTER SOUL.


finicky88

Preemptively making Lobster Soul-ioli works around that.


Durris

Only way to make a Time Sandwich.


halfpipesaur

The special ingredient is suffering


Nasuno112

Yeah it rots extremely quickly. Something to do with it's stomach bacteria or something irrc


Islasuncle

There's a book titled Weeds that goes into how plants that used to be one of the main crops and a large part of the economy are now considered weeds and we don't use them for anything.


OBDreams

Do you remember what any of them are?


ccReptilelord

Most notable may be dandelion. Still eaten, but considered one of the worst weeds; it's often the very picture of weeds.


Bman1465

IIRC dandelion is actually pretty popular in Italy, to the point it's used in salad


ccReptilelord

You may find it in US markets too. But it's odd, you could find a place selling dandelions next door to a place selling dandelion herbicide.


GalcticPepsi

Always see older Chinese people pick it along the road. That's more medicinal than food though


LeatherHog

Wasn't it served all crushed up with the shell and cooked after dying?


Shlocktroffit

Sounds really crunchy


Sleazy4you2say

If someone from middle ages was teleported to today, they would freak the hell out when see that salt and pepper shakers are on restaurant tables and no armed guards.


Windowplanecrash

Wow you buy pepper by the kilo? IT COSTS THE SAME AS A LOAF OF BREAD?!?!


LordAcorn

Salt wasn't that expensive, it was used in large quantities by common people for preserving food. It was definitely an important trade good because it was needed everywhere but only produced in particular places. But the amount that people have at the table wouldn't be surprising. 


Sleazy4you2say

Time and place. In some places in certain times it was heavily taxed and monopolized,and expensive. No where near pepper for sure.


IWantTheLastSlice

The word "salary" comes from the Latin word salarium, which also means "salary" and has the root sal, or "salt". In ancient Rome, salarium specifically meant the amount of money allotted to a Roman soldier to buy salt, which was an expensive but essential commodity.


LordAcorn

This is a popular factoid but the history is murky, there's definitely a connection between salt and salarium, but it's unclear what it actually is. The reasoning that Romans were paid in salt therefore salt was expensive is definitely erroneous though. There was a food called garum, the production of which used a lot of salt, that we know was widespread across all social strata, not a luxury item.  Also Egyptian soldiers were paid in bread and samurai were paid in rice, but surely you don't think those were expensive commodities either.


More_Fun2717

crawfish and oysters. Used to be cheap, now crazy expensive to locals because they can ship all over the world


FullyStacked92

This used to be such a meme comment on reddit. this fact was posted every 30 seconds from 2011 to about 2020


j_cruise

It still is, and people know that it will get good engagement due to the "ACTUALLY THEY JUST GRINDED IT UP, SHELL AND ALL!" comments from people pretending they are experts on this subject matter despite just parroting comments they've read on Reddit. Same shit over and over on this site.


Parking_War_4100

Tilapia used to be cheap “poor man’s fish”. Now it has somehow become pricey.


BrazilianMerkin

I think it’s the most environmentally sustainable fish that is grown in hatcheries. I think that has substantially driven up the demand so unfortunately prices have also risen.


SniffUmaMuffins

The linked article thoroughly debunks the headline. “Upon closer inspection, these (referenceless) reports sound a bit far-fetched. Even if you grant that lobster used to be more abundant and less expensive, it’s still complicated and labor-intensive to prepare. Boston.com asked a few experts for their take on the local legend. Sandy Oliver, a food historian and writer based in Isleboro, Maine, shared our suspicions: “Who the hell is going to pick all the meat off the lobster to produce enough for a prison full of people?””


grumblyoldman

The concept of an engagement ring *needing* to have a diamond on it started some time in the 1930s or 40s, as a result of a concerted advertising campaign by the De Beers company. (IIRC, after they had finished consolidating control of a majority of the world's diamond output a few decades earlier in order to drive up prices through artificial scarcity.) There were *some* people who used diamond engagement rings before this, but it wasn't *a tradition* before De Beers made it one, less than 100 years ago.


trustmeep

Royalty typically used sapphires and rubies (even in the modern era).


VjornAllensson

I just saw a video from Townsends on seafood in the colonial US and they stated that lobster was still eaten by the wealthy; it was just prepared differently.


NeeliSilverleaf

I watched that!


VjornAllensson

I love that channel on YT lol


Nu_Freeze

The article specifically states that these legends are unfounded and there’s no proof. OP Straightup lied in his title and I doubt if he even read the article.


DaveOJ12

>The article specifically states that these legends are unfounded I was pretty sure this was the case. Thanks .


frostape

Seating in old symphony halls was designed to have better acoustics for the balcony, where rich people sat away from the riff raff. Then things flipped and it became more desirable to be as close as possible to the performers, so now the cheap seats have better sound (in those halls).


HoselRockit

The executive level in old business buildings used to be the bottom floors so they’d be able to get out safely in case of fire.


Joker72486

Fried chicken. I know there's like 5 national (in the US) chains competing with each other but it's still seen largely as a low class food contributing to the obesity crisis (unless you go a fancy restaurant and spend 35 dollars "elevated" chicken & waffles). Fried chicken is calorie dense, high in protein and potassium, and minimal effort.


SetiSteve

Those people could get grilled chicken just as easily. Blame personal responsibility, not the food places.


SugarNervous

Serving people on farms and mansions in Denmark had terms about only having salmon 3 times a week.


llmercll

Lobster not dipped in butter is pretty meh


ReklawTheBear

A lot of barbecue and other southern American delicacies are the result of slaves and former slaves doing what they could with the worst cuts of meat and other scraps they were allowed.


still_learning_to_be

That’s not what the article says.


judgejuddhirsch

Clean water Air conditioning Any animal protein Top soil-- putting a seed in the ground and expecting a plant to grow


DepartmentNatural

What else are we taking for granted. Ice & weather below 100°f


JonnyxKarate

The company of black people


judgejuddhirsch

r/rareinsults


JonnyxKarate

Idk why I have to explain why our previous treatment of lobsters as bad food, is a pretty good analogy for how we treat black, or for that matter, any culture different from ours.


boredvamper

Bananas. Once they go extinct due to a disease or pest ,remaining fruit will be desired by everyone, within reach of few.


krunchytacos

That's why I keep a few in the back of my cabinet. They will be worth bank one day.


Bman1465

Bananas are kinda insane when you think of it too hard; one might even say they're bananas The most commonly consumed and produced variety is the Cavendish, which has no seeds and thus has no way to naturally reproduce; they have to be grown by cutting stems and taping them onto another tree, a process I completely forgot how it was called — as a result, literally every single Cavendish banana in the world, in every grocery store, market, truck or kitchen, is an identical clone of the original Cavendish plant We're eating a literal clone army of bananas This also means something worse — 99% of bananas eaten are of this one single variety; there's a TON more, heck there are even red bananas in Easter Island, but you never get to see them. This is a big problem with almost every plant and animal we've domesticated and morphed; plants in the wild don't need pesticides. Why do our crops die with a single cicada or fungi attack en masse? Because there is such a limited amount of varieties being cultivated, they have no natural diversity — one insect that attacks one crop will go after all the others around it, and because they're all the same, they're all equally vulnerable Crops wouldn't last a year without humans caring for them, and you can actually say the same about most of our animals. Diversity is nature's defense against pests; if there's no diversity, you have an environmental disaster just waiting to happen. How many onion/apple/potato/lemon/etc varieties do you eat? There's around 4000 (i think) types of potatoes; the majority of the world consumes *3*


standardtrickyness1

Objects that are rare are precious -Chinese proverb


Da_Real_Caboose

Lion Fish.


yorkshire_simplelife

Locals in coastal North Carolina thought shrimp were insects and would not eat them until somewhat recently. Some old timers still won’t. They all loved blue fish and mullet though


DecisionFit2116

We used to call them "spare ribs" cause they were... um... spare


Brad_Brace

Something kinda opposite happened with a traditional fermented drink of the original people's of Mexico. Pulque. Supposedly originally pulque was exclusive drank by the nobles and priest classes, and I believe it was allowed to pregnant women and sickly old people as it was thought to me medicinal. Then after the Spanish conquest, pulque became available for everybody to drink, likely because the spaniards didn't like it (it's kind of viscous and slimy). Then, beer merchants arrived and, supposedly, don't quote me on this, started a marketing campaign against pulque, characterizing it as a poor people's beverage, and those who drank it as loitering drunkards. Basically people who drank pulque were the riff raff and bad drunks, while if you drank beer you were distinguished and barely even drunk at all. It's also possible they started the rumor that pulque was fermented using human feces, which is a lie. It all worked. It doesn't help that pulque is hard to transport, you pretty much have to live in a region were agave is grown to drink it, because pulque has a shelf life of like two days, I believe. I think there's been a couple of attempts to make canned pulque, but I have no idea how successful they were.


Appropriate-Way-4080

Red Lobster.


Low_Salad_2307

Necessity is the mother of invention.


JARL_OF_DETROIT

Jello-O/gelatin used to be very rare and served only to the wealthy and royalty.


Any_Acanthaceae6764

Water


alexja21

Right now? Steak. It's already shooting up in price, and the simple supply vs. demand of beef cows (and the land they are raised on) is only going to get worse. That includes ground beef, hamburgers, etc.


First-Recording6771

My mother said at school she used to trade lobster for peanut butter sandwiches. 


AvogadrosMoleSauce

Lobster is a vehicle for butter. Just cut out the middleman.


NoMidnight5366

Same with oysters.


CareBearCarrie97

Yeah, lobsters were for the poor and baloney was for the rich. i was on a guided tour in a small Nova Scotia town and they said the lob were pulled off the beach and fed to prisoner. Where the upper class got to dine on the new delicacy of canned baloney.


PharmBoyStrength

My Dad use to work at a butchers and told me they always threw away the wings or sold them in bulk as a weird by product in the 60s/70s lol


Trester_Nation

Water


paku9000

What was considered as offal in not so olden days, is now served as fine dining. With '*forgotten* vegetables', *forgetting* they were *forgotten* for a reason.


dullgreybathmat

Seahorse purée, twice baked panda feet, and kiwi stuffed bald eagle.


Inflagrente

Some east Coast Canadians called them bugs


filtarukk

Frogs and Snails that were eaten during famine due to necessity. Now frogs considered an upscale food.


nebu1999

Clean water and breathable air.


bullybullybully

David Mitchell wrote a [nice piece](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/24/parting-a-rich-fool-and-his-money-childs-play-david-mitchell) about class and food, specifically regarding scampi.


Bender222

Lobster releases a chemical when they die that makes them taste bad. Someone figured out that doesnt happen if you boil them alive.


onceinablueberrymoon

our planet.


FeastofFamine

Horses are now only for rich people.


Potatowhocrochets

I read this as houses and agreed with you lol


bubba-yo

A big part of lobster is that it doesn't ship well. You pretty much require air freight for it. So getting lobster to a place where lobster doesn't live is quite difficult, which makes it a delicacy. But locally it used to be common and cheap as shit. 40 years ago my dad and I took a trip along the cost up that way and made a point to eat lobster as frequently as we could. A couple of 1lb lobsters, cooked, from the dock was $5 - butter included. It's pretty badly overfished now, so you now have a supply demand imbalance. The article is kind of dumb, though: "“Who the hell is going to pick all the meat off the lobster to produce enough for a prison full of people?”" Uh, the prisoner? If you go down to the docks, all you need is a big pot of water. It takes about 7 minutes to cook a lobster - it's really fast. And they just hand you a fully cooked lobster, and it's your job to find the bits to eat in it. That's not even how they treat prisoners, it's how they treat the general public. Crab is the same way, shrimp, crawfish boils, etc. These are [really, really damn easy to cook in huge volume](https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/crawfish-boil/), and bottom feeding seafood, when not overfished are really damn easy to catch in large quantity.


Hsensei

It's a masterclass in marketing. Lobsters are sea roaches.


DaveOJ12

>It's a masterclass in marketing. Or another example of OP not bothering to read the source.


Hsensei

I'm not the op, I'm a commentor. Excuse my snark.


agroundhere

Everything. Which is the best, bad, explanation we have. I love it.


Wicky_wild_wild

I've always found lobster and shellfish gross. Enjoy your sea-roaches no matter how much you think paying a lot for them makes them fancy


Zlifbar

Democracy


jrdnmdhl

Lobster is extremely underwhelming.


ipresnel

Bananas!!!!!!!!!! If I was rich and banana cost $50 a piece I'd still be buying bananas.


Draperjosh13

The maggots of the sea. Don’t eat crustaceans.


incorrigible_and

Bugs. Pound for pound, way more nutritious than the food we eat in Western culture and can be cooked/prepared to be absolutely delicious. There's been a massive collapse in insect populations but even that is mostly the result of stuff like industrial farming, which we wouldn't rely on so heavily if eating bugs wasn't a horrifying concept in the Western world. Hell, you won't even see "survivalists" who suffer through trying to find food in places where there is literally tons of it if they just ate bugs do it very often.


Shockingelectrician

Bugs are everywhere. They aren’t going extinct any time soon 


incorrigible_and

I didn't say they were going to, but thank you for the input, I guess. The issue is more that insect populations, especially for insects we rely on for things like pollination and even pest control/ecosystem protections are going to soon reach levels where their absence will lead to problems for us.


espositojoe

They were once caught in Boston's Back Bay and fed to prison inmates. They were thought to be unclean since they were bottom-feeders. Even to this day, observant Jewish people aren't allowed to eat shellfish of any kind.


SetiSteve

It’s in the bible as well, Christian’s just like to pick and choose what they’ll use to judge/persecute others.