Good article. I’m considering buying the book.
Lobster: Even the vaunted Zabar’s got caught putting non-lobster in their lobster salad several years ago.
Olive oil: I actually prefer puro. It’s what we used when I was a kid, so it tastes right to me. Virgin olive oil has no taste. It’s like grade A maple syrup. Give me the one with the impurities.
Beef: It has become unchewable. I’ve posted about this before. Since then, I have tried more expensive restaurants near me and it is all the same, except for one French place in my neighborhood that I will not name for fear of never getting a table ever again. I suspect everyone is using the less expensive Chinese beef.
I remember the fuss about “modified cornstarch” in baby food years ago. Turns out “modified” means “not digestible,” and that they do so that when Baby is fed right out of the jar, the baby’s saliva does not begin digesting the food in the jar and throwing it off.
And there was another brouhaha about a brand of bread having wood pulp in it.
Food has changed. It has gone down in quality across the board. I’m sure there are many more reasons than are cited in this article. People who have lived in France say that we can never really simulate French cooking here because the ingredients are the key and the ingredients here are greatly inferior.
We use California Olive Ranch oil and it has the seal of approval From CA. We had farm stand heritage tomatoes yesterday; the taste was wonderful unlike the frozen ones from Mexico.
“Farm to Fable
How to tell if your ‘local’ food is actually local”
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/consumers/
Lobster, crawfish, and langostino all look and taste the same to me. I make crawfish bisque, and have had lobster bisque, and it seems a waste to grind up Maine lobster tails to make bisque, when langostino is pretty much the same ground up. I would prefer getting more meat in my bisque than having a tiny bit of ‘real’ Maine lobster. So Red ‘Lobster’ gets a pass from me.