How do you know when "hip" has ruined your food?

Question

I've long worried about how much popularity it takes to ruin things for other people. What brings this to a head finally is Pomegranates. I love 'em. Always have. Ever since my mother bought me my first when I was a young boy, I have been hooked. But, lately, I've been seeing Pomegranate recipes everywhere. At first, I was very happy, but, reading one of the front page articles on chow, I now worry about how popular the fruit may become. How will it be viewed? Will people think less of us Pomegranate addicts? Think we're just following the trends?

This isn't limited to my favourite fruit, either. I've always loved Pabst Blue Ribbon, (Hipsters are trying their best to ruin that for me), and I've always loved Sushi (both local and international sushi "snobs" quickly get under my skin).

So, what about all of you? Do you feel that loving foods that become "fads" lessens your desire for them? Do we risk our roomates teasing to continue to enjoy what it is we enjoy?

Me? Pssh.

I'm going to continue eating/drinking what I love, and just hope that it leaves the limelight quickly. But, until then, I may have to enjoy my POM's in secret to avoid being labelled "cool."

Answer

As soon as something turns up in a stacked version, or deconstructed, or a magazine (usually a NON-cooking magazine) has 12 different well known chefs give their 'takes'...sure signs of the demise of my abaility to find the dish ever again in the form that I first came to know it. The next step is that magazines and newspapers with publish reduced fat versions, at which point, all is lost.

I am always amused when visiting places where PBR is considered the new, hip, trendy beer, sold at premium prices. In Milwaukee, for decades it has been the blue collar (in a non-perjorative sense) brew of choice, served in bottles, cans, or on tap in every "Ed'N'Stella's" neighborhood corner tavern in the city, with 50-cent taps during Packers & Brewers games.

Answer

Conversly, I feel hip that I was eating pomegranates and drinking PBR back in the day when no one knew what either was.

Answer

Aramek, I'm with you 100%, maybe more. I see people paying $2+ for a pomegranate and I'm amazed, I love 'em but not that much, and I just can't get into fads. This too will pass. I'm almost 60, lived through the hippie days and it irks me to no end to see these kids running around with tye died shirts with peace signs on them and greyhaired men with ponytails(who pretty much all claim to be VN vets) . Being "cool" never seemed "cool" to me. One of the big "cool" trends is gourmet / upscale food trucks/carts. Let's take something that's funtional and simple and affordable and turn it into something that it's not supposed to be. Hopefully it will all pass.

Answer

Part of being me is not following trends or at least being on the forefront of trends. So yes when people finally discovered balsamic vinegar we stopped showcasing it and moved on. I do the same when cooking at home.

For example:

I love duck but duck is in vogue along with Kobe and Wagyu beef right now so I have switched to Goose and Goat for my trendy meals.

Fancy oil’s are in so I am showcasing different vinegars.

Winter squashes (which I love) have made resurgence over the last couple of years so I’ve switched to winter root vegetables.

Craft Beers and wine are in along with high-alcohol martini’s so I have chosen light aperitif’s such as Dubonet, skipping wine and moving to port flights and after dinner drinks.

As something becomes trendy or hip it becomes banal and I surely don’t want to cook food at my house that I will be seeing at a restaurant.

Answer

Matt seems to dine on a solid diet of Grump. :(

But,again, it isn't that it really bothers me, I just can't help thinking about it. At least it puts me at more of an ease to see that it is on the minds of other people too. Not even that it ruins the food for you, but, you just start to notice the smug grin the checkout girl gives you at the checkout line.

Also, living in ND, the cheapest we can ever get Poms is 2 bucks or more. Even for the lousy ones.

Answer

Kind of like when your favourite underground band releases a song that is friendly to the masses...the band somehow is no longer "your own" and loses their appeal a little bit.

Answer

I drink a lot of PBR. I drank it 6 years ago when I couldn't buy it legally. Used to be a 12-pack would cost you $6 at the 7-11, two years later it's up to $8.50. Damn hipsters. They ruin everything.

Answer

I don't know how much I've ever cared 'bout what others thought, but I'll admit the day when I realized that simply ordering a Martini no longer had a predictable consequence was a sad one.

Answer

I draw the line when they try to "improve" my po' boy with wagyu beef.

Answer

Yeah Im definitely in the "who cares" camp (although admittedly this is partially due to also being in the "oblivious and old" camp). And did I mention Im also in the "nothing new under the sun" camp? It strikes me that pomegranates were pretty trendy in ancient Greece as well. So eat and drink what you want. The only annoying part is when you are still eating/drinking whatever thing youve always loved and people act like you are out of touch because its gone out. I still hear whispers of "ohmygod thats soo 1990's" when I wear flannel shirts in public. Sue me.

By the way, it amuses me that PBR is considered hip when its basically tasteless swill. And it also amuses me that hopped up IPA's are considered hip at the very same time. But then it also amuses me that neon colored skinny jeans are considered the ultimate fashion statement with teenage kids these days. What marketing genius actually convinced millions of 15 year olds that looking like an overweight clown is cool?

Answer

Aramek, I know what you’re feeling, as I’ve noticed the same things. Two years ago most people didn’t know what a pomegranate was, now they are popping up everywhere. 

I agree that over-exposure of a favorite ingredient or restaurant lessens the enjoyment of those things for some of us. They no longer seem special or unique, but mundane. Quel domage.

For the record, I’ve been drinking PBR for most of my adult life. People would tease me about drinking something so “cheap and nasty” and force their “high-fallutin’” brews on me (many of which I enjoyed equally well), but what do you think they’re drinking today? … You got it!

I think that “Trendy” is a bore, so I eat what I feel like, regardless of its pop-culture significance.

Answer

I don't think this is precisely what you're getting at, but the oh so hip herb cilantro has ruined many a fine dish. I can tolerate cilantro in small quantities, but the stuff is now damned near ubiquitous and is usually over-deployed. 

Down with cilantro, says I! Opiate of the trendmeisters. ;)

Answer

One way to look at it that might bother you less is that now people who may never have been exposed to pomegranates are experiencing how delicious they are. I definitely know that I have been the beneficiary of food trends making ethnic ingredients, heirloom varieties of produce, and whole grains that were previously difficult to find more widely available.

Answer

What about the related question? When does popularity adversely impact upon availability/sustainability? e.g. Shark Fin, Sea Bass

Answer

I've loved sampling hot dogs for a long time. I've been to hundreds of hot dog joints and sampled dozens of brands ranging from what you get at supermarkets to specialty brands, brands I can only get via mail order and what people send me, and those that are made at butcher shops and small European style pork stores. These are the equivalent of craft beers produced at small microbreweries. 

Now all of a sudden it seems that hot dogs are hip or trendy. I don't mind this at all, but what bothers me is the new trend among places under 5 years old where the emphasis and focus is the crap piled on the hot dog rather than the frank itself. You are eating a frank on a bun. Any toppings should complement, rather than interefere with the flavor, texture, and temperature of the meat. 

If you don't start with a quality dog, it doesn't matter what you do to it as far as I'm concerned. And if you do have a quality dog, it doesn't need crap like cream cheese, kimchee, tomatoes, potato chips, peanut butter, etc. 

Franks made of tofu, poultry, and salmon are not hot dogs. Hot dogs should be made of a beef/pork, beef/pork/veal mix, or all beef. Bison is also acceptable. A hot dog is a simple, unpretentious food. Which is why old school places like Nathan's, Papaya King, And Gray's in New York, as well as Rutt's Hut, Galloping Hill Inn, and the Windmill will be around long after these trendy joints all go out of business.

Answer

i kept having to check the dates on this thread since it seems like it could be 5 or 10 years old.

pbr was being stealth marketed to bike messengers and the whole grunge culture at the end of the 90's, early 00's. pomegranate martinis and the "power of pom" have been seeping into mass consciousness for close to 10 years. cilantro has been around forever: i was putting it in guacamole in college (early 80s) and it was even on the foodnetwork back in the day, with the "2 hot tamales" show. (1st aired in '95.) tuna tartare? so entrenched on menus, i'm surprised it's not on an applebee's table-tent yet. (maybe it is, lol, i don't know where an applebee's is...)

i suppose this is a good demonstration of how and where things spread. what' long ago jumped the shark in some places is new and terrifying in others.

when something becomes ubiquitous, it's no longer a trend, and ceases to become hip.

i can roll my eyes at kobe beef hot dogs or kiwi foams all day. nobody can make me consume or pay for them. eventually they will be replaced by something else. i'm just happy that i'm confident to not be a trendoid and not worry what other people think about what is on plate or in my shopping cart.

Answer

If more people enjoy what I enjoy (which others most certainly have enjoyed before me), why should that bother me? I enjoyed my first pomegranate 25+ years ago, several millennia later, as another has noted, than some other pomegranate lovers! Thanks to the pom's trendiness, I now have easy access to its delicious, nutritious juice.

Another "fad" I'm glad took off is arugula. I love it. I also love balsamic vinegar, pancetta, prosciutto, Kurobuta-Berkshire pork, grass-fed beef, etc., etc.,--all sorts of things that wouldn't be readily available were it not for their "trendiness" (or maybe just the slow raising of food consciousness?) If it still tastes good, I'm not turned off because others like it too.

Unless consumption threatens sustainability--in which case, in my view, we all have a responsibility to lay off.

Answer

How do you know when "hip" has ruined your food?

When it becomes a "waist".

Answer

Ok so I have two basic questions here. The first was spawned by "RetiredChef's" comment that "Part of being me is not following trends or at least being on the forefront of trends." My question--isn't charting your course to in some way respond to the trend (whether you're doing the opposite of the trend, or paralleling it, or avoiding it in some other fashion) just as much following the trend? You're still allowing the trend to impact your choices and actions, its simply in reverse. 

My second was inspired by "mrbigshotno.1's" comment, "I see people paying $2+ for a pomegranate and I'm amazed, I love 'em but not that much..." My question: what is meant by "not that much"? How does one decide this? I have the same experience with my late-fifties father, and it never ceases to fascinate me. One of his few true remaining joys in life is Coca-Cola. He has very specific ideas about his ideal of this drink. Fountain coke, rightly mixed, is best. After that glass bottles are good, then plastic, then canned. Cane sugar is better than HFCS, when you can find it, which is almost never. 

All of this I agree with--I find his prejudices regarding how he'll take his coke for the most part compelling. What fascinates me is, when it comes to actually PURCHASING coke, he balks at the price. He'll pay 60 cents, sometimes 80, for a plastic bottle. Over a dollar? Never. No matter how badly he might want it at that moment, its "not worth it." 

My question is, why? What makes something "worth it" at 60 cents per bottle (or $1 for a pomegranate, assuming that's a price mrbigshotno.1 would consider acceptable) but "not worth it" at $1 per bottle, which in the aggregate isn't all that much more? How are people making these types of decisions??

Answer

I know that hip has ruined my food when I can't afford it any more.

Answer

i won't eat something, nor will i not eat something because it is hip, or not hip.

sometimes something becomes in that i didnlt know before, and i'm happy it's available everywhere

Answer

hmm I thought Chowhound was hip.
Showing up on this site is one sign I've always used. :)
I need some new parameters, I suppose.

Answer

How do you know? When the price trebles and the availabillity / quality goes down! Any mention in mainstream media as a food trend. I used to love cigars/ vodka/sea bass etc. All now ruined by the taint of hipness. FYI , a martini is a gin or vodka cocktail with a whiff of vermouth. Not a chocolate/pomegranite etc. abortion in a martini glass!

Answer

Ha. In my lifetime I went through a phase when I considered any fancy cooking "hip." I was devoted to it, big time. Early 1980's, I think. Every meal had to be an experience; I even printed menus for guests.

Eventually, I just settled on a basic gamut of dishes I like; many involve interesting ingredients from the Italian or Mexican or Indian markets, but they're all pretty simple. They're no longer exotic for the sake of being exotic.

Of course, now I have to explain away the fancy Bluestar cooktop I just had installed....

Answer

I want to apologize for this before I say it,but I think it's funny when I have to bring a walker
come on that's funny
Sorry a little toasted :)=
As the Joker would say
WHY SO SERIOUS :)~

Topics

Locations

Your post has been published!

How do you know when "hip" has ruined your food?

More from Chowhound

Guides

The Ultimate Spring Produce Guide: What's in Season & How to Use It

Recipe Round-Ups

Quick and Easy Instant Pot Breakfast Recipes for Less Morning Stress

Guides

How to Care for Enameled Cast Iron So It Lasts a Lifetime

Home

The Best Tool to Clean a Wood Cutting Board Is Probably in Your Compost Bin

Trending Discussions

Chowhound Recipes That You are Saving

A Final Goodbye for Chowhound

Favorite Chowhound Memories

NY Times: Chowhound Closes After 25 Years of Food Obsession, Wisdom and Debate

January–April 2022 Baking COTM: DESSERT PERSON by Claire Saffitz

Quick Links

Latest Discussions

Cookbook of the Month

Dish of the Month

Weekly Menu Planning

Get fresh food news delivered to your inbox

12 Irish Foods to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day That Aren’t Corned Beef and Cabbage

Chowhound

Policies

Community

Editorial

Content