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dolorosa_12The birds are singing, the evening light is beautiful, and my salad greens, herb, and cucumber seeds are sprouting in the growhouse. It's a lovely start to the weekend.
Today's Friday open thread prompt is courtesy of a suggestion fromlirazel: what are some types of food that only taste good when handmade/made on a small scale (as opposed to the industrial scale supermarket version)?
My immediate response was 'what type of food doesn't taste vastly better when made on a small scale by hand?' but then I thought a bit more, and realised there were quite a lot of foodstuffs where the difference is non-existent (homemade chips where you chop up a potato and roast it in the oven or deep fry it are no more delicious than the fast-food equivalent), or where the effort involved to make it by hand far exceeds any reward in better flavour (condiments in particular: I'm not going to make my own soy sauce, harissa, dijon mustard, etc, you know?).
However, I'd say that beyond the 'too much effort required' category, in my experience most other types of food are better if they're made on a smaller scale. The biggest one for me is baked goods. There is no bread, cake, pie, biscuit, or pastry on Earth in which the mass-produced supermarket (or otherwise industrial-scale) version tastes better than, or even remotely equally good as, the homemade or expensive artisanal bakery version. (I admit to some significant bias here. I worked part-time from the age of 15-23 — the first years of my working life — in artisanal bakeries/patisseries, the first thing I look up in every place I visit is the most highly recommended bakeries/patisseries, and I'm just in general a massive baked goods snob, which is somewhat hilarious in that I'm a very good cook, and comically, catastrophically bad at baking.)
What are your equivalent foodstuffs, if any?
Today's Friday open thread prompt is courtesy of a suggestion from
lirazel: what are some types of food that only taste good when handmade/made on a small scale (as opposed to the industrial scale supermarket version)? My immediate response was 'what type of food doesn't taste vastly better when made on a small scale by hand?' but then I thought a bit more, and realised there were quite a lot of foodstuffs where the difference is non-existent (homemade chips where you chop up a potato and roast it in the oven or deep fry it are no more delicious than the fast-food equivalent), or where the effort involved to make it by hand far exceeds any reward in better flavour (condiments in particular: I'm not going to make my own soy sauce, harissa, dijon mustard, etc, you know?).
However, I'd say that beyond the 'too much effort required' category, in my experience most other types of food are better if they're made on a smaller scale. The biggest one for me is baked goods. There is no bread, cake, pie, biscuit, or pastry on Earth in which the mass-produced supermarket (or otherwise industrial-scale) version tastes better than, or even remotely equally good as, the homemade or expensive artisanal bakery version. (I admit to some significant bias here. I worked part-time from the age of 15-23 — the first years of my working life — in artisanal bakeries/patisseries, the first thing I look up in every place I visit is the most highly recommended bakeries/patisseries, and I'm just in general a massive baked goods snob, which is somewhat hilarious in that I'm a very good cook, and comically, catastrophically bad at baking.)
What are your equivalent foodstuffs, if any?
no subject
Date: 2026-03-20 05:17 pm (UTC)It's been a hot minute since I've been able to have a good one, but I think salsa is definitely a big one in this category. Personally I like a salsa best with fresh jalapenos and serrano peppers, potentially also habanero, and those fresh ingredients are hard to come by here - everyone keeps telling me I can get them pickled or dried, but it isn't the same. I find most salsas produced for the UK market are too ketchup-y. I really miss being able to grab a jar of salsa from a friend who always handmade it from the peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro in her garden.
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Date: 2026-03-20 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-20 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-20 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-20 06:03 pm (UTC)Definitely bread. Scones. Croissants. Yeah, baked goods, generally, although commercial crackers can be decent. (I admit to a weakness for triscuits.)
In the US, it can be very difficult to get a good cup of tea unless you're in a place that specializes in tea, and I do not refer to most cafes, which are generally coffee-focused.
There's nothing wrong with the dried pasta generally available in supermarkets, but it is an entirely difficult product from fresh pasta, which I don't think can be successfully made in bulk. I know one can purchase, e.g., tortellini in the refrigerator section, but homemade or artisan pasta is an entirely different food.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-20 06:08 pm (UTC)Fresh pasta is so good! I think the dried stuff still tastes nice, but fresh pasta is next level (and the mass produced supermarket tortellini is no comparison, as you say).