Looks good but tastes bad

[rooftop1000]

In the vein of the worst meal at someones house and the anti dinner thread....

How about a food being presented to you that looks really good but taste awful.

My hubby just suggested this thread when recalling some "buffalo wings" we were recently served at a christening. They looked perfect moist and saucy...except the sauce was pretty much just ketchup.

tracey

[docsconz]

...most supermarket peaches, especially if they have been shipped across the country.

[heidih]

...most supermarket peaches, especially if they have been shipped across the country.

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Along the same line, those tomatoes sold still on the vine that look great when you missed the farmer's market, but taste like?- nothing..

[Smithy]

Those are all cruel cheats. What about this?

It's an office birthday party. The cake looks luscious and rich: moist chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting. The cake is moist. The frosting is beautiful. I take an edge piece, already savoring that frosting, and discover that

...

the frosting is chocolate with peanut butter.

It's strange: I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but for some reason I generally don't like chocolate and peanut butter mixed together. I especially don't like expecting rich dark chocolate and getting peanut butter instead!

I'm probably in the minority, though. I certainly made myself an enemy the year that I specified that MY birthday cake should have NO peanut butter, thankyouverymuch. If looks could kill, I wouldn't have survived to that particular birthday.

[rooftop1000]

Rethinking this ..there are also foods that do taste good, for just a moment. Then another flavor compound hits you and a mouthfull of happy goes all wrong. Like a dulce de leche cake filling that also had guava, first you got warm caramel then a strange musky background.

Which is no where near as bad as being shocked by goat milk dulche de leche a few months ago...thats really wasn't fair

tracey

[TAPrice]

Anything made by Whole Foods, but particularly the bread and the to-go items. I mean, I know it's still a supermarket, but often the items look really good. Do they taste good? Not so much.

Part of me says that I'm foolish to expect flavor from such convenience food. Then I remember all the little shops in Paris selling more or less similar take out items. And in Paris, it's good.

[Terrasanct]

When I was a kid, the biggest disapointment of all was finding a huge chocolate bar in the cupboard and taking a big bite out of it...you probably know the rest...Baker's Chocolate.

[hummingbirdkiss]

Anything made by Whole Foods, but particularly the bread and the to-go items. I mean, I know it's still a supermarket, but often the items look really good. Do they taste good? Not so much.

Part of me says that I'm foolish to expect flavor from such convenience food. Then I remember all the little shops in Paris selling more or less similar take out items. And in Paris, it's good.

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I feel the same way about anything from Trader Joes..basic ingredients that you want to buy to make into something at home ...great and prices are good...but the pre made chilled or frozen anythings (at least what I have tried) may look decent but one bite and ..wow ...easy and pretty is not always tasty that is for sure!!!

Like you I am not exactly sure why I thought I was getting anything more than prepackaged food ...but I think that the way it is marketed to look like something I want ...after all we usually eat with our eyes first!!!

the cheeses and a lot of the wines there are the same ..look good they have a huge selection but unless I see a brand I know I like I learned my lesson ..bleck I stay away....

[Peter the eater]

I think you have hit on a major problem with many contemporary food purveyors. In these days of burgeoning visual food media I suspect appearance has overtaken flavour way too often. Things can look a lot better in a sexy magazine image or even grocery flyer.

I recently went to one of the better restaurants in my city (chef Ray Bear's Gio in Halifax) and what I got gets 9/10 for looks and 6/10 for taste. I give him high marks for creativity, but audacious flavour combinations can backfire - and there were some thermal issues. Specifically, I had a cheese plate with Guinness ice cream. Sounded and looked great, but the blue cheese was way too cold and the ice cream too warm, and the two flavours together . . . not a match made in heaven. Plus there was a bit of foil hidden in the cheese, unintentional I am sure, but present.

[Daniel Rogov]

When I was a kid, the biggest disapointment of all was finding a huge chocolate bar in the cupboard and taking a big bite out of it...you probably know the rest...Baker's Chocolate. 

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Even worse.....at a cafe being served a small piece of chocolate with your espresso, taking a bite and seeing those little white worms crawling around.

[scubadoo97]

goat milk dulche de leche

yumm cajeta

[petite tête de chou]

A real letdown is being served any type meat that has a great crust (or grill marks), fat is nice and crispy, lord knows it *looks* juicy but ALAS..it's shoe leather. Further, it's an insult to shoe leather. -grumble-

[JEL]

i came home rather drunk one night.........

ate half a can of "beef jerkey"............

yep, it was dog treats.........

[Lilija]

A local place had a plate of really delicious looking butter cookies at the door, take one as you leave. Very prettily presented, tender, buttery (looking), crumbly, gorgeous.

Once. ONCE I made the mistake of grabbing one and stuffing it in my mouth, on the way out the door. Stuffing. Yes, like the inside of a stuffed toy. It immediately filled my mouth with sandy, fluffy, absolutely flavorless, dry crumbs. Robbed every bit of moisture from my face. There was no butter flavor, there was no vanilla, or a hint of lemon. Not even sweet, really. There was just nothing.

Come to think of it, most counter pastries at local diners always look good. The cakes and pies, bear claws, danishes, strudels. They all LOOK fantastic. They're all dissapointing, at best, with a few exceptions.

[browniebaker]

Brownies routinely look good but disappoint! it's so hard to tell by the looks of them, I've gotten to the point where I take from the buffet table just a crumb off one brownie, to taste before I commit to an entire brownie.

[plk]

even worse.....at a cafe being served a small piece of chocolate with your espresso, taking a bite and seeing those little white worms crawling around.

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In the bar of chocolate? Eesh.

When I first started living on my own, I bought a jar of Nutella, used some, put it back in the cupboard rather than the refrigerator, and forgot about it. When I found it again, some time later, I opened it up, expecting to spread some on some toast, only to find a healthy crop of maggots happily nesting inside. It was probably five years before I could eat nutella again.

Also, the first time I tried Campari was a rude awakening. It's so pink and attractive, and it seemed so refreshing in the Life Aquatic when Bill Murray was drinking it. I'm not saying it's bad, but wow, that's a bitter drink.

[adegiulio]

A buddy of mine once bought a "family pack" of filet mignon steaks. He was taken in by the low low price. When he got home and cooked them up, he realized he should have read the label on the package. Top Round Steaks (aka the toughest steak ever)

I agree with the above poster. Campari, while one of my favorite drinks, is very deceiving. Looks like it should taste completely different..

[jayt90]

Most shrimp, farmed and frozen, seems to have a brackish taste, from the water they live in.

[rmcrob]

How about that flan stuff they serve at Chinese buffets?

[Poffertjes]

A slice of german chocolate cake I picked up from Whole Foods on my birthday. My husband and best friends were out of town, so I didn't have a very festive birthday.

Didn't figure out until I got back to my office that it was a vegan german chocolate cake....

Nothing against vegans, but there are eggs in cake and butter in frosting that I like for a reason.

[amapola]

Brownies routinely look good but disappoint!

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So true! I have yet to find the 'public brownie' that lives up to it's yummy looks. However, the worst case of that I ever had was when I ordered a brownie & a coffee at the counter, paid and sat at a table, where the goodies were brought to me. The brownie the waitress presented to me looked nothing similar to what was on display and when I asked about that her prompt reply was "Yes, that is today's batch, but this one is from an old batch and we need to serve up these first." She wouldn't hear of taking it back and looked rather insulted when, after having tried a bite after all, I left the rest of the cardboard construction untouched.

[Sony]

...most supermarket peaches, especially if they have been shipped across the country.

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Today, I unfortunately got some locally grown peaches that smell wonderful, feel slightly tender, slightly blushed ....but they're bitter.

[plk]

I thought of another one: carob. Being a child of the '70s, I say there is nothing more disappointing than biting into a carob chip cookie or eating some carob trail mix. They sold that carob trail mix everywhere. I can still picture the bags of it, with the cashews and pieces of unsweetened coconut. It actually doesn't sound too bad now, but when you're about five, it's very sad. And along those same lines: Ovaltine. Looks like chocolate milk, but sure doesn't taste like it.

[Terrasanct]

I agree about carob. I'm not sure why anyone thought it was a good substitute for chocolate.

As a normal kid, I was so chocolate crazy that I tried to munch on the rubber things under the sofa legs. Well, they looked like chocolate! When you're two, anyway. I can't believe I can still remember that.

And if I went to a restaurant and was served yesterday's brownies instead of the new one, I'd complain until I got a fresh one. Sheesh.

[pauladsous]

A local place had a plate of really delicious looking butter cookies at the door, take one as you leave. Very prettily presented, tender, buttery (looking), crumbly, gorgeous. 

Once.  ONCE I made the mistake of grabbing one and stuffing it in my mouth, on the way out the door.  Stuffing.  Yes, like the inside of a stuffed toy.  It immediately filled my mouth with sandy, fluffy, absolutely flavorless, dry crumbs.  Robbed every bit of moisture from my face.  There was no butter flavor, there was no vanilla, or a hint of lemon. Not even sweet, really.  There was just nothing.

Come to think of it, most counter pastries at local diners always look good.  The cakes and pies, bear claws, danishes, strudels.  They all LOOK fantastic. They're all dissapointing, at best, with a few exceptions.

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Truth be told, whenever I go back to my small village in Aveyron (France) I am often very disappointed at how unfresh pains au chocolat, croissants or "rissoles"(kind of a prune filled shortbread turnover) taste...Neither crisp nor buttery-tastin YET the boulangerie is extremely popular both with locals and tourists I guess my palate must be very demanding or very unsophisticated, and I guess that the time /hour of the day greatly impacts freshness and taste...Anyways, I can still have very fond memories of delicious croissants au beurre eaten at bar counters with café crème in Paris or even my small town, as well as those purchased at Zabar's or specific outlets of Pain Quotidien