Food, supply, demand, perception, preference

[Fat Guy]

"Both in South Korea and Japan consumers prefer chicken legs and dark meat, and assign a low value

to chicken breasts. This fosters U.S. exports, since preferences in the United States are for white,

rather than dark meat." -USDA Economic Research Service

"During colonial times, lobster was food for the poverty stricken, prisoners and indentured servants. In the Massachusetts colony that encompassed the land that became known as Maine, indentured servants protested and had instructions written in to their seven-year contracts that they would not be forced to eat lobster more than three times a week." -USA Today

These two examples are fascinating to me. When I think about an extremely desirable, expensive food such as caviar, I wonder: were caviar totally abundant, would we all seek to avoid it? Caviar allowed only three times a week. I'm sick of big bowls of caviar.

I think the lobster example goes to show that there people's perceptions are heavily influenced by supply. The chicken example, I think, demonstrates that the preferences we take for granted are hardly universal -- so much so that our castoffs are sold to other countries as premium products.

I also have to say, I think the Japanese and Koreans are right on the chicken issue. The Western preference for white meat is inexplicable from a flavor standpoint.

[dcarch]

Interesting topic.

They used to feed their truffles to pigs in China. Now they export them.

dcarch

[Carlovski]

I recently read that caviar did actually have that status, and was referred to as 'fish jam'. Can't dig out the reference though, and it may well be that the product was somewhat different to what we would call caviar these days.

Oysters are the other famous example - used to be the food of the poor.

[Doodad]

Or tomatoes which were thought to be poisonous.

Southern food is full of examples like this that come and go in fashion. Black eyed peas became a staple while in the north they were fodder. I see dandelion greens in the store now selling for a large price when in the past 40 years they have been a pest in the yard.

[xxchef]

When I think about an extremely desirable, expensive food such as caviar, I wonder: were caviar totally abundant, would we all seek to avoid it? Caviar allowed only three times a week. I'm sick of big bowls of caviar.

Perhaps, but some foods that make the transition from rarefied and exotic to abundant and inexpensive go a different direction and become staples; chocolate, sugar, and even salt come to mind.

I think for a food to make such a leap, it helps to have near-universal aesthetic appeal coupled with an eminently practical application. Not sure caviar would make the cut.

[Fat Guy]

The white-grapefruit topic reminded me that Japanese prefer white and Americans prefer red.

[Holly Moore]

One attitude that turned rather quickly - scallops. In the 70's/80's bay scallops were the delicacy and larger sea scallops were much less expensive.

[rarerollingobject]

A friend's grandfather, who was a tuna fisherman in his day (here in Australia), told me that they used to slice off the heads and bellies and throw them away or turn them into chum for bait..considered them unfit for eating. Of course, now, the belly and the cheeks/throat/collar of the tuna are the most prized and delicious parts. I nearly cried thinking about it.

Edited January 17, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[Kent Wang]

I've read that a lot of US chicken feet is exported to China.

Another example to consider is if chicken were very rare, like $80/lb, would it still be enjoyed as a delicacy? I think so. Sure, it's very common now, but if you evaluate well-cooked chicken in a vacuum, I'd dare say it is extremely delicious and would be willing to pay a lot for it.

[nickrey]

When I was a kid we used to catch squid from the jetty and sell them to the local store for use as bait. Now it's calamari and one of my favourite dishes.

[Foodietopo]

Elizabeth Andoh in her book Kansha mentions that brown rice was associated with poverty. Now it's more expensive to buy genmai and they serve it in fancy restaurants.

Chicken breast are indeed dirt cheap in Japan, way cheaper than legs.

The only exception about the white meat would be the sasami (chicken breast) which is served with a umeboshi or wasabi flavor. I also had raw chicken breast sashimi which were simply to die for.

[ChrisTaylor]

Chicken sashimi? Everyone in the west has had it drummed into their heads that chicken is to be cooked. I mean, most chicken here that you buy or eat at houses has had every last bit of goodness cooked out of it because people are so paranoid about this.

[Foodietopo]

Yes, raw chicken sashimi!

I saw Anthony Bourdain eat some chicken sashimi in his Tokyo episode, so I asked my wife if it was something served in most yakitori shop and she said it was served in the really good one.

So this is me and my wife debating raw chicken safety

-But honey it's super dangerous

-Mmm, it's made with really fresh chicken only.

-But raw chicken is dangerous.

-It's Japanese chicken, it's safe.

-Are you sure?

-Do think this place would still be open after 30 years if people died.

-But...

-Shut up, just try it.

-Damn, this is good!

She was right, raw chicken is delicious and I wasn't sick.

I would not suggest you try this anywhere else than Japan unless you have a clean chicken farm...

Chicken sashimi? Everyone in the west has had it drummed into their heads that chicken is to be cooked. I mean, most chicken here that you buy or eat at houses has had every last bit of goodness cooked out of it because people are so paranoid about this.

Edited January 17, 2011 by Foodietopo (log)

[Darienne]

Fifty-one years ago we ate lamb because it was the cheapest meat on the market that I could buy. And chicken wings were given away free.

How things have changed!

[Katie Meadow]

This is a great topic, but HUGE! And it's really Anthropology. So many things come into play: culture, personal history, personal taste, availability, perception of value and current value.

Being a fat aristocrat used to be a sign of well-being. If you were lucky enough to have lots of fattening food you were (comparatively speaking) healthy.

When I moved from the east coast to CA I couldn't believe that white grapefruit was uncommon. Florida white grapefruit is the best. I'm pretty used to Texas and CA pink, and it's fine, but now I think of white grapefruit as a total treat. My husband, CA boy that he is, never even had one before he met me.

Artichokes were precious to my mother when I grew up. She was crazy about them, they weren't that available, and she treated them like rare objects. When I moved to CA in the mid-seventies you could buy 10 artichokes in Watsonville (not little ones!) for a dollar. Everyone here ate them routinely with mayo, which I thought was very weird. Of course in the west, they use mayo on hamburgers. But now artichokes are not so cheap here where they are grown, and they seem like a splurge, selling by the choke not the bag.

Chicken wings, feet, marrow bones. It now costs more to make stock than to buy broth in a can. Personally I agree about dark meat from chicken or turkey. My mother once advised me to marry someone who liked white meat, so I could have all the dark.

Here's a question: if snake tastes like chicken, why don't we eat snake? And does it taste more like dark or light meat?

If caviar (good caviar) were cheap and abundant I would eat plenty of it. If scallops cost the same as sardines I still wouldn't eat them. For several years after moving west I mourned the personal loss of Maine lobster. Now in my head it's so special that even when I go back to visit, lobster disappoints. I find it's better as a memory. The same can't be said for wild Pacific King salmon. Now that's a rare treat.

[HungryC]

This made me think of turkey necks--perhaps this favorite food of the South's poor will become next year's pork cheeks? Damn, smoked turkey necks make for a mighty fine gumbo. Don't tell anyone, or the price will go up like it did for beef skirt & flank.

[Florida]

If I had to eat any one food, three or more time a week, every week, I would come to hate it as well. Whether this food was a delicacy or common place would not matter.

[David A. Goldfarb]

When I was in Cracow in the late 1980s and there was rationing and there were meat lines, there was usually no line in the shop that sold mutton, lamb and lamb sausages, which were regarded maybe not quite like horse meat in the US, but not too far from it.

Edited January 17, 2011 by David A. Goldfarb (log)