"It's spoiled me for..."

[fresco]

After reading a ton of stuff on eGullet about home coffee roasting I decided to give it a try and purchased some green coffee beans. Even using the most rudimentary roasting method (cast iron skillet on outdoor grill) the difference was astonishing--full coffee flavor with not a trace of bitterness. Hard to settle for pre-roasted stuff after this.

I've had the same experience with home baked bread, and much else. What "benchmark" food or drink experiences have you had that make your previous standards pale in comparison?

[sparrowgrass]

Having a close personal relationship with the producers of my breakfast eggs has caused me to forswear grocery store eggs forever.

[jsolomon]

I've always found that growing your own tomatoes makes you find that most of the crispy supermarket variety are lacking in an utterly stronger sense of the term lacking. Who heard of a crispy pink tomato being appetizing anyway?

Also, salady things. Fresh lettuce, herbs, and other greens has made me appreciate the bitter flavors that Americans don't seem to appreciate as much as sweet and salty.

But... the ultimate thing that has ruined me, besides fresh-roasted coffee, is homemade hot cocoa. Even with Hershey's cocoa, which I doubt is at the top of the heap, it's dead simple, quick, and satisfying like comfort food ought to be. It has the added benefit of, if you serve it on a date and your date isn't weird, you score major points!

My current S.O. is weird. How disappointing.

[maggiethecat]

Having a close personal relationship with the producers of my breakfast eggs has caused me to forswear grocery store eggs forever.

Tasting the eggs from your feathered friends really did spoil me for any others. They are pale, wimpy tasteless imitations. Unfortunately, I can't have a henhouse in my subdivision, so I'm forced to buy the grocery-store kind.

Having grown up on potates frites from Quebec and the Ottawa valley---oh the chipwagon at Hawkesbury!--- I rarely order fries anymore. Just ain't worth it, from the gastronomic and Girlish Figure viewpoints.

[Suzanne F]

Fried chicken at Stroud's in Kansas City. Oh, I still eat it wherever I can (and cook it), but that is the Holy Grail of cluck for me.

[Mayhaw Man]

Real Beef. The kind that grew up wandering around in a field eating bahia grass and alfalfa hay. Once you get a hold of a regular supply, all others pale in comparison.

Real Milk. Milk that has not been homogenized or de-fatted. I grew up drinking it and didn't realize how much I missed it until a local dairy started a new artisianl line of "Creamline" products. Mauthe's Dairy in Folsom, Louisiana is making wonderful things-creole cream cheese, whole and 2 % milk, awesome butter (only in two pound rolls or 5 pound blocks, and apparently will soon be churning out ice cream. The stuff is great. It is available in New Orleans at any decent grocery and also at the Farmer's Markets in Covington and New Orleans.

Really Good Bacon, like this, will ruin you for any low quality grocery store brand in the world. The stuff is great. Lean, thick, and smoky.

[Dana]

Buffalo Mozz. I cannot bear to dirty my cart with any other type. I don't care how expensive it is. I'd rather do without than buy the stuff in cry-o-vac plastic.

[=Mark]

Homemade ground horseradish. Makes the storebought stuff taste like wet sawdust.

[marthapook]

Butter - the really high fat content kind - like English Devon, Kerry Gold or Vermont Butter & Cheese butter.

In a pinch, Plugra or Cabot will do.

The regular Keller's, Hotel and Land o Lakes are flavorless by comparison.

And that Breakstone's whipped stuff - that stuff's as gross as Parkay.

[Moopheus]

I basically can't buy any kind of cheese in a supermarket. I don't insist on the most lovingly-produced artisanal cheeses (which I can't afford), but any half-decent cheese shop is going to have something better than the bland, plastic stuff.

I totally agree about the hot cocoa--you don't want to know how many cans of Ghirardelli cocoa we go through here in a year. The same goes for egg creams.

[CRUZMISL]

I can't eat regular beef anymore.Since I have eaten Wagyu a few times everything else is flavorless and tough.

Joe

[Katherine]

But... the ultimate thing that has ruined me, besides fresh-roasted coffee, is homemade hot cocoa.  Even with Hershey's cocoa, which I doubt is at the top of the heap, it's dead simple, quick, and satisfying like comfort food ought to be.

Make real hot chocolate, and you'll never do hot cocoa again.

Heat 1 cup of whole milk in the microwave until it is at least 180º. Add 2 oz bittersweet chocolate (or semisweet, or a blend, depending on how sweet you like it), chopped, and blend until smooth. A stick blender is ok, but a jar blender (preheated) gives you a huge volume of chocolatey foam.

Top with freshly whipped cream. Very rich. Serves 2.

Well worth washing the equipment over.

[bloviatrix]

Tomatoes bought in season from the greenmarket. They taste so flavorful. And I can sit there eating different varieties and make out difference in flavors. As a result, we only eat tomatoes for 3 months of the year. Those mealy anemic pink things you get at the suppermarket are NOT ALLOWED in the house.

[madziast]

Make real hot chocolate, and you'll never do hot cocoa again.

yes, yes, yes! must be thick and decadent, whipped cream required. best spiked with some bourbon

my favorite in the whole wide world is the killer le chocolat l'Africain at Angelina in Paris. the richest i've ever had. mmm..... now i have to make some!

[Susan in FL]

I can't eat regular beef anymore.Since I have eaten Wagyu a few times everything else is flavorless and tough.

Joe

Have you (or anybody) researched enough to know where the best buy for Wagyu is online?

[Wendy DeBord]

Movie theater popcorn is the only thing I stand my ground on. I just can eat any made at home.

And on the weirder side......I don't like any salads made at my home. I love them at restaurants, like them at friends houses, but they never taste as good from my kitchen.

[chezlamere]

one year i went crazy in my garden with about 20 different varieties that I found. I had 2 different purple tomatoes, 2 black ones.. I can't even remember how many plants I had. 100;s The sauce was to die for. I made so much different sauces that year, that I got sick of the smell in the house so I set up the camp stove on the patio and cooked it down outside. Well i lived about a block away from the high school were my 3 kids went, and they came out of class at lunch and couldn't believe the smell in the neighborhood. I had kids wondering up the back alley looking for the wonderful smell. That's what i miss since i moved into an apartment, fresh garden variety tomatoes and a 30 foot by 4 foot raised bed of every conceivable variety of basil. Ohhhhh the pesto those years.I'm sick just thinking about it.

[Pan]

I didn't know there were black and purple tomatoes!

[jsolomon]

I didn't know there were black and purple tomatoes!

Burpee's has a quite interesting section of uniquely colored tomatoes.

I forgot to put one more thing in my previous posts. Toasted marshmallows. These are infinitely superior to plain. Don't even speak to me about marshmallow cream. There is a special place in heck reserved for people who purvey that stuff.

[Pan]

Thanks. Not quite as black as I was expecting, sort of dark red with black tints. I've definitely never seen one like that purple variety, though. That big yellow Big Rainbow one has to take the cake, though! Definitely a very unusual-looking variety!

[Moopheus]

Make real hot chocolate, and you'll never do hot cocoa again.

I did try that once and it didn't come out right, but I didn't use a blender. Came home from Xmas with a 10-lb slab of bittersweet chocolate, so I plan to give it another try.

I also wanted to add: Ice cream from Bart's (Amherst, MA) or Toscanani's (Cambridge). I know I should say homemade, but I haven't yet managed to get quite that good results yet. But I will keep working at it.

[AzRaeL]

i dont know if this is considered spoilt or discerning but to me the Chinese food in American Restaurants reallly sucks. It's not even Chinese food, it's some weird frankenstein monster of food.

[Pan]

I generally don't go for Chinese-American food, but there certainly are good and authentic Chinese restaurants in the U.S., if that's what you were talking about. I don't remember where you live, though.

[AzRaeL]

I generally don't go for Chinese-American food, but there certainly are good and authentic Chinese restaurants in the U.S., if that's what you were talking about. I don't remember where you live, though.

not the fried rice sweet sour shrimp specials; one large plate for only $5.00

[Pan]

No, not that, indeed.