Are you spoiled?

[jgm]

Last fall, I had my first amazing taste of Honeycrisp apples. I swooned. I praised. I ate.

Now, evidently, the season for them is over, and they are nowhere to be found on local shelves. I'm left with the same old Braeburns and Fujis, and I'd almost rather not eat apples at all, than have anything less than a Honeycrisp, which I fully realize may oneday be replaced with some other, even more lovely-tasting variety.

Has this happened to you with any foods? Have you happened upon a "better" version of something, and now nothing less will do?

[Rebecca263]

Fresh beets, prepared for me by one of my boyfriends. I'm sorry, but no one else can seem to do them justice as he does! So, no beets for me, usually. Unless he's in town, or I'm visiting him. Even in Japan, get me some beets, boy? And he would. Thank goodness. I REALLY should learn how to cook beets for myself. I'll consider it an investment in my own independence.

Edited February 19, 2006 by Rebecca263 (log)

[tug]

Jaffa Oranges, from Israel. A dear friend of mine sends us a crate from Israel every year. No other orange seems to come close

[scubadoo97]

Since I've been home roasting coffee I can't go back to store bought beans or preground, yuck, coffee

[MelissaH]

The clementines we ate in Belgium and the Netherlands in January. Something changes when they're carried across the ocean from Spain.

MelissaH

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Coffee. Peet's, to be exact. We have it delivered and I take it with me when I travel.

Signed,

Princess Fabby

[Patrick S]

Pizza. Since I started making my own, none of the delivery stuff tastes any good any more.

[OnigiriFB]

Spaghetti sauce, lasagna, meatballs, clementines, pancakes to name a few. Ever since I've figured out a few recipes I find that I'd rather not order them as I prefer my version. I'm beginning to wonder that if it weren't for the social factor of going out to eat if the more I cook the less likely I will be to go out. I used to love going to eat by myself with a good book but I prefer to just make something and stay in. The funny thing is my food budget hasn't really gone down!

[Kent Wang]

I feel the same way about honeycrisps. Oranges? Satsuma mandarins or nothing at all.

[Ling]

Well, I wouldn't say it's all or nothing for me, but I don't get much pleasure out of eating anything made with Callebaut (or anything even further down on the scale...)

Rebecca--what's so good about your boyfriend's beets? I just roast them and dress them lightly and they are good, as long as I start with sweet organic beets. I'm curious as to what sort of magic he does with them in the kitchen....

[Rebecca263]

...Rebecca--what's so good about your boyfriend's beets? I just roast them and dress them lightly and they are good, as long as I start with sweet organic beets. I'm curious as to what sort of magic he does with them in the kitchen....

←

I just can not quantify it, other boys have cooked for me, even roasted those beets, it's just some indefinable quality they have, plating? flavor? I have avoided interrogating my psyche for over 20 years on this subject, and I believe it is better to allow my opinion of these beets to remain thus:clouded by romantic opine.

Very scientific of me, no?

[Pan]

When I was a kid, the only lychees (we called them "lychee nuts" in those days, for some reason that escapes me) that were available in New York were the canned ones, packed in syrup. I used to like those, but after I tasted fresh ones, I could never go back. The canning destroys the perfume the fresh ones have, which is the thing that in my opinion makes them the best fruit on Earth, and the syrup is not kind to them, either.

I also can't eat the bananas that are available in non-growing areas like most of the US, because they never ripen properly on the tree. When I went to Malaysia in 2003, one of the first things I did was get some bananas!

[mochihead]

Almost every fruit that I can get locally here from the farmer's market (or my backyard or my sister-in-law's farm). You just cannot beat rambutan, apple bananas, lychee, white sugarloaf pineapple, mangosteen, lilikoi, sapote & mangos. When I was in college in California, I couldn't believe people were buying those fruits in the store - underripe & with no yummy fresh fruit aroma!

Vice versa, I haven't touched any peaches, nectarines, berries since I've been living back home here in Hawai'i. I was completely spoiled with the local farmers in the Central Valley who saved crates & flats of the stuff for me. Now, nothing is the same. *sigh*

[PicnicChef]

The beautiful Heirloom tomatoes I grow, and when I've used mine, that I get at Union Square market in New York. No tomatoes look or taste as good. Nothing else will do on a cuke and tomatie sandwich or a BLT for me.

[LaurieA-B]

My husband gave me some Pralus chocolate for Christmas, and then a couple of weeks ago brought home booty from a local artisan chocolatier, so I've been eating fine chocolate daily for weeks. Last week I was in a staff meeting where Valentine candy--Hershey's kisses, M&Ms, etc.--was available. I popped a Dove dark chocolate in my mouth, and almost spit it out. That's when I realized I was spoiled. (I nibbled M&Ms, however, since it seems that nothing can spoil M&Ms. They are what they are.)

[Jennifer Iannolo]

My late father's homegrown tomatoes. However, it seems PicnicChef might have a solution for that.

Tell me, PC, is your garden, um, locked at night? I would hate for any scavengers to make off with your lovely rubies of the vine.

[srhcb]

Genuine Kraft Velveeta Pasturized Process Cheese Product!

That imitation imitation cheese product sucks.

SB (loves the golden ingot!)

[chezcherie]

full fat real cheese. no low fat, no soy.....or no cheese, please.

[KatieLoeb]

The heirloom variety Asian pears from North Star Orchard. They're at my local farmer's market every late summer through Thanksgiving. I can't eat the supermarket Asian pears anymore. I'm spoiled forever.

[Shalmanese]

Navel Oranges: I go on a huge navel splurge every early spring and then never touch oranges again for the rest of the year.

Wagyu Steaks: Wagyu has completely ruined every other steak for me ever again. I have Wagyu once a year and that completely satisfies my steak cravings for that year. Nothing else tastes the same.

[Terrasanct]

My aunt Marian made chocolates for over 50 years, and they were the first I ever had. Nothing else has come close, so far. The first time I had regular chocolates, I thought they had gone bad; there was such a difference.

I have Marian's recipes, but I don't have the 50 years of making them, yet.

[DineNotEat]

See's Candies, specifically the mochas, rum nougats, and buttercreams. No one else can touch them.

[potsticker]

mangos from south philippines. i can't even describe them with words.

in fact, all the fruit there is amazing.

[C. sapidus]

Maybe this is a Maryland thing, but once you have had real crab cakes you will never willingly eat crab-flavored hush puppies. Big lumps of sweet backfin crab meat, lightly seasoned, with just enough filling to keep it from falling apart. Dang, I made myself hungry.

Definitely home-grown tomatoes, picked fresh off the vine. Freshly-ground coffee (Peet’s is wonderful, but others are, too). Freshly-ground black pepper. Home-made sate sauce. Good Ethiopian food, especially the injera.

[BonVivant]

stroopwafels being made before your eyes at the market anywhere in NL. foie gras from France.