Pretty regularly you get not poor people all over (social) media being upset at the idea that poor people might eat something other than oats. Like buying a birthday cake on food stamps or the whole rule where you cannot buy hot food on food stamps which is only good for punishing people who may not even have cooking facilities. Or the recent scandal in the UK where the families that qualify for free school lunch got food hampers instead of a voucher, because they might buy something the Tories don’t approve of. Basically the same people who will tell you that all Cubans receiving staples of rice and beans is a horrible sign of socialism will demand that poor people in capitalism never eat anything but staples.
But sometimes “the left” isn’t any better and all signs of people enjoying food is seen as decadence. Last summer somebody dared to post a picture of her lunch, doing basically the thing social media was invented for, and received hate and harsh criticism for, checks note, basically having an unconstructed sandwich for lunch. Now, the ultimate irony is of course that in France a charcuterie board is probably the most “paysanne” (rural and down to earth) lunch ever and nobody in the country of foi gras would think it bourgeois, but I guess for some people anybody having food that is not shitty (and has been that shitty for at least three generations) must be condemned as a sign of being a member of the elites.
If you — *throws a dart at a board* — make a charcuterie board you're a class traitor pic.twitter.com/HravYAANkb
— Bill Haywood-Jablome (@IslesFGC) August 3, 2020
You think that’s funny? Here’s one even funnier: You take an item that used to be present in every kitchen like the good old cast iron skillet, but got often thrown away as “new” things like teflon coated frying pans came up (making their descendants have to buy them again, thank you, grandma…) and declare them to be bourgeois. I mean, unless you decide you need Le Creuset in your life, they are not even expensive new and you can get them second hand because they are practically indestructible (unlike the silly teflon coated ones).
a lodge skillet is like $30 you people are just addicted to saying words pic.twitter.com/la9iXngrgf
— vampire workday (@imbobswaget) December 9, 2020
Which gets me to a hypothesis: The people attacking others for enjoying food are simply bad cooks. They themselves have no idea about how to prepare a tasty meal, regardless of whether the ingredients are cheap or expensive (tonight’s dinner: griddle cakes. Most expensive item: an avocado as a side dish. Cost per person: 1.50, including the avocado). And because they can only get good food when eating out, they equate good food with luxury. They would totally buy a cast iron skillet just to let it rust (and put it in the dishwasher occasionally because it looks icky), but then they get angry at not being able to use it, so they have to declare it a “hallmark of bourgeois life”.
So, what’s the food or cooking item you’ve been shamed for because it was deemed “too bourgeois” (for a commoner like you)?
Food shaming comes from the same hate and bigotry and poverty shaming. No matter what people do, they’ll be attacked. Buy rice and frozen vegetables to be cheap and healthy? “How dare you buy such a luxury!” Never mind bottled orange juice, people would likely be attacked for buying tang crystals.
Regarding cookware, I’d wager having stainless steel gets the poor a dirty look. The poor here buy cheap aluminium pans. Yes, some studies claim it’s safe to use them, but I wouldn’t. Also, the poor here drink tap water, not bottled. It’s supposed to be safe, but it’s not the same quality as I used to get in Canada. Those who can afford it buy bottled, from commercial services, or buy filtration systems for the tap.
Taiwan and the Philippines are lands of cheap pineapples (US$1 per) because they’re grown here. When people back home hear how much I eat them, they’re shocked because it’s so expensive where it has to be imported. Conversely, a friend of mine fell in love with taro fruit while she was here, cheap and plentiful. When she saw one as a backpacker in Greece, she wanted to buy it until she saw the US$20 price tag.
And very tasty !
And/Or haven’t the faintest idea what tastes good, or is healthy, or even whatever it is they are whinging about consists of or tastes like. They probably also think peas have a taste, a texture, and are edible.
At the moment, I cannot recall any such incident, with perhaps two sort-of examples: Once, in University, the lady I was cooking with made a big deal out of being sure to buy unsalted butter and not, e.g., margarine. Yes… That so annoyed me, I pulled out what was left of the butter and asked her what was wrong with the unsalted butter I normally bought. (She apologised profusely.) The other example, perhaps more in-line with the OP, is a relative who normally bought factory-made “white” bread loafs (think Wonder Bread) blew a gasket when I bought a loaf of factory-made “rustic” multi-grain bread. (Now that I think about it, that same relative once told me they were afraid to buy fresh MUSHROOMS! because they worried there might be a “poison toadstool”. (That sound you hear is vigorous eye-rolling.))
I did get that once while I was on the dole. The dolt from the government who was working with me to get a new job freaked out that I went for decent bread (whole grain, yadda, yadda, yadda) and increased my food expenses by a whole 20 (euro) cents per day.
Seafood seems to be a food popularly seen to be “too bourgeois”.
I won’t say they are cheap, but a package of frozen scallops runs less than $20, and I easily get three meals for my wife and I out of one bag. That’s six servings. Sear the scallops, add a thin garlic cream sauce, and serve on rice noodles. About $4 a serving for a meal almost as good as I’ve had in restaurants for $40. Shrimp is even cheaper, but again, it’s seen as decadent.
But I think you’re right, people don’t know how to cook. My wife hated beets until I cooked fresh beets for her. She’d only ever previously gotten them from a can. For forty years.
Poor people certainly should have access to tasty food, but before we can talk about taste, we have to address the more pressing issue of food actually being healthy. And when poor people don’t get money but only specific foods, the chances are that there will be problems with said food providing inadequate nutrition (even for people who don’t have any food allergies). Let’s begin with staples like rice and pasta. Are they whole grain? If so, cool. But most bread, rice and pasta in grocery store shelves is made from refined grains, which are largely empty calories. Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with eating some refined grains in your diet, but only as long as the rest of foods you consume provide protein, vitamins, and minerals.
As somebody who has managed to get a nutrient deficiency while trying to survive on as cheap food as possible, I have observed that getting enough calories for little money is usually not the problem. Grains, dry beans, and white bread are cheap. I can get a lot of calories from white rice for a single euro. The real issue is getting enough protein, minerals, and vitamins.
This blog post linked an article with a photo of some foods for a child’s meals. In said photo there was what appeared to be white bread (empty calories), canned beans, cheese, carrots, bananas, apples, and candies (candies being more empty calories). If a child were to eat foods like these for months at a time, they would likely develop a nutrient deficiency. From these foods only beans and cheese provide a noticeable amount of protein, and that’s probably not enough. It is possible to have a healthy vegetarian diet and get enough protein without eating meat, but then you would also likely want some nuts, seeds, eggs, and milk in addition to beans and cheese. And a healthy vegan diet requires even more work, and a person cannot stay healthy if they eat cheese as the only non-vegan food on a plant based diet that has beans as the only protein source. To get adequate protein intake on a vegan diet you’d need seeds and nuts, various whole grains, and a lot of legumes, especially soy foods (unlike other legumes, soy has all essential amino acids).
(By the way, at least in Latvia the cheapest protein foods are flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, dry peas and beans, various organ meats, and Baltic herrings. Whole grains contain a bit of protein too. Wheat bran is even better than whole grain wheat if you can find any in grocery stores. Of course, German grocery stores are too posh to carry items like tiny fish and organ meats. While living in Germany, I had to get by with more expensive foods like eggs and milk instead.)
Moreover, I suspect that the foods shown in this photo would also cause an iron deficiency. Probably a calcium deficiency too with a small amount of cheese being the only food that contains some calcium in said photo. Probably. Right now I am relying on memory and I am too lazy to look up which foods contain what micronutrients. But I am certain that a person couldn’t stay healthy if they ate foods like the ones shown in this photo for months or years at a time. That’s not how a healthy vegetarian diet looks like.
There’s nothing wrong with white bread (granted, personally I prefer whole grain bread instead), canned beans, cheese, carrots, bananas, apples, or candies. Especially beans, fruits, and vegetables are very healthy foods. But those alone cannot provide enough protein and all the minerals that a human body needs.
Whole grain pasta, brown (whole grain) rice, whole grain bread, whole grain wheat flour. Wheat bran is fun too. For decades it was a very cheap cattle food. Now it also gets packaged in tiny packages and sold in health food stores for expensive prices.
In addition, I strongly prefer ice cream, cookies, and cakes made from real milk and butter and not just some mix of palm oil and sugar. I prefer real cherry syrup and not some “cherry taste” syrup with zero cherries in it. I cook with butter and not some butter substitute.
As a result some people claim that I am picky. Yet I believe that manufacturers are scamming me by offering empty calories and fake substitute products that have cheaper ingredients but cost the same anyway. For example, where I live ice cream made from milk and ice cream made from palm oil cost the same.
Oddly enough, people have also criticized me for eating cat food (tiny fish like Baltic herrings) and dog food (cow hearts, pig feet, turkey necks, bone marrow and so on).
Oh well, at least so far nobody has had a problem with the fact that I still own my grandmother’s cast iron pans.
So, what’s the food or cooking item you’ve been shamed for because it was deemed “too bourgeois” (for a commoner like you)?
None, I used to work as a cook and I still have knives and cleavers.
I do remember a time back in university when one of my housemates dragged a classmate home at dinner time and asked them if they wanted to stay. Classmate eyed the pile of steaks on the table and clearly thought he was imposing on our “expensive” meal.
Other housemate comes in back door and says, “Are we having steaks “again”?
For various reasons we ate well and inexpensively that year.
For added difficulty, try being poor and having a medically-necessary diet.
Hmm, I have my ex husbands grandmothers cast iron pans and his mothers pans because I rescued them from the trash.
I knew that they were far superior to Teflon coated aluminum crap from the eightys precisely because I was taught to cook using cast iron. How do you sear a pork roast if you can’t preheat the dang pan to the right temperature and it has no thermal mass?
Browning things is crucial to developing flavor.
I remember cooking meatballs and rice and sauce, and someone disparagingly remarking how I was always cooking “gourmet meals”. Uhhh, whut?!
Maybe I have a wrong understanding, but I thought that French cooking was based on trying to make things like rat taste good. I know that a lot of the food we consider “Southern” was based on the fact that slaves were given garbage to eat and had to somehow make it taste good. This guy explains it really well: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=541288690038002 and hopefully the link will work… we shall see…
“You eat SPINACH? That’s a thing for rich people!”
Is actually something I’ve heard.
Andreas
The problem isn’t just “empty calories”, it’s calories in and on themselves. That’s supposed to cover TEN lunches, and I can tell you, growing children, especially teens, eat a lot. A lot. I don’t cook small portions, but I swear there have been meals in the recent months where I got up hungry because my kids ate everything before I had a chance to sit down.
I’m absolutely with you on butter substitutes. Margarine is basically banned in this house.
kestrel
That’s another thing that often happens in the whole food discourse: Something that used to be poor people’s food and looked down on get forgotten, until it becomes a luxury item. If you look at French cooking, you got snails and frog legs and tons of seafood (lobster used to be poor people’s food). They were often food items that you could get everywhere. You picked the damn snails when tending the vineyard and you had a meal. Frogs just lived in ponds, send the kids to catch them.
In Germany swedes are making a come back after they practically died out, having gotten people over two world wars. Oh, and before the Rhine was straightened out and poisoned, it was home to so much salmon that it was a poor people’s staple along the Rhine. You can find ads for household helps that promise “no more than two times salmon a week” because rich people fed their servants nothing but salmon.
WMD Kitty
Yeah, that’s another thing. In Germany you won’t get any extra on your welfare check not even if you have a diagnosed celiac’s disease or diabetes or lactose intolerance.
Same with other things that may not be “medically necessary”. As I said over on Pharyngula, meat substitutes have become damn good, so it’s a lot easier to switch to vegetarian meals, but it’s also very expensive. And yeah, I’m not going to shame some poor person for not buying meat free sausages at three to four times the price of factory farmed meat sausages. Though I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that a burger where you had to grow a damn arse cow is 1/4 the price of a burger where you had to grow peas.
183231bcb
*blinks*
What?
I don’t know where you live, but over here a block of frozen cream spinach at Aldi is 40 ct. 2 of them plus a 60 ct packet of spaghetti plus 2 bucks worth of cheese make one of our favourite pasta dishes at a price of 1.10 per person. Cut the cheese and you’re at less than 40 ct…
+++
I think people here mostly sneer at me for making “foreign food” as a sign of being rich and elitist. Because heaven’s forbid you extend your palate.
I suspect that the act of cooking anything from basic ingredients is seen by some as “elitist” because of seeing fancy cooking shows on TV. A large percentage of people don’t create any meals from raw ingredients, subsisting on manufactured meals from supermarkets and junk fast food.
I remember back in the late 70’s a school friend of mine took me to a McDonalds, claiming that their food was actually quite good. Amongst other things I ordered apple pie, got a deep fried chunk of something gel like dosed with gritty cinnamon and wrapped in a plastic sachet. It was utterly inedible yet obviously people bought it and enjoyed it. Americanized “food” is a very strange thing.
Giliell @#11
Ten lunches! Holy crap! I somehow missed that fact. And yeah, that’s definitely not enough for ten lunches.
Before COVID-19, kids in Latvia got warm lunches at schools. Then after COVID-19 schools got closed. What foods kids got varied in different cities and even varied in different schools in the same city. Some parents just got cash. Other parents got vouchers that they could spend in grocery stores. Some kids got warm meals delivered to their homes. And some parents got boxes of food. I looked up photos of said food boxes. Some were pretty great with a variety of protein foods, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables. Others were about as terrible as the one from the photo linked in this blog post.
There can be some arguments in favor of giving poor people food boxes rather than cash. If a city buys several metric tons of whole grains or beans, they will get a much better price than a person who buys a single package in a grocery store. Moreover, during a COVID-19 pandemic it is possible to put food boxes in a car and deliver them to poor families to their homes thus reducing the amount of grocery store trips people have to take. At least some Latvian parents who shared in social media photos of food boxes that were delivered to them were very happy with what they got.
That being said, unfortunately, I routinely get the impression that those people in charge of deciding what gets put in food boxes don’t know a thing about nutrition. They just pick some cheap foods with long shelf life and no refrigeration requirements. This ignores the fact that people need protein foods that contain all essential amino acids, they need essential fatty acids, they need a long list of minerals and vitamins. And they need vitamin B12 which doesn’t exist in any plant foods. On top of that, some people have food allergies, coeliac disease, diabetes, etc. Never mind taste preferences. Food boxes are hard to get right and very easy to screw up. Thus, in general, cash remains the better option.
I guess another problem are patronizing attitudes. As in “we cannot give poor parents money or they’ll spend it all on alcohol and tobacco.” Or “only stupid people are poor, this means that poor parents cannot be trusted to make smart nutrition choices, they cannot be trusted to buy food for their kids.”
In Latvia salmon is a delicacy. Whole fish cost about 12 euro per kilogram. Cut pieces of salmon with bones already removed are about 20 euro per kilogram. Only salmon heads, bones, and fins are cheap. You can make a tasty soup from them (in Latvia we import farmed Salmon from Norway).
This reminds me of sweet lupini beans. They are grown in Latvia as a cattle food. But I can also buy luxury bread with a small amount of lupini bean flour as one of the ingredients. I have been thinking that I’d like to try cooking some dishes with lupini beans, but I haven’t been able to find any place where I could just buy them. I could only find them for sale in metric tons as cattle food.
Yeah, but then somebody has to pack and handle that during a pandemic as well. Also, as long as people don’t get all their food delivered, it does little to reduce trips to the grocery store. I think the most common reason behind giving boxes, not cash or vouchers is the deep mistrust of poor people. As you say, the boxes are often not nutritionally adequate, yet one argument seems to be that poor people would only buy junk food anyway.
But also, poor people deserve cakes, I think.
For me, especially in recent pandemic times, a major privilege and life quality cornerstone is being able to cook the kind of food I like at home and eat it at peace, instead of wolfing down whatever is available at the nearest cafeteria. It also helps me save some money, not that I’m severely short on money. I suppose If I had an actual job and a salary and a busy schedule, I could more than afford the cafeteria food -- but it’d still taste like junk to me. (Obviously, poor people shouldn’t be expected to cook everything from scratch.)
Whether your home cooking looks fancy or “posh” on Instagram probably mostly depends on whether you can/will present it like a fancy restaurant dish. There’s not much relation to the cost of ingredients, or perhaps even the labor/flatware investment. When I shop groceries, I select them very carefully to get good quality stuff -- there’s a huge amount of quality variation in common types of cheap fresh produce. My actual cooking is low effort and the end result looks mostly like mush. I rarely think about presenting my cooking to other people in person, much less on social media.
I had no idea that some types of lupins bear edible seeds, or that they are farmed for cattle feed. A entire field in bloom must be lovely.
I don’t think anyone has ever tried to food shame me for eating ‘above my station’ but I’ve gotten plenty of comments about my love of oxtail soup, collards and chickpeas, or any of the other ‘poor people’ foods that I enjoy.
Now I am going to put my cheap on sale pork shoulder into the oven along with a can of chipotle in adobo, an onion, and Dr Pepper soda. We shall have awesome jerk pork and pork sandwiches for days. I may even make some pozole.
Flank steak (fahitas) was a poor people food.