[Sca-cooks] Favorite dessert?

[Dragon]

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

>On Apr 4, 2008, at 12:49 AM, chawkswrth at aol.com wrote:
> > There are times, Adamantius, when I think you are a man after my own
> > heart.
>
>Only sometimes???
>
> > That is the way I bake, and when I had a catering business, that was
> > the way I baked.
> > You want *GOOD*, you come to me. You want cheap, go elsewhere.
>
>Unfortunately, if you want to do that for a living, you have to find a
>clientele willing to pay a somewhat larger percentage of their income
>for food (which much of the US is not; why pay even $20 for a cake
>when Duncan-Hines is -- what -- I have no idea what Duncan-Hines
>costs, but how much could it possibly be, rising grain costs
>notwithstanding) but who _also_ (and here's the catch) actually
>appreciate the value of good food, and not simply its cost/price. Not
>many people are/do. You could probably set up shop in someplace like
>Brooklyn, maybe Long Island City, Queens, and do fairly well. But yes,
>you probably have to sell something like this as "comfort food":
>plain, high-quality food at slightly premium prices.
---------------- End original message. ---------------------

Here is the way I see it:

There are people who eat to live. They are the vast, plebian majority 
who do not give a rat's posterior about teh quality of what they eat. 
They are the hordes who keep McDonalds and all other fast food chains 
in business, they are the people who will pass up a great local 
restaurant to go to Denny's. They are the majority and unfortunately, 
they dictate the market because their dollars are the bigger piece of 
the pie by far.

Then there are those who live to eat. They are the people who 
appreciate a good meal and understand what makes food good. These are 
the people who seek out the local place with its regional 
specialties, the people who choose the "stinky cheese" and the "weird 
foods". Fortunately for us, there are some people of like mind in the 
market who supply what we want. Unfortunately, the cost is often 
quite a bit higher.


These things are exacerbated in the U.S. by cultural factors and the 
commoditization, homogenization, and mass production of foods that 
appeal to the lowest common denominator.


The following quote is apropos:

There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a 
little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on 
price alone is this man's lawful prey.
     - John Ruskin

Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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