What are some examples of fancier, expensive, boutique versions of things that are worse than the mass market version?

For example, I noticed that a lot of the fancy-pants toothpastes are missing fluoride.

I much prefer cheap supermarket hummus to the proper fancy stuff.

I didn't know there was luxury hummus. I take it they use the fancy olive oil?

Boutique jeans seem worse to me than basic Levis, Wranglers, or Lees.

Are we talking about how Rolex watches aren't very good at keeping time?

There are some butt ugly expensive jeans out there, but the good ones are certainly better than Lee or Wrangler. Levi’s typically solid and affordable. In the states anyway.

not very fancy, but lindt chocolates are waxier than cheaper kids' chocolates.

pizza

i went to someone's house and they had this fancy wine bottle opener in this fancy case and i swear it took them 4 days to open a stupid bottle of wine and i wanted to grab the bottle and just pop it open in two seconds with a one dollar plastic corkscrew. but i didn't. instead i said: wow, that thing is...elaborate. it made me thirsty.

pizza is kind of a perfect one, yeah

xp

pizza for me is like the microbrew thing. can you make a tasty plain cheese pizza/decent drinkable ale or lager without 10 kinds of hops in it and nutmeg and pumpkin spice? you can? okay, NOW reinvent the wheel if that's what you feel like you need to do. but you probably don't need to.

Pens and stationary. My work supplies me with steno books and ball-points. I'm not going to write more meaningful shit or have better penmanship just because I have indie/small-batch writing implements!

Porsche Design Blackberries. Performance is no different to the regular ones.

Also in the same bracket, Vertu mobiles.

My dad had a couple of Montblanc pens when he died, they're kind of shitty to write with. The rollerball refills are fine, no better or worse than cheaper brands, but the pens themselves are not ergonomic.

Fancy watches - even if you want it to look classic a battery beats the hell out of hand-wound bullshit made by Swiss elves.

Computer keyboards. Partly because I've come to realize that I don't particularly like mechanical keyboards anymore, which are all the rage with the aficionados. Don't like Mac keyboards either.
Also, my expensive "Das Keyboard" broke twice in a year.

college

Tinned tomatoes probably, those Polpa brand ones might be the exception though or maybe I'm just dazzled by the *authentically* Italian graphic design on the tin. It has probably been mentioned one here before though, if your tomato game is good you don't really need pricey tinned tomatoes or passata for delicious sauce.

I'm struggling to think of an expensive brand of tinned tomatoes that aren't any good though.

corkscrews otm

cast iron skillets

xp to the op

The lack of fluoride is supposed to be a selling point.

Maybe that was supposed to be a funny.

well, we do have to protect our precious bodily fluids from communist fluoride infiltration.

Pizza and beer for sure, although I can't say with any certainty that the problem isn't my palate's lack of refinement.

I think probably any attempt to fancy up tried and true prole fare is going to be something of a lost cause.

'Artisinal funnel cakes!' GTFO

Totally agree on the fancy wine-opening gear. Dude I've got a pocketknife, don't come at me with that Rabbit or gas-injecting thingy or whatever.

In a pinch I've used a ball-point pen.

Hot sauce

wine openers otm, the basic steel ones with the two legs are the best by far.

Pretty sure I'd take the shittiest microbrew over Coors or Budweiser.

having had some really bad microbrews and having enjoyed a domestic tall boy with bbq, nah

^^^

Pho

Burgers

expensive niche house fragrances

Tea

Crisps

every time i eat a fancy taco it just makes me with i was at a cheap mexican restaurant instead

makes me wish

i think this applies in general to a trend over the last decade or so i've taken to calling "fancy junk food." but there are some isolated cases in which a 3 dollar donut really is pretty excellent.

oh mannn i have been burned several times by dry, airy, flavorless 3 dollar Dough-brand donuts when all i actually wanted was a krispy kreme or something to make drinking my coffee more interesting.

I don't love paying 10€+ for a burger but when I've done it they've been the best burgers I've ever had

but I'll add: potato chips

I'm having trouble finding an example of this. Mass-market stuff is generally bland and mediocre at best, and I consume enough of it. Like, I'd easily take the three tacos made by Mexican people that I can get for $5 down the street over some weird $10 paleo vegan hipster taco place but fuck Taco Bell.

That's what I meant by "crisps" ftr xp

Lots of drip coffees!

Movie theater popcorn

like fancy theatres versus cineplex, or cineplex versus microwave/pre-made bags or what? this one's weird because the cineplex version is SUPPOSED to be the mass-market everyperson's food but nowadays it costs an absolute fortune.

bottomless popcorn night and “bring your own popcorn container” night beg to differ

ah yes "crisps" sorry mate ;)

staples like butter differ from place to place; in the usa yr land o'lakes is pretty bland but the store brands in france uk etc. are totally good imo. I still buy hipster butter from time to time but it's not like the leap from supermarket cheese or w/o

Cineplex popcorn is so cynical! It’s like movie theater popcorn simulacrum. Just bags and bags of grainy old popcorn that fulfills some idea of pleasure, without any of the pleasurable elements of popcorn. No crunch, no deliciously cloying butter flavor, just styrofoam with salt and flavorless oil.

Microwave butter popcorn < air pop with butter < movie theater style popcorn > fancy cineplex popcorn > artesianial flavored pre-popped kernels in a bag.

I'm not sure I understand the categories there ("crisps" guy over here) but yeah "fancy" popcorn is a letdown

Although reading that over again, cheapo salty popcorn (which is the norm here everywhere you go) > popcorn with I can't believe it's not butter on it imo

there isn't a percent profit on earth bigger than the one on multiplex popcorn

the average greasy diner burger is better than anything more fancy but mass-market burgers = mcdonald's which are clearly inferior (though i like them fine).

To the first post - I'll happily pay a premium for flouride-free toothpaste. And, to quote Andy Warhol, 'A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.'

there isn't a percent profit on earth bigger than the one on multiplex popcorn

KETCHUP!!!! Heinz has perfected it y’all, no need to bother.

Coke and ketchup otm

I don't buy food when I watch a film because that is for mugs

i know some ushers who'd like you

wait did someone just out themselves as a fluoride conspiracy theorist

xp I aim to please - we don't really have ushers here tho

I go to the cinema fairly frequently tho & can sit still for 2 hours without needing to chug strawberry laces constantly or whatever, because I am not six. I'm glad that the ppl who choose to do so pay inflated prices on the whole

we don't really have ushers here tho

well whoever's job it is to keep roaches from crawling across the projector lens like the tingler.

i unexpectedly stopped being able to eat popcorn without becoming violently ill around age 25 for some ominous reason so now i just drink sprite at movies. when i did get multiplex popcorn tho it was always gone before the end of the trailers. maybe that has something to do with it.

haircuts, sometimes

poutine

I think Coke and ketchup are the only two of these I can really get behind so far. Being a snob is more fun for me than being a reverse snob.

yeah, i bought a fancy poutine last week, it was a mess

i would extend to brunch in general: low-end cheap brunch = good, high-end cheap = good, then things get incrementally worse the more you spend

brunch is a great pick.

I'm in favour of banning cinema popcorn at any movie below a certain volume threshold since seeing Solaris. It's okay at King Kong or whatever, but some movies should not have to compete to be heard over nonstop popcorn munching.

I must have posted this before, but the boutique snack at my local arthouse is WASABI PEAS. Like well done, you have found the snack that is not only crunchier than popcorn, it's louder than literally all snacks. Dried fucking peas, my god. Let's just go the whole hog, like, I'll have one for last year at marienbad and some m&ms and a fucking vuvuzela

I've had some pretty great artisanal/boutique ketchup, though the difference in quality between it and mass produced ketchup isn't as big, as stuff like bread, popcorn, chocolate ... many things ... but the fancy (lol) ketchup is no worse than the store brand "fancy ketchup" at the supermarket.

fancier version tends to be not as good as the cheaper version: fried chicken

Strongly disagree with that one.

peanut butter

Car audio systems.

I don’t know what it is, but my Toyota Echo’s sound is so much better, punchier, and more fully-defined than what I’ve heard from fancier systems.

cats
dogs

peanut butter cups

fancier version tends to be not as good as the cheaper version: fried chicken

Is there a flouride conspiracy? If so, I'm unaware. I thought it was well established and known that ingesting flouride is bad. Then again, I use activated charcoal toothpaste that stains my sink black, yet leaves my teeth sparkly white. Anyway, back to topic, I'll say most vinyl pressed these days is no better than or inferior to the digital source. Plus, LPs are like $25-40! I still buy CDs tho.

Hot sauce, too. I prefer Crystal (under $2 a bottle) to most probiotic, small batch, whatever artisan types.

Consider me dumb, but isn’t activated charcoal too abrasive for the tooth enamel?

I don't know. I hope not. It was an impulse buy at the co-op. On my second tube and doing fine.

Is flouride American for fluoride?

I like Bud and Coors but to say there aren't like hundreds of really good craft beers (most of which just have a couple completely different taste and purpose) is some contrarian bullshit

and there are craft beers that try wacky ingredients and flavors but also 80% of the market is pretty down the center IPAs, Porters and ales that are not particularly adventurous

The best cranberry sauce is the canned-shaped glop

Healthcare

Is there a flouride conspiracy? If so, I'm unaware. I thought it was well established and known that ingesting flouride is bad.

lol

I use charcoal to make draw murals of communist utopias, then brush my teeth with fluoride.

Shampoo, moisturizer, face cleansers, that kind of stuff

I like Bud and Coors but to say there aren't like hundreds of really good craft beers (most of which just have a couple completely different taste and purpose) is some contrarian bullshit

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, November 12, 2017 5:09 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh totally, but the worst craft beers are literally undrinkable results of production mistakes that bud and coors will never make, and they hit the market with a craft markup.

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

And lol paracetamol tbrr

lol

Fluoride is a known toxic substance, so, yes ingesting it is bad. If you look at the instructions for using fluoride toothpaste, they specifically tell you to spit it out and swallow as little as possible. Fluoride toothpaste is not recommended for children too young to understand how to spit it out.

As for fluoride in water, the theory is that the amounts of fluoride ingested via treated water are minimal enough to be harmless to one's system, or else the harm done is small enough that the benefits outweigh the harm. The same was once thought true of lead in gasoline and paint. That turned out to be wrong. Fluoride is still innocent until proved guilty, but this approach is not a guarantee of innocence.

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

And lol paracetamol tbrr

― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Sunday, November 12, 2017 5:45 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's just your mom

Big branded clothing obv

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

OK this one is just consumer dumbness. Theyre all paracetamol. The brand matters not. Doesnt stop some brands re-branding stuff though. In Aus recently some co got pulled up by the ACCC for selling all these differently boxed paracetamols for "arthritis", "period pain", "Migrane" and they were like $5 more than the regular one in the same brand. All of them were just regular old 500mg paracetmol tablets.

GENERICS ARE GOOD.

Have we said trainers/sneakers yet? As in the difference between these £400 designer trainers and a pair of Adidas

Well that applies I think to most clothing dunnit. Unless its like hand-tailored by tibetan monks or something.

I think I started a thread on that concept but I don't think it's quite what this thread is dl?

Ooh another one is fish and chips in the UK. Fancy places that charge for ketchup sachets and stuff give small portions and the food is no better than your local shop

toilet paper

"boutique" maybe no difference but there is a biiiig difference within the supermarket shelf offerings between the cheapest stuff and the priciest

and does anyone still think Advil or Bayer or Tylenol are superior to the generic or is it just my mom

I don't see a difference in this case but Advil and Tylenol are nothing if not mass-market.

And, like, with poutine, are you guys actually saying that A&W is better than chipwagons or casse-croutes or are we comparing to some sort of wacky $15 poutine with kale and lemongrass added? Because I'd probably be with you in the latter case but it's more a case of winning by default.

random late night poutine at la belle province > some fancy version at a restaurant with table service

i’ve never had canadian fast food poutine outside of quebec so this mcdonalds/a&w/whatever having poutine concept remains foreign to me

Oh yeah, totally. I thought "mass market" = New York Fries/A&W as opposed to La Belle Province but you're right that what I'm comparing it to is more small business/street food than 'fancy, expensive, boutique'. I do agree that fancied up expensive versions of things like poutine and tacos are wrong enough that the fast food version is preferable.
xp

You can get A&W poutine at ONRoute stops all over the 401!

Electric guitar.

Theyre all paracetamol.

Hate to quibble but this is not right. In the US, Advil is a brand of ibuprofen, Bayer is a brand of aspirin, and Tylenol is a brand of acetaminophen (paracetamol).

Those are all pain relievers, but they're different drugs, and they may have different uses, different warnings, different risks, and different levels of effectiveness for different sorts of pain.

I agree that there's no interesting difference between generic ibuprofen and brand-name ibuprofen. or generic and name-brand acetaminophen. But it doesn't follow from that that ibuprofen and acetaminophen are the same thing.

But! The drugs aren't the same. People who drink a lot should probably steer clear of acetaminophen because it has been said to cause liver damage in heavy drinkers. Low-dose aspirin, while useful for heart ailments, might not be great for someone with a fever, particularly a kid, because of a (probably very slight) risk of Reye's syndrome.

(Oh and while Advil, Motrin, and store-brand ibuprofen are identical chemically speaking, I still think the coating on Advil tablets is tastier.)

I feel like what we're doing here is mostly the markup on the boutique variety is unjustifiable and not the boutique variety is actually worse

don't some people claim this about coffee (correct or not)?

used to see some foodie blogs insist Dunkin Donuts coffee was the best ever

Thanks for the course correction, Tomboto, you're right; most of this is about whether the $200 (thing) is twice as good as the $100 (thing). It usually isn't, but that is a different question from whether it's worse.

in the case of the latter my experience is: t-shirts.

T-shirts are always worse, in terms of fit, durability, and comfort, per each dollar you spend over $18 or so.

Hot sauce, too. I prefer Crystal (under $2 a bottle) to most probiotic, small batch, whatever artisan types.

― Yelploaf, Sunday, November 12, 2017 3:37 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hi 5. Crystal is great, most any mass market cayenne+vinegar+salt sauce is good. The spendier brands that have a lot of pulp and fruit and stuff mixed in can be good, it's just not enough of a return for the price. Hot sauce is v kechupesque in this regard.

Which is the best generic/cheap maple syrup? I can't fuck with that £5/6 a bottle stuff when I could get some terrible red wine for less than that.

Electric guitar.

Superhero comics! I never understand why anyone would rather read some back-breaking 1,500 page prestige hardback collection over a piece-of-shit badly-printed single issue.

Separating superhero comics from other stuff because there are lots of prestige books (e.g. the Fantagraphics Peanuts books) that are gorgeous (and also not prohibitively heavy).

if we're gonna try, for whatever reason, to stan for mass-produced beers than leave budweiser and coors well out if it ffs. gross.

a cold heineken or whatever, grand.

I feel like what we're doing here is mostly the markup on the boutique variety is unjustifiable and not the boutique variety is actually worse

― El Tomboto, Sunday, November 12, 2017 6:33 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

heineken is not the same style, although I like that on occasion. it’s not even trying to be a better version

otoh I heard several Japanese beers described as “efforts to create a Japanese Budweiser” and I can totally taste it. Kirin and Sapporo for sure

the boutique colas and ketchups are worse, please fight me

I love heineken tbh, but i will also "happily" drink the cheaper brands stella and budweiser. budweiser is good for adding to beef stews as well, not so great for drinking.

idk if Stella is cheaper than Heineken in the US?

it is in the uk

actually I think most Asian export lagers are all efforts to create a <demonym> Carlsberg

I wish I could argue that flat-pack furniture that's more expensive than IKEA is always a rip-off but I remembered I have several things I put together myself that are way better than the IKEA particle board edition.

cheap/generic maple syrup is not actually maple syrup so that's a weird one

list junk food dressed up for yuppies who are too smart for junk food

coffins.

the flimsier the better imo

"cheap/generic maple syrup is not actually maple syrup so that's a weird one"

that's probably true, hence the requirement for shoplifting.

> Hot sauce is v kechupesque in this regard

I'd disagree with respect to many hot sauces are so distinct they don't really compete with each other. Louisiana style hot sauces (and Louisiana brand > Tabasco > Crystal), Sriracha style hot sauces, Mexican style hot sauces, Belizean style hot sauces all serve different purposes in my kitchen. Red beans and rice would be wrong with the cumin that a Mexican style hot sauce would add. But generally, cost is no indication of quality. In addition to Louisiana > Tabasco, Valentina's = Cholula, and Melinda's bought by the gallon = Marie Sharpe's.

Aside: if one isn't making a barrel aged hot sauce, they're really easy to prepare at home. I just made a batch of this recipe when a nephew gave me 3 dozen home-grown habaneros, and it stands up to Marie Sharpe's.

good maple syrup is still cheap if you don't mind going to farm country to buy it

one subcategory might be things like cameras, where the fancy/boutiquey stuff is also specialist stuff. so not "worse," but probably worse FOR most people - the fanciest camera won't be set up to let you take good everyday pics right out of the box, they assume you'll be futzing with settings and stuff, but lower tiers will be. audio equipment might be similar in some ways. most vinyl afficionados would acknowledge that it's a bad fit for most people's listening habits, and wildly more expensive and (these days) boutiquey than spotify. but we are very happy with our records!

a lot of boutiquey things are riding this edge by selling you on acquiring this expertise and connoisseurship, supported by irritating marketing moves and stupid lifestyle blogs and shit. for the uninitiated it can be hard to tell which upsells are hokum (gold speaker wires) and which genuinely reflect an improvement in your experience. i'm making the transition to shaving with double-edged razor blades in a safety razor rather than cartridges. in the long run it will save me a fortune on mass market cartridges, but upfront it was a marked-up boutiquey "starter set" of razor, mug and shaving soap (I know, I know, I'm a sucker but I just couldn't go one more shave with my neck all irritated). and until i master the techniques i am getting a worse shave more laboriously (albeit without the irritation).

back in the main thread topic: 3D movies.

this thread would be more useful if it named specific boutique brands that suck. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious that most things have good and bad examples at all price points.

now you're getting all boutique-y on us

bad and boutique-y

With camera lenses or audiophile equipment, the buyer is often paying for a distinctive sort of distortion that they don't get from less expensive options. Lens reviews effuse about the quality of bokeh, how out of focus points are rendered. You may like that "warm" speaker, with the peak in the vocal frequency range and dip early into the cymbal highs, but from an objective standpoint, its poorer at reproducing the source material.

Honestly, that's okay. I just don't think a preference for certain kinds of distortion requires so much in the way of marketing justifications.

justifications rationalisations

Grace brand jerk seasoning/sauce is pretty unbeatable. Also Kikkoman maybe?

Oh and YYK zippers.

"Which is the best generic/cheap maple syrup? I can't fuck with that £5/6 a bottle stuff when I could get some terrible red wine for less than that."

the good pure stuff is always more expensive and WAY better than the bad corn syrup goop. but good maple syrup is just maple syrup so its not like a boutique thing.

i'm kinda addicted to bayer back & body aspirin with caffeine. totally makes my record crate-wrecked back feel better and gives me a spring in my step during the day. so, bayer rules. i haven't seen too many hipster aspirins out there though. there probably some herbal headache powders at the co-op in town.

Shampoo

― ur-oik (rip van wanko)

I would really like to know if this is true, because it would save me about 75%. Please tell me that a $5 bottle of shampoo is better than a $20 one. Anecdotal evidence from other people suggests the opposite so please tell me that they're wrong.

we have a fancy apothecary in town but i've never been there. maybe if they sold opium-laced tinctures i would go.

http://www.bluedragonapothecary.com/

xp massively dependent on your hair length/type imo

also, i hate saying the word tincture. one of my least-favorite words!

cleaning wipes

cleaning chemicals in general (windex vs gen brand)

i like that the generic ones are less potent

My mom proudly told me she went sulfate-free so I checked her bottle of Redken shampoo, and instead of sodium lauryl sufate, the 2nd ingredient was sodium lauryl sulfoacetate. I know nothing about chemistry but I think she's been had. So I laughed haughtily in her direction and she cried.

Btw I strongly dispute the "drip coffee" suggestion. The beans I buy from my local shop that come from Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, or Mexico and cost ~$15/pound are indisputably superior to anything I could buy at the supermarket. More flavorful AND smoother, not to mention easier on the stomach (less acidic). I can understand a nostalgic affection for old-fashioned drip coffee from a diner or whatever but it's not better than the truly good stuff.

shame on you!

Xp

For me, $5 is a fancy bottle of Pantene. I use $1 Suave.

Sulfate-free shampoo is like slathering mayonnaise on your hair, ime. It just doesn't work.

My hair = mid-length, thick

the SLSA molecule is too large to penetrate the skin, thus causing less irritation than sulfates.

my take on hair/skin products is try to go for cheaper products but if you find something that works for you, like really works, and it costs $$$, you just have to roll with it.

i'm open to be educated on this but i've never enjoyed using anything more fancy than a bic razor (though obviously getting a straight-razor shave would be superior).

i had a completely generic vegetable peeler with a cheap white plastic handle for, i kid you not, at least 25 years and it was old when i got it! sadly, i lost it or it ended up in the trash. i bought 3 different peelers ranging from 5 dollars to 20 dollars and they all broke almost immediately. one broke just by touching a potato with it! i'm not even lying. i didn't even start peeling, it just broke in half when it touched a potato.

just needed to get that *they don't make them like they used to* moment out of my system...

which luxury brand of potato peeler was too fancy for peeling potatoes?

was it a TLC-vanity label peeler called "I don't want no spuds"?

I use a ridiculous sulfate-free shampoo (Deva Curl) but it's the first shampoo where I didn't have a hint of dandruff.

i used that & it gave me dandruff! lol
may have been the conditioner & not the shampoo specifically

hipster aspirins

The next hipster frontier, surely. "Lately I'm really getting into some artisanal antihistamines out of Portland lately. You probably haven't heard of them yet."

"LolWAAAT? West Coast antihistos? Are. so. Over. All the cool people have been totes grooving on these insane Burmese nose suppositories. Guess you didn't get the memo."

Coca Cola is very variable in quality & vanilla is clearly superior so the Warholism is nonsense. I prefer Ubuntu & Club-Mate Cola

which luxury brand of potato peeler was too fancy for peeling potatoes?

Philippe Starck made a potato peeler iirc, probably that one

i'm open to be educated on this but i've never enjoyed using anything more fancy than a bic razor (though obviously getting a straight-razor shave would be superior).

― new noise, Monday, 13 November 2017 03:59 (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Huge difference for me.

Also, straight razor shave destroyed my face for weeks.

no names no pack drill but i love how threads like this rapidly mutate into "defend yr artisanal preferences"

wine openers otm, the basic steel ones with the two legs are the best by far.

Are they fuck. Waiter's Friend style everytime. The cheap copies work just as well, though, so I guess the initial point still holds ...

i'm been enjoying pepsi in my old age. and Pepsi 1893 is actually better and more expensive Pepsi! it's really quite good. i can't vouch for the different variations of Pepsi 1893 though. citrus, black currant, etc. i've only had the regular one.

i STILL miss Pepsi Kona. i loved that stuff. it was ahead of its time.

http://starbulletin.com/96/06/04/business/pepsi.gif

haha i have never had a prob with the steel one. i have a waiter's friend but i find it harder to use, possibly cos i haven't bothered to learn. i realise that sounds dim but i have a pretty poor sense of the operation of even the most faintly mechanical things, bad spatial reasoning.

xposts

but, yeah, sometimes at the co-op i'll buy one of those overpriced boutique colas and they suck. they try to make them more botanical or something. they put flavors in them that shouldn't be in a cola.

this is all i need. ever. i will have the wine poured in 4.3 seconds. unless the cork is dry as fuck. then there might be a wait.

http://heelsfirsttravel.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/travel-corkscrew.jpg

next time i buy a peeler i'm not going to mess around. Nostalgia Electrics! best company name. because everyone had one of these in the old days.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81077H741yL._SL1500_.jpg

Sainsbury's sells premium 'Aged Indian Basmati Rice', which the packet assures me is 'aged 12 months'. This always makes me chuckle when I pick up pack of the regular basmati.

I'm happy to be corrected here, but seems like they're just overcharging for old rice?

ah, one of those 'we're so down to earth' threads

ah, someone who doesn't know how to read.

tbh some of these seem sound opinions

dude, if there was a fancy-ass version of coca-cola that was way better i'd be all about it. fuck a coke.

yeah as wanky/expensive as some stuff can be it is at least supporting a small business when you buy it.

yeah, fentiman's curiosity cola >>>>>>>>>>>> coca cola. i am on your side in this! i was explicitly railing against the 'basic must be best' attitude you often see in threads like this

there are way more examples where it's a complete lottery as to whether the boutique version beats the basic - tuition, for example. plenty of people charging the same as or more than i do are frankly useless, and there are people charging next to nothing who are superlative tutors

you'd think all private tuition is boutique but idk it's getting more popular jussayin'

lj's artisanal tuition

I think the fancy colas are nice when you're luxuriating in the taste of a beverage but if you're wanting a cola to drink on the side of your non-fancy pizza or with your non-artisanal burger, the default coke or pepsi is where it's at

and I like all those pepsi experimental ones, but each is a beverage after its own ends, not a refreshment you have with food as a stock refreshment

Top answer - Water. Better at rehydration than.. owt.

water with electrolytes is better at rehydration, sorry Mark

rats.

I think the fancy colas are nice when you're luxuriating in the taste of a beverage but if you're wanting a cola to drink on the side of your non-fancy pizza or with your non-artisanal burger, the default coke or pepsi is where it's at

coca-cola and pepsi are too different for this to make sense, and plenty of other colas are similarly functional.

Nah, you have to suck on rats for ages to get any juice out

ArtisanalFanTV

Fentimans Coke tastes like bogwater

Yeah also that. It's pish.

haven't willingly drank a coke or any other cola in 10 or more years

unwilling instances maybe a party or something with no alcohol left. but haven't bought coke in so long.

I only drink cola as a mixer tbh

paring knives

i could be wrong here as it's not a thing i use loads of, but expensive parmesan always feels a bit of a cheat to me.

given it's almost a condiment i'd expect a noticeable difference, like eg really good olive oil can be such a huge difference, even black pepper.

i do like the technological advancements they've been making as far as burning a hole in my throat with artisanal ginger beers. great job.

where do people stand when it comes to the great gourmet salt assault of the 21st century.

if it ain't pink, you stink. would be my artisanal salt slogan.

i always use maldon sea salt - it is gourmet i guess but i dunno, a box lasts me about 6 months or more and costs about 4 pounds.

xpost

maldon sea salt usually contains some hella awesome pyramid crystals

sea salt is better than the morton stuff but beyond that i can't tell a difference

regular dried beans you buy in the bulk section or in the goya aisle are cheaper and not noticeably different than pricy heirloom beans in 12oz bags at whole foods

I only get tubs or boxes of coarse salt. They last ages and it's fun to scrunch a pinch of them over food

the goya section is good for so many things. i only buy canned goya beans when i need beans.

the co-op here has dumb ramen, that's all i know. hippie ramen! who knew it existed? luckily, there is an asian market two towns over and i stock up there. they have every good thing there. i wish they were in this town.

There's an achill sea salt so I have to get that

someone mentioned peanut butter cups and the co-op here has a fancy version and they are pretty good but they don't give you the chalky satisfaction of reeses.

Hand dryers. Those dyson things are bullshit and always covered in dubious watery splashes. Bad for geemaphobes, bad for drying.

Those Dyson things are incredible

even the name is perfectly co-op:

http://justins.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Justins-Web-MediaRelations-PBCups-6.jpg

someone was just slamming Dyson on my Facebook today! must be in the air. he hates the working man or something.

Nah it's in the filter

unconvinced that dysons are any more or less "mass market" than other kinds of hand dryer

those cheap trader joes peanut butter cups are way better than reese's imo

Bond movies

the xcelerator dryers are way better than the dyson ones

the "non-artisanal" hand-dryer is wiping them on yr trousers

Mortons salt, sea salt, kosher salt, fleur de sel, pink Himalayan leash-walked Montessori-schooled salt - are all different things with different uses.

Basic run-of-the-mill salt dissolves faster; you use it in things that need that. I'm not going to have big crunchy kosher salt in scrambled eggs, sheesh.

i just crunch sea salt between fingers as i use it and it dissolves. sometimes i want the flakes and adjust the method accordingly.

Basic run-of-the-mill salt dissolves faster; you use it in things that need that. I'm not going to have big crunchy kosher salt in scrambled eggs, sheesh.

― piezoelectric landlord (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, November 13, 2017 11:21 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yo i'm pretty sure this isn't true--baking tests have shown that the kind of salt you use doesn't matter.

Baking tests, yeah. Which look at baking.

But for a fast early-AM egg? Two shakes of the shaker of perfectly normal salt is way faster than "crunching sea salt between fingers," lovingly whisking a preferred artisanal salt product into the mixture beforehand, or whatever. Cheap beer, cheap salt, cheap guitars, and fast food will always have a place in my cosmology... for the times that that's what I want.

"There's a time for Bud" is a different statement from "Bud is better," I will grant.

Trying to figure out a way to fit YMP posts into this narrative but only in service of lazy zing it's all <3

every idea anybody has about quality is rinsed thru a hundred layers of marketing and socioeconomic self a identification. Which isn't to say that bitterness and personal taste don't exist but just to say everybody kids themselves about everything, often. imago otm, I'm a terrible inverted snob, but it's just one end of the spectrum that finishes at its mirror image

wtf? it doesn't take any time to sprinkle salt and crunch it in your fingers. seriously what a ludicrous post.

do you have to do a warm-up exercise to rub an index finger against your thumb

I buy basmati rice in 20 lb burlap sacks from the local Indian market. *All* of the basmati there is marked aged, as that's the preference of North Indian affluent. I suspect it isn't particularly cost effective to export non-aged basmati to Western nations, so if that's what you want (for some reason), you'd get the Texmati with all the arsenic.

I prefer coarse kosher salt as I add salt by the fingertip from a salt cellar. Its no more expensive than fine salt, but does have the disadvantage of not having iodine fortification.

It takes a village of salt. But I tend to stay away from the artisanal junk, just need name brand table salt, kosher salt, and sea salt.

"betterness", not bitterness

There are a lot worse things in life to spend your excess capitalism gains /snobby prejudices on than sea salt tbf

well sure, gotta find an identity somewhere

Xp: And by *all* are aged, there must be seven brands of Indian source basmati, in 5-50 lb bags, at this warehouse sized Indian/International grocer.

Bond movies

― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Monday, November 13, 2017 8:18 AM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^good answer, assuming Skyfall and Spectre are the expensive boutique design porn Bonds here.

just buy the fancy salt that comes in a grinder. than you don't have to worry about any finger pinching.

I don't really think of electric guitars as a mass market product (and, if they are, the boutique version is definitely not Fender/Gibson) but what are these cheapo brands that are better than Gibson ES guitars?

who said electric?

if someone's just going to learn guitar you can get a cheap one for $50 or steal your friend's they bought and played roughly twice

You can get A&W poutine at ONRoute stops all over the 401!

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, November 12, 2017 3:23 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hadnt read this exchange til now but i have to confess to eating dairy queen poutine a lot as a teen

who said electric?

Two people upthread.

if someone's just going to learn guitar you can get a cheap one for $50 or steal your friend's they bought and played roughly twice

Totally agree with this but it's not because these guitars are better than more expensive ones. It's because the difference in cost isn't justified at this stage.

ah

all bond movies are bad, there isn't a framing that gets you out of this

in terms of electric guitars, hard to find better at good prices than the big brands

in terms of acoustic/classical, it's definitely better and cheaper to have a luthier build yr guitar than to get a martin/ramirez/cordoba/etc

just buy the fancy salt that comes in a grinder. than you don't have to worry about any finger pinching.

i like the finger pinching. i was pleased to read an article recently where a chef talked about teaching it to his recruits. i don't care about it that much but it's nicer than grinding.

unconvinced that dysons are any more or less "mass market" than other kinds of hand dryer

More the marketing of them - the usual sciencey/innovation bullshit

you people must spend a lot of time drying your hands to be such experts!

workplaces with hand driers, scott

i did really hate those dyson ads when they were on t.v.

the king of suck.

i just figure if my hands are dry when it stops making that racket that it is a successful machine.

that's the gold standard right there

The ones where you have to gently raise your hands higher through a metallic wet germ valley are the ones that never work for me

What are some examples of fancier, expensive, boutique versions of things that are worse than the mass market version? [Started by Philip Nunez in November 2017, last updated seven minutes ago by Chuck_Tatum] 249 new answers
Just when you thought it was safe - OK CUPID PART 3: The Return of the WOO! [Started by dog latin (dog latin) in July 2004, last updated eight minutes ago by Doctor Casino] 8 new answers

that is an actual example of this I think

Hotels, when it comes to certain amenities: getting a cup of coffee in the morning, ease of use, consistency.

I love boutique hotels. They have hipsterish in-room amenities and shared bathrooms!

ice cream is the opposite for me. totally not nostalgic for the cheap bricks of supermarket ice milk of my youth. i'll buy every overpriced pint known to man.

also a reverse case: i think its kinda cool when foodie snobs get stoned and make "small batch" ice cream flavors that are over the top. go for it, stoner hipster dudes with trust funds burning a hole in your pockets!

also, it seems like lots of towns/cities have their own local ice cream company now - greenfield does and its great - and this is cool. big cream can bite it.

When I think fancy boutique guitars, I think of something like this or this. I have no idea if these are worth it tbh but there are better guitarists than myself who seem to like them.

lol re: okcupid. i guess they are going for a kind of boutique niche. but the main service is free and they sort of backed into their niche just by sticking around forever (founded 2004!) so that other services that are faster and easier to use became more "mass."

back when their selling point was that they were more algorithmic dating based around fun questions that people would compulsively answer, it was kind of boutique (the fine-tuned, better-matching website) but definitely not worse than match dot com or whatever. nowadays it's the camera thing: for a great number of users and purposes, tinder is clearly better. tinder with just a pinch of okcupid, to help filter out the overwhelming hordes of people you have zero interest in, would be better for everybody though - there's a missing middle.

don't get me started on boutique hotels and my hotel spending

never ended up in one of the shared bathroom sitches though

yeah never knew a boutique hotel with shared bathrooms.

i love hotels - i guess by nature of how they're priced there are lots of times when a hotel is not worth the money - or when an expensive hotel is barely different from a cheaper one, but a good hotel is a nice refuge from the world.

Man I spent an inordinate amount of my disposable income on good hotels and i begrudge not one cent

I don't (probably never will) earn enough that the cost of hotels is comfortable - even the "cheap" ones I'm like, it costs that to sleep?!

I won't argue it tbh I can't but there it is

I work in fancy / boutique hotels, so my POV comes from the consistency of service and details I've found in brand new, say, Courtyard Marriott hotels after being in the design-heavy one. Love the hotels I work with, though.

staying in hotels is one of the only things i like about traveling. it's definitely number one.

nice hotels are great and worth a splurge, but sucks to pay beaucoup bucks for a hotel that turns out to be middling. I get offended that they had the gall to charge as much as they did.

imo if you have a lot of obligations around home, or things you have to do to keep up your personal space, having a nice hotel gives you the ability to chill and read a book or w/e guilt-free and without being in a public space

also they have nice soap

Some nice grey Celtic/guerande sel gris is definitely worth it; It tastes like the sea and it takes a couple of months to go through a kilo. It is an order of magnitude more expensive than big standard salt but not much more in monetary terms, I guess.

also, how did I not know about Eazy's career and why am I not getting preferential treatment

"There's a time for Bud" is a different statement from "Bud is better," I will grant.

― piezoelectric landlord (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, November 13, 2017 8:41 AM (three hours ago)

that's how I feel about Taco Bell vis a vis Mexican Food. Taco Bell is it's own category. Taco Bell Pintos n Cheese is good in a different way than an artisanal taco or yucca fries.

one dollar plastic corkscrew

― scott seward, Saturday, November 11, 2017 11:29 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly i usually break or bend these

the same with ice scream scoops

same here

a $10 waiter's key is the sweet spot for corkscrews

This two-stage corkscrew design is the GOAT and well worth obtaining:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/810kU9UAGrL._SL1500_.jpg

Please note: it is not a one-dollar corkscrew.

http://www.vintageguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/01_TRAINWRECK.jpg

Please note: it is not a one-dollar corkscrew.

― A is for (Aimless), Monday, November 13, 2017 10:48 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're right, it's the $10 corkscrew i just posted about

I have several waiter's corkscrews. I think they are great. Most of them are a one-stage design. I posted a pic of a two-stage design that is even quicker and easier to use and more consistent in its results.

Have you ever actually handled a Dyson fan? They feel cheaper than a $2 clock radio and move less air and look ridiculous. Other than that, great product and investment.

For example, I noticed that a lot of the fancy-pants toothpastes are missing fluoride.

― Philip Nunez, Saturday, November 11, 2017 8:54 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

interesting

re: philippe starck
https://www.stardust.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/alessi-juicy-salif-MAIN.jpg

maybe "fancy but worse" is all he makes?

I keep hearing that fancy cheese is worse than American cheese on a burger, but surely there must be some good fancy burger cheese?

yeah I feel like kraft american cheese slices are the most generic burger experience, it’s not optimal at all

really any good cheese slice is good on a burger, is the thing

it should be something that works good in slice form, some nice cheeses disintegrate in that form

blue cheese crumbles are ok on some fancy burgers but people tend to gild the lily and put carmelized shallots and eight other things on

either David Chang or J Kenji Lopez-Alt argues in favor of American cheese, based mostly on the way it melts

I'll take a slice of sharp cheddar on a burger every time.

The ultimate example of this is probably the smartphone -- there is simply no way that a phone aimed at a handful of ultra-rich customers will ever be as good as a mass-market smartphone, because the technology is so complex and pretty much relies on widespread use, and because it's not economical to produce a better phone for a far smaller market, even if they pay 10x as much.

This is a good one too:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/dining/raw-water-unfiltered.html

cream cheese

Coc... hey let's just pretend somebody said it and move on

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Philly_cream_cheese.jpg/1200px-Philly_cream_cheese.jpg