Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I wonder if it would have tasted better if they had called it something else.

Yeah, that's an issue I have with a lot of raw vegan/vegan foods -- trying to present it as an analogue to a cooked/animal-based dish. Not only does it subtly reinforce the idea that you're eating a lesser knockoff of "the real thing," but it gives short shrift to what can be some actually delicious dishes.

Plus, like with the pizza above, the tortuous process of trying to make raw ingredients analogous to cooked makes for ridiculous Frankenstein dishes where the ingredients aren't even really congruous or complementary.

By the same token, if you did enjoy your meal, and that 20% discount gives you the nudge required to go onto Yelp and write a positive review, what's wrong with that? There's nothing about this that is necessarily going to lead to fraudulently positive reviews, so I don't see an ethical problem here.

While most unhappy customers will take the trouble to give bad reviews, most happy customers don't. So your overall ratio of positive/negative feedback doesn't reflect the actual satisfaction of your customers.

Um. Yes.

I find this study depressing, because naturally it's going to be completely misrepresented by the kind of reactionary yahoos that for some reason feel threatened/judged by the existence of organic produce. Reducing the comparison to mere nutrient levels says nothing about the overall healthiness of organic and conventional produce. It says nothing about the growing conditions, chemical treatment, handling, or distribution -- all factors that affect quality.

Personally, I'm not especially militant either way. There are cases where it's worth it to pay extra for organic, and cases where it isn't. Bananas -- not much difference as far as I can tell, except for size. Avocados and tomatoes -- organic usually tastes better. Lettuce -- not really a taste difference to me, but I'll pick the one that hasn't been sprayed with toxic chemicals.

One peeve I have is with people who think that, because vegetables are organically grown, they don't have to wash them like other produce. It's not like it's sterile just because it's organic!