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Parrano--a Dutch cheese that tastes Italian.

Cave Aged Gruyere from Switzerland.

Parmigiana Reggianito, an Argentinian copycat that is actually good and half the price of Reggiano.

Swiss Fondue cheese blend with an added kick--from Switzerland.

I never liked Muenster--it has a flavor note I don't care for. YMMV.

"Touristy"
"actually good"

Brents is among the best, but not touristy; Langers is both.

Pinks is not good.

Durgin Park in Boston, if it's still around, might be added to the list. Ditto for the Union Oyster House there.

Papaya King in NYC is both touristy and good. Ditto Zabar's

Lawry's original La Cienega location in LA is both touristy and good.

Tour d'Argent in Paris is both touristy (for the well-off tourist) and good.

You have to read the labels. A lot of OJ comes from Brazil and there have been recent purity issues with that source.

Simply Orange, high pulp is very good. Some Supermarket private label brands are freshly squeezed from domestic oranges and are excellent. I believe Costco has one such.

Coffee has many substitutes which cost far less per cup. Although the feinschmeckers (I am one such) may be willing to pay high prices for exceptional beans, the mass market is not, and it is the mass market that drives coffee prices.

A more accurate analysis would separate microroasted gourmet beans from the rest of the market. As taste for the former increase those prices rise (check Jamaica Blue Mountain for a worked example). But absent a massive crop catastrophe, mass market beans won't. There is no "shortage" of such green beans at non-gourmet prices.

Fortunately, some large producers provide excellent beans at mass markiet volumes. Check out Don Francisco's (J. Gaviña) Colombian Supremo (available in most supermarkets and via mail) for a good example from a long-trusted mass roaster.

My favorites for taste, among the chains, are Carl's Jr. and Wendy's. The various incarnations of the "$6 burger" at CJ's are quite tasty.

I could never understand all the hype about In N Out Burger, but De Gustibus, I suppose. The meat is unremarkable, but I suppose all the bells and whistles (animal style, etc.) appeal to some minds.

A friend whose taste I trust recently ate at McDonalds, and surprisingly reported back that the "new" menu burgers (probably not _that_ new) are also tasty. If so, this would represent a stroke of enlightenment on the part of McD's management.

Let me be succinct: If he ever gets interested in writing about Vietnamese soups, he should go Pho himself.

And while I'm on the subject of amusing Swedish anecdotes, I visited the Museum of Art in Stockholm (dunno its actual name), and on entering saw a Picasso. Getting closer, it turned out to be a Svenssen. Then I saw a Seurat. Getting closer, it turned out to be an Andersson (names of artists illustrative) The museum was filled with Swedish artists painting in copies of various impressionists' styles. It turned out that the Swedish king of the time sent a bunch of art students to study in Paris, and they came back copying those styles. He was also reputed to be jealous of all the European "old towns" so he built his own version of an old town
outside Stockholm (Gamla Stan), but anachronistically the "medieval" architecture was built during the 17th or 18th century, I was told. More recently, some revisionists are claiming those buildings are several hundred years older than previously thought. (Again, cf Wikipedia for details).

Lest I be misunderstood, I have great respect for the Swedes, and am reminded of Saab and Bofors, among others, but there are some very amusing Swedish anecdotes. The Swedes have a tremendous sense of humor. The funniest movie I ever saw was Picasso's Avventyr (The Adventures of Picasso) now sadly unavailable. They also have their dark moments (cf. Ingmar Bergman).

David Sternlight

Finally, on the subject of løjrom, "rom" is Swedish for "caviar" and "løj" is the name of the fish in Swedish. As far as I know it isn't named after a bookshelf at IKEA, but rather an obscure Swedish physicist who invented the Calculus 37 hours and 17 minutes before either Newton or Leibnitz, while contemplating the Swedish national naval treasure, the Wasa, whose main distinction was sinking about 200 feet away from its launching dock. Must have been the powerful Swedish Champagne it was christened with.

David Sternlight.

David Sternlight

Morey's Fish Market is in Brainard, MN. I just checked their web site http://www.moreysmarkets.com/store/11-pickled-cured-caviar.html and the current price is $105 per kilo, which works out to $3 per ounce plus shipping. It is seasonally available.

I have no connection with them except as a very satisfied customer.

David Sternlight

Good: Wider availability of Kosher meats and poultry in supermarkets and Trader Joe's.

Hummus wars and increasing availability of the good stuff.

More ubiquitous Kosher certification

Bad: Small plates at high prices; grazing at high prices. "Tapas" that aren't authentic Spanish.

Bacon in everything.

Gluttony as a virtue.

Recipe books with complex recipes the average buyer would never make.

Use of over-many ingredients to hide lack of simple creativity. Recipes aren't rocket science

And another thing. Most dry-fried dishes I recall from Joyce Chen's Little Eating Place had lots of shredded carrot and little or no celery or bean sprouts. Dunno if this was unique to the restaurant or was a particular sub-style of Szechuan cooking.

In a report heavily weighted by pork products, the quintessential and archetypiical NY Jewish deli sandwich culture is totally excluded.

No sale.