I'm responding to everyone in this thread at once.


I've thought more about my question on what it is about these gourmet
itmes and realize that y'all are right. It is all a matter of what you
like and what you don't. I knew that. I guess I'm musing on the whole
nature of how some items reach that snobby gourmet status while other
don't and wondering what makes the difference. For example, cavier is
rare and therefore expensive; it is considered a gourmet item and an
acquired taste. Duck eggs, pigeon eggs, flamingo eggs and the eggs of a
dozen other birds are rare too and would be expensive if one could find
them at all, but I don't see anyone raving about how magnificent they
are. It is the same with pate. I like a number of similar meat items
like sausage and salami that aren't expensive and don't have that
gourmet panache.


Since I started working at the wine and cheese shop, I've started
learning the differences between wines. I've adored learning. I'm glad
for the knowledge. I see it as no different from learning to appreciate
better literature or enjoying music or artwork. Of course, we all have
our own likes and dislikes from the start, but it helps to have someone
teach us differences and nuances and help us appreciate Jane Austin so
we're not stuck thinking that Danielle Steele is all there is. That's
where my question about the pate comes from. I realize that I don't
have to like it just as I don't have to prefer Jane Austin, but when you
see such a fuss made over a food, you start to wonder if maybe you
really are missing something.


Goat cheeses are a good example. I love them. I didn't love them as a
child, but I got intrigued at some point, and now I enjoy them and can
tell the difference between a number of them.


When I was talking with a co-worker about how neither of us can stand
even the smell of the pate, he suggested, in a joking manner, that my
tastes were bourgeois. Perhaps he's right.


We don't sell snails. I've had them served in restaurants and have
liked them smothered in garlic butter. I'm not sure what I'd think of
their flavor plain. I'd like almost anything smothered in garlic
butter, anything except cavier and pate, I think.


Consistency was never a problem. It is a FOOLISH consistency that's the
hobgoblin of little minds.


We used to sell the Trois Petits Cochons pate in the individual loaves.
I thought they were cute and prefered them that way, but they weren't
selling, and we had to throw a bunch of them out. Now we get it in the
larger loaf and cut and weigh slices of it for the customers.


--Lia