"Bob (this one)" > said:

>Before any sort of quality assessment can be made, there needs to be
>that opinion-definition and the item in question to be measured against
>it. And it can be misleading and we can fool ourselves by measuring
>against the wrong criterion. People sneer at "imitation crabmeat" but
>happily consume "surimi." That word "imitation" has knee-jerk
>connotations for way too many people who don't seem to realize it's just
>a labeling convention forced on us by our government. In blind taste
>tests, the folks at Cooks Illustrated found that their experts preferred
>imitation vanilla to "the real thing" (love that expression, as though
>one way of doing it is absolutely correct and anything else isn't).
>Never mind that different manufacturers of vanilla extract process their
>beans differently.
>
>People wouldn't buy "Chinese gooseberries" but scarfed up "kiwi fruit."
>We consumers judged and condemned the fruit on its name, not its flavor,
>color, texture, etc.

Cornmeal mush vs. polenta.

Carol
--
Coming at you live, from beautiful Lake Woebegon