One of the things I'm getting from this thread is simplicity, its constantly there. Is there anything you jerks like thats way over the top, 1 billion ingredients and horribly showy? Good BBQ is far from simple, has a lot of ingredients but is humble food, so does that count? I'm not sure.
I prefer my food simple. A few ingredients, and really let those shine through. How fresh the food is makes a huge difference. For BBQ, for me it's almost the epitome of simple. Rubs, there's nothing special. Salt, pepper, some paprika, garlic powder, maybe a little cumin or chili powder or brown sugar or whatever I feel like. But the keys to good BBQ are the meat first and foremost. Then the temperature of the cooking/smoking, and the wood, and the time you cook it for. Time, timber, temp. Those three things you get right, and it's kinda hard to fuck up the rest.
So biggest food annoyance, a grill is not a BBQ. Barbeque is a style, not a tool. If someone tells me they have a BBQ grill, and thank Jesus I haven't heard that yet, I may become violent.
It's largely semantics, but also based on your local dialect. Like some people call every carbonated beverage "coke." However, you CAN BBQ on a grill. Katokoch has posted some awesome pictures in the cooking thread of him smoking birds on a grill, low and slow. That's no more or less BBQ than what I do on my off-set smoker. I've BBQed chicken on my infrared propane grill. Low heat, BBQ sauce, it works under the right circumstances. I frequently saute veggies on my grill off to the side while I'm searing meat on the other, or doing sausages over medium heat, or while I'm finishing up barbecuing some ribs I previously had on the smoker. You can do multiple styles of cooking on a grill, which is why about 75% of my cooking is done on my infrared. I also have a charcoal grill, a green egg, and an off-set smoker. Each one is best for certain things, or is more convenient than the other ones under different circumstances. It's all about having the right tools, then learning what those tools can do and their limitations and when to use them.
Prawns are the stupid fuckers that stab you when you grab them alive to bait the hook (they have that evil sword thing on the head that hurts like a bitch). Shrimp don't. Aside from a bunch of other differences.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I linked the Trump ketchup story in my original post and ya'll proceed like I linked to epicurious's bernaise recipe.
Aside from the interesting prawn versus shrimp debate, I am curious as to what the most decadent thing you guys like.
Tiramisu with some nice lemoncello or port. I break my sobriety for that. Anything Italian or french is my sweet spot cooking-wise. Gnocchi is really underrated (and easy). I use this as my basic bread recipe and just add to it. Not super decadent or a lot of ingredients, but it takes a lot of practice to get it right, and in that way it is pretty elaborate and impressive
So you understand eyeballs and brains, but if somebody stirs eggs and oil together, you're out? If you like Oreos, don't ever ask anybody how the "stuff" inside is made.
Decadent or over the top, I like tons of highbrow food snob type stuff. When I'm at home, I eat fairly simple. Protein, greens, lots of olive oil, sometimes hummus. Or some low carb Mexican derivative. But when I go out? Give me tiny proportions with 25 ingredients. Give me crazy sauce reductions or flavor combinations. I often go for proteins and ingredients I never really trusted to work with myself. Ive never understood people going out for "simple food done right". I have a friend who, at an Italian restaurant he's not familiar with, gets simple pasta with red sauce, cause if they can't do that well, nothing else is worth having. FUCK THAT. That dude also ate the shittiest delivery pizza on the regular when there were 3 BOMB delivery spots within 3-4 blocks.
Babi guleng. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_guling Had it in Bali, and it is barbecue turned to 11. The volume of spices (10% of the weight of the pig, minimum) and slow roasting it with coconut water takes for fucking ever. HOWEVER...It is by far the best tasting meat I have had. Anthony Bourdain concurs.
I won't touch vegemite or related spreads with a ten foot pole but I'm referring to the bacon I've had every time I've been in an American base. It's more like jerky than bacon for some reason.
I'm not sure how you would define decadent. I think people who pay $300 to eat a dark chocolate mousse with hand ground cinnamon and gold flakes are morons. Lamp chop pops can be amazing. Some people may consider it decadent to eat lobster and filet mignon on a camping trip, I just consider it camping the right way. I like hand made squid ink pasta, and I like a good oyster. Not the shitty mealy ones, but a nice firm oyster, with a good hot sauce or squid ink sauce, one that tastes like the ocean as you're eating it. As far as dishes with lots of ingredients - my tastes are changing in that regard. I used to, and still like, simple, but my chili has upwards of 10 ingredients, and I've been making my stews, soups, salads, burgers and omelets with increasing numbers of ingredients. I've had food simple for years, now I'm trying to make it more interesting.
You're basing it off the mess hall at a military base? Next you'll tell me you judge American BBQ based off what you had at a hospital one time