this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
266 points (97.2% liked)

Shitty Food Porn

2402 readers
3 users here now

This community is for shitty pictures of food and pictures of shitty food.

Lemmy.ca Rules

Related Communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That's the New York deli way.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I feel like it should be illegal to call that macaroni and cheese... 🤢

[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

that’s why they called it “meatballs”

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

Macaroni and Pasteurized Processed American Cheese Product

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

Macaroni and Cheese? That's clearly a tray of meatballs OP....

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

those are weird meatballs

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Whether or not the food is shitty depends on the cheese used, no matter how shitty it looks.

If that's proper american cheese, it would be just cheese and something like sodium citrate, perhaps with some annatto for coloring.

If it's "cheese food" or "american slices", that's going to be shitty food.

All mac n cheese sauce is, is cheese with an emulsifer and some extra dairy. Well, technically it's fats with an emulsifier that then has dairy added, then cheese melted into it. But that's nitpicking

When it comes right down to it, if you mix some shredded processed cheese into your mac n cheese sauce, you'll end up with compliments. You might even win prizes at local group competitions and such. You just have to check what you're using, read the label and make sure you're getting what you think you're getting.

A bechamel, the foundation of traditional mac n cheese (as opposed to box versions), serves the same role as sodium citrate, just with a different texture and some shift to the flavor profile compared to just melting cheese over pasta.

I ain't mad at some good process (or, rather, secondary processed) cheese slices on top. It should be better applied than that, but it has the benefit of keeping the sauce underneath from drying out, as well as being very easy to just mix in as you scoop with no appreciable change in the taste of a serving. Yeah, bread crumbs or some shredded young colby would be better, but this is a matter of execution being so poor as to draw attention.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Given that it's still square and hasn't sunk through the pasta, imma call it and say that's the "cheese food".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, it really does look like that for sure. There's a section that's melted on the pan, and it looks plastic.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

This is a hate crime.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Fr, just stir and bam normal mac n cheese. People more picky than they need to be.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Looks like a Nordic flag

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

The travesty! I’ll take two

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

The potassium citrate in American cheese helps real cheese melt better. You can achieve the same result with sodium citrate and an immersion blender, but not everyone has easy access to or storage for yet another spice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

makes me wonder if a dash of lemon juice and sea salt might have a tangible effect on meltability

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Citric acid and sodium citrate are not interchangeable, unfortunately. You could create one from the other with some aqueous baking soda, but it would be best to keep the process seperate from preparing the cheese sauce.

You can look up the Modernist Cuisine Silky Mac and Cheese recipe for more info.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

True, I imagine trying to use cheese as your reaction substrate in that way would result in carbonated cheese sauce :]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have never had any trouble melting actual cheese though when required. I have no idea what kind of scenario this kind of cheese product would be superior.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Many hard cheeses (think parmesan) and even some cheddar cheese aged for more than 6 months don't create a silky emulsion without some help.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

The actual sandwiches that place sells are going to either be shitty (because they don't care about anything) or amazing (because everything but the sandwiches is an afterthought). There is no in-between.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So wait, you guys take macaroni and cheese literally? Like nothing more than pasta and cheese?

I always imagined it was with bechamel sauce and ham and was just called like that.

But they are 2 different recipes.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

No, this is a food crime. Mac and cheese is macaroni and cheese sauce, not...this...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yes and no. The cheese is supposed to be a liquid or sauce

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Made by my 12 year old by the look of it. Who insists the box Mac isn't cheesy enough

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

For how small Lemmy is it is incredibly odd to see my "backyard" posted here somewhat often.

I mean yeah long island has a population in the millions but still...

(Queens and Brooklyn you're on long Island, there is no bridge that separates us!!)

:P

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

This looks like a joke, a disgruntled employee, or both.

You can clearly see that there is proper cheese sauce on the macaroni, but then there's just ~~six~~ nine or ten heat lamp nuked slices of American Cheese* added haphazardly.

*For anyone lucky enough not to know what that means, imagine cheese whiz solidified and packaged into individually plastic wrapped slices.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

American cheese is like when you start making a bechamel from mild cheddar but only soften it some.

Next step in softness is Velveeta.

Cheese whiz is three steps.

The sharpness intensifies each time.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I was referring to it's chemical makeup i.e. it's a cheese-like product, not cheese product.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

It's literally cheese with added emulsifiers but ok.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Probably a customer not realizing the preparation and complaining that the cheese wasn't cheesey or as velveeta-ey as they were used to, and malicious compliance ensued.

Fuck it. Give them more cheese. 👹

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Let them eat nuked whiz and yellow#5.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

"Oh no! We are almost out of Liquid Cheese Product #3. We don't even have enough to make this batch of macaroni!"

"Just make this batch with the rest of the Liquid Cheese Product #3 that we have, then add some slices of Semisolid Cheese Product #2 on top. No one will be able to tell the difference."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The picture says "Ferring Delicatessen", which does correspond to the area after an Internet search:

Ferring Delicatessen 1181 Grand Ave, Baldwin, Nassau County, New York 11510-1115

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ferring Delicatessen

Just posted this pic on their facebook page.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

*Festering Delicatessen

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did you really? If so any comments in the first six hours there?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

even on their web site you can clearly see the individual single slices of cheese product spread over the top of the mac & cheese in the picture there (it's found under 'hot counter').

and it really looks like melted fake 'singles' and not actual sliced american. from a deli.... with over a dozen actual real cheeses on their counter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Kraft singles are fucking gross

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Fucking, wow! Never eat at that place. Whomever approved that to be served to humans should never work in a restaurant again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I don't know that I've ever tried any truly tasty mac & cheese that wasn't KD. Various restaurants and everyone's aunt makes this shitty "gourmet" stuff that tastes like cold, soggy noodles and congealed white gravy. People talk about their aunt's congealed gravy as though it's a succulent delicacy, but it's always as terrible as the last batch and is easily upstaged by KD.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

To be fair, it looks like a normal mac and cheese with extra cheese slices melted on top- you can see the sauce when you zoom into the pasta

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Typical long island

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Yummy 😋 favorite 😋