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There's an episode of Friends that nails the fundamental silliness of foodie culture. Phoebe is nostalgically reminiscing about grandma's cookies, Monica is trying to techbro-reverse-engineer it from Phoebe's description. Turns out to be nestle-tollhouse wrapper recipe.
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What makes the joke funny is the idea that an industrial mass-production process that strives to squeeze out all local variation might produce its own terroir. Which as it happens, is true. Cf: green-bean casserole.
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part of an essay about green bean casserole and midwestern identity
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There is an interesting tradeoff between excellence and tastefulness. Excellence requires consistency, to be well-posed. You need a reference ideal to go all six-sigma on anything. Tastefulness otoh requires constantly evolving variety, the leading "aha" edge of an essence.
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