Today's topic is food snobbery.
Clearly, there are some brands I like more than others, but any brand of ketchup is okay. The same goes for chocolate, pasta, tater tots, iced tea, cereal, bread, potato chips, ice cream, bottled water, chicken patties, barbecue sauce, pepperoni, soup... The list is endless. You can line up the leading lite beers and I can't tell the difference. I still can't tell the difference between butter and margarine.
There is one exception: black pepper.
I bought a pepper grinder several years ago, at the urging of the fine folks on the PBS show "America's Test Kitchen." I purchased the brand and model the show recommended. It is among the best decisions I ever made. If I can't have freshly ground, I do without. The other stuff has zero flavor. That pepper grinder changed my life!
I should add the show did another round of testing recently, and it found an even better make and model of pepper grinder. Tempting as it was, I didn't order it. The one I have works fine.
