10 Fancy Foods Everyone Used to Think Were Gross

10 Fancy Foods Everyone Used to Think Were Gross

The concept of “rich people” food has changed dramatically in the last few decades — food for wealthy folks used to be more about calories and extravagance, but now it’s more about wellness and fitness.

A similar evolution happened with foods that were once considered so disgusting that only The Poors should eat them. The constant churn of culture combined with higher access has elevated many foods to the heights of good eatin’. Here are some of the foods we largely once thought were gross and now can’t get enough of.

Lobster

Photo: Dani Vincek, Shutterstock
Photo: Dani Vincek, Shutterstock

If you’ve ever wondered what human first looked at these bitey insects of the sea and thought, hmmn, I’m gonna eat that, you’re not alone (I always assumed some amount of desperation was involved in that scenario). Lobster was once considered so horrifying that it was only fed to poorer folks and prisoners. When colonists arrived in the New World in the 17th century, they found the waters so crowded with lobster that they didn’t even need traps — and as a result the entire country got sick of eating them. Lobster shells in your home’s trash used to be considered a sign of poverty. It wasn’t until rich people started paying exorbitant sums to relive their vacation meals in the late 19th century that lobster started to be associated with wealth, putting it on its way to being the most “disgusting” meal you’ll pay handsomely for.

Sushi

Photo: Subbotina Anna, Shutterstock
Photo: Subbotina Anna, Shutterstock

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that sushi began as a cheap way to preserve fish and fill poor fishermen with protein so they could continue their labors. Similar to the way some cultures salted meat and fish to preserve it, covering strips of raw fish in fermented rice kept it fresher. The process of making sushi improved steadily — the fermentation of the rice was improved, the quality of the fish got better, and by the 20th century it had made its way to the West, where rich folks enjoyed it. After World War II, sushi began a serious assault on Western palates, with inventive chefs coming up with new recipes to suit American tastes (like the ubiquitous California Roll), driving it to its current status as one of the most popular foods around.

Escargot

Photo: Hippo1947, Shutterstock
Photo: Hippo1947, Shutterstock

Snails remain a divisive food, as well as the classic symbol of “fancy” dining that regular folks with common sense don’t understand. Snails, like lobsters, look gross, and for many people the idea of eating them is clear evidence that money makes you stupid. Snails are considered a delicious, highbrow food in much of the world (especially in France), but that wasn’t always the case: Back in the day, snails were one of those gross-looking, slimy foods you only ate if your other choice was starvation. Then the rich people came and started eating them, and suddenly snails were on the menu even if you had other choices. The association with wealth and fanciness has elevated escargot, but it remains an outlier in American food.

Oysters

Photo: Suporn Thawornnithi, Shutterstock
Photo: Suporn Thawornnithi, Shutterstock

Eating an oyster isn’t easy. First, you have to pry them off of rocks; then you have to pry them open without slicing off your fingers; then you have to suppress your gag reflex and suck their slimey goodness out. Imagine doing this in the days before oysters were served chilled with plenty of sauces on the side, and the mind boggles.

Oysters were, however, abundant at one time, which made them cheap and easily accessible, so they were a staple of the poor and desperate. Then something curious happened: We dumped a lot of pollution into the water and the oyster population declined alarmingly, driving up the price. Suddenly, rich folks were like, what’s this expensive stuff we’re not eating? And that’s basically how oysters became a pricey meal for people with money instead of something you ate when you literally couldn’t afford anything better.

Caviar

Photo: New Africa, Shutterstock
Photo: New Africa, Shutterstock

Unlike chicken eggs, fish eggs resemble something from your nightmares: If we needed to show a demogorgon from Stranger Things vomiting, the special effects department could use fish eggs and probably win an award. And as with all food that looks like demonic vomit, it was once relegated to the poor and the working class.

Then Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible (named back when “terrible” meant “awe-inspiring”) got a taste for the stuff. Once caviar became the official food of the Russian autocrats, it became popular among the wealthy elites around the world despite the fact that it tastes like someone placed a salt lick in a bowl of vaseline. Today it remains a symbol of wealth and privilege.

Portobello mushrooms

Photo: spicyPXL, Shutterstock
Photo: spicyPXL, Shutterstock

These large mushrooms didn’t always have that fancy name — in fact, the reason you’ll see “Portobello” spelled variously as “Portabella” and other variations is pretty interesting: Portobello mushrooms are just plain old brown cremini mushrooms that are allowed to grow larger than usual, and until the 1990s mushroom growers literally couldn’t convince anyone to eat these ugly beasts.

One name change and re-branding later, and suddenly everyone feels super fancy ordering these at their local bistro. And to be fair, they are delicious — they just look like something you’d scrape off the bottom of a rotting log.

Eels

Photo: Nishihama, Shutterstock
Photo: Nishihama, Shutterstock

Eel is a fascinating food story, because it was once one of the most popular foods in America. Eels were so popular, in fact, that we literally ate them all — and when populations crashed, the prices skyrocketed and demand cratered. The eel then became a victim of the increasingly abstract nature of modern cookery, which typically hides or transforms the natural appearance of our food — in other words, modern folks don’t want to look at an ugly eel when sitting down to dinner.

But then sushi exploded into popularity, bringing the eel back into favour. And to be fair, eels remain a popular dish in England, where you can often find them baked into pies.

Salmon

Photo: Jacek Chabraszewski, Shutterstock
Photo: Jacek Chabraszewski, Shutterstock

Salmon was once so plentiful that it was reviled and dead cheap, and commonly fed to servants and poor folks as a way of keeping them hard at work without spending too much on their upkeep. In fact, there are stories of servants insisting that their employers only feed them salmon a certain number of times every week, because the fish was everywhere.

Overfishing reduced populations and raised prices, which in our money-focused world meant the reputation of this fish rose as well. Eventually salmon farms began increasing supply, leading to salmon’s position today as an elevated choice for dinner.

Polenta

Photo: Food Via Lenses, Shutterstock
Photo: Food Via Lenses, Shutterstock

Let’s just say it: Polenta is gruel. It’s an “elegant mush,” but it’s gruel. Like all gruels, polenta was once a meal for the desperate, who would cook corn mush for hours. That was polenta’s fate until the 21st century, when celebrity chefs went all Ratatouille on the dish and guys like Mario Batali and Jamie Oliver introduced fancy versions of the traditional corn gruel, and it became all the rage. Suddenly, eating polenta was a sign of taste and affluence.

Paella

Photo: Raimunda-losantos, Shutterstock
Photo: Raimunda-losantos, Shutterstock

Who doesn’t love paella? With its distinctive saffron rice and rich mix of ingredients, it’s a wonderful meal. Of course, for a long time paella was the ultimate peasant food and considered kind of gross. The name itself translates to “frying pan,” which gives you a clue as to how utilitarian the meal used to be. Essentially, paella combined rice — a staple of the Valencia region in Spain where it originated (and thus plentiful) and whatever scraps people could contribute into a communal pan. These scraps were often smuggled from rich houses where people worked as servants, thus forming paella’s extremely democratic view of ingredients (and giving it a reputation as history’s first garbage plate-type dinner).

Spain came to adopt the dish as a symbol of its culinary culture, and paella has become a celebrated meal and one of those sure bets you can order just about anywhere. But it was once a meal cobbled together by folks who didn’t have much choice in their diet.


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