Quality vs quantity

Borough Market

Originally uploaded by jo_evs

I ended up popping down to Borough Food Market (with ex-flatmate @ifenn), which has got to be a top spot for any foodie-loving people in Londoners. It was packed full of stalls selling top quality food at relatively high prices. There were stalls of seafood, eggs, coffee, muffins, granola - and there was even one stall dedicated to seasalt.

Yet, as I sniffed and tasted some of the various little delicacies that came out (for some bizarre reason, I didn’t have much of an appetite after eating a fishfinger buttie and chips - rookie mistake), I kept wondering whether the food was actually worth the price they were asking.

Sure, it tastes nice - but then so does the 2-for-1 Brie I just bought from Tesco’s. Sure, it’s better for the environment, but economically speaking, is a venison burger worth the extra £2 they’re asking?

And really, is there any difference? I’ve been suspicious for a while that my taste buds are slowly dying off, and I’m reasonably sure if anyone subjected me to a blind taste test between, say, Tesco’s Value Burger and a £10 Gourmet Burger Kitchen burger cooked the same way, I’m not 100% sure I could tell the difference.

Is there any way of improving or testing your taste buds?

Originally published at almost witty. You can comment here or there.