Too Many Food Combos

They are tampering too much with our food! Uhm, the "they" I refer to are manufactures of that grocery store food we buy. Most of the packaged food offered is now offered in weird combinations in an almost game like euphoria. I wanted to buy cream cheese the other day and it was hard to find plain cream cheese. Instead there was a selection that ranged from 'Strawberries and cream", to "Cream cheese and chives". I saw a whole shelf full of combinations of cream cheese with fruits and veggies.

Time was (and it was a better time because the food quality was pure and basic) we had one choice, cream cheese. If the eater was weird and wanted food combos he or she could add it him or herself. Not any more.

Look at flavored water and fruit flavored drinks today. They are so pervasive it's hard to find plain water. Does a person today need flavorings to drink water? Why, for instance, do they so often add tea or mango flavors (it always seems to be labeled "flavored with" to indicate it is not even a natural combination) to drinks. Can anyone get plain coffee anymore? Go to a Starbucks and tell the cashier person "I want a cup of coffee" and you will be quizzed on dozens of possible flavored combos. They don't even have a price listing for plain coffee.

Even fresh fruits and vegetables have been bred to combine flavors. "Brocoliflower', for instance, is a combo of broccoli and cauliflower. Who wants that? If you like both, cook both and eat them separately. You'll get a natural taste of each. With brocoliflower you get mush and indistinguishable taste. I bet the person who invented that vegetable cross bred the two as a joke, and one of those trendy advertising types decided to market it anyway.

I like my flavors separate. I love jelly, but hate peanut butter. If you try to sell me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich you are wasting your time. Are we so bored with our food that we have to mix it until it becomes indistinguishable? It's a sin to make potato chips with sour cream "flavor", barbecue "flavor", onion "flavor" and the rest. The Americans have so pilled onto pizza different combinations that Italy should declare war on the U.S for ruining pizza for everyone.

It's hard to shop at a grocery store these days and find a single, solitary food product without hybrids next to it. Even restaurant chefs go overboard with the idea of food combos. They think the more different food combinations they put in a dish the better the taste. It doesn't work that way most of the time.

I think humans would be better off without a "banana strawberry green tea" option in their grocery stores.