[jinto36]

In the US I can go to the supermarket and get "truffle macaroni and cheese" in a box for $5, because everyone knows that truffles are this rare, mysterious, and luxurious thing, and so incorporating them (or their essence) into relatively inexpensive food items allows companies to tack a small amount onto the price, but gives the consumers the feeling that even this luxurious thing is available to them.

Similar to why people might knowingly buy knock-off "designer" items.

[rayiner]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the difference between France and America distilled to its very essence like these two posts.

[deepsun]

I don't think anyone falls for that, everyone knows they cannot buy a truffle for $5. They buy it for the taste, wherever it comes from (e.g. crude oil) and that's ok.

[rayiner]

I certainly thought that it was truffle infused extract or something.

[TedDoesntTalk]

Yep. There’s a reason my neighbor’s dog is named Truffle and I’m willing to bet it’s the same reason she has Gucci handbags and drives a Porsche.

[mmmpop]

I dunno (nor care) about the quality of a Gucci handbag but the Porsche is actually a high-end car, so while there very much is “status” associated, at least you’re getting something cool/fun as hell at the same time.

[antonvs]

> There’s a reason my neighbor’s dog is named Truffle

It’s tasty when grated over a pasta dish?

[CPLX]

I mean the other reason is that people enjoy eating this stuff.

I have truffle oil and truffle honey around the house. They’re useful ingredients.

I’m not sure what’s in truffle honey but it’s AMAZING with Camembert and other similar very soft cheeses so there’s that.

[forty]

haha and I guess the camembert you have with your fake truffle is also fake camembert ^^ (I live in France and even here a lot of camembert in supermarkets are tasteless industrial crap made with pasterised milk, so I'd imagine in the rest of the world it must be pretty bad...)

[bambax]

> I can go to the supermarket and get "truffle macaroni and cheese" in a box for $5, because everyone knows that truffles are this rare, mysterious, and luxurious thing

I'm sorry and I'm not picking on you or trying to be smart, but this doesn't make sense: anything you buy for $5 in a supermarket is neither rare nor luxurious, by definition. Why do people fall for this.

[rtlfe]

> anything you buy for $5 in a supermarket is neither rare nor luxurious

When it's sitting next to a $0.89 box of Kraft macaroni, the $5.00 box definitely feels like a luxury.

[alasdair_]

Fresh in-season produce direct from a high-quality local farm can definitely be rare and luxurious even if it's sold in a supermarket for $5. This is especially true of things that are only in season for a few weeks and are from a farm small enough to only sell to supermarkets within a few miles.

These things may seem commonplace locally, but to people on the other side of the country these "cheap" things can be a rare luxury.

[arcticfox]

I think people but it because they like the taste, not because they think it’s an actually luxurious $5 box

I didn’t realize that truffle oil doesn’t come from truffles, so TIL as well. I don’t really like the flavor anyways but it is certainly unique.

[Invictus0]

Because it actually does have an unusual taste--the added aroma--which many people like. So smelling is believing.

[mbesto]

> $5 in a supermarket is neither rare nor luxurious, by definition

Nor is buying a Lexus (by Ferrari's standards) since its essentially just a Toyota with a nicer interior and more gadgets.

People are dumb.

[discreteevent]

The price of a Lexus is nowhere near that of a Ferrari. A Mercedes is also essentially a Toyota with nicer interior and more gadgets - if you want to put it that way.

[mbesto]

> The price of a Lexus is nowhere near that of a Ferrari.

This is exactly my point. Lexus is sold as a "luxury" car.

> A Mercedes is also essentially a Toyota with nicer interior and more gadgets - if you want to put it that way.

You missed the point - which is Toyota and Lexus share the same owner and are literally the same platform of a car: https://www.quora.com/Which-Toyota-model-is-the-same-as-a-Le...

[yourapostasy]

Same platform, but I thought the manufacturing process was more stringent to increase the quality to luxury brand levels?

[hn_go_brrrrr]

Lexus is Toyota's luxury brand, so the two have a fair amount of similarity. The connection to Mercedes is far more tenuous.

[wruza]

It seems like you’re putting additional meaning into luxury beyond “much more money and looks like that”. There is no inherent value for that extra, afaic.

[mbesto]

No, I'm not. The parent made the point "is neither rare nor luxurious, by definition".

Lexus (レクサス, Rekusasu) is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota.[0]

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus

[annoyingnoob]

It is all marketing. The US has been about 'lifestyle' brands for a while. The US wants to sell you an upscale experience, whether it is really upscale or not. Things with truffle flavor seem to be a fad at the moment.

Think about Starbucks. You don't need a $7 coffee drink, but its sweet and tasty, maybe you like the homey atmosphere and fake friendliness from the staff, maybe you like using the fancy names, maybe you like being seen with your Starbucks cup, all because you too can afford a luxury lifestyle. Its all marketing to sell you overpriced coffee and milk.

I much prefer the abundance of smaller privately owned shops you tend to find in Europe over the factory made franchise options you see all over the US. Most Americans seem to have no idea.

[woobar]

Not sure why are you singling out US here. People all over the world like "ecsotic foreign" stuff and pay premium for it. Starbucks has 2000+ stores in Europe despite having a lot of smaller (and sometimes shittier) smaller shops. Same as in US.

The truffle flavor is no different from the fake "college t-shirts"[1] that big pseudo-american chains like NewYorker[2] sell all over the Europe.

[1] https://www.newyorker.de/products/#/detail/05.03.105.0679/00...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yorker_(clothing)

[WalterBright]

> The US wants to sell you an upscale experience, whether it is really upscale or not.

Oh phooey. Ferraris are Italian.