[wafflemaker]

I'm Polish expat living in Norway. There are no tomatoes to be had in Norway... Just kidding. I'm actually kind of alright with the small ones (pearl tomatoes), any other don't taste like tomatoes. I believe, that the Norwegian people are so used to blandly tasting vegetables, that the worst and least ripe product parties are send to Norway.

But my wife and her family are tomato people. Every time we visit Poland or anybody from Poland visits us, they need to bring some malinowy (raspberry) tomatoes. Premium price, color slightly pinkish rather than true red, shape is a little bulbous, like a pumpkin, rather than perfect round like regular tomatoes.

You can actually get them (or other good tomatoes) even in many supermarkets, tho it's best to go to a local produce market. And ofc best ones can be had from people growing their own.

Same really goes for eggs - there is another dimension to taste and you get more sated eating less, if you can buy eggs from someone feeding the chicks properly. Though, if I had a car and knew a good source, I could probably buy better eggs here in Norway. However, supermarket eggs (and meat too) are much better in Norway. Most likely due to more stringent rules for animal farming, as Norway is not part of the EU and can have it's own, more strict rules. For example, Norwegian bacon doesn't smell like men's locker room after a football game (compared to swedish) and doesn't have a ton of water leave it when frying.

[em500]

I won't comment on the tomatoes, but as far as eggs are concerned, I'm skeptical that any claims about people being able to taste any diffence would hold up in a proper blind taste test. Conclusion from Serious Eats when they attempted to do that:

  It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself.

https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs

[pnut]

I boil six eggs every Sunday and eat one every morning. Same pan, same cooking element, same timing, ice bath with the same volume of water and cube quantity, everything identical from one week to the next. Have been doing it for at least seven years straight.

I want my yolks to be crystalline in texture, at the transition point between runny and chalky. Not precious about yolk colouring. Must be easy to peel.

There are absolutely differences in egg quality when it comes to boiling them.... Specific brands (some of the expensive/omega/free range etc ones too) reliably come out gelatinous and fiddly to peel. Some come out rubbery. Some just taste wrong and bland, even when I sprinkle with Maldon salt flakes. Not one egg, the entire batch.

Over years of trial and error, I found a brand where I can guarantee a consistent textural outcome from my process, and every morning I exclaim "THAT is a good boiled egg" after finishing it.

[willyt]

I find that the cheapest kind of eggs poach much better because they have a much higher turnover in the supermarket so they are much fresher. The fancy omega eggs and other specialty ones are quite old in comparison.

[SoftTalker]

I've always thought a lot had to do with the age of the eggs. Very fresh eggs are usually harder to peel. I usually let eggs sit at least a week or two after purchase before I use them (this is in the USA where eggs are sold refrigerated).

[jddj]

It's the opposite for poaching, fresh hold together much better

[FearNotDaniel]

Reminds me of the time I tricked my housemate years ago by drinking his fancy single malt scotch then replacing the contents with some really cheap Spanish whisky. He came home took a sip and said "aaah, you can't beat the taste of a fine Scottish single malt". The bottle and label were enough to convince him it tasted good.

(NB I'm not claiming there is no difference in flavour and quality - there absolutely is - but it's interesting how easily suggestible people are by the external appearance)

[throwaway2037]

I am shocked how good is a 10 USD bottle of whisky or Japanese shochu or wine these days. I think the science of making booze has improved so much in the last couple of decades.

[mtts]

This.

In my student days, thirty years ago, you would have to be careful buying wine from a supermarket as it could be borderline undrinkable.

Nowadays? Not so much. Even the cheapest swill is drinkable. Not really nice or flavorful, but certainly not disgusting.

[j7ake]

Blind folded is not a proper taste test though.

One uses all the senses when eating. For eggs the quality of the yolk is obvious by looking.

[n4r9]

I guess the idea is that you're "blind" to the brand, origin etc of the egg. You don't know anything about it other than what's directly in front of you.

Although now you bring it up,it would be interesting to see whether actually blindfolded taste tests would confirm or deny your idea that the visible quality of the yolk correlates with it's (non-visible) taste.

[shkkmo]

The meaning "blind" being used here is: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_experiment

It has nothing to to with depriving a participant of their sense of sight (except incidentally.)

[Ekaros]

I believe there might be certain feeds that could affect taste, hearing story of how chickens fed with fish had fish taste... But if the main feed is mostly same, the taste should be mostly same. And I doubt any producer has anything that would add any offtastes.

[jve]

I worked for a few years at egg manufacturing plant. I was entitled to quite some eggs per month. I also had access / relatives who would give us some home chicken eggs. Personally, I don't taste any difference. Yeah, the yolk is different color, but I don't bother.

But I'm a point in statistics where I'm not someone who can do taste tests as I cannot discern slight changes in recipe.

I live in a baltic state and as for tomatoes, I always enjoy when someone gives home-grown ones. When it is season they are OK in supermarket too. But nothing beats homegrown ones. However when there is no season, I don't like market tomatoes - "tastes as rubber".

> Norway is not part of the EU and can have it's own, more strict rules.

EU doesn't prevent having more strict rules than baseline they set.

[throwaway48540]

EU does prevent stricter rules. If a product meeting regulations can't be sold somewhere in the single market area, it's grounds for EU court case. That's why all the food producing states like Austria, France, Italy go around it with tax breaks and "product of X" stamps.

Note that while a state can have stricter rules for production, they can't prevent import and sale of products from less strict states of the single market area.

[kreyenborgi]

Most of the ones in Norwegian supermarkets are imported crap seemingly produced by infusing a rubber ball with water, painting it red and then chemically removing all the flavor. But the locally produced ones from Wiig are good.

[TrackerFF]

Norwegian here

Yeah, that's unfortunately the sad fact of living here, even more so the longer north you go - there's really no such thing as "in-season" veggies. Closest would be potatoes, and maybe some other things at the farmers markets.

We're all used to everything pretty much tasting like water. I was 22 years old the first time I tasted "real" tomatoes in southern Europe.

What we do have, though, is fresh seafood - if you live along the coast. But that's not for everyone. I usually buy freshly caught cod/haddock/pollock/halibut from the local fish market, as well as shrimp and king crab, which isn't horribly expensive when you live so close to the (beginning of the) supply chain.

[throwaway03254]

There are lots of vegetables grown in Norway that tastes better than the imported vegetables, and are available in normal grocery shops. The season for each vegetable is short, so you need to get them while they are available.