Speaking as an American who lived in France for several years in many different cities both metropolitan et d'outre-mer, from Paris to Entre-Deux and everywhere in-between, I can tell you that a lot of how French people feel about food in their own country stems largely from aspect blindness, and a lot of how Americans feel about food in France stems largely from never actually living there. France has the same flavors and foods available as everywhere else in roughly the same proportion if you spend the time looking.
There are differences of course. The US has many more different varieties of every kind of produce. In Paris you find "an apple" or "a lettuce", while in the US you have to choose between 10 different varieties side-by-side. On the flip side, France has many more varieties of pureed pork generally available.
Similar to why people might knowingly buy knock-off "designer" items.
It’s tasty when grated over a pasta dish?
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.
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.
When it's sitting next to a $0.89 box of Kraft macaroni, the $5.00 box definitely feels like a luxury.
These things may seem commonplace locally, but to people on the other side of the country these "cheap" things can be a rare luxury.
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.
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.
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...
Lexus (レクサス, Rekusasu) is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota.[0]
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.
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...
Oh phooey. Ferraris are Italian.
That started to change in the 1970s and 80s but that still tended to be focused on specific ingredients (which have producers advertising them heavily) with the same expectation that they’re available year round everywhere. There were whole campaigns promoting things like Angus beef as a premium ingredient rather than the more easily produced but less flavorful breed it actually is.
Truffle derivatives fit well into that: toss some “truffle salt” or oil onto the same hamburger or French fries you were serving last week and it’s now $10 more expensive. The truffle products don’t need to be local or in season, so anyone can do that. Plus since the flavor change is quite modest most of your customers will consider buying it.
Wow, because the Brits are not exactly known for their haute cuisine.