How Carob Traumatized a Generation

kshama2001

I'm posting this here instead of Chit Chat because in addition to hating on carob, I wanted to get people's thoughts on the part I quoted.

I've tried cauliflower "rice" and squash "pasta" and in the end decided to go with the higher calorie real thing, and just make room for it, usually by eating less of it.

(I realize that this is a valid option for people who need to reduce carbs for medical reason or because they feel more satiated with that WOE - what I'm referring to is subbing due to food demonization.)

My sister posted this link on FB - she's still triggered by thoughts of our childhood carob. To this day, Mom claims to like it. Mom was super earthy crunchy in the 70s.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/how-carob-traumatized-a-generation

...As adults, we make hundreds of carob-like dietary substitutions in the name of good health. We shave summer squash into long spirals and deceive ourselves that it’s anything like pasta. We tip coconut creamer into our coffee, ignoring the way it threatens to curdle, and project onto it the memory of café au lait. Grownups have mastered this acquired taste for the ersatz, but children have no ability to strike the same bargain. They taste not the similarities between the foods they are eating and the foods they really want to eat, only the thwarted desire for what is forbidden. No matter how much time passes, those objects of childhood dread are difficult to see anew.

onematch

I remember carob in trail mix in the '70s. So awful. I also tried cauliflower rice and zoodles. No thank you! I'm down 65 pounds eating real foods, including rice and (sometimes) pasta. I love my veggies, don't get me wrong, but also appreciate food as should be, not when it's pretending to be something it's not.

girlwithcurls2

Carob. Oh my gosh. I thought I had put it out of my mind forever... YUCK. Thankfully, that's one that even my mom didn't like. I tried brown rice pizza for a while. It was OK, but only pizza is pizza. Carob. Ugh

janejellyroll

I like vegetable noodles because they taste like something I love --vegetables. I'm not really pretending they're pasta, they're just a way to eat vegetables and sauce. Same with coconut creamer, I'm one who really likes coconut. It's no hardship to me to have it in my coffee.

I feel the same way about carob. When I am expecting to taste chocolate and get carob instead, I'm not a huge fan, but I've found that I really enjoy it for its specific taste in some dishes. When I'm expecting it, I actually enjoy it.

Vegetables, coconut, carob, these *are* real foods to me. There is nothing ersatz about them in my book.

Spliner1969

I'll pass on the carob, it was definitely yuk. Not a fan of zoodles, my zoodle maker collects dust in my cabinet. However, cauliflower rice I like. I love cauliflower anyway. But prepared right, fried just like fried rice and it is delicious. Now that you can buy riced cauliflower already made and frozen it is easy to stir fry a few veggies, toss in the cauliflower rice, stir fry a bit, scramble in an egg, add soy sauce and boom.. serve with some chicken, pork, or shrimp. Saves several hundred calories and is pretty darn tasty in my book.

LZMiner

Ugh...I never liked carob and I still don't care for sprouts...although my mother grew them in the 70s! We were never allowed to eat white bread as kids, or have any fun cereals. But...as a grown up, I love cauliflower rice...make stirfry a lot with it, and add zoodles in as well. I don't use zoodles as pasta though...IMHO, you need pasta to appreciate good sauce and meatballs!

lemurcat12

I've always liked spaghetti squash and come around on cauliflower rice. I'll probably never bother with zoodles at home, but have had them at a vegetarian restaurant and enjoyed them (obviously pasta is vegetarian anyway, but it was a delicious preparation). I also enjoy cauliflower mashed with potatoes and mashed root veg that are not potatoes. And I eat potatoes on their own all the time, as well as rice and pasta.

I think the trick for me is that I've never thought of them as replacements or expected them to trick me into thinking they were the real thing. They are just foods I like individually, and sometimes the different way of cutting them makes them work better in a dish. (I said for ages I wouldn't bother with ricing cauliflower, but when I learned you could buy it frozen I found I like using it that way sometimes.)

That said, I totally agree that demonizing foods and trying to pretend some other food is the same is something that would never work for me.

AND I have bad memories of being told carob was just like chocolate (by a health food mad aunt) and being gravely disappointed when I ate it. I have to smile every time I think about carob, but I have 0 desire to try it again as an adult.

rybo

I had a theoretical allergy to chocolate as a child and had to eat carob instead. Very traumatic.

AliceDark

I don't think I've ever had carob, but I was traumatized by Snackwells "cookies" as a child.

lemurcat12

AliceDark wrote: »

I don't think I've ever had carob, but I was traumatized by Snackwells "cookies" as a child.

I think that could be a generational marker -- pegs you as younger than us with the carob memories, probably. ;-)

dinadyna21

I accidentally tried Carob once because it was in a sample tray at Whole Foods, I thought it was chocolate. It tasted like dirt, I couldn't even swallow it.
I've had zoodles before and they're ok but I'd still prefer the real thing.
Cauliflower rice and cauliflower crust are 2 things I'll never bother to try, I love jasmine/basmati rice and I love pizza. Nothing but the original will do.

pinuplove

I think I'm a bit young to have experienced the carob craze as well, but I remember Snackwells! Back when fat was the enemy. Good times!

Growing up, we had huge gardens, local butcher beef, blackberries picked in the wild, fresh eggs, and so many others. I had no idea how good I had it until my husband described some of the meals they had when he was growing up :sick: Plus, I'm one of the few people my age I know of who knows how to pressure can vegetables (Although pressure cookers ARE making a comeback)

amandaeve

I admit I am nothing like the author. Growing up with hippie parents, I ate all kinds of health food. I loved it then and I love it now. My mom was allergic to chocolate, so carob was naturally in our house at all times. It didn't taste anything like chocolate, but I enjoyed it in bars and granola. I treated it like it's own food. Similarly, I enjoy zoodles- but I treat them like another way to cut zucchini. I am a meat-eater who enjoys tofu, tempeh, etc. But I am one of those people who enjoys pretty much everything and I don't make any one food choice to deprive myself of another.

CattOfTheGarage

I've never tried carob.

Like others, I just hate it when things pretend to be what they're not. I'm sure cauliflower whizzed into little bits is lovely, but it's not rice. Nor is cauliflower bread, pizza, steak, potatoes or chicken wings. It's cauliflower.

I suppose the good thing about these recipes is they show off how versatile cauliflower really is. The downside is they make it seem lacking, and I fear will provoke a backlash against an entirely innocent and delicious vegetable.

I personally love my spiraliser, I find it terribly useful, but I would enjoy my amusingly-shaped vegetables much less if I was pretending they were pasta. Vegetables are to be embraced in their own right.

AliceDark

lemurcat12 wrote: »

AliceDark wrote: »

I don't think I've ever had carob, but I was traumatized by Snackwells "cookies" as a child.

I think that could be a generational marker -- pegs you as younger than us with the carob memories, probably. ;-)

That's probably true. Now that I'm thinking of it, I guess carob was more of the 70s, and my weird food memories are all of the 80s/90s. It was just fat-free and low-fat everything as far as the eye can see.

dinadyna21

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

I've never tried carob.

Like others, I just hate it when things pretend to be what they're not. I'm sure cauliflower whizzed into little bits is lovely, but it's not rice. Nor is cauliflower bread, pizza, steak, potatoes or chicken wings. It's cauliflower.

I suppose the good thing about these recipes is they show off how versatile cauliflower really is. The downside is they make it seem lacking, and I fear will provoke a backlash against an entirely innocent and delicious vegetable.

I personally love my spiraliser, I find it terribly useful, but I would enjoy my amusingly-shaped vegetables much less if I was pretending they were pasta. Vegetables are to be embraced in their own right.

I think if someone ever tried to give me cauliflower as chicken wings I'd probably end up getting arrested for whuppin that *kitten*.

CattOfTheGarage

dinadyna21 wrote: »

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

I've never tried carob.

Like others, I just hate it when things pretend to be what they're not. I'm sure cauliflower whizzed into little bits is lovely, but it's not rice. Nor is cauliflower bread, pizza, steak, potatoes or chicken wings. It's cauliflower.

I suppose the good thing about these recipes is they show off how versatile cauliflower really is. The downside is they make it seem lacking, and I fear will provoke a backlash against an entirely innocent and delicious vegetable.

I personally love my spiraliser, I find it terribly useful, but I would enjoy my amusingly-shaped vegetables much less if I was pretending they were pasta. Vegetables are to be embraced in their own right.

I think if someone ever tried to give me cauliflower as chicken wings I'd probably end up getting arrested for whuppin that *kitten*.

They're all over my Pinterest feed, along with coconut hemp lattes and various sugar-free monstrosities calling themselves "fudge".

Happy New Year.

Lounmoun

Never had carob but I was raised with margarine because butter would kill us and unseasoned food because salt was bad. I wouldn't say I am traumatized but I'm not going to live like that. Butter only at my house. Stupid margarine.

I have eaten zoodles, mashed cauliflower, cauliflower rice. I never removed rice, noodles or potatoes from my diet. I think the other alternatives are tasty. . I eat veggie burgers sometimes but don't pretend they are they same as a beef burger.
If they weren't tasty to me i wouldn't eat them.

I have never forced my child to give up foods she likes in favor of less tasty substitutes.

cwolfman13

Never had carob...but I feel the same way about this...



Though I have to say that today it doesn't seem so bad compared to this monstrosity...

Alatariel75

I too am a victim of carob. After years of not being able to eat chocolate due to migraines, one Easter my mother proudly provided me with a large, foil wrapped egg and said I could eat it. I was thrilled. I unwrapped the foil carefully, exposing the glossy brown interior. I was filled with joy. I rapped it with a knuckle, hearing that satisfying hollow 'thunk' and then broke it with a crunch that sounded like a troop of angels collectively cracked their knuckles. I lifted a sliver, anticipating my first chocolatey goodness without pain in as long as I could remember. I popped it into my mouth...


... and cried. For like, the rest of Easter Sunday. It was vile. I'm still traumatised.

I may have not hated it so much if I hadn't been built up to think it was going to taste like chocolate.

As for the other stuff, I substitute and experiment but it's never the same as the real thing. It's just a trade off, really.

Spliner1969

I've tried turkey bacon many times. Have yet to find a type I like all that much. Just too dry. However, if you get the fattiest kind you can find, wrap boneless chicken thighs in it and smoke them, add sauce toward the end, they are quite tasty. Although bacon is always better.

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FlyingMolly

Ugh, I remember carob. And Snackwells, turkey bacon, and “ice milk” (before fro-yo was a thing). I think any time you try to fake a food it’s bound to be disappointing. I eat zoodles and cauliflower in a wide variety of forms now, but to me the different shapes are just convenient for different meals, not a serious attempt to trick myself into thinking I’m eating something else. Because I’m not. And I would never, ever electively eat carob again.

MarkusDarwath

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Never had carob...but I feel the same way about this...



Though I have to say that today it doesn't seem so bad compared to this monstrosity...

I'm a huge fan of the fatty ends on bacon. I wish there was a product that is opposite to Sizzlean... Bacon with 50% more fat

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MarkusDarwath

I'm confused by all these descriptions of carob. I always thought so-called "white chocolate" is carob. It too is a not-chocolate abomination.

Alatariel75

MarkusDarwath wrote: »

I'm confused by all these descriptions of carob. I always thought so-called "white chocolate" is carob. It too is a not-chocolate abomination.

Totally agree it's an abomination, but nah - white chocolate isn't carob. It's its own individual level of hell.

jenilla1

I'm the only one who likes carob I guess...but I don't consider it a substitute for chocolate. It is it's own kind of thing.

Alatariel75

jenilla1 wrote: »

I'm the only one who likes carob I guess...but I don't consider it a substitute for chocolate. It is it's own kind of thing.

I think I might have if I hadn't been told it was just like chocolate. Now it's dead to me haha

Does anyone else who had lactose intolerance remember Deli-Chol or Mini-Chol "cheese"? That stuff was also a travesty.

WillingtoLose1001984

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm posting this here instead of Chit Chat because in addition to hating on carob, I wanted to get people's thoughts on the part I quoted.

I've tried cauliflower "rice" and squash "pasta" and in the end decided to go with the higher calorie real thing, and just make room for it, usually by eating less of it.

(I realize that this is a valid option for people who need to reduce carbs for medical reason or because they feel more satiated with that WOE - what I'm referring to is subbing due to food demonization.)

My sister posted this link on FB - she's still triggered by thoughts of our childhood carob. To this day, Mom claims to like it. Mom was super earthy crunchy in the 70s.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/how-carob-traumatized-a-generation

...As adults, we make hundreds of carob-like dietary substitutions in the name of good health. We shave summer squash into long spirals and deceive ourselves that it’s anything like pasta. We tip coconut creamer into our coffee, ignoring the way it threatens to curdle, and project onto it the memory of café au lait. Grownups have mastered this acquired taste for the ersatz, but children have no ability to strike the same bargain. They taste not the similarities between the foods they are eating and the foods they really want to eat, only the thwarted desire for what is forbidden. No matter how much time passes, those objects of childhood dread are difficult to see anew.

I actually like carob but it isn't really like chocolate and if you need a low calorie dinner squash noodles are pretty good.

SCoil123

Carob trail mix was the worst!! Especially because my mom never warned me and I always went in expecting chocolate chips.

For the other stuff I actually like zucchini noodles. I’m allergic to wheat and I think they taste better than the gluten free versions. Being able to eat a bigger serving is a bonus. Cauliflower rice depends on how it’s prepared for me. And turkey bacon is pretty good on sandwiches like a blt or turkey burger but I don’t like it by itself and will stick with real bacon for breakfast