this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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Does this look better? If so: too much instagram :)
Nope it does not look better. It's the food, not the colors.
Oh maybe it is the colors, it looks even more like it's heavy in the stomach.
It's weird as I like meat and cheese myself. But photos of American food which is almost exclusively that stuff - the first few I saw, i though yum. But now every time I see more of them, it turns me off.
I understand OP is living on a budget and I'm happy for them for their 100 USD card. And I remember - when I was there for holidays the last time I ate similarly myself because some simple fresh stuff just did cost a fortune.
Back to the picture - what would make it look good to me would be something green, just a bit of salad on the side or some bell peppers sliced.
I was in Sardegna once and on that trip I had one of the best meals I ever had in an agroturismo. What do I remember about it? The plate of raw sliced tomatoes and bell peppers they had grown themselves.
I fully get what you are saying. But for this meal specifically I wasn't cooking for myself. This was basically the request of my wife and it had to fit her comfort food ideals. Before she met me she was the kind of person that would eat the same beige meal for months at a time before she got bored with it. She grew up near Amish country in Pennsylvania and is if the people that think mayo is spicy. She had made a lot of progress. It was her idea to put the German mustard on the potatoes.
You can pretty much tell my meal concepts from hers just by the amount of seasoning involved. I make tacos with fresh salsa. She wants nothing green other than starchy pees. I make shakshuka and chili. She wants fried chicken. She always eats what I make and she likes it. But I have to put in beige flood for her too.
And that budget thing is a real pressure. I'm doing a lot less meat and I make more vegetarian and non-American food than most non-ethnic Americas because I love a good loaf of bread and veg based something to dip it in. But my job and metabolism also requires a lot more protein and calories than that makes possible. So it's all a balance it was only so years ago that I stopped needing 3500 calories a day because I was turning 50 and my metabolism has started to reach something recognizable to most people instead of the 6000 calories I was eating in my teens and 20s. So meals tend to be heavy so that I don't start dropping pounds. I accidentally lost 38 pounds in 2016 just because I was eating sardines as a snack instead of a whole third meal.
She gets kidney stones. That prevents frequent usage of a lot of different greens. And I live in a food desert where eggplant and leeks are very rare while fancy greens that aren't kidney stone inducing are almost unheard of even if they were in budget. I have to drive 24 miles one way to get arugula.
Sorry for going on. I'd like to cook different. But her upbringing and my budget combined with calorie needs are several layers of complexity to figuring out what dinner is going to be.
Please note that I didn't try to downtalk on what you cook - I've been to the US and found that it's not so easy to get nice fresh stuff. And if you need to eat out it's impossible or stupid expensive.
I was in the US with my (adult) kids and we did a lot of cooking ourselves when we could. Still prices when shopping were crazy - and that was a year ago, before the current round of inflation. We still were at cities where we still had some decent shops in driving range. I can't even imagine how it feels when you're away from that.
And what I read you're putting a lot of thought and love into food. Yes upbringing and food deserts are hard problem people don't deserve.
I want to thank you for having a good faith conversation here.
Nah, the last time i used insta was when it was mostly known for its infamous lomography filters. While this edit is intentionally horrible it proofs a point though. A subtle shift in the whitepoint to the warmer side and a few clicks to reduce the slight green tint in the potatoes would help wonders. Almost looks like flourescent light or photographed with a flash light. Either case wouldnt be ideal.
Anyway, i'm well aware of how hard it is to take good pics of food. I wouldnt have made that rather blunt and maybe hurtful comment if it was only about the presentation. Its mostly just a culture shock thing, i guess.
But enough of me and my "feelings". If i ever comment or post again i will provide pics/recipes.