Recipe for dysfunction

It's expected that some sort of fight will break out over breakfast. Mom's usually in a bad mood for some reason and looks around for fodder-- parsley left out on the counter, perhaps. The ingredients of this morning's argument were more complicated:

-Dad does like to describe things he doesn't like as 'cheap.'
-Mom likes to criticize dad's food hangups, and also likes to attribute tastes in food to deep-seated spiritual roots, rather than simple preferences. I have oft been annoyed at having to justify my dislike for a food, or even not being in the mood for it.

Mom: Was the portwine out?
Dad: It was, I'd stuck it back in the fridge.
Mom: I like it.
Dad: I don't. I think it's cheap.
A.: I generally like it.
Dad: Real cheeses aren't like that.
Mom: Of course! If he doesn't like something, it's cheap. Your dad acknowledges exactly three tastes...
Dad: Oh, please...
Mom: Let me finish!
Dad: You've already said this.
Mom: No! I haven't said this.
A.: Seriously, let's keep it down. No need to raise voices.
Mom: But he can raise his voice?

What am I, a kindergarten teacher?

A.: No, nobody should raise their voice. Over cheese.


***
Actually, the other day some friends and I were discussing the "cheap" issue, i.e. that there are some people out there who truly believe that you always get what you pay for and that if something is inexpensive, there must be something wrong with it. I recall reading a blog excerpt in the Express in which the writer was sharing his discovery of cabbage-- he'd always thought of it as 'poor people's food,' he wrote, but was surprised to discover how good it was.

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard (read). I'd never thought of food as 'poor people's' or otherwise, and I thought the whole arugula-as-a-symbol-of-the-elite was inane. I believe in food-- a la Michael Pollan-- but real food doesn't have to be expensive, and actually often isn't.

Anyway, my friends and I disagree with that whole premise. There are really crappy expensive things out there, and high-quality inexpensive things, and everything in between. Studies have been done on wine, on skin care products, etc.-- there's not that a lot of correlation between price and quality-- just a whole lot of paying for advertising.