The other day I did get to thinking that the insular world of rural life gives legs to some truly shitty food though. When people have big families they eat home recipes, and there's little attention paid to whether something is good or not.
Church and family cookouts can be real harsh, because big families need easy, cheap cooking with whatever's in the pantry. Hope you like an "oriental salad" that's a crushed up pack of ramen, a can of tuna, soy sauce, canola oil, and cranberries (because the original called for almonds but they didn't have any)
Bless them, I love my people but despite the excitement when I show up with simple grilled skewers, they will never adopt simple & tasty themselves. It's an arms race of all-in-one homeslop.
The most recent one I had to muck down with the aunts: Spam, yams, and corn with shredded mozzerella sticks and crumbled cereal on top as a "casserole".
RT: https://eveningzoo.club/objects/54644232-a8ba-4086-bb09-9316074ecddb