I used to have this fondness for Kraft Mac and Cheese when I first set foot in the US. I thought it was awesome.But my wife recently got me some. I even told her when we first started dating about how great it is and told her that anyone who doesn't like it might have brain damage.
Well, I just tried it yesterday and it was awful. It's the most one-dimensional cheese taste. Even Cheetos are more interesting than this! Then I had to contemplate that I might have been the one with brain damage during my whole childhood. It's like my childhood was even shitter than I remembered it. I thought it was already shit but I had the Kraft Mac and Cheese for fond memories. But tastes like shit! What sorta shit did I eat when I was younger that I could actually think this tastes amazing?
Maybe I really should get some therapy. I just realized it yesterday when I tried this Kraft Mac and Cheese after almost 30 years. My childhood tastes like shit!
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Think I forgot to ask a question -- just did a ramble. Well, is there anyone out there who still likes this? I tried to like it. I got a romance to it. But few spoonfuls later, I was like, "This is total shite! I can't even romanticize it!"
lmao I know exactly what you mean. I too was utterly disappointed when I bought it again, so many years later. But here's the thing - I think manufacturers do change recipes. I swear it's happening often. I have a really, really strong sense of smell, which basically is always in tandem with one's sense of taste. And I mostly cook my meals, try to stay away from prepackaged food quite a bit (I don't always; sometimes I cave, but you know. All-or-nothing is rare in life.) So I rarely think food tastes bland. Other people add salt more often than I do. I read some silly article that said just how much Kraft Dinner Canadians eat. Or maybe it was in a documentary. The numbers were astounding. Per capita, it's more than the States, even. So I made it to the recipe on back, followed it exactly (despite my often tweaking) and it was so weird. First of all, what is up with that macaroni? If you do it to their cook time it seems overcooked. I don't even know if al dente is possible on this stuff. It might have been made in a lab. And then the amount of milk and margarine makes it even softer and I think the milk is diluting the taste. But then, I only ever have 1% milk in my fridge, which is not creamy/high fat at all. And I use real, unsalted butter, not margarine, and less of it than they say. So maybe it's my ingredients specifically that are altering what they intended it to be. Yeah, come to think of it, I'm not following the recipe exactly, am I. And I sometimes add peas to it so it feels slightly more nutritious and less like a lab product. My mum swears A&W cheeseburgers (Teen Burgers) have changed. She says their 'secret sauce' is weird now, decades later. I don't remember how it tasted as a kid, honestly. And I like the mustard/relish concoction sauce. I don't trust my taste buds completely. But I definitely don't trust food manufacturers at all. [inserts some Joe Pesci or Three Stooges or Christmas Story, "Tryna' be a wise guy eh? Pullin' a fast one, eh? joke here now] And yes, Cheetohs! I am totally into them right now. Being buying a bag with every grocery order. They are like crack for the brain, especially at night (never during daylight, for some reason.) I went for a walk down by the park and water one night a few months ago, and a family of 4 raccoons swarmed me, seeing if I had any goodies for them. I did. There were Cheetohs in my bad, in a ziploc. I don't know if they smelled them, they just checked me out briefly, but I quickly pulled them out and starting passing them out, one by one (one guy was a bully, so had to make it fair.) Needless to say, they agree with us - they loved them. Devoured the bag.
You are honestly not expecting that any of those processed foods actually taste good, right?
I mean, this brand is known all over the world for utmost disgusting foods and in an effort to polish their fading image (if they ever had one in the first place), they are taling over quality brands, modify the recipe, place their brand on the "new improved formula" and destroy all the good that once was in the original product.
Welcome to 21st. century destruction of quality foods by a few low quality brands.
I still love canned beans and McD's which might explain part of my surprise. I can go processed. I never thought I'd be disappointed with such low expectations. :-D
There are different ways you can fix Mac n Cheese, brown ground meat then add Mac n Cheese yum so good.. Also. years ago when my Mom was living she would make Chili and with the leftover Chili she would make Mac n Cheese and make it together and trust me it is delicious you can add grated cheese on top it's a very good dish
How young were you? Tastes change pretty strongly when you reach adulthood (most kids HATE bitter things, as many natural poisons are quite bitter; that's why they hate a lot of vegetables). Also, over the last thirty years, a LOT of mass-produced food recipes have changed; there's probably been a decrease in quality.
I was maybe 7 when I first tried it over a vacation in the US over a Summer. Thought it was badass. The thing is, most of the stuff I thought were badass have stayed as good or almost as good as when I first tried them... Domino's Pepperoni Pizza, Chick-Fil-A, Dr. Pepper (might have suffered a bit here -- seems a tad sweet now, but still all right), McD's... but not this Mac and Cheese! It is awful to my taste buds! Just awful! I couldn't even eat the entire bowl when it would have been a dream as a child to have an entire bowl of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
Like Alien and Terminator, you know? I didn't have rose-colored glasses, ever. My nostalgia is awesome! But I have encountered a genuine case where I might have had the rose-colored glasses with this mac and cheese, and it is the first time. So I am not sure how to handle it! I need to fight somebody! Send me a big guy!
i'm sure that the ingredients have changed over the years. so highly processed. its almost not even food anymore. it probably was awesome, now its just not the same thing as it was. growing up poor we ate a LOT of this. never chili-mac but if we got ketchup, whoa... that was awesome. maybe even a few hotdog slices. i have not had it now for years but yes, it does bring back a lot of memories, nostalgia associated with a remembered flavor... good times... good times...
It could be the way she makes it or you make it that is utter shit, when different people have made it for me it tastes different depending who made it
You got issues making this big a deal over something you don't like
I still like it, but it’s probably a case of the quality decreasing. I actually bought some of those new Cheetos Mac n Cheese boxes, and they were very disappointing. The Jalapeño one was so disappointing, that I should have just bought the regular Kraft stuff and put Jalapeños in it.
They might have made changes to the product over the course of 30 years. Also, your taste probably evolved since your childhood and got more refined. Probably a combination of both.
I wonder if it's a youthful thing now. It seems so one-dimensional to me, and maybe now I'm looking for all sorts of mixtures of tastes -- a bit spicy, salty, sweet, sour, blend it all together... my wife got me spoiled on fancy 7-course French stuff.
I can do the cheap. McDonalds $1 cheeseburger still tastes like heaven to me. I can eat canned beans cold and straight outta the can. These might even be among my favorites. I can romanticize them. But the Kraft Mac and Cheese was one that was too difficult for me -- I tried imagining I was on a desert and was beaten up by a gang and left for dead and hadn't eaten in weeks. Then I get the Mac and Cheese all excited and two spoonfuls later, I'm wondering whether life is worth living or not.
I never quite understood the difference between those who like McD's burgers over cheeseburgers, like those who like regular M&Ms over peanut M&Ms. I always liked the peanut ones and the cheeseburgers, but both my wife and sister like the regular burger and the regular M&Ms.
