Are foodies self-centered? 'The Agony of a food snob' by Daniel Gross (Slate)

Do you ever experience that pang of guilt when splurging on exotic or just high priced foods in your local emporium?
Are foodies self obsessed, having lost sense of reality in a twist on the French words of wisdom 'Il faut manger pour vivre mais pas vivre pour manger' (you have to eat to live, not live to eat).

In The Agony of the Food Snob, Basque cheese at $22 per pound! Olive oil at $43 per liter! What's a gourmand to do? (Slate), Daniel Gross looks at the topic.

Beyond the price issue, in the US at least, a good 10% of our food ends up in the garbage.

The moral of this story as he puts it is "we're spending obscene amounts on food we don't need at a time when so many others are genuinely struggling to pay for enough basic sustenance to get them through the day".

I personally draw the line on prices.
No cheese over $13/ $14 a pound.
Most wines up to $15 a bottle.
Fish, $10 to $12 a pound max.

Do you own a copy of The Food Snob's Dictionary (Broadway Books, pictured here) by David Kamp and Marion Rosenfeld?

File it under Consumed to Thrifty.

Other Debates: 'Is Food Better than Sex?' Kathryn Flett's Take for 'Observer Food Monthly' 7th Anniversary