Personal vs. Market Values

erik, sorry that this has taken a decidedly foodie turn.....but that's not entirely our fault. ;-)

For what its worth I agree with your point completely.

whart, I own 250 acres in central SC. It has a fairly large creek bottom in which we find morels from time to time. Some years they are there, some they are not. One year we found 15-20 over a week's time. We thought that was a great bonanza and fixed them several ways.  Since then, nothing for years until this spring. They popped up everywhere and kept coming up for three or four weeks. We lost count at 60 or so and found many more and missed quite a few that got past maturity.

We ate them so many ways. Gave away quite a few as well. My favorite two ways are lightly fried in a very light tempura and in risotto which I made several times. So good. 

Who knows when we will see them again.

There is no truffle in truffle oil. It is artificially produced to resemble the taste of truffles. If you’ve ever tasted real truffles, especially white truffle, you have tasted something heavenly . . . and expensive! $6,000/lb++

I've seen truffle oil with truffle physically in it. So there may be variations.

Yes there is real truffle oil and there is fake truffle oil. And yes white truffles are absolutely amazing especially with scrambled eggs or anything with eggs really.

Personal taste is just that...personal.  I am one of the estimated 25 percent of the population that cannot taste truffles due to an inability to smell androstenone.  Discovered this in cooking school when the rest of the class was swooning over a truffle dish, and try as I might I could not taste it.

It’s  the same with stereo equipment:  some of us can hear better than others.  My hearing has certainly changed over the years, not only gotten worse but my music preferences have moved on from rock to bebop jazz.  Even if I were willing to spend any amount of money for the perfect system, that system purchased in my 20s would probably not sound very good to me now.  

So to to your point about happiness and charlatans, I completely agree.  Someone is always there to sell you something they say will make you happier.  I never felt I needed to spend a lot of money on stereo equipment to enjoy music; right now I have a Linn Axis turntable I bought second hand 20 years ago, an AT95 cartridge, an NAD 7020 I bought off eBay and had refurbished and a pair of Paradigm Atom V.2 speakers I just refoamed.  And I buy most of my records at flea markets.  But I did recently invest in a Pro-Ject RCM and am looking at a pair of Elac Debut series speakers for Christmas.  

If someone wants to spend more money on their music hobby, and can afford it, then more power to them.  Not my taste, but neither are truffles. 😁