Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 September 2

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September 2

Right to work / live in other countries

Are there any sites that summarize the right to work / immigrate to other countries based on a person's nationality? Dragons flight (talk) 00:01, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Immigration law has a table of various countries' immigration policies. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:23, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Schengen zone (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 13:43, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

relative pricing of beef

I remember when flank steak was a relatively cheap cut; now (when I find it at all) it's higher than most other steaks. What happened? New uses for it? —Tamfang (talk) 22:48, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

WHAT!?!? Flank steak is crap. You have to pound, marinate, and chop it to even get it to the point where you can swallow it. Does it have to do with the fact that you are an elf? Please provide more details, as I was a broiler chef for years, and we wouldn't even serve flank steak to our patrons' dogs. μηδείς (talk) 00:10, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

You can do lots of good stuff with flank steak. I just made carne asada the other day and it was delectable. Marinade 2 hour in a good citrus mojo, grill hot and fast to medium doneness, and most importantly, slice as thin as possible across the grain. --Jayron32 02:21, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

• I never claimed to be an elf. But then, I never claimed not to be an elf. Circumstances being what they are, neither admission could be of any benefit. It has to do with my recently buying a wok and wanting to try a recipe that calls for flank steak (cut into strips). —Tamfang (talk) 07:01, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

• You should determine whether or not you are an elf, as elf awareness is important to achieving happiness. StuRat (talk) 02:42, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Ha! Good one... 73.232.241.1 (talk) 20:59, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

What happened? Trends and fashions that's what happened. What the foodie crowd is in to, gourmand culture, etc.

Case in point: oxtail for oxtail soup used to be dirt cheap, almost offal for peasants and poor people. But a few New York Times articles [1] and trend-setting opinion pieces later, the prices for oxtails were skyrocketing at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and other high-end Bourgeoisie grocers across the USA. Even at the height of this nonense, oxtails were dirt cheap at ethnic food markets. Pro-tip: shop for trendy meats at smaller urban ethnic markets if you can, they DGAF about our NYT whitey trends.

(Anyone who may disbelieve OP's premise, check out this BS [2] sales site, or this April 2017 [3] listicle pumping flank steak.) SemanticMantis (talk) 00:22, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

Both oxtail and flank steak are essential ingredients in making authentic (homemade) pho and, as such, have never been cheap at "ethnic markets" here in my area of California where there are a LOT of Southeast Asians. They are just as expensive as the supermarket (if not more so) and you have to get to the market early because they sell out fast.--William Thweatt ^TalkContribs 02:58, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

Huh, that's honestly surprising to me, I usually see oxtail about 1/2 price at the Chinese market compared to the general grocery store. And the price at the general grocery store (if they had it) was much higher in 2015 than <2000. The place where I noticed the biggest price difference was in IL, in an area that had lots of Asian markets. SemanticMantis (talk) 13:49, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

I agree with William. We have oxtail regularly - that is, whenever we can get it; a common experience is to be told they sold out yesterday, so try again on Thursday. But when we can get some, my partner makes the world's most delicious oxtail curry ({{citation NOT required}}). And it's not particularly cheap, either. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 17:45, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

• Well, the Carne Asada article makes my point, innit? You gotta pound, marinate, assault, carve up, and molest the cut before you can even pretend it's edible. And I ate oxtail regularly when I was living with Mexicans during the first Gulf War, so it;s not like there's a racial component. μηδείς (talk) 13:12, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

I agree you have to do a lot to flank steak to make it tender and tasty, I'm just saying that that feature doesn't prevent it from going through swings in price due to popularity. SemanticMantis (talk) 13:49, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

There is a cycle that happens with food, and perhaps other goods (but I will describe it specifically for food):

1) Initially, the food is considered undesirable, perhaps because it is only marginally edible.

2) This causes a low demand, and hence low cost.

3) This low cost causes people to want to find a use for it, so they develop recipes that make it more edible.

4) This increases demand, and the cost goes up.

This cycle was seen previously with chicken wings, which have very little meat on them, so were considered undesirable. However, recipes such as Buffalo wings made them desirable, and the price went up. And, going back much further, peanuts and oats were considered only suitable for animal feed, until recipes were developed for them, such as those from George Washington Carver, in the case of peanuts. StuRat (talk) 20:40, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

While hunting for some good examples of price trends, I found Changes in Tuna Price, which includes links to a whole lot of other data. Statistics geeks will enjoy the charts. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 16:15, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Tuna prices in the US are an interesting example of my above description. Initially, people didn't know what to do with tuna, and it was considered undesirable, and had a low price. This led to the brand name Chicken of the Sea, which was an attempt to convince people that chunked tuna could be used in place of the (then) more expensive chunked chicken, such as tuna salad in place of chicken salad. This was so successful, that the price of tuna rose to where this name no longer made sense, as chicken was often cheaper than tuna, a bit like advertising a Cadillac as "just as good as a Yugo". Recent concerns over dolphin bycatch and mercury in tuna may have brought the price of tuna back down, relative to chicken. StuRat (talk) 20:00, 6 September 2017 (UTC)