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Round 3
So we already have quite a lot of food categories, but there are some funny foods that elude multiple categories. So this week is an open forum to suggest ones that you think should be added! I provided an explanation behind the choices for our current categories, and some that I have considered, but really it's open! Let me know what you think of the suggestions, or if there are any that you think are important!

What we have:

• Alcohol: A sub-category of beverages, self-explanatory, anything with alcohol in it.

• Beverages: Again self-explanatory, anything with non-alcoholic beverages in it.

• Breads & Grains: Breads, pancakes, rice, oats, etc.

• Candies, Chocolates, & Sweets: In a way a splitting from Desserts because sweets categories always tend to be massive on tcgs. This one has a focus specifically on candies and confections.

• Dairy: Any dairy product, milk, cheese, etc. excluding ice cream.

• Desserts: A catch-all for sweet foods that don't get sorted into candy and pastries.

• Frozen: Foods that are eaten frozen specifically, so things like ice cream and ice. Will likely not cover frozen meal brands, as those foods are meant to be cooked.

• Fruits: Self-explanatory.

• Herbs & Spices: Herbs, spices, seasonings, powders, and food additives in general.

• Meat & Poultry: Self-explanatory, specifically encompasses any meat dish.

• Noodles, Soups & Stews: It's really in the name. Noodles, soups, stews, pasta, casseroles, etc.

• Nuts, Beans & Seeds: Also in the name.

• Pastries & Pies: In a way a sub-category of a lot of categories. Includes sweet and savory pastries and pies.

• Restaurants: Self-explanatory. Can include brands or general classifications (future) such as food trucks and chinese takeout.

• Sandwiches & Wraps: Any food that can be considered a sandwich, open-faced or not, or wraps like burritos.

• Sauces & Syrups: Condiments! Sauces, syrups, dressings, dips.

• Seafood: Anything fish and fish adjacent foods.

• Vegetables: Self-explanatory.

Some Ideas:

• Rice Dishes: This is one I *almost* added in development. We have a lot of rice based foods in all categories, some that are really a mix of things, such as bibimbap, loco moco, nasi lemak, etc.

• Peppers, Gourds & Fungi: Peppers & Gourds is another one that was considered in development, but axed since it was pretty narrow. But could still be sub-category of veggies if adding things like fungi and other foragables?

• Snack Food: Not sure what this would be named, but you have to admit things like potato chips is a really funny thing to list under vegetables.

Some odd foods that have been hard to categorize have been things like dumpling dishes. No idea where to put them.

Dumpling dishes could always just be thrown into its own category, since they are such a widely used food. A lot of rice can actually be added to the grain category.

^ Yes, I'd definitely agree that rice dishes could be put into the Breads & Grains category.

I love the idea of a Snacks category! We could put things in there like you suggested, potato chips, or things like (my personal favorite) pretzels, and there are a ton of snack options we could do. I also think having a snack category would open the door for certain brands of snacks like cookies or cakes, such as Oreo, Little Debbie, Lays, etc.

I think a fungus category could be good, since they're kind of their own thing? They're neither a vegetable nor a meat, but can be used like either, so it feels odd to put them in either category. I also think snacks would be a good category, because it is weird to put potato chips under veggies or crunchy pretzels under bread!

As i mentioned before, possibly maybe just move to continents or such.
N. Maerica, S. America, Australia, Europe, Asia, Earth, ect. It limits it a bit lol but soon thigns start to get a bit out there, as it is we do have a lot of things that i wouldn't consider catagories that are in catagories. Example: You mention rice dish and loco moco, where a good chunk of that is also burger meat and rice; probably easier to under N.America (havaiian) then say a weird "well its kind of rice" type thing. Okonomiyaki is kind of similar in that you think batter, but tbh the good chunk of it is actually what its made with (often cabbage, sometimes noodles.) So maybe a whole different catagory system might be easier, personally.

As for the other catagories, rice dishes i still feel very much are grain haha. As for snack foods, i think thats an open debate a bit as well cause we can really argue a lot of meals and foods are snacks in the end. A candy Bar is a snack, Potato chips and fries can be their own meal for many (maybe not so much in the west tho haha, a lot of places ive been to tho they are often the meal not the actual snack). So mmm.

Hmmm I think I'm OK with rice dishes being under grain, but I'm definitely stuck when a dish is a mix of stuff. I think "snacks" would already be covered by other categories, though. (also I admit, when looking for decks I give up on categories and just hit the 'all' button because my brain cannot compute)

TBH when running into a problem like this my first thought is to just remove the categories altogether since I never look at them haha I just look at the "all cards" page. In the end I think it's basically up to owner discretion because you could put a shrimp and rice dish into grains with the other rice dishes (or their own category if you make one) or you could put it in seafood with the other fishy things and both would be "right."

I do agree that "snacks" could be a good category to add because yeah stuff like cheese puffs or popcorn are so processed or so far removed from their original form it's like, no, they're not vegetables or whatever anymore lol.

Dumplings could become its own category of like.........dough with Stuff inside jhfkjhf everything from bao to pierogis

Caitlin: The little snack cakes have been a struggle because my knee-jerk reaction is to put them under desserts, but they are also definitely not the same as most desserts. Snacks has the potential to be really broad.

Survey (Round 4): eggsalad10, takoyaki08

Elijah: Completely agree on fungi, I tend to think of them as veggies when thinking about cooking but they are definitely very meaty. I do really like the idea of peppers/gourds/fungi as a category, especially now that we're heading into the fall season.

Survey (Round 4): cookiedough01, sashimi07

Jun: Yeah snacks are so hard to parse and I'd have to narrow down what else to include besides chips. It reminds me of tcgs in the past that had 'other' categories but I couldn't stand it. I like the idea of countries but then the list would become pretty extensive. But I do however plan on doing countries as part of achievement-based masteries soon!

Survey (Round 4): tiramisu16, pretzeldog05

Kayori: Agreed on dumplings, that seems to be a wide consensus. Rich is a funny one because it is so versatile, and many great dishes are mixed with other things but it's just easier to list them as grains, same with pancakes, Asia gets wild with those.

Survey (Round 4): cannoli15, cauliflower14

Lex: Oh my gosh I hadn't even thought of pierogi, I had only thought about Chinese dumplings but thinking about it now, there are things like samosas and momos, gosh there is a TON. I'll really think about it. Also agree on many of the little snacks being so processed they barely qualify haha.

Survey (Round 4): strawberry07, sushi10

Mysti: Snacks is such a broad term it's difficult. I suppose the thought is chips/crisps, but it's a bit of a struggle to think about what else would go with it. Funny also that I prefer viewing decks by set on tcgs because it more neatly categorizes them for me, but with food it's definitely difficult.

Survey (Round 4): devilsfoodcake11, friedchicken14

I like the idea of snacks being it's own category! Other than crisps, things like Pocky etc. could fit in there as well since they don't really fit in the sweets/dessert section. Anyhow, there are probably enough varieties of crisps to warrant that section.

Maybe a festive food section? It feels super weird to me that the mooncake deck is under the pastries/pies category. I guess it's because occasion specific and you wouldn't really expect to find mooncakes in that section of the grocery store day to day. In the way that turkey with stuffing would probably go under meat/poultry but you really think of it as Christmas food.

I will add in a vote for a category for mushrooms. I honestly didn't realize we didn't have a category for it, but it is one of those things that could fall under multiple categories so having a separate one for mushrooms and other fungi just makes sense rather than fitting each one into different type categories.