The photos are awful. Perhaps intentional or poorly designed. On the chicken nugget question, I thought of chick-fil-a nuggets rather than a mcnugget - and that does satiate an occasional itch - so that's a +1 for me. I loathe mac and cheese (-1), but lobster mac and cheese (French Laundry-style) is heavenly (+2). The chili question made me think of what our chili champions here would concoct - so that was a +2 for me.
I think my natural bias after three kids is to downgrade what I think of as kid food (which has nothing to do with how others view those same foods). But then I kept remembering how good "kid friendly food" can be.
When I saw the hot dog photo, I thought of this (+2 on my scale).
(Chicago-style hot dog)
The pork photo was particularly unrepresentative of the succulent nature of the luscious fat goodness rendered from piggies. (+2)
(Pork Tenderloin with Sauce Poivrade)
The gold leaf eating cuisine is gonna get rich folk eaten by the when push comes to shove. Additionally, eating gold leaf is aesthetically tacky and gauche.
tacky, tacky, tacky.
Seriously though, if the research is accurate, I wonder what role food islands play in creating the divergence in food choice across classes of American society?