I already got into this in some other thread the answer to every problem is to just give poor people wads of cash
― iatee, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
whether or not we should make it harder to buy sugary foods should have nothing to do w/ poor people in particular
― iatee, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
otm
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
if you limited food stamps to foods that don't contain added sugar, probably the only food people could buy with food stamps are cardboard and shredded newspaper
― flagp∞st (dayo), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
ok even i officially can't stand this guy 1) mark bittman -- you do not own the concept of "healthy sensible eating"2) anyone who names his own diet and tries to sell it to people is an asshole
i appreciate that he is trying to help people and i understand that what he's selling is good -- i just object to the commodification of eating practices in general. yuck.
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 29 April 2013 13:36 (eleven years ago) link
OK who is more insufferable Bittman or Pollan?
― quincie, Monday, 29 April 2013 14:50 (eleven years ago) link
bittman's got a good oatmeal cookie recipe in the food matters book.
pollan's got nothing. shoot him into the sun.
― adam, Monday, 29 April 2013 14:54 (eleven years ago) link
Good question.
I haven't read Pollan and honestly I don't know much about him beyond his mantra and his name. Bittman started as someone who wanted to help people learn how to cook, and ended up being someone pushing his own thing. Not sure who's grosser, but I'm gonna go with Bittman because I expect more than scolding/diet books from people who like to cook and eat and serve food to people. Stop talking about diet and keep talking about food. What's so hard about that?
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 29 April 2013 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
tbh I will take both over Gwyneth, I mean how the fuck did she ever get to do a food show with Mario Batali, also her new book gah.
also she was featured on the cover of Bon Appetite shortly after the demise of Gourmet; inside, she offered up "her recipe" for mango salsa, which went like this: mango, avocado, red bell pepper, onion diced, toss with cilanto and lime. Fuck you and your 2010 "mango salsa recipe" that ever decent cook ever has known how to put together since like 1982.
― quincie, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
we should have a rolling bon appetit thought/taste crimes thread. amazing article in the current issue about a chef travelling from rich lady's house to rich lady's house and learning the true meaning of home cooking and being friends with rich ladies.
― adam, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:05 (eleven years ago) link
barf @ all of this preposterous attention-hogging
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 29 April 2013 17:06 (eleven years ago) link
I had to suffer from about nine months of Bon Appetite (I really hate that Andrew "The Foodist" douche) after Conde Nast used it to fulfill the remainder of my would-be Gourmet subscription, and seriously I might as well have just gotten Cooking Light.
― quincie, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:10 (eleven years ago) link
Actually there are a couple of issues here at the house we are renting; I will be happy to contribute to the BA-bashing thread.
― quincie, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:12 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think I've ever read that magazine, so I've got nothin
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 29 April 2013 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
every month i excitedly turn to the "foodist" column and read all the preposterous shit out loud to my appalled fiancee. yes we subscribe to bon appetit. i honestly couldn't tell you why.
― adam, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
it is like Us Weekly for people who like food.
― quincie, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:26 (eleven years ago) link
Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" is a good cookbook. I think he's wrong upthread about "buy cheap knives, who gives a shit" but I rather like his "throw in this ingredient or that ingredient, it'll be cool" approach - I'm cooking from Ottolenghi's cookbook a lot lately which is the exact opposite (" add 1/8 tsp pink himayalan salt + 1/18 tsp kosher salt. stir one minute, then add white from one duck egg"). however I can't lie Ottolenghi's recipes are ridiculously delicious if you have the time to make them
― not feeling those lighters (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 29 April 2013 17:30 (eleven years ago) link
How to Cook Everything is indeed a good cookbook, one that I have given as gifts to people who want to cook but don't really know where to start; I also liked his Minimalist column in the NYT. But dude has jumped a shark.
I'm on board with cheap paring knives that you throw away when they get dull, but gtfo with a cheap chef's knife. Get a good one, keep it sharp, profit. Skimp on crap like nonstick cookwear imo.
― quincie, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:35 (eleven years ago) link
I like Bittman's original How to Cook Everything approach because it frees the cook from the recipe -- you have the power to make it however you want, you're not gonna fuck it up, go ahead, try different things. That's not ego-oriented food advice. I guess I really dislike ego-oriented food writing -- make my recipe my way, etc. It's like insisting on a brand name -- I just find it gross.
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 29 April 2013 17:37 (eleven years ago) link
i turn to "how to cook everything" when i need proportions for a pancake recipe or something--he's good at sort of calmly delineating the basic shit that needs to get done to realize a given dish.
it's when bittman tries to go ottolenghi that it all goes wrong.
― adam, Monday, 29 April 2013 17:40 (eleven years ago) link
bon appetit is the worst
at least you can get the occasional good recipe out of Cooking Light. Bon Appetit's not even a decent bin liner.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
maybe it's yelp fallout but even good food writers i'm starting to find faintly obnoxious
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
i can't even really roll/w beloved ol jonathan gold much anymore, idk why.
but can you bun?
― 乒乓, Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
That's why I liked Old Bittman -- he was like "you can do this!", the end. No weight loss/"health" bs, no rhapsodizing over olives from an old Lebanese woman's backyard, just unfussy food-making and -eating.
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:02 (eleven years ago) link
rhapsodizing over olives from an old Lebanese woman's backyard
irl lols @ this
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:03 (eleven years ago) link
i think bittman is coming to terms with his own mortality; he's spent a lifetime eating well and eating richly. he's worried. he's trying to unwind the odometer.
― 乒乓, Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:05 (eleven years ago) link
I just wish he would keep it to himself. Proselytizing is gross even if his recipes are good. As I said before, imo naming and selling your own diet is what assholes do (among other things).
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:08 (eleven years ago) link
i've got a new diet i'm calling "the leong game", which involves kale, spinach, and tomato juice smoothies at every meal. $19.99 for the recipe and a free diet calendar.
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:12 (eleven years ago) link
the vegemite solution: eat healthy snacks during the day and then pig out on icecream because you had a crappy day at work
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:14 (eleven years ago) link
Leong Gamers gather fortnightly to exchange algae cultures and shame each other for eating > 6 almonds.
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
almond unen-joy
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 30 April 2013 21:21 (eleven years ago) link
oh hey like every issue bon appetit has a feature on some restaurant in some stupidly far-flung part of the world (well, far-flung if you are american). like, some place in darkest fucking sweden or, this month, some dude cooking with flowers in a strip mall outside of melbourne. every one of these articles is a hilarious and transparently desperate bid to "discover" the next rene redzepi or adria or whoever.
i read this and then i go lie down and read elizabeth david until sanity returns.
― adam, Tuesday, 30 April 2013 22:14 (eleven years ago) link
mark bittman sayswho the hell cares what mark bittman says anymore? that's what i want to know at this point
i bought some ocean perch at the store yesterday with the intention of doing something lemon-buttery with garlic and dill, and i consulted his book Fish (that's the kind of book title I appreciate), which confirmed what i thought i should do and gave me a few other ideas for next time i want to eat this (very delicious, inexpensive, and tender) fish. It didn't have a stupid name and claim to elongate my life. It just told me how to make the fish in a variety of ways. RIP that mark bittman :(
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 13 May 2013 13:33 (eleven years ago) link
can you give me an example of the new bittman article
― 乒乓, Monday, 13 May 2013 13:36 (eleven years ago) link
i mean, an article written by the new bittman
he is selling a diet book with a special name that he claims is "his" diet -- isn't that enough?
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:05 (eleven years ago) link
doesn't really raise any red flags for me
― 乒乓, Monday, 13 May 2013 14:06 (eleven years ago) link
yeah see i guess i feel that's gross -- i can stand personal branding! it grosses me out.
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:10 (eleven years ago) link
UGHi meant can'tmy outrage (i'm not really that outraged) has made me typo crazy
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:12 (eleven years ago) link
i guess because i believe in his general philosophies w/r/t food i don't mind that he's building his personal brand
― 乒乓, Monday, 13 May 2013 14:28 (eleven years ago) link
i agree with him and i still think it's grosshe has become a pontificator, and i preferred him as an educator. i realize it's a fine line, but still somehow in my mind he has crossed it
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
that's probably true but i think the enemies on the other side of the line (corporate food laboratories and taste labs and advertising and etc. etc. etc.) are so numerous, that....
― 乒乓, Monday, 13 May 2013 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
you're totally right -- i realize not everyone would feel the same waycooking is a basic life skill, imo, and treating it like a program/commodifying it is kind of antithetical to thatagain, imowhat could a businessman ever want more, etc. i'm a product of my times! it's inescapable.
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 13 May 2013 14:39 (eleven years ago) link
How to Cook Everything was the first cookbook that made me feel like I could actually succeed at cooking, and it opened me up to a lot of foods -- it's like the ipad/iphone of cooking in terms of user-friendliness compared to most of the other available stuff, at least when it came out.
― THIS IS NOT A BENGHAZI T-SHIRT (Hurting 2), Monday, 13 May 2013 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
I mean, it's not like Julia Child wasn't heavy into personal branding, there just wasn't that term for it yet.
― THIS IS NOT A BENGHAZI T-SHIRT (Hurting 2), Monday, 13 May 2013 16:42 (eleven years ago) link
Oh hell no you are not equating MB and JC!
― quincie, Tuesday, 14 May 2013 03:07 (eleven years ago) link
Rachel Ray or Paula Deen, yes. But not Julia Child.
― Jaq, Tuesday, 14 May 2013 03:15 (eleven years ago) link
I hate Bittman too.
― Jeff, Tuesday, 14 May 2013 03:19 (eleven years ago) link
I don't mind his cookbook but I'll be damned if I choose to read his ideas about food policy.
― mh, Thursday, 17 October 2013 22:08 (ten years ago) link
file under 'nope'
Op-Ed | Mark BittmanYears Ending in 4
Disaster has been well represented in years ending in “4,” but probably not disproportionately so. Does history give us reason to be optimistic about 2014?
― j., Thursday, 2 January 2014 00:03 (ten years ago) link
...
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 2 January 2014 00:12 (ten years ago) link
geez louise, what's wrong with him?!
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Thursday, 2 January 2014 00:13 (ten years ago) link
That this man, instead of me, got to spend time with Marcella Hazan in her final weeks is just so wrong!
― quincie, Thursday, 2 January 2014 00:14 (ten years ago) link