quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

i am not a vegetarian, but one time i was in a tiny town in SE IA and i ordered a "vegetable burger" at the one restaurant in town. the waitress was nice enough to tell me, "you know that's just a regular burger with lettuce and tomato, right?"

this is hilarious

which town btw?

One of the best meals I've ever had out was an enormous platter of vegetables and sides at Spark's steakhouse in NYC. Sure the waiter sort of giggled when I told him I was vegetarian but I'm used to that. They were then more than happy to prepare something for me. In the rare even that I've found myself at a restaurant with absolutely nothing to eat on the menu I just ask if they can make something off the menu. I don't think I've ever been somewhere where the request was refused.

like this should be a letter to his dad, not an article
xpost

The thing is they don't have vegetarians in the midwest so A.G.'s reporting really sheds new light on the subject. It's as though an infidel managed to sneak inside mecca.

lol

To be fair, if you're in the middle of nowhere in NY you're probably going to have trouble eating vegetarian, too

eh not really

also weird that he's talking about "the midwest" when this is pretty much going to be a problem in most parts of the u.s. that aren't big cities - it's not really a regional thing so i'm not sure why he's phrasing it that way.

x-post - Maybe he means NY state and not NYC?

which town btw?
Rome, IA -- I linked to the restaurant above.

Yeah, that story is great.

I guess, but ny state is basically 'the midwest'

you are A.O. Sulzberger and I claim my $5

I don't carry bills under $100, sorry

(oh whoops)

Future dispatches from A.G. Sulzberger
"Public transit is not that good in the suburbs"
"Maids are hard to afford on minimum wage"
"This religion thing is really big in the south"

I imagine he got in a big fight with dad and got sent to the US equivalent of siberia

haha:

In truth, it is less satisfying to be a vegetarian here. Those on the coasts have it better.

ALL RIGHT I'M GONNA COME OUT AND SAY IT, IDGAF

(as a vegetarian from hawaii tho i can confirm that people are The Worst about this sometimes -- turn down spam and some people immediately get hostile and defensive cuz they're afraid you Think You're Better Than Them -- but whatever, yeah, learn to cook)

tbf I don't think a traveling reporter gets much in the way of a portable kitchen

pretty sure he has access to a heated surface and at least two things to put ingredients in

Spam! I just learned from a friend that grew up there that Spam is a p big thing in HI. I never knew. She was also telling me about some sort of "plate" where you have a meat and a side or something but it's called a __________ plate.

(i mean maybe he does not, idk! if he's eating out for literally every meal though then this really is thread-appropriate)

oh the life of the traveling reporter, riding the rails from town to town, his ipad and blackberry in a bindle tied to a stick, walking five miles to the nearest telegraph office to file his latest inane trend story

kindle in a bindle

lol @ this juxtaposition

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/ag-sulzberger-writes-note-to-dad.html
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/senator-tester-lugs-around-a-suitcase-of-meat.html

i know, i know, it's serious
xpost

enbb -- just a "plate lunch" maybe? which is one of our weirder special hawaii-specific phrases because i mean it is a lunch on a plate, i think even mainlanders eat lunch on plates.

we do love our spam tho. god knows why. i really miss it in fried rice. little cubes. or in musubi.

I heard it was cause of world war ii

lol I think it was a plate lunch, yes! Woah - Spam sushi. That's awesome.

xp yeah but even the english stopped eating everything out of tins eventually didn't they? whereas we have kept right on w/ the spam.

my theory is that spam closely resembles other cured/pickled/preserved foods that asian people like.

Spam musubi is awesome. My friend has grandparents in Hawaii and he and his wife came back from a trip with one of the little tools that are sold for easily assembly!

spam fried rice sounds pretty good. though i've never had spam.

there is a chinese lunch place in the west loop whose signature dish is hot dog fried rice.

You've never had Spam? I think you'd like it, all joking aside.

I think you're right. But I was raised quasi-kosher and Spam has always seemed as horrifying as potted meat in my mind. Maybe I'll get me a little Spam tonight.

Oh god, it's not even in the same League of Grossness as potted meat.

corned beef hash > spam

I love corned beef hash.

Last night after reading the are you a foodie? thread I just had to have DUMPLINGS!, and tonight I might have to have some corned beef hash and/or Spam fried rice.

Corned beef hash is > than about 9/10ths of the other foods in the world.

Plate lunches are fascinating - there are enough Hawaiian students around here in WA that there are a couple of plate lunch places. I'd never heard of them as a thing until I moved to the NW.

but... what is it?

you eat a plate for lunch

General rule seems to be rice, stir fried noodles, or macaroni salad, and some sort of meat - teriyaki, hamburger with gravy, chicken or pork katsu, kalbi, etc.

I think my friend said something about there always being macaroni salad and meat but it's a special kind of macaroni salad that's diff because it's Hawaiian. Or something.

no--its a plate. you eat it. at lunch

GIS of "macaroni salad" just makes me v sad. So much wasted potential.

iirc it usually has tuna in it

We call that "tuna salad." It also has shredded carrots, shredded cheddar cheese, and halved grapes in it iirc.

base is rice+macsalad+meat. i dunno if the macsalad is special cuz plate lunches are the only context i've had it in. sometimes there's tuna or crab in it but usually not.

whenever I've had it it's been just a v lil bit of tuna xp