Attention, locavores, omnivores, urban butchers, backyard beekeepers, cheese fanatics, and conspicuous consumers of consuming: Your chickens won’t save the world and we don’t want the life story of everything on the menu. We don't care what you eat--we just want you to lower the volume. Also, please stop talking about ramps.
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Your hosts: Snacktime, Meatball, and Julia Childless
Do you ever read the “Dear FloFab” in Diner’s Journal? Some of the questions remind me that there always is a crappier person out there, waiting to poo-poo on your platter. For example:
Q: I have relatives who perpetually comment on their perceived costs of the entrees served by me. If it is turkey, they advise fellow guests that it must have been purchased frozen at Thanksgiving time when frozen birds are inexpensive. Ham? They advise that it was on sale at the market two weeks ago. Steak? They comment that I must have purchased marked down meat. What to do?
A: Serve pasta.
My suggested answer would be to either not invite said rude relatives, or to possibly throw the meat in their laps followed by a glass of wine and then smearing it around a bit with the tablecloth.
Here’s another:
Q: When my friend and I go out to eat, she invariably tries to pick the restaurant, even when she asks me where I would like to go. I would suggest a place and she would make a counter suggestion. Once I invited her out to dinner and suggested we try one restaurant, and she made reservations at an entirely different one. How do I assertively suggest a restaurant without sounding like a control freak?
A: Your friend is the control freak. I would have a frank discussion about it and suggest that you take turns choosing the restaurant. Or, if you want to let her keep a little control, she picks two and you pick one. Just figure out a different system.
My suggested answer is to stop going out to dinner with that nutjob and go with someone who actually values your opinion and/or lets you choose half the time. I’m positive this sort of behavior carries over into other realms of this “friendship” - and at the heart of it is your friend disrespects you. DEALBREAKER!
“It was a huge fireball,” said Robert Byrnes, the city’s chief fire marshal. “It was in close proximity to decorations, curtains and combustible materials. This type of reckless conduct is not tolerated.”
In The Moment’s Grass Fed: Stinging Nettles, Peter Meehan discusses… well… eating stinging nettle. In salsa verde. So, is this a new thing? Others have been eating nettles as a dare, and there’s even an eating contest in England (because it is so difficult to eat) - however, I thought the plant was semi-toxic? Not to mention, COME ON PEOPLE, JUST MAKE SALSA WITH CHILES. Jeez.
"For instance, as budget-conscious consumers stayed home to eat, companies like ConAgra, General Mills, Heinz, Hershey, Kraft and Smucker increased ad spending in the first quarter by 12.4 to 81.2 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to data from the Kantar Media unit of WPP."
From the NYT piece on the upcoming Dash mag/insert.
When I read statistics like this, I can’t help but wonder - how much of this extra spend in advertising has affected me and my peers? Are we staying home to eat because we want to, or because subconsciously we’ve gotten the glossy approval of mass media?
"In Ristretto, Oliver Strand, the curator of the Times Topics coffee page, explores the world of coffee gadgets, coffee beans and why it’s never been easier to get a perfect shot of espresso."
"Hirschberg’s profile interspersed quotes of MIA discussing her sympathy for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka with scenes of her eating truffled french fries at a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles."
The Daily Beast gets a little Shut-Up-Foodie-esque in recapping the Hirschberg/MIA phone number scandal.
While this might be misconstrued as snotty, I think it’s perfectly fair. And if your kid is too picky and crappy to eat out with grownups, get a babysitter.
