July 27, 2022

Let them eat ketchup.

That's my solution. I'm reading "France’s mustard shortage fuels drama and panic in grocery stores" (WaPo). 
For some, it feels dire — a personal consequence of extreme weather that decimated mustard seed supply in and outside France....

Come on. It's not like a bread shortage. It's a condiment! It's not a staple....

Mustard is a staple of most French diets....

Or, okay, what makes a food a staple? I thought it needed to be something nourishing and foundational, like bread or rice or potatoes. But maybe if you buy it and use it all the time, it's a staple, and it's hard to understand that degree of attachment to mustard:

“This is a sauce that’s loved all over the world — and it’s ours,” Dinhut told The Post.

Dinhut — Claire Dinhut — is one of the TikTok people that seem to have motivated WaPo to cover this "panic." You can check out these videos at #mustardshortage. This post gets my "MSM reports what's in social media" tag.

33 comments:

rehajm said...

Pardon me…

typingtalker said...

Let them eat french fries ... with ketchup.

Rollo said...

"Staple" used to refer to dietary mainstays, like rice, bread, and potatoes. Now it just means something people buy a lot.

"Staple" in this sense (rather than as metal fasteners) seems to be a word one hears more often than one sees in print. At least, I was a little surprised seeing it in print.

Leland said...

I’m trying to care, but the food shortage isn’t because of the weather or Russia/Ukraine war. Until they quit blaming unrelated issues, things will get much worse. Sri Lanka was just smaller so the results of bad policy were faster to develop.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Pardonne Moi? Ketchup just doesn't cut the mustard.

Temujin said...

Don't worry. I'm sure the fit and hip will be able to steer them past their Dijon mustard and sauces using mustard, to something more...Keto? How's faux mustard made with coconut milk, coconut flour, and shredded coconut, somehow rigged with enough other spices to look and taste like...someone mixed mustard with a Mounds Bar.

Or maybe this is where John Kerry can really step up and become the Man of the World he so clearly wants to be. He can ask his wife for a few containers of Heinz's Yellow Stuff and see how the actual French go for that. My guess is they'd go with the Mounds Bars.

madAsHell said...

Decimated. Reduced by 1/10th.

Levi Starks said...

Is it safe to assume you’ve visited the mustard museum?

Owen said...

Comment est-ce qu’on dit “Climate Change Crisis Eleventy!” en français?

Greg The Class Traitor said...

This post gets my "MSM reports what's in social media" tag.

Well, of course!

You can't actually expect a hard working reporter to go out and physically interact with people in real life! That's a violation of their human rights

/sarc

I believe that social media is going to be the death of "journalism", because it reinforces all of the "journalists" worst habits, while putting their stupidity, gullibility, and rabid partisanship on display for anyone who cares to look

Yancey Ward said...

LOL! It only took the first comment.

Saint Croix said...

It's a snow blizzard

and you are trapped in your car

with nothing to eat

but the mustard in your glove compartment

Yancey Ward said...

Colonel Moutarde: "Le condiment d'état, c'est moi."

Barbara said...

Levi Stark’s: I’ve been to the mustard museum. I mostly remember that it was dusty.

Joe Smith said...

Ketchup will go great with those fried taters...

cassandra lite said...

I, too, would panic if I couldn't get my Dijon and Pommery. My cupboard/'fridge is never without one or both, and rare is the day mustard doesn't touch my tongue -- a habit I picked up living in Paris.

Christopher B said...

I'm pretty sure mustard is French in the same way pasta is Italian.

Howard said...

I like mustard on my biscuits

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I think their other famous sauce mayonnaise has done better for the world as a whole and is not encumbered by the classist reputation of grey poupon.

Brian said...

Scene: Interior, Washington Post News Room. Young millenial runs into his editors office.

Chief! There's a mustard shortage in France. I need a ticket to Paris, toot suite. Probably should be first class, but if the WaPo ran out of Bezos bucks I'll take business class. Yes Mustard! Quelle horreur! Give me 3 weeks, and I'll get to the bottom of it. It might be a Russian conspiracy! No chief, it's mustard! Don't you know that's a staple of the french diet? This calls for some serious undercover reporting. Don't bother calling me, I'll call you... with the expense reports.

Thanks Chief!

Achilles said...

The Great Reset continues apace.

GRW3 said...

So, load up the planes sent to get baby formula with French's Mustard. They'll hate if of course, both the name and test.

stunned said...

Let them eat Ukrainian horseradish for as long as it takes.

robother said...

Sacre Bleu! If the French have run out of mustard seed, can culottes be far behind? As I recall, the French sans culottes are rather testy.

Eric said...

A friend in college used to say "Salt is the best food. You can eat all you want and there's plenty left. And it's cheap"

wildswan said...

The Colonel was killed for the mustard in the library and the French chef in the Kitchen FedExed it to his family in France.

Bob_R said...

@Brian - Millennials aren't that young anymore. [show a little faith, there's magic in the night. You ain't a beauty, but hey you're all right] I have not seen "Hacks" but I gather there is a line (from a Zoomer) saying "There are millennials who are FORTY!"

ken in tx said...

Turmeric is what makes mustard look and taste like mustard. To me, mustard powder has almost no taste. Mix turmeric, vinegar, and salt until the shortage is over. That ought to tide them over until then.

daskol said...

Mayo/aioli

Marcus Bressler said...

Donna Angelle, in her small hit, "An Old Man's Sweetheart (I Want a Man Like Boozoo)", a playful tribute to Boozoo Chavis (one of the pioneers of Zydeco), she sang the following: "He might be an old man to you, but to me he's my star. He might be too old to cut the mustard, but he can still lick the jar."

And the French think they have the last word on romance and lovemaking.
P.S. I like Creole Mustard

mikee said...

McIlhenny. Tobasco.
McCormick. Cholula.
Frank's. Hot Sauce.
Huy Fong. Sriracha.

Oh what a world, with such wonders in it.

Charlie said...

I will never forget where I was during The Great Mustard Shortage of 2022.

Paul Doty said...

Obviously at least as serious as catastrophic global climate change. Happily, I have a solution, a moderate mustard offset tax on just the wealthiest 99.9% of the population. Politicians exempted of course.