२६ जून, २००६

"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are."

Wrote Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, quoted by foodie Kelly Alexander in TNR. She's riffing on a cookbook -- published two years ago -- that collects various recipes from politicians, and she purports to be especially stunned that Dick Cheney served up a dopey chicken casserole recipe.

Someone's writing a cookbook collecting recipes from bloggers. I got a request to contribute that I'm told many prominent bloggers have already responded to. So I guess we'll be seeing a book that will give us the opportunity to blab about what these characters are.

But, presumably, Brillat-Savarin wanted to know what people actually ate, not what they'd want displayed next to their name in a cookbook. We need to reframe the quote: Tell me what you want me to think you eat and I will tell you what you want me to think you are. Or maybe: If you want to tell me what you supposedly eat and I will know that you care what I think you are.

२१ टिप्पण्या:

Anthony म्हणाले...

1) Get package of brats and an onion.
2) Get a 12-pack of mid-range beer
3) Pour beer over brats and sliced onions and cook in a saucepan for 20 minutes
4) While consuming some of the beer
5) Grill brats over open flame
6) While consuming some of the beer
7) Put brats back into beer and simmer until ready to eat

Serve with whatever other junk you have on hand and continue swilling the beer.

No, I didn't grow up in Wisconsin or anything. . . .

Ricardo म्हणाले...

You seem hungry today (food as a topic in many threads). Did you miss breakfast, or is it just time for some food-blogging?

reader_iam म्हणाले...

I can't decide whether the tone of the article is more snotty or more weird.

In any case, it seems a bit out of touch if the author has never heard of or met rich people who "eat poor or middle class" and vice versa. (Or, more to the point, people who don't eat just one way.)

Hmm.

Weird AND snotty.

David A. Carlson म्हणाले...

Iron Chef made that it's tagline over 10 years ago.

Ruth Anne Adams म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
bill म्हणाले...

Iron Chef made that it's tagline over 10 years ago.

Obviously, Iron Chef needs to sue Brillat-Savarin for plagiarism.

Even sadder, Brillat-Savarin isn't a chef, he's a lawyer.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Ruth Anne: That's from a cookbook! You can't just steal the recipes from someone's cookbook and present them as yours. My recipe is: buy Marcella Hazan's cookbook.

Goatwhacker म्हणाले...

I can't decide whether the tone of the article is more snotty or more weird.

I think the predominant tone is snotty. I would think when submitting a recipe you'd want to choose one with wide appeal and relatively affordable.

tiggeril म्हणाले...

Wouldn't he be slapped for being all elitist if he'd put in a recipe for something with foie gras and caviar?

Maxine Weiss म्हणाले...

It's true. Recipes are copyright-able.

Even a basic grilled-cheese sandwich, of the most basic....

...could be copyrighted.

Anyway, ...
...real men don't eat quiche!

And not gooseberry pie nor capons either.

Spareribs and saurkraut....now that's macho!

Peace, Maxine

Beth म्हणाले...

Snotty writing is not good food writing. I'll take MFK Fisher and Calvin Trillin over any "foodie" writer.

bearbee म्हणाले...

Snotty definitely snotty.........

Warren Buffet eats at Dairy Queen and lives in the house he bought in 1958 for $31,000. However lunching with Warren can be ... uh pricey

Cheney was born in Lincoln, NE and raised in Wyoming. Presumably his parents having gone through the depression imparted the down-to-earth midwest values of thrift and hard work to their children (although one wonders about the thrift part given this administration flagrant lack of fiscal discipline) .

Beside the authoritative Amazon.com shows chicken casserole under GOURMET . 'Nuff said....

Maxine Weiss म्हणाले...

Tim, I'm a died-in-the-wool Yankee, but I think pot likker (what a term!).....

...just means pan drippings.

You know the term ...to "de-glaze" a pan....to combine all the drippings and bits and add in a bit of stock and flour to thicken....

...and you have a nice sauce or glaze.

It's just basically where you scrape the pan and get all those nice drippings, and bits of goodness, and toxic teflon peelings....

off-the-pan.

Teflon = Death.

Stainless steal, always!

Hope that answers your question, Tim.

Peace, Maxine

Maxine Weiss म्हणाले...

We need to find out if President Reagan's chef used teflon pans in the White House kitchen.

Peace, Maxine

Maxine Weiss म्हणाले...

No forget the pot stuff, Tim, with my attention span....we've moved on..

..to Hoppin' John!

Also, I don't understand the Southern passion for white corn meal. I like the bright yellow stuff. Much more colorful!

And then the whole dressing vs stuffing thing. Although I think dressing is more moist than dry stuffing.

Maybe I'm not such the Yankee I'd thought.

Peace, Maxine

bill म्हणाले...

Maxine, dressing is the same as stuffing, except the dressing is baked in a pan and the stuffing is stuffed in something. Don't think it's a regional thing.

It is much easier to kill your guests with stuffing, just in case you're interested. Take the Thanksgiving turkey. Stuffing increases the mass of the bird, requiring a longer cooking time. If you only cook the turkey to the correct temperature, then the stuffing is undercooked and is full of raw turkey juice greatly increasing your risk of dying from food poisoning. So you have to cook until the stuffing is done, meaning you've overcooked the turkey. No one dies, then again no one ever wants to come back for dinner.

Recommendation: cook as dressing, then poor the finished pan juices over it before serving for that extra stuffing flavor.

Stuffing game hens or pork chops is fine as you're dealing with a much smaller mass and it's easier to control.

Beth म्हणाले...

Christy, I should clarify: Fischer's tone and love of the stories about food are in contrast to this reviewer, who I found snotty. I don't see Fischer as elitist or snobbish.

Beth म्हणाले...

In this region, south Louisiana, we add little red potatoes to the snap beans and fatback. Nice! And we use yellow cornmeal. Are you thinking of hominy, for grits, Maxine?

Paco Wové म्हणाले...

"...cook as dressing, then poor the finished pan juices over it before serving for that extra stuffing flavor."

Pfft. Reminder to self: never eat turkey at Bill's house.

If you're not willing to take some risks, you don't deserve real stuffing flavor.

bill म्हणाले...

No idea what you mean by risks, I see it as the simple avoidance of salmonella. Perhaps you would prefer a filipino stew made with pigs blood? Or a foie gras milkshake? Excellent food without risking death.

Paco, if you ate at my house--and don't expect that to happen--the turkey kicks ass. But don't expect either stuffing or dressing, can't stand the stuff. And no marshmallows on the sweet potatoes. The food is already dead, why embarass it further?

reader_iam म्हणाले...

Ruth Riechl's books are cool, too. Food and more. Not snotty. Very funny. Neat walk through the larger time and culture as well.

I recommend them, starting with "Tender at the Bone."