Some bloggers suffer from lack of inspiration. I actually suffer from the opposite: too many ideas. Sometimes I have to stop myself if I feel like what I’m writing is going to rowl people up in the wrong way. What follows are things I started and then stopped for fear of upsetting you fine people. In fact, I almost deleted this post just now after rereading what I wrote, but no…I will press on…you have the right to know!
– Cooking with Pope Ratzinger
– Race and Food. Why aren’t there any black food critics? (I stopped this one because apparently there are a few, but I’m still interested in how race and food culture intersect. Just never know how to approach it.)
– Let’s Talk About Eating Disorders (I started this one but Pancetta stopped me.)
– National Tomato Sauce Day (Actually, I may still do this.)
Ok, that’s it. This is your content for the day. I am busy with my last week and a half of school, so please be forgiving. All my best. – TAG
The race and food issue could turn into a great anthropological study. An anthro major myself, I’m really interested in the connection between ethnic identity and food culture. I think you should give it a try!!
You have rowled me.
I actually like all of them. Cooking with the Pope is just funny. Race and food, as Lisa said, could be really interesting from an human studies/human interaction perspective, particularly if you extend it to gender roles. Perhaps not funny though. Eating disorders should be talked about. Again though, probably not humorous. National Tomato Sauce day? Sounds like a foodblog event to me! :)
Is that tomato sauce as in tomato ketchup, or like pasta sauce? Maybe it can encompass all of them in a world-wide embracing of different cultural words for different items.
Incidentally, I’ve always wanted to start a foodblog event where everyone takes a photo of their kitchen where they work,. I think it’d be so interesting to see where they come up with their inspiration and creat their masterpieces, or it could just be because I’m really nosy…
I’m with Niki. It’s been a while since AG has done something interactive!
I have written about race and food. More than once. No one yet has gotten in my face about it. In fact, just today, I wrote about how, back in the day, when I could be termed, “low income” and I was on WIC, how I, because I was white and dressed middle class, got treated better by grocery store clerks than black women or poorer-looking white women who used the same WIC vouchers I did to buy food for themselves and kids.
John T. Edge writes about food and race all the time, and he gets paid to do it. A recent Southern Foodways conference was about that topic right there.
Don’t be fearful of it. If you feel it, write it. If you know something, share it. If you have experienced it, tell about it. If you notice something, mention it.
If people give you shit, hold your head up high and say, “If what I write bugs you, you might want to examine yourself and figure out why.”
Go for it!
Hey Adam maybe you should ask your black friends about race and food. Oh wait, you don’t have any black friends (I haven’t seen any in the pictures you take anyways). Well just so you know I’m black and I read your blog and I love food, so ask me.
There aren’t many black food critics because frankly, luxury eating is an upper class activity and not too many minorities manage to grow up in that kind of atmosphere. In the food magazine business you’re way more likely to make it as a Ruth Reichel type, who grow up in an environment where good eating was almost taken for granted. Not to mention food reviews sections in major papers are generally written for affluent white people.
That and quite frankly, black foodies are rather rare. I think the “haute cuisine” industry has done very little to court african american diners, who feel more of an alligance towards their downhome ethnic brand of cooking than towards the deconstructed, trend conscious eateries set up by the likes of Jean Georges and Ducasse. Are there lots of affluent black people in Manhattan? Undoubtedly. Do you see them at Masa? Almost never.
Uh, isn’t there a black woman food writer at the WALL STREET JOURNAL? 1.8 Million print circulation, 2nd only to USA Today… Dorothy Gaiter would be considered by many people to be the most widely-read newspaper food critic in the US.
And Mike, if you read Ruth Reichl’s first book, you’ll understand that she grew up in an environment where good food was a rarity– her mother was a dreadful and dangerous cook.
She also took great pains to make sure that the reviews she wrote weren’t exclusively for affluent white people.
I think that Mike has a point, though–there are very few black restaurant critics, and I think that cultural identification is part of the reason.
Sure there are exceptions–but they are exceptions. For the most part, most restaurant critics are white middle to upper class folks, and they are writing for those who have disposable income.
Now that I have said that, let me say this–lots of black folks are just as food obsessed as any white “foodie” you can name. I know, I am friends with them, have cooked with them and eaten with them, and gone to culinary school with some of them.
Food is an intrinsic part of African American culture (just as it is an intrinsic part of any culture), and it holds a very central place in every gathering. Women and men who can throw down in the kitchen are lauded and respected and praised to the high heavens. And strong eaters are appreciated, too.
So, I think that while Mike may not be totally right, he has a very valid point and one which he stated very well.
Ugh. Seriously? If you actually read what I wrote, I never said anything about Mike’s larger point. Not a single word.
That said, if you consider her influence, Gaiter might be an exception, but she’s got the biggest audience by a long shot. It’s like saying there are no black talk show hosts, save Oprah, but she’s “an exception.” Quite an exception, no?
See what happened, Adam, and you didn’t even have to write about it! I wonder why nobody took up the ‘cooking with Pope Ratzinger’ clue? Maybe not as controversial? Might hinting at the striking resemblance between Benedictus XVI and Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter help launch the debate?
Do go into these subjects, we are not easily upsettable!
p.s. should any catholics be reading, don’t take offence, it’s just typical Roman humor
Are you suggesting that the Papa and Hannibal have something in common vis a vis the eating the body and blood of Christ bit? I always did feel that the transubstantiation routine verged on the cannabalistic side.
Personally I think Benedict 16 looks more like Pope Fester (Addams) than Anthony’s Hannibal.
Lapsed cradle catholic here.
Personally, this lapsed Catholic finds this resemblance rather amusing:
http://randomwalks.com/archive/2005/04/pope_palpatine.php
I think these are all quite good topics for blogging. And the second is valid. Im sure there are some gastronomic academics out there looking into it.
Interesting…