The Way We Eat…isn’t
I always reach for the magazine section of the Sunday NYT first because in my bleary-eyed, not yet fully caffeinated stupor, it is the only section I can physically manipulate with a large cup of coffee in my other hand. I always go front to back but I don’t read any of the large articles until the afternoon. I usually polish off the weekly features like On Language, The Ethicist, The Way We Live Now. This is all just on the way to what I’m really after and that is The Way We Eat. A year or two ago the food column was changed and it is now written by different food people each week who represent different attitudes towards food. I have to say that I adore anything written by Jonathon Gold or R.W. Apple but I am extremely indifferent to many of the others. Yesterday’s article represents a new low in food writing. The topic was what to do with the odds and ends that rattle around in your pantry. In this case it was dried wasabi paste, dried beans, canned pumpkin, and rice. My answers are toss it, cook it, toss it, cook it, respectively. I don’t want recipes or inspiration about what to do with old bean, grains, and canned foods. Toss it or eat it…whatever, move on.
I heard that the Wednesday Dining and Wine section of the NYT was about to get a new editor. Perhaps the Sunday magazine will get a makeover too. At least the crossword puzzle remains consistently excellent.
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3 Responses to “The Way We Eat…isn’t”
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I’m a bit bleary-eyed myself, but toss canned pumpkin? That powerhouse of nutrition? Or did I read it wrong?
The magazine column is edited by Amanda Hesser and is only loosely connected to the DI/DO section. I missed the column you describe but it sounds inane. I too liked the magazine’s food pages better when they were the work of a single author, namely Mollie O’Neill. But that was a long time ago so the mists of nostalgia might be getting in the way of my judgment.
My favorite weekly item is the Deborah Solomon interview.
Hi, Vanessa, I found you via your comment on Epifurious.
I also read that column by Jennifer Steinhauer and I guess one person’s new low in food writing is another person’s amusing and well-written. I thought she had a great voice, and I have plans to try the pumpkin panna cotta in hopes of wiping out the memory of the rubbery hockey pucks I produced following directions from a Mark Bittman recipe for pumpkin panna cotta. I also thought the lentil soup with pounded walnuts and cream looked interesting.
Of course, I agree with you about about R.W. Apple’s writing. He’s much missed.