The opposite of a foodie

What would a week be if I didn't write about food? This would be the second time, if you include Sunday's cookie tips. (Sidenote: I tried the dark chocolate peanut butter + milk chocolate chip version today. Spec. TACULAR.)

Swiss Gruyere. Didn't even have to spell check it.
I think of myself as a blue-collar foodie, which might be why I dislike the snobbery of the foodie movement. Buy local, sure. But deep fry something once in a while, too. It doesn't have to bacon crusted (though that's nice) or served with a cheese sauce made from 15 kinds of Swiss Gruyere.

This is for the unspoken masses; the millions of us who like to buy local but like greasy food from dive bars and diners. Stop it.

Websites often give their highest marks to restaurants with a gimmick. They don't call them gimmicks, of course, but they are. There are high-priced restaurants that will serve you food in plastic baskets. There's a local restaurant or two that gets all its ingredients from a single farm tended to by a commune of hippies. I made that up, but it sounds believable.

What about, you know, the rest of us? Clearly, I love eating. I love buffalo wings and garlic fries. Pizza is excellent as well as a ridiculous burger from The Great Lost Bear (the Holy Cheezus burger is impressive).

Paula and Mark Zuckerberg, together at last.
For the record, not that there really is one, I'm not Paula Deen, either. My recipes tend to be healthier versions of less-healthy fare. Even the Ex-Girlfriend Cookies usually feature a butter substitute (Promise) and non-hydrodgenated oils in the peanut butter I use.

Supporting local agriculture is great. Being a foodie is good, to a point. But for the love of God, eat normal food from time to time. "Normal" being defined as something which takes 10 minutes to prepare.

That, boiled down to its essence, is where foodies lose me. Time. It should not take 3 hours to prepare dinner. I can prepare three meals in three hours. The cookies I made this afternoon? From the first ingredient to the last pan out of the oven (there were three pans) took 45 minutes.

Food is a wonderful way to socialize. It can be a great hobby. But like wine, cigars, beer and a hundred other things discovered and then forgotten by well-meaning yuppies like myself, it can get a little snobby. Or a lot snobby.

My name is Jim. I am a male blogger and a recovering live-in nanny. But I like buffalo wings and I don't apologize for that.

Comments

  1. JillApril 20, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    I like food and I love trying new recipes. But I'm not ashamed to have eaten macaroni and cheese at Squatters tonight. 31-4-3.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CatherineApril 21, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    Actually "Gruyère" has a grave accent (AP's inability to render/apathy toward accents doesn't make their style on some things correct. There is no such thing as a jalapeno. I would be remiss as a copy editor if I didn't note this.)

    But 1 million percent agreed on everything else. Mmmmm macaroni and cheese...

    ReplyDelete
  3. JPApril 21, 2011 at 8:44 AM

    Squatters mac and cheese! I love their garlic herb fries!

    ReplyDelete
  4. JillApril 21, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    I've never had the garlic herb fries. But the mac and cheese is delish! I just really, really love mac and cheese in general.

    ReplyDelete
  5. David CorriveauApril 21, 2011 at 9:01 AM

    Again the question presents itself: Have you eaten at Bingas Wingas yet?

    ReplyDelete
  6. JPApril 21, 2011 at 10:46 AM

    Sorry, I didn't get back to this sooner: Bingas Wingas has some of the best wings I have ever eaten. Top 3, certainly.

    ReplyDelete

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