defend the indefensible: FOODIES

Um... issues.

"What's this stuff? Risotto? That's kinda FANCY, huh? Sun-dried tomatoes?? WOW, it's like GOURMET DINING."

Also, the term is annoying. I in fact refuse to type it.

settle the fuck down. its not sex.

it may be my moralistic streak, though -- i find it a bit obscene to bang on about the succulence of kobe steak or the subtle flavors of a certain sushi-joint when there are millions of people starving for stale bread.

Self-proclaimed "chowhounds" claim a difference but I have my doubts.

Not that I haven't been annoyed by some of the types being described here but I think you guys are singling out the perjorative ultra-far examples instead of your average foodie (or gourmet). I mean we could take this topic and change it to GAMERS and we could have a field day discussing people who are playing WoW 19 out of 24 hours a day and skipping work to do so and never doing laundry or leaving their house or even eating but those people aren't really the norm of people who would consider themselves "gamers."

xpost Dan you're thinking specifically of Bobby Flay.

I am, aren't I?

You mentioned Satan and I am sad.

there's nothing particularly special about caviar, but it's pleasantly salty/oily/fishy with the traditional accompaniments.

p.s.: duck is too greasy. ewwwwwwww. but i don't mind pate foie gras -- and don't really care how they got it!

(xpost: Amanda Hesser would be a "bitch".)

There's an episode of Iron Chef you need to see.

If you've got friends who're music bores, you can just avoid going to shows with them. Spend any time with a foodie and you'll find yourself being diverted twenty miles out of your way so you can be sure you're having only the most exquisite grilled cheese sandwich available in all of St. Louis, never mind that now you're late for the movie.

It's like hanging out with someone who refuses to urinate in anything but cut-glass goblets.

Ally, I desperately want to make fun of gamers like that! Also the ones who die because they don't ever want to go to sleep or eat because they might miss something.

Haha I think that's the thing, like I started this thread and I was like "Well I've never known a foodie who started stealing his roomie's boxers because he refused to do laundry for SIX MONTHS in case he missed some hot kobe beef action, but wtf w/Luk3."

xpost Amanda Hesser would just be a bitch. Supermarkets sell perfectly good cheese, though variety is obviously limited to the most popular types in most instances. Actually, several foodie reviews in DC have stated point blank, avoid cheese shop, just go to Whole Foods in DC cos it's BETTER. And you could go to museums AND restaurants??? I hope they shoved her into a canal in Venice.

OK well those are just intolerable people, regardless. Any foodie worth their salt will know the best place to eat, perhaps not a grilled cheese, near the movie theatre for crying out loud.

xpost oh noes this proves we're both teh same character from MASH!

Though that Amanda story comes close.

lol @ "Warm Potato-Warm Potato"

Grant Achatz (chef of Alinea in Chicago) weighed in on documenting about a year ago:
http://alineamosaic.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=919

― Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Wednesday, February 9, 2011 2:54 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

Girl I know who lives in Chicago just went to Alinea and made a really obnoxious fb post about it. I'd never even heard of it and had to look it up and she was all O_O at my ignorance. lol.

ILX's own "omar little" once drove to Chicago from L.A. just to eat there, IIRC.

!!!

I hear jaymc saying in that in the voice of Johnny Cash from "Folsom Prison Blues"

i dunno, people going to the grand canyon are gonna want to take a picture.

experiencing a vacation in large part through a view finder (or display screen, whatev) bugs me, too. taking pics of food is somewhat more understandable to me cause with, say, the Grand Canyon or Mount Fucking Rushmore there's already been a bazillion photos of it, most better than what you're gonna take (obv this doesn't apply to vacation photos where your travel mates are in the photo, too). "look, here's 20 photos of the Grand Canyon I took" oh so THAT'S what it looks like!!!

so taking a photo of a famous dish you're about to eat that has 1000 GIS results already seems equally moronic.

I would prefer it if ppl did not take pictures of their friends falling into the Grand Canyon

This all just gave me an idea for a conceptual vacation photo album made up of other people's pictures of things that I saw

xpost -- Their enemies, a different matter.

now it looks like those limits have been broken

Don't look at grain prices right now then...

When I was a kid (in Yosemite where he was a ranger) my father always reminded the ppl on his walks to remember to take mental postcards, too. I think it was his way of encouraging them to have an experince of place in the moment as opposed to just a good photo op.

ha i should have said "looks like" in scare quotes.

there's a finite wall somewhere out there, whether we've hit it or not, i guess we'll all find out huh.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/dining/09bars.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

btw, xpost, our consumption habits do in fact deprive people of food, in that when we demand more, we increase prices. C.f. China's increased demand for meat leading to increased meat and grain prices.

Girl I know who lives in Chicago just went to Alinea and made a really obnoxious fb post about it. I'd never even heard of it and had to look it up and she was all O_O at my ignorance. lol.

― ENBB, Wednesday, February 9, 2011 12:11 PM (57 minutes ago)

ILX's own "omar little" once drove to Chicago from L.A. just to eat there, IIRC.

― Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Wednesday, February 9, 2011 12:18 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark

this was all due to a snowstorm canceling our flight and us being unable to get a flight to chicago until days later. one of the more absurd and fun road trips of my life, 40 hrs from l.a. to chicago in the dead of winter w/a midpoint stop for dinner the night before at the 72 oz steakhouse in amarillo tx.

did you beat bobby hill's record

take it to your navel-gazing food blog, omar!!

x-post nice. Sounds awesome tbh.

bobby did it in 37 minutes. i did it in 33. http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2889/emotcolbert.gif

lol - almost!

oh wait - I reversed that in my head - wtg!

everyone's subculture looks odd -- maybe even obnoxious -- to outsiders. so this article made me yawn (and i'm someone who does get annoyed by foodies).

lol @ yr display name

I'm more miffed at social media suddenly convincing subscribers that they too can take photos.

I'm more miffed at social media suddenly convincing subscribers that they too can take photos.

Well yeah:

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/01/grits-whats-for-breakfast/33565/

(check the small photo credit right below the first photo...)

i would eat all these raggett shrimps.

Can't claim credit for the shrimp and grits themselves, just the photo. Taken in Charleston, South Carolina at Water's Edge.

Looking at the Water's Edge menu, something I've never seen before: " You must be 18 years of age to order a burger other than well done." Come ON!

It's its own strange world down on Shem Creek.

wtf, is the creek full of gators and lawyers?

No, jetskis and beer from what I can tell.

After a day of drinking and jet-skiing, what 15-year-old doesn't want a medium rare burger?

" You must be 18 years of age to order a burger other than well done."

I've seen that before - protecting the minors from e-coli (their own sub-par meat supplier).

He writes English like he learned Polish first.

― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 10, 2011 2:32 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

so you're saying this dude is as good as conrad? high praise coming from you alfred

experiencing a vacation in large part through a view finder (or display screen, whatev) bugs me, too. taking pics of food is somewhat more understandable to me cause with, say, the Grand Canyon or Mount Fucking Rushmore there's already been a bazillion photos of it, most better than what you're gonna take (obv this doesn't apply to vacation photos where your travel mates are in the photo, too). "look, here's 20 photos of the Grand Canyon I took" oh so THAT'S what it looks like!!!

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 10, 2011 4:39 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

one of my favorite things to see on the street is the tourist walking with a video camera held in front of him, and he is literally vacationing by watching his vacation on a 2" screen

that is so perfect

so this article was okay, I liked the livy quote about the glorification of chefs being a signal of a declining culture

but imagining all the foodies I know getting into a sputtering apoplectic rage while reading this, ruining their bacon popsicles

that's a great mental postcard

really hate all those fb/foodie blog posts about "I have this CRAVING for [cultural delicacy that signifies a refined palate" I just don't know WHAT TO DO, where can I GET THIS in [major metropolitan area]"

poor you

I've read an inordinate amount of material about East Coasters pining for In-N-Out if that's what you mean.

this one's pretty good: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/07/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-an-in-n-out-double-double-animal-style.html

his dog is named dumpling - bet it would be pretty good made into DUMPLINGS!

junk/comfort/street food foodies are slightly more tolerable imo

when i was horribly sick last week it was somehow comforting to watch anthony bourdain travel show and bizarre food show on netflix. it was really good escapism from sad sick house with coughing children. plus, its just kind of cool that fermented banana paste is comfort food for some people. it does make me think about food! and want to be healthier. and garden or something. and i hate gardening! and it makes me complain about food less when i see people from all over with really limited food supplies. complaining about food - like about some dud lunch i ate - seems really wrong right after i do it. i think worshipping food makes sense! making it holy. it IS such a gift. and the fact that i can afford so much of it is unbelievable! i don't worship cooks though. i'm appreciative of people who really like doing it though and who are good at it. i don't always feel like cooking.

all the foodies I know getting into a sputtering apoplectic rage while reading this, ruining their bacon popsicles

haha "bacon popsicles" is a more damning indictment than that entire article. I mean. I like bacon AND popsicles, but...

I love to eat and cook probably six out of seven dinners a week but there is something absurdly OTT about this foodie thing

so you're saying this dude is as good as conrad? high praise coming from you alfred

He writes English like he's John Paul II.

knew I could never get a zing in on alfred :[

All good, bro -- I've been zinged many times.

in-n-out IS pretty good ... they don't have 'em in NJ or NY.

they had a fat burger joint in jersey city, but it was overpriced and it closed a few years ago.

This is a great rant against a terrible event.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/05/the_great_googamooga_and_elitism_what_brooklyn_s_food_festival_says_about_foodies_.html

Because, in concept and execution, it was fetishization rather than convenience that motivated GoogaMooga. So much of the festival seemed designed to congratulate those self-satisfied consumers who act like they deserve a Congressional Medal of Honor for spending $10 on a bratwurst. It was an amalgamation of everything hate-worthy about ingredient nerds: misallocated priorities and a misplaced faith in the transcendence of food prepared by semi-famous people.

god, even the packaging on my shitty gas station sandwich is all foodified and greenzoed

not very well though e.g. 'herb-mayo sauce'