Letters to the Editor
Stellaa
Published Letters: 189 Editor's Choice: 14
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"Elitist" allegation.
[Read the article: Go ask Alice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Once again attack the messenger. What is she saying? Our food supply system sucks, our eating habits suck and our health suffers. She suggests that you make an effort. Is she forcing you to do what she does? No, but you can take some suggestions and start thinking. Those same "hippie dippies" you make fun of brought you good coffee, better bread, better wine, great cocktails, great meats and sausages and got you out of your Kraft Macaroni and Cheese childhood to thinking about making macaroni and cheese a la Tyler on Food TV. Yes, when Alice and the hippie dippies in Berkeley started the revolution to better food the owner of Whole Foods was in Texas eating Wonder bread and gravy. So she is extreme, how else will you pay attention. Is it elitist to want other Americans to eat good food? Then fine, don't eat it, go ahead and chow down on highly processed corn syrup and transfats. Go back to eating Tyson chicken bits and never touch a whole chicken, not to mention an organic range free one.
I admit when she talks she comes off stand offish, but her ideas inspired a whole way of eating beyond iceberg lettuce (don't get me wrong a nice iceberg with great blue cheese cannot be beat). And yes it's not practical in some parts of the country.
Finally, her new cookbook is I must say the absolute best. I own about 70 cookbooks and love cookbooks and love to cook. Her older ones really were no use. This one shows how simple it is to cook great and good food without all the fuss. She takes the mystery away. So start easy, use her recipes then go for improving the quality of the ingredients. I bought it for a couple of young people and it really works to teach you just how to feed yourself and truly how easy it is.
Start with some fresh fruits from the farmers market, Then move on to veggies and you will discover the great meats, fish, sausages, jams, cheese etc. at the Farmers market. No, they are not only in Berkeley. Of course in the cold areas they are not around year round. The whole idea is to be connected to the cycle of your food. Next time you rant against globalized capitalism, remember, food is the one place you can take your money out of the system and bring it back home. This hippie dippie has spawned a young industry of artisans, young Americans that are inspired to make great food and change the globalization trend of our markets.
PS. In a recent study us elitist Berkeley hippie dippies have the longest life expectance in America. Gee, maybe there is something to our strange ways. Even though we are annoying as hell to ourelves and others.
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If it's good for the elites...
[Read the article: Go ask Alice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My question is this, if it's good for the" elites" you are saying it's not good for the "non elites"? The middle and working class don't diserve better food? Is that what people are saying? Or are you saying it's not realistic, so lets not strive for it? Yes, right now it's expensive and not available, but if we worked to change agricultural policies and if we had expectations will it not be a way to change? By the way, even in cold ass Poland they manage to have farmers markets, it was always a human activity. This activity was taken away from us from the industrialization of the food production.
I never understood, how the German, Swedes, Norwegians of the midwest lost the art of making bread in the worlds center of grain production. Food industrialization of the 1920's. It was modern and efficient and will give the houswife freedom if she loses the means of food production and relies on the modern food industry. The modern food industry has crippled Americans with bad food and a loss of the age old connection to meal preparation.
By the way it was always the non elites that ate the locally produced seasonal food. The elites never wanted to eat what the peasants ate. There are millions of ways you can cook parsnips, rutabagas, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions and never be bored.
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85 dollars...
[Read the article: Go ask Alice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To the smart husband, 85 dollars is for 4 courses plus an apperitif. Sorry, it's not per plate.
And the farmers sell to Chez Panisse directly, no staff is harmed in the filming of this, etc..
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Everyone running=everyone getting married
[Read the article: How Oprah ruined the marathon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This argument reminds me of the arguments against gay marriage: If we permit gay marriage it endeangers the "marriage institution". Maybe the top runners are just lazy and don't see any money like in other sports so they don't run, it's not that more people are getting into running that is the problem. How are the hordes impinging on faster top runners from kicking ass?
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Wow, this is awesome
[Read the article: How Oprah ruined the marathon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have never agreed with so many Salon letter writers!!!! Go team.
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Quarterly Slump
[Read the article: Sexiest Man Living 2007]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since I am in my quarterly "I cannot read one more horrid story about what the Bush administration is doing to this country" this article was perfect. I go to the links and cannot stromach reading anything anymore. I get over it , but I need this kind of rentry.
I agree with Hamm about time that a "real man" was raised to an icon status. Enough with these boy worship of the last 20 years. Old fashioned manly good looks. I love the Pepin entry, I second the Anthony Bourdain suggestions. But I would add Feingold from politics, just because he is so right on and good looking. And finally, a call to the fat Italian boy James Gandolfini.