Letters to the Editor
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The dog is dead wrong; the cat is dead on. (Of course!)
Good home fries are not cut in cubes. In fact no food of any kind should ever be cut into cubes. No living thing I know of naturally grows in a cube shape. Imposing this artificial geometry into our bodies is the first step toward fascism; or, to put it another way: square food is for squares.
My own favorite way to cut potatoes for home fries is: first slice lengthwise, then slice crosswise. This produces a sort of half moon shape which I find is quite elegant and pleasing. Others like a simple cross slice, resulting in round slices. You may slice thin or thick, according to your own taste. Similarly, you may add such spices or savory vegetables as you like. My own preference is for red bell peppers, onions, garlic and paprika. There is no right way, only a wrong way - cubes. That is one reason they are called HOME fries.
Now, as Ray has spoken so well and concisely about wine, I have little to add. Just let me say, it's the same thing here: There's no right way, only a wrong way - cubes, which is this case would be wine in boxes.
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home fries from the peanut gallery
We need hash brown instructions from a guy who got into cooking because he had access to cheaper fancy pots at Williams Sonoma? Smells like an imperious foodie to me. Dude sounds a little behind, I guess he hasn't gotten the memo about the upwardly mobile boxed wine (being as how oxidation via cork is the sole cause for the funktified wine-gone-bad syndrome). And I can't hold my red wine glass by the stem? I think I'll stick to Jacques Pepin and the mighty Julia Child, rather than the recycled and inferior version this guy is pandering.
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These recipes are written as parodies, in character voices
They're jokes. That wine piece isn't meant to be an expert point of view. It's a gag in a character voice about how stupid this one guy, "Ray," is. It is separate from the Chris Onstad interview, and distinctly credited to Ray Smuckles. Just as the home fry recipe is credited to Roast Beef, another character.
The jokes are written in character voices by the author, who has nice pans.
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Wine & olive oil: two-thirds of the way to heaven
I love good food, and I love gourmet food, but the home fries philosophy is just about where it's at: simple and soulful is often best.
For me, a nice bottle of red wine (bottle, not box, natch), some excellent warm. herbed olive oil, and a fresh baked loaf of bread are really all one needs to ascend into gustatory heaven.
That, and thou, my dear.
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Oh man why you even got to do a thing
I think it's totally awesome that people have taken umbrage at a throwaway comment made by a cartoon cat. To those people: You probably should never actually read Achewood. There's violence and porn and drinking and a whole library full of throwaway comments that will make you just so mad because that kind of thing is never funny, ever! (apologies to Pat Reynolds).
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Don't Worry, Kazenzakis
We won't.
Why do some of us get our panties in a bunch? Because we are tired of Salon being a forum for over-privileged guillotine-fodder prognosticating about how the rest of us should (over) spend on staples like food. I'm all for a little cooking lesson now and again, but foodies who imply I'm a rube - whether in an interview or through the medium of a cartoon cat - really do tend to get on my nerves.
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haha! wow
over-privileged guillotine fodder? because the ingredients for the recipe were a potato, salt, and oil? did i just step into some weird alternate reality where eating anything other than dirt scrapings from the street makes one a food snob? i figured a liberal site like this would draw a lot of weirdly humorless, self-rightous folks but never thought they would come out of the woodwork about a recipe posted by a fictional alcoholic cat.
rob, i might advise that you could sell your computer and stop stressing about online jokes like this... with the money you get back you'll likely find a wide range of delicious entrees, check out the mcdonalds dollar menu for starts. really a wide world of cuisine out there. after that maybe try the potato, salt and oil recipe, ya never know, it may prove enlightening. you can always go back to uncooked ramen or whatever you feel an "authentic" liberal meal is if it turns out you're losing your street cred amongst the homeless folk.
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Wine consumption
It is necessary to consume both red and white wine in tall, wide-bottomed glasses, or 'tumblers,' because they hold more and are less likely to tip over when drunk. Hicc.
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Aaaaahahahaha
...and the Salon letter writers inexplicably reach a new low. Everytime I start thinking it might be nice to go premium here, a nice letters thread such as this one pops up to remind me how out of touch, imperious, and other adjectives people here are.
I mean shit, I'm a liberal, but some of you are like meta-liberals.
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Of course red wine is served warm
That's why you have to put ice in it!
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I didn't think much of the cat's wine advice, truthfully.
'm all for a little cooking lesson now and again, but foodies who imply I'm a rube - whether in an interview or through the medium of a cartoon cat - really do tend to get on my nerves.
Would you have felt like a rube had the cat suggested that wine was best enjoyed straight from the bottle, through a straw?
Please. It's possible to eat well, simply, and cheaply--all at once. (The guy developed his initial recipes through a hamburger-and-mustard trip to Albertson's, for heaven's sake.) Assuming that everyone who can do cooking more complex than opening a tin can and eating from it is a snob does nothing to teach people how to get to this point. Why set up a false choice between Ramen and overworked haute cuisine based on overpriced ingredients?
Learning to cook pops a big hole in food snobbery. For example, polenta and corn mush take almost the same effort and ingredients and are quite cheap and easy to make. One just sounds snootier to anyone who's only ever encountered it as a $7 side dish.