Karen and Anthony–re the Zagat comment–I am reminded of a very liberating exhortation I heard one time: the wine is for us; we are not for the wine. So if you want a nice red wine with your fish–don’t feel guilty, have it!
Re the snob list–some good points but, come on, mashed potates from a box are amazingly good; and green can parmesan is a reasonable substitute if no fresh stuff is around. I agree also with preferring butter over its substitutes; but I cannot shake the trauma I received when over 15 or so years ago I saw the stupidest bumper sticker I have ever seen in my life: “Cooks who use butter make better cooks.” It soured me on the whole notion of being a walking slogan–I removed the “Nuke the Gay Unborn Russian Whales” bumper sticker from my car; hate to wear “message” tee shirts. Just seems so … gauche.
One other utterly annoying food snob bit of common wisdom is they idea that “they can’t make ____ here like they do at home” (Louisianans are good are repeating this boring bromide). Hmm, well, let’s see, are the laws of physics different in Massachussets than in Louisiana? I think no. You can get basically the same ingredients nowdays in any civilized place, so yes, you can make it here like they make it there. (Hoppe and I once had a dispute when he insisted, to my scoffing, you can’t get good chocolate in the US–“not like they make in Europe”. I almost broke with him over this, but then remembered I was not a Randian.)
9:17 pm on November 5, 2005
