Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week
– ESers are officially on the Mark Bittman bandwagon. Nicky:
I have to say I couldn’t agree more. I love Bittman or M. Bitty (as we jokingly refer to him in our house). His cookbook How to Cook Everything is excellent. It’s a wonderful resource.
ChiCityDame:
Yes, yes… I look forward to the online videos on Bitten every week. Please put this man on my DVR!!
You heard the people, Food TV execs — more M. Bitty!
– A few weeks back we covered the story of the world’s biggest cupcake. But cupcake queen C. Christy Concrete returns with a very good point:
A giant cupcake? Wouldn’t that technically just be a…cake?
Hmm…we might have to consult the Guinness people about this one.
– Finally, I’m not exactly clear how Summer‘s comment relates to powerful women in food, but she hits on Kraft singles, patriotism, and Heidi Montag’s boobs all in one go, so I’d say this one’s a winner:
The other day I saw a commercial for Kraft American cheese singles that essentially said that Kraft American cheese represents all that is good about America. I’d argue exactly the opposite: plastic-wrapped plastic-tasting processed cheese food is an excellent symbol of everything that’s wrong with our country. The environmentally destructive culture of disposability, the obesity epidemic, corporate greed, the idea that something fake (be it artificial sweetener or Heidi Montag’s breasts) can be as good as or superior to the real thing — it’s all right there, in one bright yellow square.
I’ve raised my child to believe that grilled cheese sandwiches should be made with cheese sliced off a hunk of Vermont or Wisconsin cheddar and two pieces of 100% whole wheat bread, grilled on a pan slicked with real butter. I am either a real patriot or a stinking hippie.
I think you might have some dissenters on that one, Summer. What say you, ESers? Grilled cheese: best when made with the real deal, or is it like Heidi’s “reality” TV — better if you just embrace the fake stuff?
(Photo: Glamour)
Here’s the explanation for my Kraft singles rant…. One of the women featured was the CEO of Kraft, and Gansie had noted that all three of the women featured were the heads of food-related “companies that are contributing to our current obesity epidemic and the overall poor health of the nation and the environment.” I read that and flashed on the memory of the Kraft singles commercial, with its waving stars-n-bars flag made of cheese slices, and I went on a bit of a tangent. Ok, a lot of a tangent.
I saw that commercial while watching Food Network with my mom — she doesn’t have cable at home, so it’s a rare treat to get to watch Iron Chef or Chopped. Shortly after we saw that Kraft commercial, which had been followed by ads for things like pizza rolls, she said, “I don’t understand this. The show is about high-caliber chefs making fantastic food, and then all the commercials are for fake food and shortcuts.”
Grilled cheese is arguably better with real cheese instead of a cheese-like food product, and betterer if you jam a couple of slices of tomato in there, too.