Not Intent on Arriving

1) The Dark Side of the Bird (Slate): Who knew that in 2001 (a peak) the United States exported over 1 billion pounds of dark chicken meat annually? This article examines what the USA plans to do with all that meat, since exports to Russia have dried up. It’s also an interesting examination of why we prefer white to dark meat.

2)Offal Chef Chris Cosentino Is Happy to Make a Meat Dress for Lady Gaga (Vanity Fair): Cosentino runs a restaurant called “Incanto” in San Francisco and specializes in offal cooking. That involves cooking with body parts of animals that you might not ordinarily consider (brains, hearts, kidneys, sperm sacks). He has a simple philosophy for getting you to try these foods: “Harden the fuck up and try it. It’s not like you’re going to a restaurant and they’re putting a pile of dog shit in front of you.

3) How Many Bugs Are Allowed in Your Pasta (Salon): Probably don’t want to read this if you’re eating. The FDA has guidelines for how much “foreign matter” is allowed in your food. Yeah, the guidelines are pretty shocking. For popcorn, the food is okay if it has less than “20 or more gnawed grains per pound and rodent hair is found in 50 percent or more of the subsamples.” Eat up!

Here’s a classic example of my agreeing with a person’s larger point, while being appalled by the tone they take to prove it. Food critic Ari LeVaux writes for The Atlantic and has a syndicated column called “A Flash in the Pan,” which appears in 21 states. (An aside: LeVaux also published an article in support of Franzia and other boxed wines for The Atlantic.)

In a Jan. 24 article, he describes the difficult life of a food critic. It may seem glamorous to us, but LeVaux assures us that life is really hard. You have to eat lots of bad food. More importantly, though, you have to taste food that goes against your principles. LeVaux, for example, would consider himself a militant locavore were it not for his job. Being a critic also forces him to consume more grease and fats than he would ordinarily. He points out that argue against factory farmed meats and high-fat foods in his articles, but fears his audience would tire of the proselytizing fairly quickly (he’s right about that).

Now, LeVaux makes valid points about the problems within the restaurant industry. There is too much fat and grease in the cooking, to make up for a lack of flavor. People consume food too often without knowing its origins. We rely heavily on factory farmed meat, and eat animals who enjoyed no quality of life.

A quick word to Mr. LeVaux, though. If you believe that strongly in the evils of the restaurant world, change jobs.  Your life isn’t that hard. In fact, you have a job many people would kill for.