All posts tagged "Mark Bittman"

[rebelmouse-image 24750257 original_size="499x499" expand=1]Erik at LGM captures some of my growing discomfort with Mark Bittman's political approach to the question of improving national nutrition.  Bittman has taken to scolding people for being lazy more than looking at the underlying reasons people don't cook more.  I somewhat agreed with a rant he had a few months back about oatmeal, but in retrospect some of my concern is that liberals are too quick to seize on excuses that sound good---saying, for instance, that oatmeal at McDonald's is cheaper and easier than store oatmeal when it's objectively not---because they have the correct instinct not to assume the worst about people's motives when making food choices. It's a combination of over-reliance on a simplified version of rational actor theory and a rightful rejection of conservative assumptions that people's sufferering is a direct reflection of their lack of merit. But the problem is Bittman is erring too far in the other direction, and assuming that the reason people don't cook more is that they're just lazy and that a good scolding is what's going to get them on the other side of it. 

[rebelmouse-image 24749986 original_size="450x309" expand=1]Mark Bittman always strikes me as a mellow kind of writer, passionate about his issues but slow to anger. So I was surprised to read his angry response to McDonald's introducing oatmeal as part of the "pretend we have healthy food" thing they do. As you imagine, the oatmeal is no such thing. It's got a bunch of funky ingredients, of course, but more than that, it's loaded with sugar, fat, and calories. You probably would be better off getting the Sausage McMuffin, because at least you aren't sucking down a bunch of sugar. (Or maybe you are. I wouldn't be surprised.) It's certainly not cheaper than real oatmeal, which is like the cheapest food ever, and Bittman covers that at length. But what really teed Bittman off was the suggestion that getting oatmeal from McDonald's is easier or more convenient than making it yourself:

[rebelmouse-image 24749893 original_size="400x359" expand=1]Happy New Year! One thing I don't particularly love about holidays is that I get kind of bored, with everything being closed and there being practically an obligation not to work. So, I'm spending some time, before we go to brunch, doing some cooking. Which, in turn, made me think it was a good time to start another food thread, since the CSA threads are now over.

Last time I posted on this issue, I had a revelation when a number of people popped up in comments and elsewhere, begging me for the recipe for the dish I posted. I will confess that this threw me for a loop, in part because I had just found the picture online, but mostly because you can tell by looking at it that it's rice and beans with avocado on top. To my mind, this barely counts as "recipe", at least not the kind you have to ask someone for. It's an idea, sure. But rice and beans is a matter of cooking rice and beans, putting some stuff that tastes good in it, like cumin and chili and onions and garlic, and then putting some avocado on it. What was obvious to me is obviously not obvious to everyone.

Today, Mark Bittman put up a recipe for lamb burgers, which was funny, because I'd just finished making lamb burgers...and loving the hell out of them.