Secret Ingredients

I had mixed feelings about Tuesday’s reading of Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink.  To me, many of the articles in the section titled “Eating Out,” seemed dated or hard to follow.  Perhaps due to their publication dating nearly 20 years prior my birth, or perhaps due to the topic choice (French cuisine—which I know almost nothing about), I found myself spending more time on google looking up unknown words and foods than I spent actually reading the articles themselves.  However, the advantage of having such a wide variety of articles and authors in one place is that there were bound to be a few essays that really struck my fancy.  One such article was Joseph Wechsberg’s “The Finest Butter and Lots of Time.” 

Wechsberg’s use of characterization in “The Finest Butter and Lots of Time” brought his piece to life, making characters in other essays look dismal in comparison.  Wechsberg's description of head chef M. Point, the 6 foot 3 inch, 300-pound man, who drinks champagne like water, and tells you what to order in his restaurant gives this piece dimension and drama.  For me, M. Point was such a strong character that he was almost more memorable than the food itself and was the one element that really gave this article bite.  Although I personally would have been semi-terrified to eat in his restaurant, as the presence of such a domineering character would have created too much anxiety for me to truly enjoy the meal, Wechsberg, or someone of similar strong personality, seemed to easily juggle both, and write about it flawlessly.  

The second article that really struck me was Anthony Bourdain’s “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.”  Although this article was home to a plethora of topics ready for a hot debate—do restaurants actually have a “save for well done” policy??— the one thing that surprised me the most was Bourdain’s aversion for breakfast foods.  For someone whose words I admire so fondly, I was disheartened to hear that Bourdain hates breakfast.  Who can hate breakfast?! It’s such as wonderful meal.  Although in this article, I think Bourdain is a bit pretentious about breakfast (as well as vegetarians and buffets), I did enjoy hearing his voice again and now know when to and when not to order seafood at restaurants. 

The third article that really resonated with me was Joseph Mitchell’s “All You Can Hold For Five Bucks,” which introduced me to the New York steak dinner AKA a “beefsteak”--a fad that ran its course through the Big Apple during the first half of the century.  Although unaware of this American tradition until reading this article, I could connect it to an experience I had during my two month stay in Argentina last summer. From June to August 2010, I attended numerous asados AKA Argentinean beefsteaks.  An asado is a multi-generational event that brings together the young and the old to chat, drink, and eat their body weight in red meat.  From the description Mitchell gives of a classic New York beefsteak, and from my experience at numerous asados, I can tell you that they seem fundamentally similar.  Although I enjoyed reading Mitchell's article and could relate it to my own experiences, one thing Mitchell should have mentioned is the toll such large quantities of meat take on the body.  I can tell you first hand, that those of us unaccustomed to eating so much meat, have a lot harder time digesting the stuff than those who are used to it!