New Orleans, On the Rise, Is Getting Its Brews Back

Once a regional beer capital, now the Big Easy has only a handful of breweries in the area — perfect for a weekend of sampling.

New Orleans, On the Rise, Is Getting Its Brews Back – NYTimes.com.

In Search of a Traditional Irish Pub

Bill Barich’s hunt for a good local pub near his home in Dublin, chronicled in his new book, “A Pint of Plain,” also revealed how Irish pub culture is changing with the society around it.

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Saving a Squirrel by Eating One

Cue “Dueling Banjos” …

Rare roast beef splashed with meaty jus, pork enrobed in luscious crackling fat, perhaps a juicy, plump chicken … these are feasts that come to mind when one thinks of quintessential British food. Lately, however, a new meat is gracing the British table: squirrel.

Saving a Squirrel by Eating One – NYTimes.com.

Obama’s Lunch Love: Manny’s Deli

The old rivals whom President-elect Barack Obama has appointed to office might get suspicious one day if the president invites them for lunch at Manny’s.

When Obama goes out with his family, it’s often to one of Chicago’s signature restaurants, like the Frontera Grill.

But for lunch, he stops at Manny’s Deli, which has been in Chicago’s West Loop since 1942 and serves “Jewish-American steam table cuisine,” although to call kishke, knishes and corned beef “cuisine” is a little like calling a sweatshirt “couture.”

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Blogger Bites Into Different Country Every Day

Earlier this year, 26-year-old L.A. food blogger Noah Galuten devised a challenge for himself: eat the cuisine of a different country every single day.

The catch?  He’s committed to not cooking any of the food himself (That said, he eats at a LOT of restaurants.)

As much as I applaud his efforts to expand his palate (Lord knows I’m trying to expand mine), eating at restaurants almost every day seems like an expensive way to go about it.

Furthermore, he’s truly missing out on something by not attempting any of these recipes himself (Is there a better way to truly appreciate a culture than to COOK as they do? It’s the difference between being a tourist in a foreign country and actually living among the people day-to-day, experiencing the culture directly.)

The people who have cooked for Mr.  Galuten — do they buy their ingredients online, straight from the homeland?  What grounds does Mr. Galuten have for turning up his nose to cooking these recipes himself in a favor of a more quote-endquote “authentic” experience?

In my opinion, people like Mr. Galuten are culinary dilettantes (gastronomic tourists, if you will) possessing only a superficial knowledge of the culture, the history, of a people.  Lunch in an Afghani restaurant will not bring you any closer to the people of Afghanistan than will watching a documentary on TV about Afghanistan.

There’s something to be said for having a close, personal, intimate relationship with the food of a particular culture.  Going out to lunch at a Chinese, Afghani, or Jamaican restaurant gives one a superficial knowledge, at best.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with occasionally being a culinary tourist (Here in Florida, I personally have eaten tapas, arroz con pollo, ropa vieja, and Bahamian conch chowder in the Florida Keys.)  The mistake lies in pretending to be more intimate with a particular culture than you actually are (I’m humble enough to know for a fact that munching on a plate of ropa vieja is not going to suddenly make me an authority on Cuban culture.)

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