Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web and off.
I have to admit, when I think of vegan fare, I first picture little lumps of soy curd, swimming in a brown pool of Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids -- perhaps with a spear or two of oversteamed broccoli on the side.
Then, when I think a little harder, I picture all the fantastic food that emerges without direct involvement of animals (though nearly all well-raised produce involves at least some contact with animals).
I can picture the antipasti table at a simple trattoria in Italy, arrayed with all manner of lovely vegetables (including broccoli, a magnificent food) anointed in olive oil and lashed with salt, pepper, garlic, and herbs. Even tofu can be fantastic in the hands of a skilled cook.
And so I like it when vegans make bold culinary statements, rather than succumbing to the culinary fraud that is the Boca burger and its ilk. I like it when vegans attack industrial food not just for its massive cruelty to animals, but also for its frontal assault on flavor.
And that, evidently, is what Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman have done in their new book Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, according to an account by Julie Moskins of the New York Times. (Note: This is not a book review and I have not read the book; I'm responding to Moskin's piece.)
According to Moskin, Barnouin and Freedman stirred the pot in 2005 with their polemical diet book Skinny Bitch, a fevered assault on industrial food and appeal to veganism. Specifically, they targeted the diet industry, which tries to convince women to ingest all manner of sketchy stuff in order to stay skinny.
Here's how Moskin describes it:
The authors ... dressed readers down for following low-fat and low-carb diets, drinking diet soda, entrusting their health to the Food and Drug Administration, and most of all for ignoring the miserable realities of the American meat and dairy industries.
Hard to argue with any of that. But like so many folks nowadays, these newly minted food activists (both of whom formerly worked in the fashion industry) had no idea how to cook. Writes Moskin:
The first book barely mentioned cooking, suggesting an eating style based on fruit, snacks and frozen food from the health-food store. It was a vegan version of the fast-food diet the authors say they used to follow equally zealously.
But since the publication of Skinny Bitch, they've realized that substituting processed industrial vegan fare for meat-laden junk only takes you so far. And they've taken cooking lessons, and come out with a cookbook. Sounds like they've done a pretty good job:
The cookbook makes little use of traditional Asian meat substitutes (there is one recipe each for seitan and tempeh) but there is a lot of frozen Italian "sausage" and vegan creamer sprinkled around. Recipes without those foods were tastier, such as spaghetti squash with spicy braised greens, raisins and nuts, a huge hit at my table because of its subtle infusion of chipotle chilies.
The authors have gotten flack for their gender/body politics. By presenting themselves as "skinny bitches," are they playing into noxious societal norms about what women should look like?
Possibly. But according to Moskin, they also "encourage readers to eat their fill of foods like avocados, nuts and fruit without worrying about calories and carbs." Or as Freedman put it to Moskin, "We really want everyone to stop doing all this stupid math ... Just stuff yourself with things that are good for you, and you will be fine."
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Comments
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Lisa Hymas Posted 11:05 am
02 Jan 2008
I thought the book would be ridiculous and mockable. But as I skimmed through the first 45 pages (that's as far as I've gotten), I couldn't believe how sensible the advice/abuse is: stop smoking, stop drinking all soda, stop consuming sugar substitutes like NutraSweet and Equal, drink green tea instead of coffee, look for wines without sulfites, eat complex carbohydrates, beware the high fructose corn syrup and sugar in virtually all processed foods -- and that's just the beginning. Even more surprising were the pages on the shady, corrupt dealings that lead the FDA to approve aspartame. And the warnings about pesticides. And the strident vegan message, complete with tales of grossness from factory farms. I would have expected none of that from the packaging. Brilliant branding by Freedman and Barnouin.
Of course, the writing style is still ridiculous and mockable. A sample:
The first thing you need to do is give up your gross vices. Don't act surprised! You cannot keep eating the same shit and expect to get skinny. Or smoke. Don't even try some pathetic excuse like, "But if I quit smoking, I'll gain weight." No one wants to hear it. Cigarettes are for losers. They are so 1989 and totally uncool.
But hey: If they're getting people worked up about industrial agriculture and disgusting chemicals in our food, you go, girlz!
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Pangolin Posted 2:48 pm
02 Jan 2008
The best book on food ever written in english is "The Art of Eating" by the late M.F.K. Fischer She understood what it is about food that fascinates better than anybody else has ever done.
Slow down. A meal shouldn't be hours of slavery for one person and minutes of whining and shoveling for everyone else. Consider making and serving the vegetables first, with some bread and THEN getting the entree or even preparing it if it's a saute.
If we are going to eat we should damn well sit down and there should be a place for us to sit at that is sacred to that purpose. The kitchen table should be solid enough to work on and easily cleaned for service.
Look, really look at the crap you pile into your shopping cart. Can you actually see any food or are you looking at cardboard, metal and plastic painted shiny food colors? Can you feed yourself for one day without the microwave?
Argueing over the meat vs. vegan option is just stupid when we eat individual meals alone in front of the tv either way. If it all got to your house in a mountain of shrink wrap do you really think it's nourishing you? Are you really going to survive on the pretty recipes in cookbooks when you can't make brown rice without the automatic cooker?
My verdict: more food porn. You'll look at the book and then try four recipes and shelve it. Kama Sutra for vegans, the pictures are interesting but your body won't go there. No I didn't read it; these things are as alike as any two fleas and about as useful.
Next.
Put the Carbon Back
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caniscandida Posted 4:48 am
03 Jan 2008
Anyway, Tom is absolutely right to point out the folly and utter wrong-headedness of characterizing vegan cooking as little more than a narrow search for meat-substitutes.
My husband requested and received for Christmas Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." It is nearly a thousand pages long, and it is not until page 637 that Bittman gets around to a chapter entitled "Tofu, Vegetable Burgers, and Other High-Protein Foods."
Bittman writes:
<<
Calling tofu and its cousins "meat substitues" would be a bit of an insult; it reminds me that there are parts of the world where these assumptions are flipped. In India, for example, you're either a "normal" eater or a "nonvegetarian." The point is that one could just as easily call pork a "seitan substitute."
...
A big focus here is what's most eaily referred to as "burgers" but embraces the whole world of things that can take the place of ground meat in all its forms. I use a variety of vegetables, legumes, tofu, nuts, tempeh, and grains to create not only the kind of patties that go great in a bun but also "meat"balls, "meat"loaf, cutlets, and more. These all taste great, but one of the many surprises is how quickly and easily they can be put together.
>>
And so forth. As an all-but-vegan, I cannot say I find that very interesting. But there are all kinds of eaters, demanding foods and tastes beyond what I care about, and I gladly acknowledge that they should be indulged as well as possible.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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