So at risk of starting a flamewar (but an intelligent and respectful flamewar, I hope), I'd like to raise an issue that's been bugging me ever since I started reading (and occasionally writing, for Grubshack) food writing in recent years: I'm a fan of food, but not particularly a foodie. That is to say, I like exploring different cuisines, but I hadn't until recently patronized the sort of high-priced restaurants that people who Take Food Seriously seem to adore. The kind that Jim Leff of Chowhound calls "shmancy". Recently, though, I've ventured into a few, mostly to see what I was missing. And what I found was - I don't especially like them. The food is usually fine enough, but tends toward dishes that seem to be striving to be "interesting" - which isn't the highest accolade for food in my book. ("Can I have another plate of this to go?" is more like it.) And while I suppose there's something to be said for observing the creative powers of chefs in a shmancy environ, I have a hard time swallowing a ษ pricetag on an entree when I live in a city where I could be having a really fantastic squid kung pao or yemiser wat or even just a good honest plate of pasta for under ten bucks. In fact, all my favorite restaurants in this city - Thai Cafe, Grand Szechuan International, Jackson Diner, Cucina di Pesce, Meskerem, Ocean Palace - are also among the cheapest places to eat in New York. Which leads me to believe that either there's something wrong with me, or the entire expensive-food industry that has turned my Brooklyn street into a yuppie mall where you can no longer get a decent pasta primavera is a sham designed to separate the gullible and trendy from their hard-earned cash. But, of course, there are plenty of people like Mamster who aren't gullible and trendy (have you seen his haircut?) who appreciate the shmancy stuff. So, I'd like to open this up for class discussion: What's up with foodies, and should we be honoring them as the vanguard of food appreciation, or planning to put them up against the wall as soon as the revolution comes? Respectfully, Neil deMause
