The New Yorker

[StephanieL]

Loved Patricia Marx's article, as always.  I'm an avid convert to Too Good to Go, though so far I've only used it to buy baked goods.  I too have been disappointed in expecting a meal and getting pastries (cf., Le Sandwich in North Beach), but I can easily score bags from one of my favorite local bakeries and could probably get some nice dinners if I was able to hang around the city late enough.  The Holy Grail will be getting an Acme Bakery bag on a day when I'm in the office.

[MitchW]

Hannah's article strikes a chord, as I consistently argue with everyone about bagels.

Quote

I’m hardly the first to note the broad downward spiral of New York bagels, which were first made by Ellis Island-era Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and, over the course of the twentieth century, began to assimilate. Once uniformly small, dense, salty, and malty—traditionally, the dough is boiled in water and barley malt syrup before baking—bagels surpassed doughnuts in popularity in the U.S. but also evolved to look more like them, becoming sweeter, paler, and softer. Even in New York, they’ve attained obscene new forms (see: the rainbow bagel), adopted increasingly outlandish flavors, such as French toast (what cinnamon-raisin hath wrought!), and grown ever more puffy as traditional methods of hand-rolling gave way to high-output mechanization. 

Are We Living Through a Bagel Renaissance?

(Though you can hand roll a bagel, and it still might suck!)

[Wilfrid]

Shteyngart was entertaining; useful in that it mentioned some bars I didn’t know and some drinks I would at all costs avoid.

I don’t know if poetic license was invoked in terms of his vast intake. Six to ten pro martini cocktails in one evening? Even over a few hours and with blotting paper food, few people would remain upright. Must be more than a bottle of gin/vodka.

I can drink, but I would only essay six martinis if they were the thimble-sized variety served in The Thin Man movies. I recall that at Mont Blanc 52, for example, where the capacious glasses were filled to the rim, my strict limit was two. Okay, then I’d have a beer.

[Wilfrid]

Bagels: “small, dense, salty, and malty…”

Sounds like the bagels I recall from my childhood in London and indeed New York bagels have always disappointed me in comparison.

Haven’t read the article yet.

[mongo]

six, yes*, ten, no.

 

 

*not anymore, but once.

[AaronS]

he’s old to be able to drink that much, I lost that ability in my early thirties.

[Wilfrid]

That much, for sure when I was young, and I would wake up somewhere I didn’t know with the furniture broken. Really.

Or I had thrown up in my girlfriend’s hat. 

[backyardchef]

On 4/26/2024 at 8:52 PM, splinky said:

probably the only thing that is hard

Boom!

[Wilfrid]

Speaking of Boom! The new cover. Glorious Faith Ringgold. ❤️

[Wilfrid]

First I read the article about eating rattlesnake. I knew I had eaten it, so I looked back to find out where. Tim Love’s place in Austin. Then the rabbit hole led me to this, which I haven’t seen in years. Who is the tubby guy?

 

[Wilfrid]

Is the magazine laying off editors? This must be one of the most misconceived* articles I have ever read.

Yes, time being what it is — always headed into the future — we don’t know for sure what will happen next. And indeed in (traditional) fiction we turn the pages to find out what happens next.

Those platitudes do not imply that most fiction — and life as well! — partakes in the condition of “suspense,” explicitly equated in the article to Hitchcock movies and thrillers. I do not know if I will clean my teeth tonight, but that doesn’t mean I am in “Psycho.”

I can’t believe this got a green light, let alone published.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/27/the-secrets-of-suspense

*Dumb, just dumb.

[Wilfrid]

And then you get Anthony Lane on an extreme book abridgement app, writing with a vast reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge and capable of hilarious phrases like “staring warmly at your muffin.”

Insider footnote: Some will remember Sole Proprietor (“SP”) at a foodie forum some years ago demanding to know why the meaning and message of “Moby Dick” shouldn’t be presented in a few paragraphs. This app is for him.

[Sneakeater]

This three-part (link is to first part, which in turn links the second part, which links the third part) profile of Duke Ellington from 1944 is, I think, astonishingly good:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1944/06/24/duke-ellington-profile-the-hot-bach-i

[small h]

On 5/23/2024 at 11:37 PM, Wilfrid said:

I can’t believe this got a green light, let alone published.

A third of the way through, I bailed because I realized I didn’t care how it ended. I guess suspense really is important! (Then I went back and read the last paragraph and barfed.)

[Wilfrid]

Oh lord, you made me re-read it. Sentimental stupidity. 

[backyardchef]

They are back with a hard hitting re-examination of the controversial Maillard Reaction. Thank goodness there is a publication willing to tackle the hard issues of the day. End the tyranny!!

"Cooks are beginning to quietly react against the provocations of the Maillard reaction."

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/kitchen-notes/the-maillard-over-reaction

Edited June 11 by backyardchef

[Wilfrid]

I just read it. Who is it for? Presumably readers who are unfamiliar with the phrase Maillard reaction but still want to read all that inside-foodie-baseball stuff about boiled meat. Is that really an audience?

I guess it is, but can we leave it to Eater?

[MitchW]

While @Sneakeater likes the New Yorker cartoon about Hot Sauce, I think this week's cover is pretty good.

Edited June 19 by MitchW

[Sneakeater]

I take that personally.

[Wilfrid]

It is good, though.

Meanwhile I am very open-minded that people care about some expensive watch belonging to John Lennon. Y’all do y’all. My takeaway, the great Bob Gruen is still with us.

[Wilfrid]

An expensive watch got stolen, someone got arrested for DWI…

[Wilfrid]

These digital issues are confusing. The current print edition is a two-week one, so I am pretty much done with it and waiting for next Monday.

Then just by chance I notice there’s a full length digital issue floating around on the app. Interviews issue. I could have easily never noticed it.

[StephanieL]

I really enjoyed Ian Frazier's story on The Bronx this week.

[Sneakeater]

Thanks!!!!  I somehow missed that!

[Wilfrid]

Been saving that for the weekend.