Currently Carnivorous

Here's a great article on vegetarianism in today's Times by Jonathan Safran Foer (his "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is one of my favorite novels).

He talks about something that isn't often mentioned on the topic - a lot of us are meat eaters because we can conveniently ignore the extreme problems of the farming industry. I'm the first to admit that I have little ethical dilemma with hiring someone to kill animals for me, from fishermen to exterminators, but the time I had to kill a mouse I had to administer a mini-funeral out of guilt.

While we're on the topic, few things are as annoying to me as people calling themselves vegetarian when they eat fish. In what sense are fish not animals? In diet as in life, if we put as much effort into acting as we did into self-labeling, imagine how much more we'd actually accomplish.

Love this quote in the article: "more important than reason in shaping habits are the stories we tell ourselves and one another."

The Red Meat Backlash is ON

The new findings suggest that over the course of a decade, the deaths of one million men and perhaps half a million women could be prevented just by eating less red and processed meats... to prevent premature deaths related to red and processed meats, Dr. Popkin suggested in an interview that people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week.

So I guess I should put down my bacon-wrapped steak with side of ground beef? Oh.

All trends must come to an end... so New York culinary scene, what's next?

Full article.

*This post is just an excuse to post that excellent graphic.