Seven Food Writing Things I've Had Enough Of

Plus nine I haven't

“Is vending machine mentaiko gyoza ultra-processed?” and other conundrums I could not care less about

1. Dead (or alive) grandma stories

2. “Food is culture” “Food is political” yeah no duh

3. Stop trying to make me cook dried beans / eat beans in general

4. Japan is a nation of

   1. craftspeople

   2. magpies

   3. obsessive nerds

   4. impenetrable ancient traditions

   5. all of the above¹

5. Any “world’s best” food city and/or restaurant list where the majority of entries (or even more than a few of them) are in Europe

6. UPFs

7. “HIDDEN GEMS”

And, so as not be too much of a Negative Nelly, here are some food writing things I very much enjoy and would like to see more of:

1. Synecdoche: the whole, examined and explained through a particular part, like Anna Ansari’s piece on Detroit hot dogs²

2. Rants that are incisive, indignant and informed but still funny, like Rukmini Iyer’s article about Sabzi or Laura Goodman’s about sugar

3. Writing that prompts more questions than answers, like Anna Sulan Masing’s recent “Fuck Food”

4. Connecting food to other forms of culture / pop culture, like Verity Babbs’s piece for Pit on food in American art

5. Weird food fiction, especially food horror, like Douglas Blyde’s

6. Gonzo reporting from parts truly unknown, like C.R. Calabria’s story (also in Pit) on food in drug testing facilities

7. Meditative, observational zines, like Katie Mather’s

8. Investigations of food phenomena that are mundane on the surface but bizarre underneath, like David Jesudason’s epic report on the Curry Awards

9. Family-friendly food poetry, like Tara Wigley’s latest and Midnight Feasts

How about you? What are you tired of? What would you like to see more of? Leave a comment I guess!!!

1. Yes I know I have been guilty of/complicit in many of these things but that doesn’t mean I’m not sick of them

2. This is actually like a double synedoche, using hot dogs to explain immigrant food culture in Detroit, and using immigrant food culture in Detroit to explain the USA.