What’s Happening to the NYT Food Section?
Image by freakgirl via Flickr
As a New Yorker, upon flipping open the New York Times on Wednesdays and Sundays, my first destination is always the food section. On the weekend the food-based articles are fewer, so if it’s a dud, you can bet I’m going to be grumpy for the rest of the day.
Such is the case today.
Why so grumpy? Because I had to sit through 476 of Melissa Clark’s words simply to find out that the resolution to her deviled egg recipe conundrum was adding smoked paprika. Really? That’s different and interesting and worthy of Sunday Times page space in this newspapers-are-dying industry? I declare shenanigans.
500 word articles in the Times — especially the $5 Sunday Times — should tell me things that I either didn’t know or hadn’t thought of myself. Sandra Lee, the Food Network’s most elementary personality, has probably used smoked paprika on her deviled eggs. That should be the standard question each food writer must visit with each article: Think Sandra Lee has done this? If the answer is “yes” or “maybe” or even “I’m not sure,” stop what you’re doing entirely and find something else to write about. The same theory should have applied to Mark Bittman’s heinous-looking Greek nachos last week. They’re nothing a stoned college kid with a Mediterranean pantry couldn’t cook up for a totally awesome late-night ‘Dark Side of the Moon’-'Wizard of Oz’ sync-up.
Yes, smoked paprika is delicious (I’ve noted it as my favorite spice here), and certainly gives deviled eggs an extra layer of oomph. It just seems that anyone with a basic knowledge of a spice rack (or a jar of smoked paprika instead of mild paprika) would be able to think of this on their own, without the help of a fancy $3-per-word New York Times writer. So, New York Times, I implore you to crack down to make the food section what it used to be … or … email me?
A Good Appetite – A Deviled Egg Is in the Details – NYTimes.com.
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I agree as newspapers become more expensive their content is oddly shrinking and as a result are less of a quality read. Though for a entry level cook like myself Bittman is helpful.
I thought maybe we were headed for a tie-in to the Times story last month about Sriracha sauce. Like, maybe blending a little Sriracha in the egg-yolk mixture. Call me crazy.
Funny, Scott. I’ve made Sriracha-kissed deviled eggs with fivespice, sesame oil and soy sauce… topped with scallions. Delicious
And there’s the real recipe.
In response to another comment. See in context »Those sound like deviled eggs I would want to eat. Every slightly cultured grandma I know uses smoked paprika.