opera142

Corn pudding turned out very well. As did the turkey and brussel sprouts with bacon. Nothing mediocre impeded our gluttony.

And speaking of food, I read something that made me very grumble-faced. Anthony Bourdain said this about Rachel Ray: But she genuinely offends me... When Rachael tells you that it's perfectly O.K. to buy prechopped onion from the supermarket... I mean, how hard is it to chop an onion?

On the surface, yeah I agree. You're paying about 3x more for the product pre-chopped, and onions are an aromatic. That lovely smell-factor diminishes every second they sit around unused.

But, otoh, so fucking what. If someone is buying prechopped onions, he or she is likely doing some kind of homecooking. Even if she's just topping a hot dog, that's a far better option than cruising through a drive-thru for dinner.

Also, there's a whole mess of circumstances involved. I've never bought prechopped onions, but I hit up the in-store salad bar and buy pre-sliced peppers all the time. The salad bar is a great lunch option. It also works for when I need just a few slices or tablespoons of something, and I don't want to pay for a huge chunk. The pre-sliced peppers work great because for a little extra, I can get a variety of peppers: green, red, orange and yellow. If I were to buy four whole peppers, Moe and I would be eating them for days in rush to use them up before they go bad. And in that case, what's the difference between me buy pre-sliced peppers, and me slicing the peppers and having the last of them sit around my fridge?

Anyway, what Bourdain said, put me in an ism-tizz. It felt like a slam against homecooks (who are usually women). It came off as classist (sorry that prechopped onion buyer rushed into the grocery store during her drive home from work, in between stopping at the daycare center and the post office, then started cooking her low-brow working class dinner the second she walked in the door.) And all in all, it just felt like a case of Bourdain applying his values to other people's circumstances.