Don't know whether this is profound, but it's more likely to stick in my mind than rows of numbers. This is from Dave Wasserman of Cook Political Report, courtesy of The Dispatch's Sarah Isgur:
Fact: Biden won the presidency winning 85% of counties with a Whole Foods and 32% of counties with a Cracker Barrel - the widest gap ever.
That's interesting. I've been to both places, but neither are in our town. I see that Amazon now owns Whole Foods. In spite of the crunchy image, they are anti- union and pretty much big business. But they do have things such as saffron and Vietnamese cinnamon.
ReplyDeleteI've never actually been to a Whole Foods, but that is where the Top Chef contestants get sent to buy their competition food. Have eaten at Cracker Barrels when on the road, and think they're fine, but as my Top Chef comment probably suggests, they're not my foodie choice for a night out.
DeleteI was going to make a crack in the post about Waffle House, but I once had a friend who thought they were great, not because of the food (which is reasonably good) but because they draw together people from all strata and walks of life.
Years ago I drove across country in a two car caravan. My youngest son rode with me, in my eldest son’s car. He was returning to college in California and rode with his roommate from Providence Rhode Island. We “coastal elites” (aka - lib-yards) ) have lots of Whole Foods markets around. Not many Cracker Barrels though.
DeleteExcept in really rural areas, both east and west coasts have a lot of racial and ethnic diversity. We don’t even notice it unless for some reason we decide to focus on really seeing it. I did that while waiting to vote early in 2016 because of trumps campaign to stir up fear and hatred for anyone not descended from white Europeans. When I made a point of really noticing the people in line to vote, I realized that our line almost looked like a mini United Nations.
During that drive west, years before trump, we stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel near Indianapolis. At some point my son’s roommate said, “This is so weird”. Why? He continued, “Look around. Everyone in here is white. Every single person.” I looked around and was shocked to realize that he was right.
Lots of people around here shop where they can get “exotic” ingredients- for their every day family meals - ingredients that are not really considered exotic around here for many people. I can buy saffron in the local Safeway. But Viet Namese cinnamon means a trip to an Asian grocery store - or maybe to Whole Foods. San Jose CA has a very large Viet Namese American community. I think I’ll ask my Viet Namese d-I-l where she buys her cinnamon. Maybe at the Safeway!
I don’t do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods (there are at least five within a 20 minute drive. The closest is 10 minutes). The selection and quality are great. The prices are not so great. Many people around here say that Whole Foods translates to Whole Paycheck.
Lib- tards. Even after I corrected the auto-correct. it came out “ lib- yards”
DeleteAutocorrect has a libtard bias. Hee!
DeleteYeah, Anne, we're in a Whole Foods area, too (and our county's voting totals for Biden bear that out!). I'm not anti-Whole Foods, but it does bespeak a sort of leisurely, self-indulgent lifestyle which isn't the reality for my wife and me at this point in our lives (and in a away, I hope it never is). We both work long hours in stressful jobs, and then I have ministry responsibilities on some weeknights and all weekends. I am kind of a foodie, but not necessarily a do-it-yourself foodie.
DeleteOur area has some racial and ethnic diversity, too (more so ethnic than racial, but getting more racially diverse, too). The full panoply of the diversity used to be visible at the local mall, when people went to malls. Even more so at the DMV, as nearly everyone 16 years or older needs a driver's license, one can see a pretty true cross-section there. I've noticed the same thing during the many times I've been called for jury duty over the years.
I actually like Trader Joe's better than Whole Foods. Wonder where its customers fall on the blue/red spectrum.
DeleteJim, do you do much cooking? Our eldest son does all the grocery shopping and cooking in his house. They travel a lot, and when they get home he is always ready to try making some of the dishes they ate on their trips. The youngest son cooks on the weekends. The middle son is hopeless in the kitchen - just like his dad.
ReplyDeleteYep - I do the grocery shopping, and until recently did the lion's share of the cooking. My wife has stepped up her cooking involvement in the last couple of years. We both work M-F, so on weeknights we're usually trying to get something on the table quickly and reasonably nutritiously. On weekends, my wife will wax experimental in the kitchen. I don't get as "exotic", but I'll tackle anything as long as I believe I know the technique and don't need to run out and buy a new appliance or gadget to make it happen.
DeleteI worked in low-end-ish food service as a teen, and most of my kitchen skills were learned at the restaurant, so if it can be cooked on a grill or a flat grill, I'm all over it.
I think I've mentioned my mom was very much ensconced in the 50s-housewife mode of meal-making, so I learned the art of noodly casseroles and cake-baking out of the Betty Crocker cookbook from her :-) She also taught me how to poach an egg, and impressed upon me the great utility of leftovers.
In the 60 years of my life, I don't recall my dad ever cooking anything at all. (Or vacuuming, dusting or changing a diaper, for that matter.) In his world, all that stuff is women's work. His domain was the office, home repair and yardwork. So the only culinary traits I inherited from my dad are a preconception that the centerpiece of every meal is a protein, and a love for ice cream.
Never been to either, though the Internet tells me there's one of each in Lansing.
ReplyDeleteWe have the Flapjack Shack, aka the Flashback Shack, so named bc it used to be open all night and the addicts and alcoholics in 12-Step could meet with their sponsors and suck down bottomless pots of coffee. They always had excellent service and low staff turnover. Place was scrupulously clean.
The MAGA crowd around here hangs out at one of the many Bob Evans joints.
I know there are some PBS watchers among us. Have any of you ever checked out "A Chef's Life"? It's kinda-sorta a cooking show, maybe even more so a reality series. It follows Vivian Howard, who hailed from North Carolina, became a skilled chef in NYC, and then was returned home to open an upscale restaurant in her NC small town hometown. Each week, there is an ingredient or food item which is sort of the focus - tomatoes one week, persimmons the next, peanuts the week after that.
ReplyDeleteMy mention of Waffle House brought it to mind. Chef Howard took part in a charity contest called the Waffle House Challenge. Hoity-toity chefs like her compete to cook Waffle House fare. The challenge is for them to produce fried eggs, bacon, waffles et al as quickly and perfectly as a trained and experienced Waffle House fry cook. The chefs find it a challenge, even a struggle. Those diner cooks don't make a lot of money, but they're really skilled at what they do. And even a well-trained chef would affirm that scrambling an egg perfectly is not a no-brainer.
That's a pretty good premise. We used to go to a diner when we were students. The grill was right in front of the counter, so you could watch the cook work.
DeleteRaber loves the cooking shows, especially when the Gramma from Lydia's Italy is on.
I only like them because then stuff like this is funny: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tebBj42fC3k
Mitch made a lot of bad choices.
Jean, that video was great!
DeleteSometimes I go to Rudy's Tavern in East Stroudsburg. I know that when I finish their Cajun chicken sandwich and two Yuengling lagers, I am guaranteed to be happy and content for the rest of the night. Even if there's a dozen Trumpers at the bar, I'm lefty enough to cancel them all out.
ReplyDeleteThe nearest Whole Foods market is 32 minutes and 25 miles from me. There is a Cracker Barrel 16 minutes and 15 miles from me. I have never been in either. I have never been in in a Whole Foods market anywhere. I was in a Cracker Barrel restaurant many decades ago when I did a lot of interstate driving.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, I have never eaten out very much since I keep to a low sodium diet. I did buy some restaurant gift cards when I still visited my aunt in Pennsylvania. She was getting to the stage when cooking was difficult. I would bring some cooked food and we would go out for dinner sometimes because she liked to get out of the house.
When I met Betty about four years ago, I still had some of the eating out gift cards left since I no longer went back to Pa. They became useful during the dating phase of our relationship. We were both surprised that we could even find enough on the menus to eat since Betty has even more restrictive diet needs to me. I got use to her list of questions for the chef. I guess they are legally responsible for knowing what is in their food.
When I began inviting Betty to my house, I also reorganized my kitchen so she could easily find things. My mother had always complained about how difficult it was to find things. That kitchen organization event hugely impressed Betty and her daughter.
Turned out that Betty is a good cook and I like her vegetarian cooking as well as mine or any restaurant food. She volunteer to cook meat for me, but I elected to continue my very efficient cooking (often in the crock pot) and freezing meals for myself. Betty also likes to make large batches of vegetarian food; I have become very creative at combining her leftovers and my food in various ways.