According to GQ food critic Alan Richman, who skewered the city’s famous food in the November issue. Read it — and seeth — by clicking to this link.
Then, read Times-Picayune’s Brett Anderson’s brilliant response on this link.
I’m declaring Anderson the winner of this debate. What do you say? (Talk about kicking your sweet grandmother when she’s down!!)
People were sure fired up about it when I was down there this weekend.
Hurricane Katrina
Responses to “New Orleans sucks”
November 20th, 2006 at 10:37 am
I’ve only read the first 2 paragraphs of the N.O. basher’s article and already I’m thinking: who the HECK let this guy write about food? I can respect someone who takes what will almost certainly be an unpopular opinion and defends it, but gracious sakes, that man needs to find a spark of compassion along with some part of his soul that remembers what it’s like to have fun. YUCK.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:47 am
Well, it’s nice to know that because he had a few meals he didn’t enjoy we’re somehow wasting money with rebuilding NO.
Alan, why didn’t you tell us sooner since you’re opinion is oh-so-important?
He comes across as a pompous git - a veritable food snob with no appreciation for working-class cuisine - he focuses so much on “fine dining”. And, in my opinion, people who look down their noses at the hearty, flavorful fare outside the haute cuisine bubble have no business writing about food.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
As the counterpoint suggests, the column isn’t really about the recovery of cuisine in New Orleans after Katrina. It seems more to be a piece on how much he dislikes (and looks down on) New Orleans, and any mention of food is used more to take shots at the city and culture than to support his supposed premise. Very poorly done and a disappointing read. Brett Anderson does a nice job of dissecting the piece without stooping to attacking the writer.
November 20th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Richman’s response to the response
http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/gqeditors/food_and_wine/index.html
November 21st, 2006 at 1:54 am
Alan Richman needs a life. I don’t know what he was expecting to find in New Orleans. I have to be amused and irate (being from N. O.) all at the same time. If he thinks the food sucks so badly there, and can’t conjure anything but condescension for the locals, why go? Hey, Alan! The food is distinctive in New Orleans precisely because the people there celebrate food. They are still celebrating it despite the fact that thousands of them are still in FEMA trailers. Richman had a derisive comment about trailers, too. Yo! Dude! Do you think folks are in them voluntarily??? I was there six weeks after Katrina, and while many shelves in the grocery stores were bare, they had plenty of fresh French bread. Priorities!! Let’s not even let this guy get off the plane in Memphis. No telling what he might come out with on the subject of barbecue!
November 21st, 2006 at 9:40 am
Bravo to Brett Anderson! I AM a foodie, & proud of it. And I AM offended by the sorry Alan Richman critique of New Orleans food, all eight bazillion words of it. HOW DARE HE! I don’t know what a wad his shorts must have been in when he wrote that mess, but he needs to be banished to his snooty corner of the world forevermore. His picture should be posted at every airport in the country. When someone spots his sorry mug, he should be escorted back onto the nearest plane from whence he came. Memphis BBQ is WAY outta his so-called expertise.
November 21st, 2006 at 4:45 pm
On the bright side, Richman may have done the city a service if his article convinces other sneering, pompous windbags not to visit and work themselves into a lather at the indignity of residents placing a higher priority on, say, housing and feeding refugees than on ensuring that they’re pampered with the correct vintage of wine.
December 2nd, 2006 at 11:52 am
You know, as a native New Orleanian, an enthusiastic home cook and food lover, and someone who has visited New Orleans and my family there three dozen times or more over the past twenty years–including this past April, after Katrina–I have to largely agree with Mr. Richman’s assessment. The food in New Orleans restaurants has been coasting on its reputation for a long while now. Although one can certainly get good food in any number of restaurants, one can also get a lot of bad or simply ordinary food. I have always found most of the po’boys disappointing, especially the seafood ones, which never seem to have enough seafood and enough flavor. Exception: The debris sandwich at Mother’s is heavenly. At Dookie Chase, I ordered paneed veal; the veal was good, but there was nothing else on the plate except a red, canned sliced apple, the round slices with the hole in the middle. (But the egglant and shrimp farci was wonderful.) At Brennan’s my appetizer and my entree were garnished with a steamed broccoli floret: simply unforgivable, and borderline criminal at the prices Brennan’s charges. I’ve had numerous versions of red beans and rice that seemed hastily concocted, because the texture was thin, and not cooked for three or four hours, which breaks down the beans and gives the dish that essential gravy-like texture. And although I like the muffulattas, the meats have never tasted no better than decent pre-packaged cold cuts. There is one New Orleans specialty, however, that I’ve never had a disappointing experience with: the snow ball. I hope we save the city for snow balls alone.
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