As most of you know, my “real job” is as a food writer in Jacksonville, Florida. A large part of that job is staying on top of restaurant openings and closings, food trends and the latest Martha Stewart/Rachel Ray outrages. I spend a good deal of my time reading food magazines and blogs. As I was on the treadmill reading the “Best New Chefs 2009” edition of Food & Wine magazine (Please hold your ironic guffaws), I read this little gem:
Naomi Pomeroy, chef, Beast restaurant in Portland, Oregon says,
"Favorite Cheap Eat:
Portland’s Pho Oregon. 'I eat pho [Vietnamese soup] twice a week. I don’t eat the meat in it. I need to know the meat I eat is sustainably raised, and at $5 a bowl, I doubt it.'"
I’ll let that sink in for a minute while you go fetch a bamboo skewer to ram into your ear until all the pretty little lights go out.
WHAT THE HELL?!?
Let me get this straight… you BUY the meat in the pho. You’ll EAT the pho. But, you’ll WASTE THE MEAT because it “isn’t sustainable”?!?
Let me tell you what’s unsustainable, Chef Pomeroy – Pampered yuppie fools who have the poor judgment to not only cheapen the life of the animal that gave its life to float in your bowl of Vietnamese soup but then sanctimoniously brag about it while being honored as an innovative chef!
If you have a problem with an ingredient, by all means, vote with your pocketbook. But, don’t waste food because your precious body is too delicate in its sensibilities to poo out anything less than grass-fed, massaged, milk-bathed and thrice-daily masturbated Wagyu beef.
I am not one of those people who have a problem with vegans, vegetarians, fruitarians, free-range boinkers, apple humpers or lamb huggers. I don’t eat certain foods for my own ethical reasons – but to premeditate ordering the food and then leave it floating in the bowl? That’s just wrong.
If you’re going to kill an animal, at least have the good sense to honor it by appreciating the sacrifice it made. I’m not naïve. I have no problem with the fact that sometimes food just doesn’t get eaten. But, this precious attitude about, “Look how ethical I am by refusing to put something questionable in my body!” is silly. Maybe Chef Pomeroy should make her OWN pho at her OWN restaurant using meat which meets her criteria?
Chef Pomeroy is undoubtedly an outstanding chef. I think the rise of women in the culinary world is the best thing to happen to food in the past century. I am the biggest cheerleader for female chefs I can possibly be, but I have a serious problem with this attitude being held up as a positive role model for other chefs and home cooks. Shame on her and shame on Food & Wine for perpetrating this crime against food.
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Ryan Soberg
Colony of Losers
astrid.in.lala.land
franishnonspeaker
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vanessa seijo
Salon.com
Comments
~Tony Bourdain - Master of the Universe
I'm so glad you don't have a problem with us free range boinkers...
Yes, this is infuriating. But when you write,"but to premeditate ordering the food and then leave it floating in the bowl? That’s just wrong" I felt accused, because you know, I leave food floating in the bowl pretty much every day. I hope that's OK. Otherwise I'd explode.
Lonnie - Free-range boinking is a specialty of mine, actually.
bbd - C'mon, man! I let you help! Keep your shit in Texas.
(That cartoon came from barry. Thank you!)
Mr. Mustard - Hee hee hee.
emma - That's my point, really. Most people do have food hang-ups, they just don't ORDER THAT FOOD.
Silkstone - I do want to be very clear - I don't have a problem with not finishing food. I have a problem with ordering something you know you aren't going to eat then using *sustainability* as the driving virtue.
Gwen G. - I don't know where I fall there. I don't think people should eat things they don't want to eat. But, I don't think they should order things they know they won't eat.
Michael - "Leftover ribs" - What is this you speak of?
That chef is definitely fucked-up. I assume a Vietnamese restaurant in Portland of all places would offer vegetarian Pho.
other than that bit o ignorance, I agree entirely, jodi
Deborah - I'm sure that people say things all the time that they don't think sound as dumb as they come out. Unfortunately, the sentiment behind it is as idiotic as the statement about it.
L&P - I really don't care if she eats the meat. I care that she's talking in a food magazine about sustainability then saying she wastes meat because it's not sustainable. (Again, WTF?)
Tom - That was a public service!
Travis - Thank you for the vote of confidence. I do wonder why she hasn't found somewhere that has what she's looking for - and also why doesn't she do it herself?
Brian - Pho is Vietnamese rice noodle soup. It has thinly sliced meat in it and then you add basil, peppers, lime, sprouts etc. to it to your own liking. It is tasty, tasty!
I have no problem asking a server to leave out something I'm not interested in eating. I mean, why waste?
Dumbass.
Oh, great post Jodi. Thumbed for happy snack. :-D
i bet she douches with granola and imported spring water (which is her second favorite "cheap eat").
grass-fed, massaged, milk-bathed and thrice-daily masturbated Wagyu beef.
oh, to be a cow...... Moo
rated - clicked - licked
Honestly, I can't disagree with a single thing in here. (Except maybe not having anything against vegans or vegetarians, but I'll rant about that in my own blog, so if you want to flame me, do it there.) One of the most profound moments I've had in my life was bringing home a couple of newly-dead still-warm roosters for a coq au vin. Okay, later we nicknamed them Curly and Moe, but it was profound as shit for like 15 minutes.
And when I start my food blog that I'm doing with some friends in a few weeks, will you stop by, even though it's very Chicago-centric? Even if just to mock us?
Bill - That reminds me... I am not responsible for any injuries sustained whilst mousing over the HappySnack photo.
Gothique - You know what I love about you? Subtlety.
Floyd - Of course I'll stop by! You're groovy! It says so right there in my tags!
Mumbletypeg - The sheer force of her ignorance pins them to the bowl.
Silkstone - Barry broke my poop joke bone while I was writing this. I blame him. ::wink::
Anthony Bourdain...oh, yes.
I've mentioned how much I hate Dana Cowin before in my blog.
hahahahahaha~
and I keep telling you I'm not sanctimonious, I'm just a bitch ... geeeez, you're hard headed!
angrymom - Usually I live in fear of someone being upset with me for my opinions - but this is horrific to me. Chefs have become role models in our society, like it or not. Claiming "sustainability" out of one side of your mouth, while spitting the food you've ordered out of the other, is WRONG.
Jon Henner - I haven't gone so far as to forward the link. I'm thinking about it, though.
1_I_M - Don't make me call se-CURITY!
c&v - I saw that you shrieked. Hot, no?
::Insert gratuitous bone joke here::
This is a grammar problem, not an ethics problem. I'd bet my house on it.
http://open.salon.com/blog/atlbch/2009/07/02/me_and_gordon_ramsey
The chef doesn't mention what meat she's not eating, but traditionally it is beef and the soup is made with beef stock. If it is chicken, seafood, tripe or organ meat (popular variations on the west coast) then it is probably (hopefully!) cooked in the soup before service.
I don't have any knowledge of how her restaurant of choice produces the soup, but it's a good bet it's beef-stock-based. The example she's setting may give people who don't know how their soup is produced the idea that not adding the meat at the end makes it a vegetarian/vegan or sustainable meal.
In the end, she's still giving her money twice per week to a business which does not meet her standards of sustainability. If I buy an SUV and let it sit in my driveway and rust, does that make me an environmentalist?
oh, Tony....
YES! YES! YES!
I'm sorry. Was somebody talking about meat soup?
If the meat sustains me, I'm good with it.
She's not a vegetarian, so if she does eat a few obvious small pieces of tripe I for one am not going to shame her. But are you saying she should be force fed the bigger pieces of beef that you can easily not put in.
But mostly I just want to make a really bad pun: Either way she's a PHO environmentalist, or this is a PHO problem.
[Cracking myself up. Sorry.]
I have refused to write articles or go to restaurants because of my personal tastes and ethics. I am not a rabid environmentalist, but I did turn down writing an article about a man here in Jacksonville who is a competitive eater. I thought it was in poor taste to cover a man eating 39 hot dogs in a sitting while almost 9% of the people in my state are classified as lacking proper nutrition due to poverty.
Politics and ethics aside, she is giving people the idea that if they don't eat the beef in pho, it is a non-beef meal.
I personally eat the heck out of beef. If I don't eat at a restaurant, it's more likely to be because I pay attention to the health inspector ratings and my friends' opinions. ::wink::
Jodi - This is priceless...both your post and all the comments! Most fun I've had on a Wed. afternoon in a long stretch.
Steve - I haven't had the pleasure. I'm more of a - "Hey, let's go check out that new restaurant and then blog about it!"- type of food writer. I am closing in on plans to sell one of my kidneys to fund a trip to Morimoto's in Boca, though. I'll keep you posted.
I'm not going to be able to answer any questions for a couple of hours. I have to see The Man about some barbequed chicken.
Party on.
Though I have to admit, I read her comment the way J.Waters did – she probably ordered the soup w/out the meat, but she either talked about it or was quoted in an unfortunate way.
Somebody should notify the Pho shop in question. Next time she goes there they can just serve her a can of chef-Boyardee spaghetti. Clearly she is too good for the lowly pho.
She's all incensed about the beef itself. But what of the cow or chicken that died for the broth? What about the cows she wears on her feet or around her waist? I have no problem with people wanting to make good choices with their food when they can. I have no problem with people who choose not to eat a certain kind of food on taste grounds, or health grounds.
But my problem with folks like this is that they want you to be upset on MORAL grounds. And the problem with that is that to be totally morally correct with your eating requires a level of consistency that pretty much sucks all the joy out of food and life generally and is quite frankly impossible. And with no realization of the innate irony of ordering beef pho and *not eating the beef,* to then proclaim that as a virtue of moral eating is just plain ignorant stupid.
I want my food to be about joy, about the fantastic, orgasmic pleasure of putting good things in your mouth and in your body and enjoying them with every sense possible. The splendor of the smell of real saffron. The visceral joy of pounding the crap outta a lobster shell to gain entry to the succulent meat inside. The wonder of a juicy ripe plum as the juice runs down your chin. The wondrous smooth texture of an avocado.
And the joy of food can celebrate sustainable food without turning it into some monastic ordeal of deprivation, by focusing on the sustainable choices instead of demonizing the non sustainable choices.
Pomeroy has chosen an inherently hypocritical and elitist path. She wants $5 beef pho, but only if she can have the satisfaction of demonizing the main ingredient for not being sustainable. Get over yourself lady, and either eat what you paid for or shut the fuck up.
Good post, Jodi.
However: eating animals does not honor them.
Would you call it an honorific if your *pet* was killed, skinned and cooked? Would it REALLY honor your dog or your cat - presumably a companion animal you shower with love and affection - if that animal was served to you on a plate and you ate her?
Of course it wouldn't.
I'm well aware that most persons will not go vegan today, tomorrow, or ever. But please: ideas matter. Eating animals *does not honor them.* Pretending that it does may be something humans need to tell themselves to try and dance around the ethics of *doing* it, but it's not "kind" or "honorable" to the animal to consume her flesh.
Ward - I don't have a problem with anyone's choice to eat or not eat meat. Whether or not we eat meat, if an animal is killed for the specific purpose of being food, I consider it to be a dishonor to the life of that animal to waste it (or any part of it). That is what honor means to me and that is how it is used in my opinions.
I do not need to personalize meat by attaching it to my pet for heartstring-pulling purposes. I spoke earlier (and vaguely) about my personal ethics, but let me now be crystal clear: I do not eat what I cannot look in the eye and kill myself. I was raised by women who taught me to kill and cook what I eat. My late father-in-law was a USDA meat and poultry inspector. I have absolutely no illusions about where my food comes from.
I stand by what I said. Wasting animals bred for food is dishonorable. Please don't confuse that with any stance on the eating of animals. If you find eating them to be dishonorable, that is a seperate personal issue that is not necessarily part of my life philosophy.
I'm doin' a li'l fist-pump for ya!
Chef Pomeroy is a jackass.
(But O'Really cracked me up. I'll certainly take some Bou-pho-to-go!)
Rrrrrrrrated!
I'm with Emma and with you; if you don't want something... don't order it.
Hey chef Pomeroy, Is Pho made with no other meat than beef? If so, order that, or start inventing a vegetarian version. Leave it floating in your bowl becase you're so "pure" is a waste, in more ways than one, you princess of pretentiousness. Take a look at the world and how other people eat. Your leavings would seem luxurious, to them.
ARRRG!
Yet, I agree. Cooking has been classified (and looked down upon) as "women's work" for milennia. It's about time women chefs earned some respect, recognition and high paying jobs doing it.
I'm aware that you may choose to see eating animals as a "personal choice," but it's not really about you. It's about the animals you're killing. I don't mean to be tedious and pedantic here, but like I said: ideas matter.
I'm not drawing a comparison to pets to try and draw on your heartstrings. The point is that we routinely do things to pigs, cows and chickens we'd never DREAM of doing to dogs or cats. This makes absolutely no sense. My aim here is just to get the people I can get to see to open their eyes and see. Given your reply, I'm confident that you, personally, are very likely completely unreachable.
But it's not really about you. There's more than just you and me reading this.
If I can get even ONE person to open their eyes and see, to really *see*, then it's worth it. I understand that it's not a popular idea, and like all unpopular or unusual ideas, it's easy to write it off as just the ranting of yet another moralizing vegan.
Most of the people reading this will only read that into it. I accept that.
But a few people won't.
I have a moral obligation to try and drag this culture, kicking and screaming, if need be, out of its selfishness and wanton sadism where its treatment of animals are concerned. Killing and eating animals is *optional.* It's completely optional. Causing optional suffering and death to sentient life - life that is not, in any meaningful way different from the pets we shower with affection - is not an honorable act. It will never - ever - be honorable. Merely calling it honorable does not make it so.
I know many people choose to see eating animals, and the ethics of eating animals as a "personal" choice. But it is not, in any way, *personal*. Lives are taken for no purpose other than satisfying our tastebuds. That's not a personal choice. It's not honorable.
Open your eyes. See. Really *see*.
I share your views. I think it's not possible for me to be a completely moral vegan. But I do make the choice most of the time. I have my compromises. But what's changed in my life is that it's an ongoing wish to live gratefully and not cause terror, pain, and suffering to beautiful creatures who are treated abomniably just to entertain my mouth.
I can find plenty of entertainment in nature's gifts without eating many animals. I feel more joy, not less...I'm among friends.
That's why I can't become a complete foodie. I feel more joy in life when I remain conscious of the wonder of the animal and its vulnerability. Love, not superiority, runs down my chin when I decide not to eat it.
I only do it about 85% right. It still has brought more peace, compassion and hope into my life.
I'm also not vegan for MY sake. I don't know if I'm more compassionate than anyone else - but probably not.
I'm vegan because I have the option of being vegan, and it's the right thing to do.
We don't need to kill animals for food. We simply choose to do it.
We can make a better choice.
Just stop. It's easy to do. Just stop.
I'll even be so kind as to leave a link here to Mr. Chanley's blog so that anyone interested in the topic can get further information straight from you.
I am certain that if I felt that eating meat was an equal problem to racism or sexism - as you do - I would be all heated up as well.
So... there's your link.
Let's have some respect for the PeopleAnimals too, shall we?
I twitterfied at them in gratitude.
I feel that I must add this too. Forgive me Jodi, I'm going to tick off some vegans and vegetarians now. Look inside your mouth, specifically your teeth. Notice that you have both cutting and tearing teeth as well as crushing and grinding teeth. Humans are omnivores. We were made to consume both meat and vegetables. The human body needs elements most easily obtained by a sensible diet consisting of both grains and meat. When deciding to become vegetarian or vegan, we spend considerable time finding processed foods to replace what ones diet lacks when not eating the foods that nature needs. I have no problem with those who choose to deny nature by adopting an alternative diet. Go for it, just don't lecture me about the poor cows and chickens that will live better lives since they aren't being eaten. That somehow by choosing to not eat meat makes you superior to others who do. I'll get off of my soapbox now and return you to Ms. Kastens blog.
I don't eat meat (other than fish and seafood). There are all sorts of reasons not to eat meat (or fish, or seafood) and all sorts of reasons to do so. If I order a dish and, unbeknownst to me, it arrives with meat in it, sometimes I'll eat the meat, sometimes I won't, and sometimes - if I believe I've been misled about the contents of the dish - I'll send it back. But knowingly ordering a dish that contains ingredients that you will not eat, and then wasting those ingredients, is simply nonsensical, and, I agree, morally questionable.
Great post Jodi - thank you. I love it when you write the pieces where your passion just leaps off the page/screen.
this is such a marie antoinette moment. the country is broke and unemployed, and she's throwing away food.
anyone who eats what they eat just because it is the 'right thing to do': PINHEAD.
Things that are important to me because of my chosen career are probably silly and mind-numbingly boring to others.
They can't all be "Pitbulls in Spamalot," eh?
And you are correctimundo--there is only one "Pitbulls in Spamalot"!
"Favorite cheap eat:
Pho Oregon. 'I eat pho twice a week. I just get beef broth with noodles. I don’t really like the meat that’s in pho—I need to know the meat I’m eating is sustainably raised, and at $5 for a bowl of pho, I kind of doubt it.'"
Excellent post.
~R
I did NOT misquote her. I may have misINTERPRETED her, which I talk about in the comments, but I certainly did not misquote her.