Tuesday, August 02, 2005

BRAISED AND CONFUSED (or, too much wine in the braised broccoli I just made?)


Mark Bittman throws down


So, I was reading my brother's blog, haverchuk.blogspot.com, and I came across a very provocative statement. I could look it up and quote it verbatim, but where would the sloth be in that? Anyways, my brother was describing braising something, and said that he had conclusively decided that he was throwing down the gauntlet re: the Bitman vs. Batali braising debate (to brown or not to brown).

Whoa!

So I googled "Batali Bittman braising debate" and came up with only one match, something called "e-gullet." What in Sam Hill is that? Some folks were talking about a Mark Bitman article from the New York Times about braising in a slow cooker, but no details.

Mark Bitman is the "Minimalist" who writes for the NY Times. Sometimes he talks about food on NPR and comes across as something of an enfant terrible. Or eminence grise. I really don't know French. He said that green peppers suck, and that 24 hour marinades are for patsies. Holla!

Mario Batali is the highly eloquent and impassioned ambassador of Italian cuisine on the Food Network. He kicks serious booty in the Iron Chef America cook-offs.

It just seems weird to me that Bitman would ever be righter about something than Batali. Does that make me a monster?


so there

4 comments:

femme feral said...

I'd like to note that THE BROWNINGS, as in Elizabeth Barret and Robert, are NOT a waste of time.

femme feral said...

And I do agree with Bittman about the peppers.

rockslinga said...

i agree with everything in this post! and i love the "holla!" juxtaposed with "patsies". SB rocks!

Crystal said...

I am SO not a gourmand, but I got my Marie Claire in the mail yesterday and they have this pullout special about a Wine, Chocolate and Cheese Diet, so I'm gonna attempt to eat like the French for a while. The recipes they included are supposed to simple, hopefully no "braising" will be involved, whatever that means.