Food

Ron Swanson on Bacon, More Eleven Madison Park, and Deep-Fried Everything

Our tasty roundup of the best stuff we’re reading this week.

You might want to take it easy on these. Photograph courtesy of Flickr user mrdestructicity.

Ripped from the Headlines: 

A looks at what happened to Big Apple Pizza’s Yelp profile after the photo of the spot’s Republican owner, Scott Van Duzer, bear-hugging Obama went viral. [NPR] —Tanya Pai

The Fat Chronicles:

A warning against rising American softness and obesity—by John F. Kennedy. [Sports Illustrated] —Todd Kliman

The Texas State Fair proves you can deep-fry anything, from lattes to Jelly Bellys. Here’s a history in pictures. [The Atlantic] —Ann Limpert

So there are 1,090 calories in the McDonald’s Big Breakfast With Hotcakes. [Well+Being] —Jessica Voelker

Famous People and Their Food:

The devil takes her yellow raisins in a plastic container. [Tumblr] —TK

Paris Review looks at power-lunching through the ages. [Paris Review] —TK

Almost as good as Tom Haverford on apps and ’zerts: this remix of Ron Swanson’s bacon rhapsodies. [Vulture] —AL

Gross-Outs and Health Scares:

If you want to know why English food is so generally bad, this piece by the novelist Will Self is a good place to start. You’ll learn all about “pea wet” and the “tightly coiled nubbin of greyish meat” known as meat pie. It’s absolutely, positively unappetizing—though a fun and energetically written read. That’s the English for you: great on the page, iffy in the kitchen. [New Statesman] —TK

Repeat after me: “Can I get that without ricotta salata?” [Gawker] —JV

The Week in Fancy Restaurant Fetishizing:

They keep coming: another fascinating article about Eleven Madison Park. [New Yorker]—JV

Feedback:

With “The Only Recipe for Ice Cubes You’ll Ever Need,” Jeffrey Bloomer finds a bright spot in the “endless slog” of comments on recipe sites—and I find new faith in users of the Internet. [Slate] —TP

Stuff That’s Actually Useful:

I’m chronically undercaffeinated, so this infographic of all the different ways to make a cup of coffee made me deeply happy. [Pop Chart Lab] —TP

An ode to the ingredient I probably use more than any other. [Slate] —AL

Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.