Why Ridicule Risotto?
Michelle Obama made headlines last week by using those famously toned arms of hers to sling some mushroom risotto, steamed broccoli and fruit salad at Miriam's Kitchen, a D.C.non-profit that serves homemade meals to 4,000 homeless people a year made with fresh local and organic foods instead of processed or canned foods, as the New York Times reported.
Obama told the press who gathered to watch the First Lady ladle:
And my understanding is that this facility is able to provide that kind of meal for about $1.50. And that's an incredible thing to remember: that we can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across this country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand. (hat tip: Obama Foodorama)
Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? Everybody knows that our reliance on cheap processed foods is causing all kinds of diseases that disproportionately affect poor folks who can't afford pricey produce. Hey, even George Will--who still can't wrap his head around the fact that greenhouse gases are cooking our collective goose--has suddenly gotten the Gospel According to Pollan and connected the dots between our dumbass agricultural policies and fat-assed populace.
Other conservative commentators were, however, deeply disturbed by the whole event. An AP photo which showed a man using his cell phone camera to document the historic occasion of his being served by Michelle Obama sparked a tizzy in the wingnutosphere, which took offense at the idea that an individual affluent enough to afford a cell phone should be receiving free meals at a soup kitchen. Wonkette dished up a taste of these brain-dead tirades, including one from Kathy Shaidle, a blogger whose curdled rantings suggest she's learned at the fetid feet of Limbaugh. She begins by expressing that holier-than-thou-but-not-so-Christian contempt for the poor that is the hallmark of a certain kind of conservative:
I prefer to call them "the broke."
A lot of (really naive) people are wondering (or pretending to wonder, when they're in public) how this "homeless" guy could "afford" a cellphone:
It would be better phrased: why is a guy with a cellphone homeless? Because then the question answers itself.
He spends all his (our) money on cellphones and, most likely, tattoos and drugs and booze and other crap, and has no money left for a home and food. And why should he bother? We pay for his shelter and food anyhow.
She goes on to validate my theory that wingnuts see wholesome foods as part of a vast left wing conspiracy:
To which Salon's Alex Koppelman responded:
This, in turn, elicited the following response from Shaidle:
I'd rather be right than "nice" and "polite" -- and so would any intelligent adult who values the truth.
I'm betting Alex Koppelman is a grown man who still rides a bicycle. By choice. On the sidewalk.
This all seems like a trivial bloggy brouhaha, but it's indicative of a knee-jerk conservative mentality that feels compelled to malign liberals as broccoli-eating, bicycle-riding degenerates.
It may not be a deliberate, coordinated campaign; then again, maybe it is. Why is it that when progressives talk about the benefits our country could reap from say, investing in mass transit, or overhauling our school lunch program so that it might actually nourish our kids instead of poison them, too many folks on the right start to spew the kind of rancid rhetoric I've quoted here?
When did such wholesome and innocent things like riding a bike or liking vegetables turn into symbols of liberal decadence? Then again, take a look at the de facto head of the Republican Party, a man who evidently hasn't been on a bike or eaten a bite of fresh produce in decades. The Obamas, with their in-your-face fit physiques and ostentatiously heathy eating habits, must drive him crazy. Deepak Chopra rightly declares Limbaugh a symbol of anti-morality and offers an astute analysis of Limbaugh's appeal to his followers before concluding:
Maybe Limbaugh will suffer a heart attack and have an epiphany that healthy foods and exercise are not, in fact, subversive liberal causes to be derided. Or maybe he'll just suffer a heart attack and die, like poor Tim Russert. That may be the only way we'll ever get Limbaugh to go organic, is when he dies and rots--from radio host to compost.
Michelle Obama serves lunch at soup kitchen - Giving- msnbc.com
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Oh, gawd, I love risotto! Homeless people deserve a treat and it is much better for them than cheap wine or whatever.
The explosion in the homeless population started in 1980. Research why and I pray that we end this. Okay, I know we always had a certain small population of hobo's but never the legions and legions we have today.
I volunteer at my county's food pantry. Almost everyone has a cellphone because they are less expensive than the hard-wired landline phones. Also, almost none of the people we serve at the pantry are literally homeless. They are, however, unemployed or, quite often, underemployed (income less than 125% of the federal poverty level). I'd like to see more rice (not the tasteless white stuff) available, but a variety of dried beans are always on hand--it's nice to hear the recipes that clients have come up with...I'l
Bloggers who refer to people at a homeless shelter as lowclass losers are really classy. Helping out at a homeless shelter is obviously as foreign to her as fresh risotto with mushrooms. I've never heard of Kathy Shaidle before today but probably because she doesn't seem like a person worth knowing. She sounds exactly like one of the bitter pajama wearing bloggers writing from a hole somewhere while eating god knows what that Palin warned us all about.
Long live broccoli-eating, bicycle-riding degenerates!
They shall inherit the earth from those who can't move from being sedentary and clogging their arteries and colons with bad food.
They will outwit these naysayers with clearer minds because they eat nutritious foods and exercise as a part of their lifestyles.
They will outwork and outlive those who've somehow been sold on the belief that up is down, right is wrong and wholesome is corrupt.
It's remarkable that it boils down to the simple truths of life.
There are simple morals to all of this: Eat your veggies, do "real" work (regularly) and be generous/not selfish.
I love risotto!
I suspect that anyone who derides the stuff must consider deep-fat-fried greasy hamburgers the healthiest diet of all. Of course, trusting Rush Limbaugh for health advice would be like consulting Charles Manson about mental sanity.
Granted conservatives like to mock any food that sounds fancy, but I personally cannot stand risotto. It isn't just rice, it is more like oatmeal. I know that just about every great Chef loves it and I have tried it in some really good restaurants and it always tastes mushy to me. You are right, it is rice, a rice that gets mushy and maybe the reason why it hasn't been taken up by the population is because it is mushy rice. No reason to mock it but no reason to love it either.
It is interesting to look into the conservative mind and see what they mock.They are like a primitive tribe who is afraid of any outsider. The thing is they are proud of this, where I would be ashamed not to try new things.
Mushy rice??
Risotto should be served al dente, meaning that it should require a little tooth in eating it. And the proper rice to use is arborio rice which has a high starch content giving it a smooth mouth feel.
Sounds like your so-called really good restaurant is either overcooking the rice or using regular white rice instead of arborio.
By the way, I learned to cook risotto in my Italian immgrant grandmother's kitchen; a little veggie, a little meat, some mushrooms into the risotto; a quicj full meal for a struggling working class immigrant family.
No really, I have gone to some exceptional restaurants. That starchiness is nasty. Like I said it is like eating oatmeal, and that to me is just nasty. So is cream of wheat, grits, and polenta. It is that horrible texture in your mouth. And I haven't eaten red meat in 30 years. To each his own.
You had me until the last paragraph. I agree with your whole piece and love how you've laid out the back and forth of the right wingnuts. Even though I may not agree with Rush Limbaugh's policy prescriptions and I may resent his disproportionate influence over our political discourse, I would never wish him dead nor hyperventilate about how he should die. It's an unseemly notion and if it's meant as a joke, it ain't funny.
How many of you who are defending Michelle Obama for serving risotto to the homeless jumped all over Heather Mills when she served vegan food to the homeless in the Bronx? Go back and read the posts for that article. Seems to me that it's not the food, but who's serving it!
I wasn't around for that one, but if there's one thing I know about hypocrisy, it's that it's pandemic.
Except when I'm doing it.
Yes, there's a grain of truth to what you say. Heather Mills is no Michelle Obama.
The ugly truth of American politics is that the rabid right is not trying to have an honest discussion concerning any issues.
I believe it is entirely honest to characterise the rabid right as thoroughly enmeshed in their tactics of using the Big Lie to win elections. The trouble with their tactic is that they have repeatedly used it over the past two decades, to the point now that it has become their over-riding strategic impetus. They are no longer a party with principles, but rather they are now a party with a message - and that message is whatever seems to be convenient for the latest news cycle.
The attacks about risotto serve only as an illustration of the GOP's lack of principle.
Obviously Shaidle doesn't know the difference between an Apple iPhone and a Tracphone.
Having a cheap pay as you go cellphone is essential for any "broke" person trying to get employed. Because if you don't have a phone number for them to contact you after that job interview, you don't get a job. The phone may even have been provided by a shelter or agency specifically so that person could get a job. Isn't that what all Republicans want; the poor ignorant sweaty masses employed and feeding the tax coffers so they can shovel their pork?
I notice when Shaidle's ignorance was pointed out (it's rice cooked in chicken broth with vegetables) there is the inevitable and predictable name calling. No need to confirm that Shaidle is a Republican. Duh.
Maybe Shaidle's just angry the menu wasn't a slab of BGH meat with a side of Monsanto GMO greens.
Shaidle's a Canadian living in a ritzy high-rise condo. Go figure.
Actually I went to cooking school and most of the food we made was donated to a Chicago food bank. Risotto is a perfect choice for such a program- it is composed mainly of rice, which is both inexpensive and filling. If its made with brown rice or barley or some other grain, its even healthier than when made with the traditional arborio rice. It is usually cooked in olive oil, which is healthy. It can be made with whatever you have on hand as far as stock, vegetables, meats, etc - perfect for a soup kitchen who might not know from day to day what foods they will be donated. It will keep well if there is any leftover and can be reheated or even frozen- but I doubt there was any leftover. It is not an 'elitist' food in any way! just because its a soup kitchen, should people have to eat processed slop that is nutritionally unhealthy and emotionally unsatisfying?? I guess some Right-wingers do think that, shame on them!
Some of the Red Teamers might think that yes, the poor deserve poor food, unless they're willing to work for better chow. It's a spiteful line of thinking (albeit one that stems from the belief that reward should be proportionate to contribution, which is not itself ignoble) that paints the unfortunate with very, very broad strokes of judgment.
However, far more likely still is that their thinking stopped with the soup's name. Risotto. Just like arugula. It sounds foreign. It sounds fancy. It sounds snobby, highly cultured, elitist. In their minds, the 'rich white liberals' cooking that day had the gall to dine the poor on Italian cuisine.
Only as you said and as I previously mentioned, this is just ordinary grain soup. It's another land's Scotch broth, another way of saying 'Campbell's long grained rice and vegetable soup' without the Campbell's in front of it. It's not fancy at all - though it is very tasty - but thanks to its name it's nothing but Preppy Chow.
What's next, a Red Team tirade about instant noodles and dehydrated broth? Whoops, my mistake, I meant Japanese style ramen and bouillon cubes.
For all their bible thumping their ignorance is astounding. Even Pharoah learned that well fed slaves built pyramids, starving slaves worked poorly and dead slaves didn't work at all.
For years I worked for a food bank near Seattle. We often had people who had never needed food assistance before but because of some catastrophe, now needed help. People, who after being laid off lost their homes and went from high to low within a couple of months, would come in looking shocked, embarrassed but also grateful.
This woman, Kathy Shaidle, has no idea what life is like for so many people now that are hanging on by a thread. If she spent one day in the shoes of a woman her age, suddenly unemployed, debt-ridden, perhaps living in her car with her children she might see things differently. I always knew as I handed loaves of bread to people on the other side of the counter, that it was just a twist of fate that I was handing them food and not the other way around. Ms. Shaidle might consider volunteering to see for herself who comes in for a free meal.
In whatever bizarre world the Red Team lives in, one's misfortunes are always their own doing, and acts of charity are a sin unless they provide a direct and strictly monetary benefit to the charitable. So saith Rand.
Meanwhile, here in reality we're aware of the real scope of cause and effect in society, that we aren't alone in the world, and that not all rewards for our deeds are monetary or even tangible, nor are they expected to be.
Particularly destitute homeless people, particularly those with serious mental problems, are often given cheap cell phones by case workers so that they can keep track of them and check up on them.
Remember George Bush Sr hated broccoli..
By God, it really is brain food!
There's something to tell the kids. Eat your vegetables, or you'll turn into a Bush.
LOL! I'll remember that when I have children..
There will be more and more homeless and/or hungry people showing up in soup kitchens for meals that were once white collar workers who lost their jobs and homes...an
The homeless/hungry person in the soup kitchen that someone judges may be the critic's former neighbor, fireman, co-worker or even boss.
Welcome to the new America.
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