Delectable Tidbits

I’ve stayed silent for weeks on this subject but writing about what makes you really sad is a good way to work through your emotions. Seven decades was not enough. This publication, so dear to me, was a chameleon, changing with the eras it spanned but always remaining relevant. It could have gone on indefinitely. Gourmet, I will miss you so much!

I began subscribing to Gourmet in the early 1990’s. The magazine was so vibrant. Unlike anything I had ever seen. So beautiful and it opened up worlds to me that I never knew existed. I knew how to cook, but the caliber of the recipes taught me how to cook well. The pictures were ethereal and unworldly. The articles traveled to faraway places I could only dream of seeing. The voices of writers like Laurie Colwin, Gerald Asher and Fred Ferretti were so real it was like having friends tell you stories about their adventures. Through them, I would eventually find my own voice too.

I do have to admit to falling briefly out of love with the publication when Ruth Reichl took over the helm as editor. Gone were my favorite writers in favor of essays by strangers. She extricated the lush travel articles heavy on ethnic food recipes in favor of writing that was more introverted and experiential about food itself. She started adding more and more writing and less and less recipes even taking away a well loved feature called the last word (which caused such an uproar that she had to add it back). There were growing pains during this time. Who doesn’t resist change and we readers were used to what we knew. However, as we put our trust in Ms. Reichl, the magazine changed and became stronger. Which is why the decision Condé Nast made so suddenly last month to abruptly halt publication on the magazine was such a shock.

Gourmet will be gone after the November issue and we could have a consolation prize in it’s stead. Subscribers were offered Bon Appétit.  Bon Appétit:  a magazine I cancelled for $1 an issue, a magazine I cancelled after receiving it free for a year. I apologize in advance for saying rotten things about a magazine that is probably someone’s favorite magazine, but whereas Gourmet had pictures of food that made you hungry, Bon Appétit has pictures of overcooked food that looks like someone dropped the casserole dish before it was photographed. Very hipster. To me, the writing isn’t much better. The recipes? Fat and sugar do not always create a recipe with depth of character. I prefer much more subtle flavors. I declined taking this magazine as a substitution. It could hardly replace a publication I couldn’t wait to read cover to cover each month.

Why did I wait so long to vent my frustration in a public forum? Being a romantic, I thought there would be an uproar. I really did. I thought that legions of Gourmet subscribers would rise up in anger and save the magazine from extinction. As I peruse the odes to Gourmet on other blogs, I detect an apathy instead. Some people hate to see it go, some people don’t really care. Some people thought the magazine was a dinosaur, espousing a lifestyle too rich for the normal person to live and recipes too complicated to cook at home. But in argument: That was the point! We could travel without leaving the house. We could eat like kings without dropping a paycheck at a restaurant! But there you have it. Nobody is going to rise up and revolt. Nobody is angry. Nobody is sad. We have too many other problems in the world. Things are so generally bad that caring about the end of something iconic is trivial.

In my own revolutionary little way, I told the girl on the phone at Gourmet how much I loved the magazine and informed her that if it had survived I would have subscribed for life. I would have kept sending a gift subscription to my best friend for life.  I was so fervent with my words that the girl on the phone thought I was a nutcase and politely said she duly noted my comment. That was how I championed my favorite magazine as it faded away.

On an ugly fire scented day with ash raining from the sky, I went to Trader Joes in search of pizza ingredients. Not wanting to be outside for long while the fifth fire in three years rages north of us in wine country I hurriedly sought out the items on my list. I thought it would be nice to make a Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza as well as the usual veggie pizza we have grown to love.

Trader Joes used to sell canned pineapple. It was really good. Open the can and there were large pristine chunks of pineapple that looked fresh enough to have just been cut from a ripe fruit, floating in natural pineapple juice which was a delight to strain from the fruit and drink on its own as a treat. I went to the canned fruit section to find out it is no longer available. Oh no! Trader Joes is one of those companies that makes deals for the best price and products tend to come and go. My favorite pineapple is a go. It’s happened before and it has come back, but right now, it’s a goner.

I remembered seeing pineapple elsewhere in the store. I went searching and came across three different kinds: A fresh whole pineapple, fresh slices in the cold case and frozen chunks. I have to admit, faced with the lack of what I expected and so many choices I was frozen with indecision. The whole pineapple was from Mexico. Not a long shipping distance. It was the most expensive choice at $3.99 and would likely cause huge amounts of leftovers that I may forget to eat. It would be the most labor intensive choice adding extra work to an already complicated cooking chore. The slices were from the Philippines. They were the next expensive choice at $3.29. Unfortunately, they looked as if they had been delivered on a slow boat from the Philippines. They were browned and soggy looking. The frozen chunks of mystery origin were cheap at $1.59. They looked good and I could use what I need and keep the rest frozen. My main worry was that frozen fruit would weep too much liquid and end up making my pizza soggy. I stood still frozen in indecision. What was wrong with me?

In the book Affluenza, I learned that the typical grocery store now contains over 30,000 items. The book quoted psychologist Barry Schwartz who in his book Paradox of Choice says that having so many choices causes us stress and unhappiness. Having so many choices can leave us feeling that we have made the wrong choice. Was that what was happening to me? Was I being overwhelmed by too many options? Was I worried that having to use a different product than what I expected to use would cause problems?

When I stopped to think about it, all three choices were just pineapple. The only thing distinguishing them were convenience, freshness and place of origin. It was a choice. A simple choice, right? I bought the whole pineapple. It was beautiful to look at. I know it will be fresh and handled in a clean environment. I will be able to cut the fruit to order for pizza and other uses. In the long run, the fresh fruit gave me more choices, but they are my choices, which makes me happy.