NO MORE DINING AND WINE

I think it's about time to bid adieu to the insipid, incestuous, and innocuous Dining and Wine section of the New York Times. What may have at one time been a valuable resource for those curious about the culinary styles of America's Greatest City's haute cuisine has become a self-glorification engine, catering (pardon the pun) to "liberal" "foodies" who are most likely wealthy enough to participate in every aspect of this truffle-oil soaked rag.
First, you have articles about "food in America today" that are either by Micheal Pollan or make no shame in quoting Michael Pollan every third paragraph and of course noting that he is a "frequent contributor to the New York Times." For NYT readers, these articles allow them a sigh of relief for not being poor and assuredly that strange moral comfort from simply being "aware" of the plight of the poor. So people get sad for a little while and think really hard about going to Dean & Deluca or 69th street farmer's market or whatever. For about an hour.
Then of course the wonderful, quirky, instructional cooking on NYT, now supplemented by Jill Santopietro and her "tiny (!!!!!!!)" New York City apartment. Is the size of her MANHATTAN apartment supposed to garnish (pardon the pun) sympathy from us folks elsewhere with huge kitchens that cost about 1/8th as much as it does to live on the lower east side? Fuck that! And this chick sounds like she's a 4th grader doing a book report on the first edition of The Joy of Cooking: (in monotone) "In this weeks New York Times Magazine Christie Melkie....In this Article....It's a braised chicken dish...it's adapted from..." Followed by the classic out of touch NYT pitfall: "The key is good ingredients." More patting on the back for the rich at their dinner parties.
Then of course there's Frank Bruni, who I'm sure is only writing for the Bridge and Tunnelers who eat Chic-Fil-A all week to save up to head into the big city and eat and tell their friends in the country all about it. If that doesn't kick you in the balls for being poor enough you can move on to the wine articles, and finally the occassional article about food regulation from the gov't. Yipee!
My advice is to stick to Chopped & Stewed, and otherwise just do the best you can within your budget. Try to cook as often as you can, and when you go out to eat, drop some cash but make sure it's on something you couldn't make for yourself. Good Luck!