Street Food of Hui Chinese Muslims...in the Tribune!?

I think it's worth calling attention to this series of articles beginning today in the Tribune, titled Spice of life: Getting to know the Hui Chinese Muslims, one dish at a time.

This first installment is good, not great...it seems vaguely R.W. Apple-esque, and I don't know why they couldn't have done the whole series in one day and put it in the Food section, instead of Tempo.

The epiphany described in this quote seems illustrative of why the Trib's Food section is so weak (the author, Michael Lev, is a foreign correspondent rather than food writer): "If there is not already a recognized field of anthropology in which you study a people through its food, I propose it now."

Still, I find the piece encouraging and look forward to the remainder of the series.

(Registration is required, the article is free for seven days.)

Cheers,

Aaron

I haven't read the article yet, but Lev loses points with me on that quote... nutritional anthropologists have been around for a long time, and Alton Brown even has a couple making regular appearances on Good Eats. Nitpicks aside, thanks for the link, Aaron -- I'll read it at lunchtime, as long as it doesn't end up being about eating ants or anything gross like that...

(And it's offtopic for the thread, but I disagree that the Trib's food section is weak. The few hundred of us that hang out here can't be a target demographic for the newspaper. In a service section like that, it first has to focus on the tens of thousands who want practical information. It can't be compared to the NYT's section; chances are good that the NYT's food section's ad hole is bigger than the Trib's entire food section, and the NYT's advertisers are paying a premium to reach a national audience. I'm not saying Good Eating or whatever it's called can't be better, by any stretch, but I think once you remove the NYT from the equation, the Trib does a pretty typical job.)

Aaron,

Great article, thanks for pointing it out. If not for the kindly folks at LTH, I would miss all of the 'needle-in-a-haystack' articles on food in the Tribune.

Quote:
"If there is not already a recognized field of anthropology in which you study a people through its food, I propose it now."


I also thought Mr. Lev's quote quite interesting.perhaps he simply does not have access to the internet.

Not only is there a recognized field of Food Anthropology, but they have an
International Commission

The general aims of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food (ICAF) are to promote and coordinate collaboration and research in biological and social anthropology in regard to the sciences of food and nutrition, fostering in particular a pluridisciplinary approach.

With an academic journal
Welcome to AOF, the webjournal dedicated to the Sociology and Anthropology of food. AOF is a bilingual academic journal in French and English. It aims to publish results of latest research in Sociology and Anthropology of Food. AOF is a refereed journal.

- with an opportunity to expand in the U.S.
- The situation in North America needs to be clarified as there exist other very active associations with whom individuals have useful contact.

...of course if you had internet access you could also join a
Food Anthropology internet chat group

Food has always assumed a role in anthropological studies. It is only recently however that it has emerged from the peripheries of academic inquiry to assume a more central position within the discipline. As early as the 1900s, anthropological writings briefly mentioned food within the context of a culture's diet.

- and, finally, find all sorts of links to Food Anthropology on the internet.

Now I have to stop doing Mr. Lev and the Tribune's jobs and get back to my own.

pd

Bob,

You cut the Tribune way to much slack. They are the largest paper in the Midwest, where a significant amount of North America's food is still produced. They should not be let off the hook for doing a typical job.

Actually, today's cultural food article was pretty good, but strictly speaking it wasn't a food article, it was agriculture: Goats.

They had a big article on a PA livestock market serving the NE, especially NYC with goat, most of which are ranched in TX and other southern states, but is growing around the country.

Good article about food writing here
http://www.ctnow.com/features/lifestyle ... 1154.story

interestingly enough, citing Tribune reporter Waverly Root as one of the first news writers to start writing about food.

Bob S. wrote:I disagree that the Trib's food section is weak. The few hundred of us that hang out here can't be a target demographic for the newspaper.

I suppose if you take "weak" to mean markedly worse than the vast majority of Food sections in American newspapers, you're probably right. I just think the average is poor, and I mean more in terms of its journalistic ambition than its ability to reach its goals.

The Tribune, at least on the editorial side, takes pride in its role as a publice servant and its responsibility to its readership. I understand there is a large audience with varied needs and desires, but a good newspaper pushes and raises peoples expectations rather than panders to them.

With the Food section, what's missing is exactly what the quote I cited from Lev indicates--an understanding of the cultural significance and educative possibilities of food. Sure, people here are more attuned to that than lots of others, but I don't see why that has to be the case. As pdaane points out, there are occasional needle-in-the-haystack pieces, like the goat article that JoelF pointed out, or a pretty good piece on dairy farming a few weeks back.

But there's no unity of thought governing the placement of the articles--a front page feature, a Tempo series, a centerspread in Food. I think the Trib Food section could have a more ambitious vision and still have mass appeal. Heck, they could do more in-depth reporting and still give out recipes, forks, and press releases like they do now. It's all a matter of resources and priorities. I find it hard to believe the Trib couldn't find the resources if it was a priority.

In fairness, there have been a few main Food section pieces over the past couple months that I think have hit a bit of a higher standard. The World Eats column continues to interest me. I like reading Phil Vettel well enough, even though he's not my first source for restaurant info, and I can accept the need for his sort of restaurant reviews. And I think Bill Daley's wine column is a nice addition, and--though Al Ehrhardt disagrees with me and knows a heck of a lot more about wine than I do--I think he does a nice job of including some interesting, a bit more out-of-the-mainstream choices along with the occasional Sutter Homes tastings. (I do think the columns come off graphically as sort of a remedial wine course, unfortunately.) Anyway, that's my two cents.

Oh, and as for the street food series I was looking forward to reading, it appears I was wrong in expecting the whole series to have a food orientation. Today's installment about Tibetan monks doesn't continue the theme. Darn.

Cheers,

Aaron

pdaane wrote:Bob,

You cut the Tribune way to much slack. They are the largest paper in the Midwest, where a significant amount of North America's food is still produced. They should not be let off the hook for doing a typical job.

Possibly, but I think it's also unfair to push it to be Saveur, which is really where I'd expect a great article like Lev's. (Thanks much for the pointer, Aaron.) Largely, I agree with Aaron's post immediately above -- but I've been in service journalism 20 years and have a sense of the difficulties of stretching a budget. Keep in mind, that section has to pay not only for itself but also for a share of the rest of the paper (just as your billable hours need to pay for yourself and the firm's infrastructure), and it attracts amazingly little advertising. And as someone who's seen the monthly magazine I work on fall from a regular 72 to 80 pages to 40 to 48 in two years despite boom times in the industry we cover, I can't even assume the ambition isn't there in Good Eating; having watched a number of our own plans fall to the wayside recently, I know it takes a lot of dead presidents to give you the optimism you need to have ambition.

Again, I don't mean to defend the Trib as an entity, or drag the thread too far off-topic, but a quick shot of perspective might be useful. After that, this side of the thread might better be discussed over a table or bar somewhere.

Bob,

I appreciate the perspective. You may well be right that the dollars just aren't there to support the ambition. I don't know which is worse--for the newspaper staff not to care enough to push their readership or for the readers and advertisers to refuse to support a higher level of journalism. I still believe and hope that someone with a strong vision and sense of purpose can alter the course a bit.

Cheers,

Aaron

Oh, incidentally, I did notice this passage:

Then it was back to business: lamb shish kebab seasoned with cumin; Tibetan barley soup; and round bread painted with a red pepper-oil sauce and then toasted over the open grill. Served chopped into pieces, it was uniquely crusty and piquant. Call it Qinghai pizza, named after this sprawling Western province.

So apparently the custom of cutting pizza into squares rather than slices is not strictly a Midwesternism.

Bob,

First, the punctuation in the subject line indicates that a discussion of the Tribune's content is very much on topic. I also enjoy debating the Tribune's ability/desire to improve content.

Second, your pessimistic view of the print media industry is hardly an acceptable argument for low quality content. In your argument, the Tribune cannot afford to increase the quality of content without additional advertising revenue. However, one would have to believe that ad revenues follow readers, not content. Readers will follow content. Therefore, better content begets better revenue.

I won't attempt to dupe the good folks of LTH with such simplistic economic arguments. The fact is the Tribune Company (which also owns the Cubs) knows that you don't need to spend a great deal of money on players when you have butts in the seats. In fact, at those dollars, I assume they have at least a few economists on staff figuring out where those breakeven points are likely to appear (statistically). Do they do the same with the Good Eating Section of their flagship paper?

I am also aware that the Tribune Company is a diversified media company, perhaps their better content is going to greater revenue generating or more profitable distribution channels.

Bob, you are absolutely correct when you say the Tribune should not be considered out of their class. However, I think for a paper the size of the Tribune, they should certainly be a leader rather than an 'also ran' in food section content.

That said, I don't know if there has been an editorial shift in the Good Eating content, but I have noticed some additional quality content of late. I hope their content continues to improve. I'm just happy to have more content from other sources to choose.

Read the article from the Hartford Courant that Ann Fisher linked to in her post. The article provides a comprehensive discussion of the evolving economic evolution of food writing. A quintessential quote:

With food a growing national obsession - for reasons of sustenance, pleasure and health - Severson represents a continuing revolution in food reporting: Food sections, once pink-collar ghettos of wash-day recipe swaps, grocery coupons and "women's news," are becoming showplaces for some of the news business' best writers.

I guess the question then remains, do you wish to throw your hard earned dollars toward the pink-collar ghetto end of the spectrum or the showplace for the news business' best writers?

pd

p.s.

but a good newspaper pushes and raises peoples expectations rather than panders to them

Excellent point!!

I agree with everything you say, Peter, in principle, and I'm glad your optimism's here to balance my pessimism. I don't have any inside info on the Trib's financial structure, but if they're like other papers I've worked for, every department has its own budget; I notice Lev is a foreign correspondent, so his writing for Tempo is probably initiating a shuffle of funds, at least on paper. The proper comparison isn't how Good Eating compares to other papers' food sections; it's how it compares to the Trib's other service journalism sections. ("Service journalism," in case I've left any speck of doubt anywhere, is a euphemism for "advertising-driven.") Sections with much bigger ad holes and thus much bigger budgets, such as the automotive and real estate sections, are much fluffier. But, while they're pouring money into the Trib's coffers, that doesn't mean other departments can say, "Hey, you aren't using that, right? I'll just take this little pile here."

Anyway, my argument boils down to the fact that good writers cost money, and while I agree that good writing's popped up more frequently in Good Eating in the last few months, I can't imagine the food section's editor can afford to splurge too often. Regularly getting good writers involves spending money, enjoying loyalty, or finding promising newcomers (and the second premise there relies heavily on the third).

Now, one of the best ways in publishing to attract new ad dollars is to revamp the section, which involves many months of beancounters, editors, and designers trying to figure out how to make more money by doing something that's the same but different, so to speak, while the ad sales people tout the latest mockups to potential clients and promise enhanced exposure to them for the first few months of the new product. We've done it here at the magazine, and it worked great for a few months; then our ad sales leveled off again and then, well, dropped. More power to the Trib if they do that, but unless and until they do, at best we'll continue to see the incremental improvements we've been seeing. (And today's article on the Web-driven vegan meetups is something I'd put in that category, if humbler than a piece on the dietary habits of a small clan of people half a world away.)

Bob,


The questions of optimism and pessimism aside, we are both consumers in a capitalist society and the Tribune is a producer. For you to say that advertising dollars are not available to provide better content is simply not true.

There are plenty of Dollars, they are just going into other people's pockets. What I refuse adopt is a passive consumer attitude. It is the producer's "job" to put capital at risk to increase profit. How the Tribune does that (where the break even point between investment/profit lies), we both agree we don't have a clue.

However, I think it is also our "job" as consumers to let them know what we want. That means comparing it to an alternative choice, like NYT Dining IN/OUT or Saveur. [I believe the original point in this beating-a-dead-horse discussion, was that the Tribune should strive to have a food section more like NYT than Poahdunk Press, but you thought it not proper to compare the Tribune to NYT.]

BTW, great article by Bill Daly (an LTH Member ) on Santa Barbara pinot noirs in the Good Eating section today. He used a current film as a vehicle for a discussion of an oft-overlooked California winegrowing region. It had currency and clean writing and it was news dang it, not just a recitation of facts from a wine-clopedia.

Perhaps they are listening to us

As for me, I may consider voting some dollars their way if they continue the trend toward news and away from the pink-collar ghetto.

pd

Well, my other point is that there's a few hundred of us here on the forum who wonder what a group of people we've never heard of before, 10,000 miles away, have for street food options, and there's some tens of thousands who wonder what's on sale so they can figure out what's for dinner next week and are there any affordable little options so it doesn't look and taste just like it did the last few weeks. I mean, we are a self-selected elite here and there's no reason for us not to enjoy a little hubris, but if you're talking about the Trib following the money, we're the flea on the 500-lb. gorilla.