Wednesday, April 29, 2009

GASTRONOMIC GROTESQUERIE

Steve H. Graham, the twisted genius behind Hog on Ice Tools of Renewal and Manly Grub, shares with me an appreciation for fine, albeit calorific, food. Our motto might well be “Nothing exceeds like excess.”

It’s the kind of thinking that impelled me to create a menu for the infamous House of Meat... as well as an advertisement for it. And it’s the kind of thinking that led Steve to write a cookbook: the aptly entitled Eat What You Want and Die Like a Man.

But this... this is Too Much.

The difference between the Gastronomic Grotesquerie of This is why you’re fat and, say, Steve’s Calorific Cookbook? The first is a collection of extremely fattening, horrible-looking dishes cobbled together mainly for the amusement and/or shock value; the second, a collection of recipes for dishes that (albeit packed with Food Energy) you actually would want to eat.

F’rinstance: Ya gotta admire someone who can come up with something called the Cornhole. Corn on the cob wrapped in hickory bacon with two hot dogs and two Colby-Jack cheese sticks wrapped in ground beef. Holy Fuckamoley. But there’s no way I’d ever actually eat that. Or even consider eating that.

On the other hand, Steve’s book has a recipe for a chicken-fried ribeye steak served on a giant biscuit. I’d eat that in a New York minute... and wear it on my ass for the next ten years. And it’d be worth it.

Update: Like to order a Hindenburger? More Big Food below the fold.

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