Best Food Writing: February 2009

National/International

Is Food the New Sex?
Mary Eberstadt — Policy Review
God I wish I had written this article. Anyone who even casually writes about food should aspire to this level of incisiveness. Even that august sage George F. Will was impressed. A must read.

Is Foie Gras Torture?
Sarah DiGregorio — The Village Voice
A reasonable and measured investigation of the production of foie gras. In the case it is certainly no worse, and possibly better, than most industrial meat and poultry production.

Rock Star, Meet Teetotaler
Sacha Z. Scoblic — The New York Times
Amazing the amount of high-quality "food" writing that comes out of The New York Times' Proof blog about alcohol and American life.

Houston Local

Depart From Me! I Never Knew You, Eaters of Bacon
Katharine Shilcutt — Eating...Our Words blog at Houstonpress.com
Why did Joel Osteen choose to preach about food? No, it's not about the Bible. Just read Is Food the New Sex? article above.

The Iceman Cometh and Eateth Hamburgers and Proclaimeth
Epicurus — Food In Houston blog
Nice post here about a food blogger getting back into the swing of things, including a multi-paragraph rant about portobello 'shrooms at a burger joint. Or were those creminis?

Sticking it to the French
Misha — tasty bits blog
Our friend Misha debunks the claim that French food is "all that" by proclaiming that the food at a humble Houston taco truck trumps the cuisine of a hauty French brasserie.

If you know of any sources of great food writing, post a comment and let me know. It can be national, international, or local. I'd really like to find individualistic food blogs that reflect the personality and experiences of the blog writer.