There’s another tome on Mark Bittman’s already sagging shelf: The inevitably titled How to Cook Everything Vegetarian landed this week in bookstores, which somehow made room for it amongst the other Bittman cookbooks.
In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Bittman notes that Japan has the best vegetarian cooking, western Europe has the worst (“I think it’s largely because wealthier countries have the most meat”), and that vegetarianism generally is ascendant:
I still consider myself an omnivore, but when I look at what I cook for myself, I hardly use meat and fish anymore. And with all the environmental and agricultural changes, meat is going to be scarcer; there’s already less fish. So I think more people are going to eat this way in the future.
He also says that he’s revising How to Cook Everything for its 10th anniversary next year.
PETA posted a link to the interview on its blog, and the comments section reads like a PETA parody. “Poodle” complains about the Amazon link (“I thought I just recieved [sic] an action call advising to boycott amazon because they sell books and magazines on cockfighting….”); “observer” says Bittman is insufficiently pure (“good thing this guy recognized that vegetarians are on the rise, but he recognized $$$$$$ for himself with another book. he still eats meat!!!”); “Anonymous” makes an obscene remark about Bittman and a cucumber; before finally “Geoff” shows up and tells everyone, thankfully, to stop gnawing on their bitter melons: “It’s a blog post about a vegetarian cookbook, for Christ’s sake. But you people always find some way to bring it back to the negative.”
Bittman is a moron… I guess nobody ever explained to him that Japan has a higher Per Capita GDP than most Western European nations?
Eat_Nopal, the current GDP charts I’ve found place Japan slightly lower than most Western European nations. I wouldn’t call him a “moron,” but his statement does seem reductive, because he’s clearly ignoring natural resources, cultural differences, land area, climate, etc., all of which affect what food sources are most common in a certain region.
I’m a vegetarian, but I still think PETA is already a parody of itself.
also europe has a gigantic vegetarian foods-based tradition thanks to traditional peasant culture in which meat was eaten 2-3 times/year. among aristocratic households, historically, there is the christian observation of lent/ friday/sabbath, using veg meals heavily; all the various european monastic traditions (mostly veg/monastary-garden-based, very delicious and traditional–from the middle ages). . . lots of specifically veg european food to be had for all religious observances and due to people’s economic circumstances. saying that europe has “the worst” veg food seems to ignore a great bulk of traditional recipes, implying that bittman hasn’t done some basic homework.
I live in Tokyo, and vegetables are prepared one way here: BOILED.
yes, this was a stupid thing to say – the Japanese eat tons of fish (more than any other nation), which, last I checked, aren’t vegetarian foodstuffs. And who said Western countries have the worst vegetable/vegetarian dishes? Based on what? Maybe England, but not the other countries – there’s plenty of diversity with the cooking methods and ingredients, even with only vegetable dishes.
also, I forgot to mention that I bought his “how to cook everything” book and regret it – sure it’s a big book, but it doesn’t convey any real, detailed information- it’s trite, he tries to fit information on too many things into too little a space and ends up giving no information
HOLDUP!!! bittman has and will continue to do very good and inspiring work, he has helped many people to feel comfertable in the kitchen and also feel good about the food and the people they eat with every day. i read his column every wed, in the NY times and have purchased all of his books, reading them as information sources and also using many of his recipes. other people have published veg books that are very narrow in focus. there are some very unhappy people reading these pages, i think they shoud just try to become more comfortable with them selfs and their food.