Forlorn Appetit

This post is very late... but I received my first copy of Bon Appetit, which was to replace the remainder of my subscription to Gourmet. The little card accompanying this magazine assured me that though Gourmet might be missed, I would love Bon Appetit. They couldn't have been more wrong. I felt that this magazine was geared toward people who don't like to read, as hardly any of the pieces were more than a page. And they used the tiniest ugliest little font for their body text, further discouraging those of us who do like to read. Which could be possibly be forgiven if the photos and recipes were much to look at... but in this case, they weren't. It seemed like all of the art was taken in this sort of movie-theater-lighting, all dark, dramatic and starkly spotlit. Completely unappetizing. My huz enjoyed an article about Sriracha... the rooster-adorned hot sauce that has sat on tables in Argyle restaurants for decades. It did have some interesting information about the owner and the sauce's comparison to authentic srirachas in Vietnam, but I felt like the tone of the article made it sound like the writer thought he was so cutting edge to be discussing the Sriracha craze, which isn't new at all. The writer also used a friend's opinion as his sole bit of information backing his ending conclusion that American Sriracha was just like authentic Vietnamese sriracha sauces. So, lazy journalism to boot. Nothing like the great long-form pieces in Gourmet.

Mostly I'm bent out of shape because Gourmet ended in Novemeber, one month shy of their Christmas cookie issue and Bon Appetit delivered January's issue.