My Defense of the "Anti-Foodie" Foodie Scene

I recently read NY Mag's feature on foodie-ism as youth culture which profiled Diane Chang who I guess is supposed to be a big NYC food blogger (never heard of her before the article), but I found the article interesting--and the comments even more--because to a large degree my life in NYC is also consumed by good eating and drinking. Really, food has been a huge part of my life as a kid growing up in a Chinese household with a dad who's a professional chef and mom and grandma who kicks ass at cooking amazing dinners night after night. Now, I just pay other people to feed me.

Before you label me as a "foodie", here are somethings I'd like to clarify:

I don't shop.

In my 2.5 years in NYC, I've never stepped in a sample sale or bought anything from Gilt. I have forgone the common 'shopping' addiction to afford the ability to enjoy a nice meal here and there. Basically, I've replaced purses with pretzels (the one at Radegast is so good!).

I do not check-in or write reviews.

My shitty smartphone never seems to know where I am, and so I do not check-in on foursquare or facebook. Even if I did have an iPhone, I probably wouldn't. I've also never written a review on Yelp.

I like drinking too.

So much emphasis is put on "food", what about drinks? I like bar-exploring as much as I like eating and get excited when a bar has 8+ beers on tap, none of which are light domestics; however, my amateur wine knowledge makes me an instant foodie fail.

Often times, I eat like a poor intern.

$5 pulled pork sliders from Fetta Sau's after hours menu, $7 chicken and rice combination plate, $3 Oasis falafel sandwich, $3 cheese corn from Union Pool, $8 chicken liver bacon sandwich from Post Office, $7 chicken chop from Saint's Alps... I'm not ashamed to order from the McDonald's dollar menu and have yet to step foot in a Jean-Georges establishment. I have an appreciation for high-brow food but for the most part consume mid-to-low. My advertising job really doesn't support a $300 Per Se tasting menu habit. 

I sometimes take pictures. 

Especially when I slave away in my kitchen. I like to remember my culinary accomplishments.

I'm lucky my friends have the same appreciation I do for good food. I'm even luckier that we're not the "foodie" snobs people seem to stereotype that all they do is restaurant name drop, take pictures of everything we eat and can only talk about food. My friends and I don't talk about food when we're at restaurants... we're too busy eating.

Magazines, A Girl's Best Friend

Every boyfriend should know the best way to pacify their girlfriend is to give her a stack of magazines, particularly Fashion magazines. THAT should keep her busy for a few hours. Well, what do you know, I came home tonight to a 6-inch stack of September issues of Vanity Fair, Lucky, Entertainment Weekly, Nylon, Fast Company, NY Mag, People Style Watch and Cosmopolitan, which definitely shut me up for more than a few hours.

Although I'm a sucker for magazines, the only time I buy them is when I'm at an airport waiting for a layover flight, but when I see them in doctor's offices, laying on people's coffee tables or in the cashier aisle at Duane Reade, I can't help but pick it up and flip through it like a kid on candy withdraw. Flipping page by page, my eyes scan the ads, pictures, spreads for "things". These "things",  I now realize are the "cool beautiful things I want".

I might be part of the small percentage of females that don't online shop, ever. I'm not on Gilt or Banana or Zappos. I do not do the online shopping. So today when I felt the familiar urge to want something new and beautiful, it felt exciting. As a teenager I would clip out my favorite fashion spreads or dresses or jewelry out of magazines and make collages. I know there's digital versions of that like Polyvore and Tumblr--digital versions of collecting images that inspire you--but it just doesn't feel the same, feels almost forgetful or lost with the billions of images stored in the cloud. Which is why I still keep a sketchbook overflowed with clippings, stickers, cards, etc. next to my bed. 

With the increasing reliance on your Facebook and Twitter "anchoring" communities to feed you content--the content often feels repetitive and old. I admit that it felt refreshing to read features in Fast Company about David Lauren, neuromarketing and China's high school system. These are topics I probably wouldn't have otherwise stumbled upon online (unless I followed @FastCompany, which I do now). My point is, I respect publications that make an effort to curate good stories, topics and photo spreads, and there is magic left in print after all.

The Mad Marketing of Mad Men

Give it to a show about advertising to be really good at it. Mad Men's Season Three premiere push is going all out with outdoor posters, behind-the-scenes video hosted on the AMC site, MadMenYourself personalized 60's illustration in downloadable icon, fb photo or wallpaper form, Banana Republic partnership and casting call--and now, a full-fledged events calendar for the week of the premiere!

Events include:

• a Video installation about 1960s Advertising at the MAD (Museum of Art and Design)
• 'Drink like a MadMan' specials at different bars in Manhattan
• a Screening Event for the Season Three Premiere where attendees must be decked out in their 'swankiest sixties' attire

This campaign just makes SENSE in every sponsorship, partnership and media channel choice. THANK YOU MAD MEN MARKETERS FOR GETTING IT RIGHT. I've been trying to find out who's responsible for this brilliance, whether it's AMC or an agency. If you know who it is, let me know, so I can write them a love letter.

I Love New York (Magazine)

I spent Spring Break in the one city I can't seem to get my mind off: New York.  I also somehow broke my 'not-spending money' streak by purchasing New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine and Tucker Max's I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (I won't bother talking about this douche bag) at Virgin in Union Square.

I was first drawn to buy the book because of how much I like New York magazine.  It was this summer at Digitas New York that I was introduced to the culturally rich and intelligently written New York.  They cover everything I like: fashion, art, gossip; and cover things I don't really care about in a manner that I will like it: politics.  

As a media intern, I was fortunate enough to meet with nymag.com's General Manager Michael Silberman and Online Account Director Jock Agorastos.  They were very personable gentlemen in pretty suits.

I started reading New York Stories and realized my admiration for the magazine is even more than I knew.  New York founder Clay Felker seemed to have led an amazing, influential life, and Tom Wolfe's Foreword and the book's introduction seem to strike a cord with how I felt about the city and journalism:

• "...Felker had the insight one afternoon that The New Yorker is 'so...BORING!'" (p.xxxv)
• "...a Missouri boy's [Felker] wide-eyed obsession with New York as the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the capital of the world... the radiant City of Ambition." (p.xxix)
• "Personality was central to his understanding of the world--personality and conflict were, for him, the two essential ingredients of great journalism." (p.xxxv-xxxvi)