Playing right into the stereotype of New Yorkers as a two-part mixture of lazy smugness and profound ignorance of anything past New Jersey, New York magazine just named the Spam Museum in Austin as Minnesota’s “top foodie destination.” No link. If you want to reward them with Web traffic, it’s on your head.
I Hate New York (Magazine)
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This has to be tongue-in-cheek, right? NYMag is pretty with it. Tried to find the item, but haven’t been able to.
Well, it’s tongue in cheek in the same way it’d be tongue in cheek if we made reasonable recommendations for good places to eat in 49 states and then said that while in New York, you should eat at TGI Friday’s in Times Square.
Is that funny, or is it a disservice to your readers? I’d vote for the latter.
(The feature, incidentally, is here: http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/05/51_foodie_destinations.html#photo=1×00072)
“We don’t want to demean all of the great food that Minnesota offers, but we can’t help ourselves here: It’s a Spam museum! Okay, you may not have the soft spot for tinned meat that we do, but we’ll still make the case that it’s worth a trek halfway across the Upper Midwest to see where most of the Spam in the world is made.”
Yes, I’m sure the notoriously cool-kid Grubstreet just looooves Spam. Fess up, Grubstreet–which writer got dumped by a gal from Edina or something?
As a Minnesotan who once lived in NYC, I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is not a snub. How is the SPAM museum NOT the state’s (and perhaps the country’s) top foodie destination? It’s totally cool and interesting to have a museum for a food, especially canned, spiced ham! Seriously!
Taking this as an insult is like taking SPAM t-shirts as an insult. It’s an homage if I’ve ever seen one.
Jennifer, with all due respect and as a former New Yorker myself, that’s an absurd assertion — food museums are about as cool and interesting as giant balls of twine, which is to say, fine for a road trip but an acknowledgment that no actual culture exists that merits visiting.
If you want to stereotype Minnesota as the home of campy hokey food, the State Fair is about 150 times more interesting and destination-worthy than the SPAM museum (and even features a heavy SPAM presence, to boot.)
Putting that aside: the idea that all Minnesota has to offer is highly processed industrial food is something that most of us collectively got past about 5-10 years ago. From the brewing at places like Surly, Summit, and Lift Bridge to the cheese caves of Faribault to the smoked fish of the North Shore to the St. Paul Farmer’s market and eateries like Heartland, Haute Dish, and In Season… well, I don’t know. It’s sort of absurd that in 2011 I even have to make the argument that Minnesota has legitimately excellent food.
Could be worse. Could be Kool-Aid Days in Hastings, Nebraska.
Aww, it’s true. Before I moved here from NYC, I thought MN was east of WI (???)
It is also sad that they chose the Spam Museum when, in my opinion, there is so much more ethically produced food in Minnesota than “Spam.” Hormel has been the focus of labor issues and possibly mistreatment of workers. Take this recent investigative article, for example, which brings the reader to Austin–and asserts that the Spam museum is just sanitized history–in contrast to the “speed-ups” that are going on, on the factory line there.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/hormel-spam-pig-brains-disease
I call it unbelievably lazy. You know what the best restaurant in New York is? The Empire State Building!
Come on, First thought, best thought. It worked for the SAT, dammit.