Rants

Two More Food Writers Say ENOUGH WITH CUPCAKES AND BACON

Our worst nightmare.
Our worst nightmare. Photo: LittleMissCupcakeParis’s Flickr

It was two years ago that we announced bacon had jumped the shark, and four months ago that we pointed out “has bacon jumped the shark?” stories had also jumped the shark, but Details publishes yet another one this month, in which Ben Leventhal asks “Has Bacon Mania Gone Too Far?” Well, duh. The subtitle reads: “The only bad thing about the pork product is the cult of assholes who’ve made it their god,” and just in case you’re one of those assholes, Details has put together a slideshow of bacon kitsch for you! It’s safe to say the media still has a conflicted relationship with bacon: At least the Onion A.V. Club’s epic tasting of several bacon products (everything from toothpicks to gumballs) was accompanied by a promise to not write about it for a while.

But what about that other tired meme, cupcakes? If bacon is a way to “validate your manhood,” as Details puts it, cupcakes have a “stereotypically feminine appeal,” as the Voice’s blogger Sarah DiGregorio points out in a piece in which she laments that “cupcake fanatics — an entirely different breed from casual enjoyers — continue in their over-sugared ways.” Though Grub Street has been fighting this fight for a good year now, DiGregorio does her best to succeed where we’ve obviously failed by quoting a baker who thinks the cake quality of cupcakes is inferior to that of cakes, and a psychologist who all but says that cupcake loons are spoiled brats. But somehow we don’t see it ending here.

Two More Food Writers Say ENOUGH WITH CUPCAKES AND BACON