Matthew Yglesias: Red and Blue

Red and Blue

The cupboard (or, rather, the refrigerator) was looking pretty bare tonight in the Yglesias-Capps household, so we had to go foraging amidst the canned and dry goods of the cabinet. Kriston, born and raised in Red America, came up with an ersatz casserole of pasta, tuna fish, and cheddar cheese. Yours truly, of Greenwich Village, New York and previously the author of the most blue state sentence ever ("Then it was out for a little Indian food, and back home to watch academy screeners," according to P.B. Almeida) went for couscous and lentils.

January 10, 2005 | Permalink

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» Bluer than You from digamma.net - notes
Hey, remember that time Matthew Yglesias claimed ownership of the most blue-state sentence ever? Well, I'm about to blow it away. And I assure you, this is true: On my way out of the theater after the new Almodóvar film today, I overheard Terry Gro... [Read More]

Tracked on Jan 22, 2005 10:55:39 PM

Comments

Well, waddayaknow... after reading the Blue State Sentence the first time, I had Matt pegged as a Tandoori man.

Posted by: Paul Callahan | Jan 10, 2005 8:23:26 PM

Mmm. Cous-cous and lentils. As far as I can tell there aren't any Trader Joe's in DC, but their Tagine Simmer sauce is a good thing to keep stocked in blue state cabinets. Proves you aren't entirely against Red Food, so to speak.

Posted by: Saheli | Jan 10, 2005 8:30:24 PM

I got my couscous from the Trader Joe's in Bethesda. My Christmas dinner, unless I'm mistaken, was khaday masala ka gosht.

Posted by: Matthew Yglesias | Jan 10, 2005 8:40:07 PM

Thanks so much Saheli! Firefox at last. The clarity is much improved.

Posted by: lise | Jan 10, 2005 8:47:52 PM

So is pasta officially an All-American food now ? Everything that was once new and strange eventually becomes mainstream. Surely couscous can't be far behind . . . .

Posted by: emma | Jan 10, 2005 8:53:03 PM

"Kriston, born and raised in Red America, came up with an ersatz casserole of pasta, tuna fish, and cheddar cheese."

Hopefully it was Creamettes and tuna packed in water.

Posted by: Petey | Jan 10, 2005 9:26:14 PM

I'd go with the couscous and lentils.

Posted by: sofia | Jan 10, 2005 9:30:00 PM

I'll brandish my Red American bona fides and vote in favor of Capp's tuna casserole, but only if there's a sufficient amount ketchup in the frig.

Posted by: fnook | Jan 10, 2005 9:54:02 PM

Supposedly there will be a Trader Joe's in the old Columbia Hospital for Women bldg, in a year or so, at 25th and L. Then, whenever I am buying my snowpeas, I can say, "my son was born right here in the frozen food section."

Posted by: Sam Heldman | Jan 10, 2005 9:56:19 PM

I love pasta, but hate tuna fish and only cheddar cheese served cold, melted cheese is gross except on pizza. So I guess I would have gone with the raw pasta (I only add spices) and couscous.

Posted by: Mimiru | Jan 10, 2005 10:03:31 PM

Pasta not a red-state food? Ever hear of Mac and Cheese? Add some canned tuna and its casserole time.

Posted by: modus potus | Jan 10, 2005 11:28:13 PM

What kind of cheddar cheese do you keep in your canned and dry goods cupboard? Or did you raid a cheese packed from a mac and cheese box? I've had mac and cheese where I prepared as directed and just added tuna- is that all you're talking about?

Posted by: SP | Jan 10, 2005 11:47:00 PM

So is pasta officially an All-American food now ? Everything that was once new and strange eventually becomes mainstream.

Wow, it amazes me that anyone could even think Pasta isn't all American. I mean, isn't spaghetti sauce out of a jar and pasta the dinner party menu of choice for young college students from sea to shining sea?

I am reminded of my all too brief visit to DC this spring, when I had dinner with a friend and his mother in Alexandria. (They are part Scottish.) We went to an absolutely charming Scottish restaurant, complete with Tartan tablecloths and an elderly, thickly accented Scottish waiter in a kilt. My friend's mother expressed interest in some curried apricot chicken with saffron, to which my friend said, "Wait a minute, that doesn't sound very Scottish!" We brought this up with the waiter who was absolutely indignant at our question.
[insert Scottish accent here]"Of course it's Scottish! Scots started solidering in India in the 1700s, and they brought back saffron. We've been eating curry for centuries!" [/end Scottish accent.]

The man had a point.

Posted by: Saheli | Jan 11, 2005 12:36:04 AM

Hey, is 'Boxing Day' official americanese now? As a Canadian I've never called it anything else but I'm starting to notice it on American blogs and media more and more. Is it a blue-state thing?

Posted by: cynical joe | Jan 11, 2005 2:52:04 AM

So, what's the deal with lentils - do you have to soak them first or not? I feel like I've heard conflicting things about this.

Posted by: The Navigator | Jan 11, 2005 9:32:34 AM

Ah, tuna-mac with ketchup; One of my favorite meals as a student! With peas added, it was a complete one dish meal...

Posted by: Brett Bellmore | Jan 11, 2005 10:12:48 AM

"Kriston, born and raised in Red America, came up with an ersatz casserole of pasta, tuna fish, and cheddar cheese."

With crushed potato chips on top? Or crushed Ritz (tm) Crackers?

Add a few cans of Tab (tm) and a Twinkie (tm) and you can actually FEEL your skin get whiter.

Posted by: fasteddie | Jan 11, 2005 10:14:34 AM

I hope it was good couscous. I ordered a rack of lamb dish not long ago with couscous and got these shiny balls of pasta three times the size of any couscous I'd ever seen before. Chalk that one up to ordering North African ingredients in Colorado.

Posted by: Publius Rex | Jan 11, 2005 11:47:01 AM

Pasta not a red-state food? Ever hear of Mac and Cheese? Add some canned tuna and its casserole time.

Add some bread crumbs and tomato slices and call it a meal.

Posted by: Adrock | Jan 11, 2005 12:11:22 PM

Tuna casserole without Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup?

Communists!

Posted by: Thlayli | Jan 11, 2005 12:18:20 PM

No, tuna-mac is just mac and cheese with tuna fish and ketchup added; (Peas, too, for the gormet version.) It's not a tuna casserole. Which, ideally, is supposed to be made with cream of mushroom soup and stale potato chips as a filler...

Posted by: Brett Bellmore | Jan 11, 2005 12:41:14 PM

The other thing about that picture is, in keeping with your last, you get a sense that Matt is simply short - when supposedly he's a tall guy. Maybe it's simply a big head thing happening? (Figuratively, literally, psychologically, and of course intellectual-talent wise.)

When I first saw this picture, I thought Matt was auditioning for an extra as one of the comp guys on the series 24, but that's probably because I really liked the opening episode of 24.

Hey, since I only saw season 1, not 2 or 3, did his daughter die in one of those two seasons? She was one of the things I looked forward to seeing in the show...

Posted by: JC | Jan 11, 2005 1:02:14 PM

One note on how "all-American" foods have changed: My father remembers that during the late 40's, when he was a teenager, he made a special trip with some friends to the North Beach (Italian) neighborhood of San Francisco to check out an exotic ethnic food they'd never had before: pizza.

Americans are particularly good at taking ethnic foods and remaking them to our own tastes, but food traditions are a lot more fluid than people realize. Consider how quickly the potato became a staple in Europe, for example. Consider that the tomato (which of course originated in the New World) wasn't used much in Italian cooking until about 1700.

Posted by: janet | Jan 11, 2005 2:48:50 PM

Tuna fish casserole? You poor boy. Give me a ring and I'll buy you a nice steak sandwich for lunch.

Posted by: Max | Jan 11, 2005 9:23:08 PM

I have been looking for the Creamettes, tun fish, cream of muchroom soup, and potato chip recipe. It used to be either on the Creamettes box, or the cream of mushroom soup can. Can you help me with this. Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Gerry | Jan 26, 2005 3:46:19 PM