First Foodies Unmasked

Barack and Michelle are having that German couple, the Merkles, over for the State Dinner and  a little canasta. I reprint the menu that was reported today. I am not impressed. So the president caught the ramp bug, huh? Ramps, ramps they are everywhere. Foodies have single-handedly destroyed the world ramp population in the last year and they may never yet recover. 


But let's take a look. These Obamas are purportedly food people but being from Chicago, what good food could they have actually tried? This menu has all the imagination of the upscale menu at Cocos. This sure ain't the Kennedys, that is for darn sure.

White House Garden Chopped Salad

Fine Herbs
White House Honey Gastrique

Tuna Tartare with Rye Crisps
Pickled Young Carrots and Mustard Oil
Spring Pea Salad
Shaved Ham and Ginger Snaps

Petit Filet
With Maryland Crab Ravioli
Wild Ramp Puree

Apple Strudel
Golden Raisins and Tophen

Might not have been the smartest thing to start with a salad. Nobody in Germany has eaten a vegetable in the two weeks since the E.coli thing hit and now you are going to serve her a whole salad? A chopped salad and all the lovely veggies that came out of the White House garden, or so we are told. Farm to White House table. But the chopped salad thing is a bit over, what kind of herbs are we talking? Garlic, oregano, what else? I don't know that I have ever quaffed a gastrique. I had to look it up, I offer you the link. A reduction of vinegar and sugar brought to light caramelization, to which a little fond (stock) is added. So maybe we aren't talking italian, perhaps they went for the pan asian sweet and sour.

Tuna Tartare with rye crisps? Are we at the frigging white house or at the Canyon Ranch Spa? All of these skinny bigwigs are obviously dieting and freaked out about putting on an ounce. These are not foodies. Yuppie narcissists perhaps. Carrots, spring pea salad and shaved ham with ginger snaps. Boring. With the exception of the last item, which sounds like authentic soul food, could have been the lunch special at Libbys Cafeteria. More appropriate fare for a Grange picnic.

They had steaks and crab ravioli afterwards, surf and turf, sounds like a business lunch. But a petit filet? You think the head of the free world could spring for a decent sized steak, would it have killed them to serve their big shot guests a porterhouse? Then the ramp thing and a pretty pedestrian dessert. If I was there I would have been hitting the vodka hard. It just pairs so well with steak.

They may be the first couple but they can't hang with my foodies, I will tell you that. As for tophen, I've got no clue either.