Stylish

If you read with your eyes open you'll often find in odd sections of the NYT nuggets of food journalism that should make the Dining In/Dining Out crew watch their turf. These days I scan the DI/DO section on Wednesdays hoping to see articles I can feel fine to ignore, but I regularly prowl through the other pages in search of my bonus vittles in addition to the more general enlightenment one always finds in the pages of the Gray Lady.

We proceed to the links, all from today's Styles sec:

-Ice cream served at a funeral graveside. Great photo of the ice cream truck surrounded by somber mourners. The article itself combines creepy rich people (a standard Styles topic) with a morbid subject. I see now that this article is on the most e-mailed list, so you didn't need me to tell you about it.

-Just-add-water meals for outdoorsies:

From 2002 to 2005, sales of dehydrated meals rose to $14.3 million from $12.5 million, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. “Dehydrated food has come a long way,” said Megan Davis, a spokeswoman. “The offerings are more diverse, flavorful, with ethnic options and food-allergy-sensitive choices.”

Excuse my mouth for not watering. The accompanying slideshow of options has mostly photos of packaging, which seems to concede that the food is as bad as you fear.

-Alex Kuczynski shops fair-trade in the Hamptons. The article begins with irrelevant details and offhanded wealth-flaunting but eventually gets to a description of a shop selling products made by offshore workers who are supposedly fairly compensated for their labor. Then this:

Because the Hampton Bays market is sponsored by a Catholic organization, one will find, along with the coffee, tea, jewelry, clothing, musical instruments and housewares, a few items of a distinctly Catholic bent. My favorite was the Bible Bar, a health bar that “contains the seven foods of Deuteronomy,” which are wheat, barley, raisins, honey, figs, pomegranates and olive oil. (The same company also sells bars called Noah’s Nuggets, Seeds of Samson, King David’s Treat and a diet book titled “Moses Wasn’t Fat.”)

You'll wish the whole article had been about Catholic candies but a moment later you'll realize that if the Times ran such a thing it would be totally unreadable.