Chow Revision

Okay, I spoke too soon. There are some moderately and even reasonably priced gifts in the latest issue of Chow. It's mainly that the ones that I want are expensive. Such as Laura Zindel's new line of tableware with amazing shots of bugs on them, like beetles, grasshoppers, etc. I can't find a photo of the tableware online, but here's a serving platter that gives you the right idea. The set of four tumblers is $265. Again, I am lamenting my lack of trust fund. Sigh.

And while I think the photography is strange, they do some great things that most of the other food mags don't do when they're listing recipes. They give you a shot of underdone, perfect, and overdone so that you can see what the food should look like at the right stage. While I am very comfortable with things in the kitchen, it never hurts to have a visual of what something is supposed to look like. Especially for their lemon meringue pie recipe. Getting a meringue whipped up just right can be challenging.

And last, but certainly not least, I award them huge props for their lack of advertisements!! Ads are annoying, and it's what I do for a living as a copywriter. So I guess I should say, ugly ads are annoying. The reason I stopped subscribing to Gourmet was the enormous ad section in the back of every issue. I felt cheated everytime I got it. Each issue seemed thick and full of lovely recipes and photos, but it was all a fascade. As I flipped through page after page of horrid adverts wishing that I could rip out the whole section, I realized I could stop subscribing and solve the problem entirely. And so it was. So major kudos to Chow for selecting a minimum number of unobtrusive, topical ads for their new magazine. That's a huge achievement.