I'd like to thank whoever encouraged me to subscribe to Gastronomica. Apparently I did that around 03/12/03 because that's the invoice date. Maybe I can check comments made to this blog around that date. At first glance, it has the same luxurious feel as Architectural Digest. There's not much food porn inside, it's mostly text. Here's an ode to Miracle Whip from inside the back cover:
0 Miracle Whip
TERRY KIRTS
Miracle Whip is the cold cream of Midwestern housewives
how they lather their thighs of a morning breathing in the oily balm
the egg white and soybean creaminess taking all the dry weeks
of an Illinois winter out of their bloodshot calves and knees.
Miracle Whip is the dependable friend the ubiquitous substitute in casseroles
and cakes the jarred marina that will outlast every ice storm or drought
that will save every recipe make every sandwich of braunschweiger
bologna cold beef roast or boiled lien taste good no matter how old.
Miracle Whip is the boy's first taste of love the tangy zip of a quick kiss
the after-school snack while the magazine's pages turn limp and slick
the girl's salvation from split ends and frizz the sister smearing
her listless strands into life the night before she dazzles at the prom.
Miracle Whip is the plague of picnics the sour whiff of potato salad
sitting too long in the July sun while the priest warns about marauders
or the relatives chatter guzzle beers from Styrofoarn coolers tell jokes
the deviled eggs the coleslaw the macaroni salad growing their golden skins
and the child gagging by the roadside on a low slope of Route 130
the father yelling at the passing traffic swearing suddenly in German
the mother sweating wringing her hands cradling the Tupperware
bowl like a colicky babe in the darkening valley of her lap.
(cover by Emily Eveleth, more of her painting viewable online at Artnet.)
5:16:38 PM 
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