Top Ramen over there*

http://jacobinmag.com/2011/01/hipsters-food-stamps-and-the-politics-of-resentment/

http://www.salon.com/2010/03/16/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/     

(see the Comments!)

(FTA:” Controversy about how they use food stamps marks an interesting shift from the classic critique that the program subsidizes diets laden with soda pop and junk food. But from that perspective, food stamp-using foodies might be applauded for demonstrating that one can, indeed, eat healthy and make delicious home-cooked meals on a tight budget.
And while they might be questioned for viewing premium ingredients as a necessity, it could also be argued that they’re eating the best and most conscious way they know how. They are often cooking at home. They are using fresh ingredients. This is, after all, a generation steeped in Michael Pollan books, bountiful farmer’s markets and a fetish for all things sustainable and handcrafted. Is it wrong to believe there should be a local, free-range chicken in every Le Creuset pot?”
We make the trip to HEB(the “Real Grocery Store”, where the cukes have flavor, and only turn to mush After several days, instead of immediately).
I am the Grocery Shopper…and I treat lists as holy writ…Systematically stretching meager resources, to get the most bang for the buck. The difference, as I see it, is what bang you consider more important…Quantity? In which case it would be rational to buy a mess o’ crap, like most folks on the lower end, that I know….
Or Quality? As in Flavorful, and Healthy….
I lean hard to the Latter…fresh fruits and veggies…real butter…olive oil, instead of corn oil;…etc.
I get whole chickens, and whole pork loins, that I then cut into chops.
The point is,….after reading the “critique” in the comments, of the idea of people like me buying Quality….is, “What’s yer problem?!”
Why is it imperative that Po Folks subsist on Crap?
(of course, the Poor are routinely criticized for that, as well)
Am I, somehow, Unamerican for liking the occasional Tricuit, with Brie and Portabella?
More of the same.
The Parasites aren’t down here.
Look up, instead.

* I think that was a song, some 20 years ago, if the music in my head is any indication.