NYT Admits 'Grape Salad' More Of A 'Regional' Dish, Not Minnesotan
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's the culinary controversy that is outraging Minnesotans.
It's a story as old as time itself. Coastal elites presume to know something about flyover country and miss the mark by a country mile.
The New York Times' recent interactive feature "The United States of Thanksgiving" was deemed a turkey by Minnesotans when their state was represented by the not even remotely traditional dish of "grape salad."
The paper picked one recipe that represents each state. And the signature recipe they picked for Minnesota is a broiled sour cream based grape salad.
That's right – broiled grape salad.
According to the article, the recipe apparently comes from a "Minnesota-born heiress" who always has it on Thanksgiving.
The New York Times Facebook page is filled with scathing comments from Minnesotans
"It's bad enough we have to suffer through insane winters and road construction summers. The least you could have done was given us an actual MN dish," Erin Elizabeth writes.
Local food critics are also howling!
"J'accuse! This is not from a Minnesota heiress. Pecans = the south, grapes = California, even sour cream is more likely from Wisconsin than Minnesota. I'm going to guess this is from an heiress from the fabled land of Mindianapolis, who rides through the land on a silver chariot pulled by golden weasels," Food critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, who hosts Off The Menu on WCCO Radio, said.
The senior food editor at Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine said her reaction is "total outrage."
She added, "That is not what we eat in Minnesota."
The term "grapegate" has been trending on local social media ever since the New York Times announced they had chosen grape salad as the quintessential Minnesota Thanksgiving dish.
Reaction has been swift from social media and critics alike.
Grumdahl said that Times writers didn't do their homework.
"It's lazy and it's dismissive. And I think that is why everyone has risen up saying 'No, you're not going to pin this crazy thing that you invented on us,'" Grumdahl said.
The paper says the recipe comes from an unnamed Minnesota-born heiress. Within hours a new Twitter account named @MNBornHeiress began been spewing pro grape salad tweets.
For another opinion we turned to Sue Zelickson, Minnesota food critic for more than 40 years.,
"I've never heard of it and I am 80-years-old. And it's never shown up on any of my Thanksgiving dinners," Zelickson said.
WCCO producer and avid cook Tracy Perlman followed the Times recipe, blending grapes, sour cream brown sugar and then broiling it.
"The famous Thanksgiving favorite that no one in Minnesota has ever tried," Perlman said.
And thanks to Perlman's cooking, WCCO got to try what the Times insists is the best of a Minnesota Thanksgiving.
"That is a thumbs down," Zelickson said.
"This is yucky," Grumdahl said.
"Really not very good," Murphy said.
Late this afternoon The New York Times admitted they had laid a culinary egg.
The papers public editor said the grape salad choice was "an epic recipe fail."
However, the Times food editor Sam Sifton is unbowed.
He continues to insist the recipe is delicious, but did admit that the recipe came to represent Minnesota because food is more regional instead of state-bound. And he admitted they'd already given lefse to North Dakota and wild rice to Wisconsin.
We will leave it up to you.
Click here for the now infamous New York Times grape salad recipe so you can be the judge.