Map Looks at Growth of Homelessness Versus Cupcake Shops in Chicago

This map doesn't serve as an indictment of anything except people's ability to confuse themselves. The trends are unrelated. Every dollar invested in a bakery is not a dollar taken from a homeless shelter. In fact, to the extent that businesses of any sort generate tax revenue and jobs, better cupcake stores than empty storefronts.

A map isn't really the best way to show his point.  It probably would've been better if he'd created a graph of some kind, showing how both trends are rising and some sort of intersection.

This makes me think that it would be interesting to see how the obsession with foodie culture looks against the rising trend of obesity.  While foodies themselves tend to eat, if not healthier foods, smaller portions (for a variety of reasons), the massive popularity of channels like the Food Network and the constant barrage of cooking segments seems to suggest that the obesity issue might not just be a problem with the ingredients in our food, but the sheer volume of the food we're eating, and the mass media message that . 

And yes, I tend to rag on foodies (sorry Chuck), but it really does bother me that food obsessions tend to go towards the latest fad meat (why is wild boar suddenly in everything?), and not towards finding healthier and tastier ways to prepare food that is readily available and affordable for the majority of the population.  Rather than teaching me how to properly prepare Chilean Sea Bass, maybe the cooking segments can show an innovative, yet inexpensive and healthy way to prepare chicken for a family of four.

The funny thing about cooking a meal for a family is that the recipes were all done 80 years ago. Look at pre-World War II recipe books and substitute healthier ingredients. Instead of lard, olive oil, etc. etc. Grandma and greatgrandma had bigger families and less money (generally) than we do now.

While it's true that you can take old recipes and update them with healthier ingredients, speaking as someone who is clueless in the kitchen, I think that is expecting alot.

I am great with a recipe.  Exact ingredients, exact measurements, etc.  But altering an established recipe?  Kitchen disaster.  And I suspect I'm not in the minority on that, as our culture has shifted so much in the last 30 years. 

In addition, grandma and great-grandma had hours to prepare meals.  We don't.  So even if you can update those old recipes to make them healthier, it's hard to make a recipe that takes 3 hours to cook and prepare in today's world.  So the recipes not only need to be healthier, they need to be quicker.  It seems to me, considering that these cooking segments are like 5 minutes long, it is the perfect place to teach these things.  But that's not as sexy as teaching someone 50 ways to use truffles.

I think most cooks who only dabble in the kitchen (I place myself at that level) have enough basic know-how to reasonably update a lot of old-timey recipes. It really doesn't take that much. We're talking some very basic knowledge here. I think part of the problem, though, is that food TV has convinced people it's a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

In defense of the Food and Cooking channels, some of the ways to update those recipes are the same techniques they use for truffles etc.

In an effort to ensure that we can eat reasonably healthy, home-cooked meals every night my family makes a menu and on the weekend I shop and prep as needed for the recipes. The goal is to have everything able to be on the table within 30 or so minutes on a weeknight. It is not always easy, and we make some compromises, but thankfully we live in an age with things like turkey kielbasa, commonly available hummus, and good quality flash-frozen vegetables.

Joy of Cooking actually does a pretty good job updating old recipes. The book is old, so they have lots of old stuff, but the 1950s recipes wouldn't be marketable. They also do a really nice job of explaining hows and whys of some basics. Not every recipe is perfect, but it is a good place to start.

So what you're saying is that we need more cupcake shops on the south and west sides of the city.