{"product_id":"vittles-issue-2-winter-2025","title":"Vittles Issue 2 (Winter 2025): Bad Food","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"142\" data-end=\"500\"\u003e\u003cem data-start=\"142\" data-end=\"151\"\u003eVittles\u003c\/em\u003e is a London-based magazine of food and culture that began as an online newsletter during the pandemic and has since grown into a substantial print project. From the start, it has been more interested in scrutiny than reverence. It uses food as a way to examine power, class, taste, commerce, and the stories people tell about what and how they eat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"502\" data-end=\"964\"\u003eIssue 2, Winter 2025, serves as a clear reintroduction to that project. Organized around the deliberately elastic idea of “bad food,” it looks at foods that are nutritionally suspect, socially embarrassing, aesthetically dubious, or simply unloved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"502\" data-end=\"964\"\u003eThe magazine’s perspective is distinctly British and often very London-specific, taking local references and shared knowledge for granted, and inviting readers elsewhere into that world rather than translating it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"966\" data-end=\"1427\"\u003eThat point of view is part of the pleasure. As widely as the magazine ranges geographically and culturally, its grounding produces a steady sense of discovery of unfamiliar assumptions, different food economies, and definitions of “badness” that do not align neatly with American food writing. Throughout, the writing is sharp, confident, and intellectually curious, with contributions that slip between reporting, criticism, personal essay, and fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1429\" data-end=\"1453\"\u003eSelected pieces include:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"125\" data-end=\"204\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"127\" data-end=\"204\"\u003eJoe Zadeh on “fried rice syndrome” and the persistent fear of reheated rice\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"205\" data-end=\"273\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"207\" data-end=\"273\"\u003eTania Sanchez on soft drinks and the sweeteners that define them\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"274\" data-end=\"376\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"276\" data-end=\"376\"\u003eSharanya Deepak on Italian food in India and Pakistan, from alfredo fettuccine to pink sauce pasta\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"377\" data-end=\"437\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"379\" data-end=\"437\"\u003eLily Kelting on the unlikely dominance of Szechwan sauce\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"438\" data-end=\"597\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"440\" data-end=\"597\"\u003eConversations on MSG, with Joyeta Ng and Andy Ho discussing Hong Kong and the Western diaspora, and Ozoz Sokoh and Joké Bakare on Maggi in Nigerian cooking\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"598\" data-end=\"689\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"600\" data-end=\"689\"\u003eChris Jones on the history of London’s squat cafés and the food cultures they sustained\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"690\" data-end=\"758\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"692\" data-end=\"758\"\u003eAlim Kheraj on the bleak offerings of gay bar food across the UK\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-start=\"759\" data-end=\"851\" data-is-last-node=\"\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"761\" data-end=\"851\" data-is-last-node=\"\"\u003eFiction by Munir Hachemi (translated by Julia Sanches), Sheena Patel, and Lauren J. Joseph\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1974\" data-end=\"2233\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.kitchenartsandletters.com\/products\/vittles-issue-1\"\u003eIssue 1 of \u003cem data-start=\"1985\" data-end=\"1994\"\u003eVittles\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e is now sold out, aside from a very small number of copies we have on hand. Issue 2 makes clear why the magazine has quickly earned attention: it treats food not as comfort or virtue, but as a site of argument, pleasure, and contradiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1974\" data-end=\"2233\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"\u003ePaperback. Color photographs and illustrations throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antenne Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41464304533637,"sku":"Johnathan Nunn, et alia","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0297\/5046\/0549\/files\/Vittle2Cover.jpg?v=1766854661","url":"https:\/\/www.kitchenartsandletters.com\/products\/vittles-issue-2-winter-2025","provider":"Kitchen Arts \u0026 Letters","version":"1.0","type":"link"}