"I'm not cooking for you. Eat at McDonald's."

September 4, 2018 3:09 PM

Kenny Shopsin, famously foul-mouthed and cantankerous proprietor of Shopsin's General Store, has died. Kenny Shopsin ran the place with his wife, Eve, until her death in 2003; their children still run the place now, though the location has moved several times over the years. The menu at Shopsin's is a hell of a thing, and may be perused online -- although not at the door of the restaurant; that, among many other infractions, is Not Allowed. Shopsin banned most critics and press from the place for years, but Calvin Trillin managed to write the place up for the New Yorker back in 2002, and the 2004 documentary I Like Killing Flies gives further insight into the institution. A cookbook, appropriately titled Eat Me, was published in 2008. Shopsin's daughter Tamara confirms that they will be open Wednesday.
posted by halation (64 comments total)

.

NO SUBSTITUTIONS ALLOWED FOR THE DOT
posted by lalochezia at 3:17 PM on September 4, 2018 [15 favorites]

🥞

Rest In Pancakes.

Just last week I put his daughter Tamara Shopsin's memoir on hold at the library.
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 3:18 PM on September 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

Oi celidh, I said no substitutions. OUT!
posted by lalochezia at 3:21 PM on September 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

I found some fox's u-bet in the scratch-n-dent section of the local supermarket here in the Uttermost West, will be making egg creams in memoriam.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:46 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Unbuttoning because Kenny Shopsin was amazing and now I am sad.

.
posted by Kitteh at 3:52 PM on September 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

.

I Like Killing Flies is an excellent movie and I highly recommend it.
posted by selfnoise at 3:55 PM on September 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

19 bucks for a bowl of soup?! Oh, wait, that's probably like 50 cents in NYC. This menu reminds me of lots of the menus I end up designing around here, lots of cafes or generic food restaurants, with a bit more emphasis on fried components and less of the "jewboy" stuff, which for many reasons wouldn't and shouldn't fly down here in Texas. The food photos themselves make it look pretty unremarkable, which is more or less what is desired out of diner type foods. Plus shitty menus like this often indicate the person just wants to sell good food without all of the side bullshit like marketing and menu design (not always, sometimes a shitty menu is a sign of someone who doesn't give a shit or doesn't know what would be important if they did care). I do love this guy's attitude towards food reviewers, especially given where he lives. "Professional" food reviews always come off as pretentious and pandering towards someone for whom food is some alien experience only they and theirs are qualified to engage in, when like, you're eating the first stages of poop, hop off it.

His interaction with the customer who was fussing about being told to go to McDonald's is amazing and instantly makes me like that dude. Goddamn so many times in my life I wish I could tell customers the same thing. I know I started by saying "if y'all have any questions, let me know" but really what I want to say "if you have any questions, you're dumb and I wish you'd go away."
posted by GoblinHoney at 4:02 PM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

I ate at Shopsin's several times, including that original fantastic location on Carmine (holy shit how many times did I walk by, afraid to stick my head in?!?), but clearly it could never be enough. On one of our more recent visits, I worked up the courage to ask him to sign my copy of his cookbook. He wrote simply: 'Beth, fuck you, love Kenny."

.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:08 PM on September 4, 2018 [48 favorites]

The soup is $19 because it is made fresh, bowl by bowl, when ordered.
posted by plastic_animals at 4:08 PM on September 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Good god, $17 for a western omelette?
posted by octothorpe at 4:14 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

We ate at Shopsin's once, after he had moved to the Essex Street Market. His kids were already doing all the cooking, but he was there "supervising" from a chair in the dining room, reading a newspaper. We were prepared for difficulties, but we got counter seats that looked into the kitchen, and one of them gave our then-little daughter a copy of "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" to read, and everyone (including Kenny) was nice as pie. It was almost a disappointment.
posted by briank at 4:21 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Aw, no. I love Shopsin's and I love his cookbook. It's full of fun stories and personality. Getting told to go to McDonald's is the least of it: he tells a story about his waitress dumping a Coke on a fussy customer's head. But what you really get from the book is that he's a big-hearted guy who loves food and loves his customers and is only mean to people who he thinks disrespect him first.

I make his corn chowder with some regularity, and I still make egg salad his way. (Separate the yolks and egg whites of the cooked eggs, mix the mayo with just the yolks to make a yellowy cream, stud the yellow cream with big, roughly-torn hunks of egg white.)

The soup is $19 because it is made fresh, bowl by bowl, when ordered.

Kinda. The bases are kept going all day; the ingredients get added fresh.
posted by painquale at 4:25 PM on September 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

Ugh, Bedford Street was the original location. Carmine was the second.

it's like they say, the memory is the second thing to go...
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:26 PM on September 4, 2018

...and less of the "jewboy" stuff, which for many reasons wouldn't and shouldn't fly down here in Texas.

Kinky Friedman disagrees.
posted by delfin at 4:39 PM on September 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

Last time I was in NYC was about 15 years ago and I regret not taking the opportunities to visit Shopsin's et al disappearing NYC. I'm pretty meek as a tourist in general though, so I dream I'd either have gotten 86ed or I'd make him laugh.

The documentary is great, but I couldn't finish it. IT IS SO MUCH. (Does the "extra" slang term have a positive form yet?)

.
posted by rhizome at 4:39 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

.

I went with some friends the last time I was in NYC. There was a long wait but it was all good - we ordered a shitton of food and it was all delicious. The mac-and-cheese pancakes were particularly spectacular.
posted by Fig at 4:42 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

I saw "I Like Killing Flies" years ago, and vowed never to visit that restaurant, because I'm a wimp. RIP for him and those brave enough to face his potential wrath for great food.
posted by xingcat at 4:48 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Just last week I put his daughter Tamara Shopsin's memoir on hold at the library.

I just finishing reading this, and ripped through it in one evening without putting it down, which is saying a lot considering I'd never heard of Shopsin's and thought it was (after reading the 1st few paragraphs) kind of a travel memoir. (And in a way it was, through the time travel of nostalgia. ) What a beautiful, lovely book. It's not just a memoir about her parents (particularly her father) but a love letter - a love letter to them, a love letter to the Village, and a love letter absolutely aching in its homesickness for a particular way of life and inhabitants of a particular time and place, a very real community now ripped away as a casualty of many things, particularly greed.

It's been much on my mind since. The book made me walk away from the book pondering many things but most of all the concept of authenticity and how it plays a role in community. From that viewpoint, the book was a view into a world that seemed like the exact opposite of a world with Instagram influencers, algorithm traps, and how we are called to present our best lives so often digitally, and just how much this affects decisions on how we live. It's a poor description that doesn't quite capture it, but her memoir is not just about a couple and their general store/restaurant, it's about people intentionally deciding to live their lives un-intentionally, just so they can be themselves - and as a result, being far more accepting of others and their lives/lifestyles (as long they, too, are living authentically) and thus then creating a community that is wonderfully heterogeneous, vibrant, and supportive. And real, with all the flavors of life: the good and the bad, from friendship to dementia to lust to poverty to adaptation and resilience to love. I'm well aware the book is just one perspective (and a biased one at that), but in that vein, Kenny and Eve Shopsin seemed like warriors.

.
posted by barchan at 4:52 PM on September 4, 2018 [38 favorites]

The soup is $19 because it is made fresh, bowl by bowl, when ordered.

That's not really how soup works though. That would just be hot stuff in a bowl.
posted by Squeak Attack at 4:54 PM on September 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

I can say I was lucky enough to eat at all three Shopsin's locations over the years. Kenny was a one-of-a-kind water buffalo, a true New York character. Never had anything but great meals in his joints. A sad fact: his lovely wife Eve passed away a day after being diagnosed with cancer. My heart goes out to his delightful kids.

RIP, Kenny, you earned it.

🥞
posted by dbiedny at 4:59 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

In Somerville, MA, there's this restaurant -- Sound Bites. It's a big, bustling breakfast place, and it's been around for more than a decade.

Back In The Day, it started in this narrow spot that had, maybe, thirty seats. And It Was Good. Like, Line Down the Block Good. Magical homefries that were like garlicky bruleed mashed potatoes Good. People driving 30-45 minutes from other towns with perfectly delicious breakfast spots of their own Good. And it was presided over by Yasir, who was a fucking tyrant.

There have been many times that I've eaten at Sound Bites on a weekend, and seen Yasir yell at customers, and he had a special rage for customers who were slow. You went there for the food. You paid in cash, and you got up and got out, because people are fucking waiting. Did you see the line? Do you see all of those people looking at your table? Move! Yasir was owner, waiter, greeter, and this sort of reverse bouncer. Sound Bites was not a place to read the Sunday Times or a place you went to burn a Sunday afternoon day drinking. To be honest, it was kind of stressful eating there. But, ugh, those home fries were amazing.

Anyway, one day, in the midst of the first dot-com crash, I got laid off from the first job out of grad school. I was crushed. I had two months left on my student visa and I was quietly freaking out about what my plan was. I pulled off the highway from my former office and went to Sound Bites. It was a Thursday. It's the first time I had ever been there on a weekday, and it's half empty. I order this omelette and home fries, and at some point in my meal, Yasir sits down and asks, "what's wrong? You look so sad."

"oh, umm, I got laid off from my job. I don't know what I'm going to do. I just came here to have some lunch and think about it. I'm sorry if I'm taking too long."

and he just put his hand on my shoulder and said, "oh, don't worry about it. Take all your time. And don't worry about the meal. You don't have to pay."

Then he got up and also said, "only this one time though. Because the next time you eat here, you will have a job. This I know. You'll be ok."

They're in a bigger place. Yasir doesn't yell at anyone, even when the line is still out the door, because it moves faster now than it used to, but I still have a soft spot for Breakfast Tyrants who just want to serve everyone and just gets upset when someone gets in the way of that.

. for another of that breed passing.
posted by bl1nk at 5:12 PM on September 4, 2018 [119 favorites]

>> Kinky Friedman disagrees.

Relevant Kinky song.

I'd never heard of Shopsins, but this anecdote from the above New Yorker article warms the prickly cockles of my Texan heart: "[Regarding] Linda's Frito Pie, a Texas specialty whose recipe has to begin, 'Take a bag of Fritos . . .' Kenny had Frito Pie on the menu because one of his customers, who's from Texas, was comforted by the knowledge that less than a block from her house in Greenwich Village she could order a dish that most Texans identify with the snack bar at Friday-night high-school football games."
posted by nicebookrack at 5:33 PM on September 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

That's not really how soup works though. That would just be hot stuff in a bowl.

Or, possibly, a sandwich.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:33 PM on September 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

hot stuff in a bowl
"This tea is nothing more than hot leaf juice!"
posted by nicebookrack at 5:38 PM on September 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

I don't see a direct link to the "I'm not cooking for you. Eat at McDonald's." story, referenced in the title so here it is.
posted by w0mbat at 5:40 PM on September 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

Or, possibly, a sandwich.

OUT

(fun fact: even if you could eat both of them, you were Not Allowed to order a burger and a sandwich for yourself, because of the 'no two same things' rule, since burgers counted as sandwiches. you could, however, order cheeseburger soup and a cheeseburger, i believe.)
posted by halation at 5:43 PM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

I don't see a direct link to the "I'm not cooking for you. Eat at McDonald's." story, referenced in the title so here it is.

That was wonderful. I have always been annoyed by the kind of person who won't order or buy something without turning it into a negotiation over some kind of problematic exception that they always manage to generate; here, they were given no quarter.
posted by thelonius at 5:53 PM on September 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

If burgers counted as sandwiches, did hot dogs also count as sandwiches? Did Shopsin's decide this internet debate before there ever was one??
posted by nicebookrack at 5:57 PM on September 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

bringing kenny shopsin to an internet debate about hot dogs as sandwiches would be like bringing a tactical thermonuclear device to a knife fight
posted by halation at 5:59 PM on September 4, 2018 [31 favorites]

Never been, but I’m game for sure. Highly approve of the prominent role played by poached eggs in the menu. Now I’m hungry.
posted by mondo dentro at 6:36 PM on September 4, 2018

I almost get anxiety attacks from trying to read menus half that size!
posted by traveler_ at 7:02 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Bl1nk, I loved that story. Thank you for sharing it.

And that menu is wild and I wish I could go there!
posted by greermahoney at 7:12 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

I went to Shopsin's for breakfast about a month after I moved here in '93, on the advice of a slightly younger friend of mine at uni right before I graduated. "When you get there, you HAVE TO eat at Shopsin's. Just follow the rules and you'll be OK." Not sure if I was at the Bedford or Carmine location, but it didn't matter; there had been nothing like Shopsin's and no one like Kenny where I'd come from. I think he may have said 3 sentences to me the whole 30 minutes I was there, but I loved that bread pudding French toast he made.

RIP, Kenny.
posted by droplet at 7:14 PM on September 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm like, what are the Rules of Shopsin's and the menu has a Rules page, and it took me a very long time to work out the rules were 'One Adult Per Kid', 'Everyone Has To Eat' and 'We Cannot Accommodate Severe Allergies' and I was expecting something a lot worse? I mean, I don't know what you'll do if you have three kids and maybe 'severe' means something different in New York but I was expecting it to be a lot less friendly.
posted by Merus at 7:40 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Just a few more words about that menu's variations:

- "Shopsin's daughter, Tamara, once admitted that the worst thing she had ever done was teach her father how to use Adobe InDesign. She didn't expect him to exploit the text-squeeze function to such an extent."

- One version of the menu, now lost to time, featured the no-parties-of-five rule in poem format. I'm not clear on whether Robert Hershon wrote the poem in honour of Shopsin's or whether Ken just felt it summed up his own philosophy in an appropriate way. Previous versions of the menu (and previous versions of Shopsin's) listed the rules (and enforced the rules) more... directly.
posted by halation at 7:42 PM on September 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

What an asshole.
posted by Docrailgun at 7:55 PM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

.

He wasn't wrong about parties of five.
posted by surlyben at 8:03 PM on September 4, 2018

Yasir doesn't yell at anyone, even when the line is still out the door, because it moves faster now than it used to, but I still have a soft spot for Breakfast Tyrants who just want to serve everyone and just gets upset when someone gets in the way of that.

That's a very good story, but Kenny seemed like the utter opposite type of restaurateur, prizing warmth over efficiency. He wanted to cook for customers who would make conversation, idly read a newspaper, treat the place like home, and eventually become friends. If you just came in, ate quickly, and left in an efficient manner, he probably wouldn't particularly care for you to return.
posted by painquale at 8:09 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

> The mac-and-cheese pancakes were particularly spectacular.

They look nice
posted by CheapB at 8:09 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

That menu is something else! Also how do they have the ingredients for all of that on hand?

EVERYONE HAS TO EAT
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:11 PM on September 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

- One version of the menu, now lost to time, featured the no-parties-of-five rule in poem format.

Oh, how I love you, archive.org.

regional pulled bbq 8.95
CHOOSE FROM THESE BBQ STYLES: 1. georgia 2. chipotle 3. sweet red 4. bronx white 5. sloppy joe 6. mojo grapefruit 7. jamaican jerk 8. thai green 9. thai red 10. parmagiana
CHOOSE FROM THESE MEATS: 1.chicken 2.turkey 3.pork 4.beef 5.shrimp (served on a toasted sesame bun)

HEAVY METAL CASSEROLES 12.95
southern chicken dumpling white chocolate, ricotta burrito chix fried cheese eggs, coco rice mango, shrimp potato puff mexican tomato beef lasagna

sweet muffin sandwiches
chicken, tuna,or egg salad on a:
corn, banana, chocolate, or blueberry muffin 9.95

posted by zamboni at 8:42 PM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

Kenny and his kids had a soft spot for my toddler niece and gave her their popcorn popper push toy when they moved to the Essex location. It was old and a little dirty but the action was a thousand times more satisfying than any modern take on the concept. Which is just an echo of the comment about authenticity above.

I remember going there and delighting at their enforcement of the no cell phone rule. Invariably the person receiving the call would raise a finger gesturing "1 minute" and whoever was waiting tables would very clearly state, "You need to take that outside NOW!" So satisfying.

They fought the good fights. And the post-modern pancakes (pancakes with chopped up pancakes inside!) were genius.
posted by funkiwan at 10:02 PM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

.

oh, and just about exactly a year after my father died. Dad LOVED I Like Killing Flies and insisted I watch it with him. I hope there's some kind of beyond for them to hang out in together.

The one time I've been to Shopsin's I was so overwhelmed by the menu that I hyperventilated laughing until I cried. And whatever combination of madness I ordered was delicious.
posted by gusandrews at 10:10 PM on September 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

I lived across the street from the Carmine location for a year and a half. I was so scared of Kenny that I only ate there once.

.
posted by q*ben at 10:33 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I still remember the photo from that great Trillin New Yorker article. The proprietor and his wife laughing, looking like they were having a blast. [Wait - how is Calvin Trillin these days?]
posted by goofyfoot at 12:34 AM on September 5, 2018

The food wasn’t very good. He insisted Aunt Jemima Just Add Water was the ne plus ultra of pancakes.
posted by JPD at 3:51 AM on September 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

.

I finished Tamara Shopsin's book, mentioned several times up thread, on Sunday. His death was announced Monday. If I were superstitious I'd read Ivanka Trump's book this weekend.
posted by DigDoug at 5:57 AM on September 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

The only time I went to the original Shopsin's, I was served Chili over popcorn.

It worked. I might not ever choose to eat it again, but it worked.

.
posted by exparrot at 6:16 AM on September 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

From the Calvin Trillin article: …he's wearing a Shopsin's General Store T-shirt, folded over in the way the cognoscenti know how to fold it in order to form the words "Eat Me.". I found pictures of what must be the shirt, and can almost see the phrase, but wonder if there are any pictures of it folded as described. Lots of tributes showing up on line. I’ve only passed through New York a couple of times, so had never heard of the place. Sounds like someplace I would love, and even if I got 86d, I would be happy to have a story about it.

.
posted by TedW at 8:14 AM on September 5, 2018

.
posted by Splunge at 8:25 AM on September 5, 2018

One of those restaurants I know of, but will probably never visit, seeing as I live in SoCal. Just reading the menu gives me a stomach ache, and I still haven't had breakfast.

.
posted by offalark at 9:10 AM on September 5, 2018

I ate at Shopsin's several times, including that original fantastic location on Carmine (holy shit how many times did I walk by, afraid to stick my head in?!?),

I lived around the corner from one of the locations for a while, but never went in because I was scared to.
posted by praemunire at 9:24 AM on September 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

"The soup is $19 because it is made fresh, bowl by bowl, when ordered."

No, everything is around that price point because everything around there is expensive. They charge 11 bucks for plain tater tots. Are you going to suggest they do something above and beyond to justify that price because I'm willing to bet you they buy frozen tots from their food distributor and fry them. Stuff is just more expensive up there.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:11 PM on September 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

🥞.

Loved you Kenny, miss you Shopsins. Mac & cheese pancakes forever.

(Those suggesting prices are more expensive than other places, frozen food, blah blah - big deal. Shopsins is magic and some things are worth paying money for to keep them alive.)
posted by Concordia at 3:21 PM on September 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Going by the description of Chicken Tortilla Avocado Soup in the New Yorker, made fresh by the bowl does indeed seem to be accurate:

"I just take a piece of chicken breast and throw it on. The grid is red hot, flames shooting up, and the chicken sears with black marks immediately and starts to cook. If there were grits or barley or something, I would nuke 'em. . . . At that point in the cook, that's what would happen if this were Chicken Tortilla Avocado with barley in it. For this dish—this is a fast dish—I shred cabbage with my knife. Green cabbage. . . . I cut off a chunk and I chop it really finely into long, thin shreds. I do the same with a piece of onion. Same with fresh cilantro. At this point, José has turned the chicken while my back is still to the pan. I throw the shit into the oil ...what happens is the cabbage hits it and almost deep-fries—it browns—and now we get a really nice cabbage, Russian-type flavor. The onions soften immediately, and I now turn back and I take one of any number of ingredients, depending on what they've ordered, and in this particular instance, for someone like you, I would add crushed-up marinated jalapeño peppers to about a five, which is about a half a tablespoon..."

And there's a bunch more steps after that.
posted by tavella at 4:59 PM on September 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also how do they have the ingredients for all of that on hand?

Their present location in the middle of an incredibly varied food market helps.
posted by Miko at 6:28 PM on September 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Here's how Kenny makes his soups (from his cookbook):

Newcomers to Shopsin's are always surprised by and even skeptical of the number of soups I have on my menu (I have cut back, but at one time it was close to three hundred), but that's because they're thinking in conventional soup-making terms, where the soup is made in large quantities by slow-cooking a bunch of ingredients in one giant pot. This is not how I make my soups. Not at all.

Applying my deconstruction mentality to soups, I first took the reality of a soup as a finished product and broke it down into its essential elements. There is the broth, and there is everything else. The next thing I did was figure out what element takes the longest to cook and then tried to figure out how to cut that time. With soup the only thing that takes any significant time to cook is the broth, so I theorized that all I had to do was cook the broth, not the whole soup, ahead of time.

The way I now make soups is I cook whatever isn't broth -- the vegetables, chicken, shrimp -- and then add the broth when all that is done, so the soup only takes as long as the slowest-cooking non-broth ingredient. So my soups are actually sautes floating in broth. In this way I am able to make a chicken soup in minutes, which is how long it should take to make chicken soup. People are always amazed at the way I make soup, but I am the one who should be amazed. Taking two or four hours to make a soup just because the broth takes two or four hours to cook makes no sense whatsoever.

And on his soup prices:

The reasons for charging so much for my soup are twofold: One is that I base the price of everything in my restaurant on the time it takes me to make it, and soup made to order takes at least four or five minutes of my (almost) undivided attention, which is a lot by my standards. The second and more important reason is based on one of the most basic tenets of my pricing philosophy: I reward myself for my cleverness. And whether you like them or not, my soups are pretty damned clever. Nobody -- at least nobody I'm aware of -- makes soup the way I do.

All restaurants in New York City -- probably in America -- make soup the same way. They make one or two vats of soup ahead of time for the day. When an order is placed for soup, they ladle out a portion, dump it in a bowl, and maybe, if you're lucky, they throw something like a crouton or some sour cream on top. That works fine for them but not for my taste. They have a different philosophical understanding of soup. Even if my soup looks exactly like the soup at the restaurant down the street that charges a few bucks for it, mine is different because it is constructed differently and the intent is different. If you can't tell the difference, then you are wasting your money on my soup. You should buy the other soup.

More important than any philosophy behind my soup-making or the speed with which I make them is that I don't like soup that is cooked the traditional way. I think the worst thing about most soups is that you can't taste the individual ingredients. If you were to close your eyes and take a bite, you wouldn't be able to tell what the fuck you were eating. You could take a hypodermic needle and pull from anywhere in the bowl, and it would all taste the same, because after countless hours of cooking, all the flavors have mushkied together. I understand that this is the whole point, but for me it seems like a waste of all those precious ingredients. You take a spoonful of someone else's chicken tortilla avocado soup and the tortillas taste like the chicken, the chicken tastes like the carrots, the carrots taste like everything else, and everything else tastes like the parsley. When I take a bite of soup, I want the chicken to taste like chicken -- not like cabbage.

I know that my way of making soup is considered radical by traditional standards, and the only explanation I can give for doing it this way or for how I came to this method of cooking is that it's a product of a lot of psychotherapy, drugs, and making chicken potpies.

(He then goes into a five-page story about chicken potpies, which I'll skip.)

In working on my craft, I have had small ideas and big ideas. Learning how to make soup was a big idea. That moment was seeing the light. It was the first time in my life that I created something from inside me that was neither sexual nor violent.

What a great cookbook. It's absolutely worth a purchase.
posted by painquale at 9:44 PM on September 5, 2018 [18 favorites]

So those who have had a Shopsin's soup: does the actual soup part of it take on the flavours of what's in it, or is it all basically the same with but with different bits?
posted by Merus at 9:50 PM on September 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

.

I've been to two locations of Shopsin's, but sadly never interacted with the man himself. I never had the privilege of getting yelled at or turned away or doused in Coke, either; in fact, I recall everyone being very nice, perhaps because I didn't order the same thing as anyone else or bring in too many children.

I love both Tamara Shopsin's Arbitrary Stupid Goal and the idea of an arbitrary stupid goal, which articulates a lot of my life philosophy, really. I grew up near Shopsin's and the book resonated with me so much. My arbitrary stupid goal is more or less seeing as much of NYC, and especially its restaurants, as possible, and I'm lucky that Shopsin's (2 locations) has been a part of the experience.
posted by ferret branca at 8:03 PM on September 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

does the actual soup part of it take on the flavours of what's in it, or is it all basically the same with but with different bits?

By 'actual soup part,' I'm assuming you mean broth?

A lot of soup-type entrees are constructed this way -- ramen, hot pot, even the example given here, tortilla soup (at least classically speaking; what you get in the vat at Au Bon Pan or whatever, not so much). By keeping a few different base broths on hand, and varying the ingredients you add, the combinations are virtually limitless; the same 'bits' will taste different depending on which base stock you use, and vice versa. Shopsin got a little weirder than most ramen or hot pot joints tend to get, but basically he was working with the same principle.
posted by halation at 9:11 AM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Related IRL, reading with Tamara Shopsin and John Hodgman.
posted by Miko at 9:34 AM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

I found pictures of what must be the shirt, and can almost see the phrase, but wonder if there are any pictures of it folded as described.

The title page of Eat Me is Shopsin holding his shirt just so.
posted by zamboni at 4:36 PM on September 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

He insisted Aunt Jemima Just Add Water was the ne plus ultra of pancakes.

Here's what he says in Eat Me:

When people ask me how I make such good pancakes, I'm always sure to tell them that making pancakes is 100 percent about the equipment, meaning that the success of the pancakes is all about the way you handle the batter, not the batter itself. I tell them, If you buy a good griddle, you oil the griddle properly, you heat it as hot as it needs to be heated before you drop the batter, and you cook the pancakes for the correct amount of time, you could use boxed pancake mix or Aunt Jemima frozen pancake batter, and your pancakes would turn out just as good as mine.

But I never finish the thought. What would come next is something I am not sure I am that proud of, but writing a cookbook is forcing me to tell the truth where the truth is called for. Nobody has ever looked me in the face and asked, "What kind of batter do you use?" They ask, "How do you cook such good pancakes?" So I never have to tell them that I use Aunt Jemima frozen pancake batter, which in fact I do.

It's not that I couldn't make my own batter. It's just that making pancake batter is not something I like to do.

posted by zamboni at 4:15 PM on September 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

And that doesn't sound Like nonsense to you

( Mea culpa on conflating just add water and frozen - which might actually be worse.)
posted by JPD at 8:09 PM on September 12, 2018