Thug Kitchen - In Your Face Blogging

Many food bloggers (including myself) go for a homey, informative and sometimes preachy way of writing about food and nutrition, Most of us don't use profanity and in your face phrases  to get our points across. Maybe we should. It works for a vegan food blog , Thug Kitchen and it's garnering fans and hits,

The controversial blog was started by Matt Holloway and Michelle Davis , vegan hipster, who want to spread the good word of vegetarian to the masses (and that is never more important in light of yesterday's not so eye opening news about red meat and bacon). However their way of doing such is peppered - and salted - with every obscenity under the sun.It does draw readers and fans. Their second cookbook "Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A *&&^% was published in September. Using bad language is a good way of selling any product  and even giving it some oomph. However this has gotten them in trouble, namely with African Americans who feel that the language and their title is too ghetto and demeaning. A few critics even have claimed that it promotes a negative stereotype of their diets as well.It has caused two well known cookbook authors Bryant Terry and Alice Randall to comment on Mr. Holloway's and Ms. Davis' writing style. According to a recent New York Times interview ,Ms Randall feels that "it drowns out and distracts from authentic black voices who are speaking to communities they love with the wisdom of shared experience."


There are fans who do love the site..The recipes are influenced by the hippie era Moosewood Cookbook and Isa  Chandra Moskowicz Vegan With A Vengeance. There are a lot of them and they're divided them into seasons, meals and ingredients. This is great if you're looking for a fall lunch recipe that has apples.In some ways they're just ordinary vegetarian recipes.The pickings are pretty thin. There are no bakes, or casseroles, lunches are nothing more than sandwiches and burritos.The dessert recipes have only two good recipes, the frozen chocolate bananas and  iced gingerbread squares Another point is not all  the recipes are vegan. Milk is  used in one or more recipes. There are better vegetarian blogs out there, featuring really good recipes that are filling. Check out Oh My Veggies and Green Kitchen Stories. Both have interesting recipes that are hearty and filling. Oh My Veggies even helps in meal preparing with tips and hints. Best of all you can let the kids read them without any worrying about them learning bad language!

Thug Kitchen is OK if you're a hipster vegetarian living in Brooklyn. It's cool if you're into swear words being a part of a recipe. Otherwise it's just another food blog trying to get readers by being over the top and on the edge..