NYT story on outdoor cooking

[melissa511]

Was anyone else bothered by the lead story in today's NYT Dining & Wine section? Here's the letter I sent the Times:

In pictures and words, “On the Road Again, and Cooking Outdoors, Too” (Dining & Wine, June 29, 2011) contains a couple of shocking violations of outdoors etiquette and common sense. The article’s penultimate paragraph, urging that outdoor cooks “please be kind to the environment,” violates that spirit a few words later when it helpfully adds, “replace any turf divots you created while building your fire pit.” Responsible campers and picnickers do not build their own fire pits: they use an established fire ring to do the least possible harm to the environment. And they don’t stand inches from the fire in their bare feet!