Photo by pablo.raw.

Last week, The New York Times published this article on the prevalence of “junk food”/comfort food on the Hill. Many food writers and bloggers were up in arms about what they viewed as a condescending attack on the city’s burgeoning food scene. Food (critic) fight!

Tim Carman, in his opening salvo as a Washington Post staffer, struck back, saying that it was unnecessary to rub our faces in the already acknowledged less-than-New York-quality restaurants. Carman also mentions that there are many other interesting options opening on the Hill, such as Ba Bay, that could be written about.

Today, the Times decided to strike back in their feature “What We’re Reading“:

The Washington Post: They say we don’t like the food in the nation’s capital. – Nick Fox

The Washington Post: But the city has a Vietnamese restaurant with two-toned popsicles. Worth the trip! – Nick Fox

The Vietnamese restaurant the quote refers to is the same Ba Bay noted by Carman. In Post critic Tom Sietsema’s first look at the restaurant, he weakens Carman’s argument, damning Ba Bay with some not-so-faint criticism: “It took some digging on a recent scouting trip to find something I wanted to finish.”

The Times doesn’t seem to believe that their take on D.C. was condescending — and, to be honest, I can’t help but agree. The worst that can be gleaned from Jennifer Steinhauer’s piece is an implication that we’re a bunch of fatties because we’re “junk food” lovers. (Though it’s never posited that New Yorkers don’t love junk food as well.) It outlines the realities of the business of opening restaurants; opening a Michelin-star level restaurant just isn’t in the cards for most restauranteurs and investors. Publishing a reaction on the first page of the Post’s Food section merely highlights what may be our own insecurities. Even if we are being bullied, we all know that the best way to deal with it is not to react at all.

Do you think D.C. food nerds are blowing things out of proportion? Was the New York Times piece condescending — or does D.C.’s food community have a collective Napoleon complex?