Ahi-gate! McCain "family recipes" lifted from Food Network

Dear Cindy McVain,

It's not that I have a huge problem with you passing along recipes that you enjoy—people do that all the time. Otherwise how would everyone know how to make that crushed ramen noodle-cabbage salad thing?

It's not even that I have a problem with you riffing off of a recipe that you found online and adapting it to suit your tastes. Again, such is the nature of recipes. And heck, it's even okay to reprint a recipe that is adapted from somewhere else as long as it has the requisite 3 or 4 changes so it's not like the original recipe. But it is polite to let people know where you got your ideas if they aren't your own.

What I have a problem with is you lifting delicious-sounding recipes from the Food Network and then trying to pass them off as if you've been cooking them at home for the past 35 years. I do think it's a little, oh, I don't know—psycho?!?! that you did that to create the illusion that you cook these foods for your husband and children and that you enjoy them together as a family. And, Cindy, you didn't even try to change them, not even a little bit. (Okay you changed one word, "salad" to "slaw.") Hi, Cindy! Welcome to the internet! We can see you, you know.

I love that the recipes you have chosen "Ahi with Napa Cabbage Slaw," "Passion Fruit Mousse," "Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas, and Mushrooms" sound just exotic enough to show how worldly-but-not-too-wordly you folks are without being totally inaccessible to the unwashed masses.  Oooh, ahi. That's Hawaiian for tuna...but they have it at Costco.

But wait, Ahi with Napa Cabbage? Sesame oil? Soy sauce? Isn't that gook food? You're telling me your husband eats that?

And Passion Fruit Mousse. Come on, Cindy. You know you aren't cooking that. With all the time it takes to whip up your airy and frothy hairstyles, when do you have time to whip up an airy and frothy dessert? But you're right, it sounds delicious. And I like how you subliminally slipped in the word "passion." As in your husband's "passion" for war-mongering?

"Cindy's Recipes." What an absolutely rich oxymoron. That's like me saying "Stefania's Beatles Album Collection." Ain't happening. Trust me.

Everything you McCains put out there for public consumption is an absolute fraud. A total sham. Right down to your pathetically plagiarized recipes.  Thanks for helping to remind us of that.

[image: the Huffington post. Clink the link above for more side-by-side comparisons.]

For the record, MOMocrats co-founder Stefania Pomponi Butler loves that ramen noodle-cabbage salad thing.

Comments

[Linda]

Now this is some political news I can really devour!

[Jo MacD]

So I went to check out the original website (as you do) to see if it was still there (it is) and I found out something else really strange about the McCain family's eating habits - they put their knives and forks on the wrong side! What kind of freaky twilight zone are these people living in??

(see for yourself at: www.johnmccain.com/About/Recipe1.htm )

[PunditMom]

Cool! I love investigative pieces!

[jaelithe]

Heh. I bet the intern they hired to pretend to be Cindy is, ahem, in a bit of a fricassee.

[cynematic]

And we know Stefania *hates* recipe-stealers **cough Jessica Seinfeld cough**!! :) That is the lowest of the low, man.

[Kristin]

Ah, thanks for the great laugh..."Hi, Cindy! Welcome to the internet! We can see you, you know." Perfect.

[Lawyer Mama]

LOL! This was great! (And I'm a little freaked out by the backwards silverware too....)

[Glennia]

You are one hard bitten investigative journalist, CityMama.

[Stefania/CityMama]

I wish I could take credit for the investigative journalism, but I cannot. The woman who discovered the gaff is linked in the original article.

[debbie]

Cindy's *real* favorite recipe:

mix two xanax with a sidecar, wait fifteen minutes, follow with valium and vicodin, flip on television to drown out sound of fury in head over how pathetic life is, despite impossible amounts of wealth and fame, because of inability to join highest social ranks given permanent rank of "beer baroness."

retire in separate bedroom from geriatric husband.

*****

this recipe is best used for one person, but can involve as many as two people.

[pamela]

OMG- that is too funny. Do you really think that woman cooks ?

[V.T.]

Gloria Feldt blogged about the same topic at her politics blog, Heartfeldt. Check it out and leave a comment, if you're interested.

http://www.gloriafeldt.com/heartfeldt-politics-blog/2008/4/21/image-politics-everybody-lies-about-sex-but-who-knew-they-li.html

[Mike]

Great recipe Cindy. Maybe they stole it from you guys. I am still voting for John good luck and we will see you at the White House..

[Mike of Sherwick Forest]

I was interested in your site and the fun that you poked at McCain and his wife until I saw your use of the term 'gook food'. Now I'm done with you and your site because the phrase is a short jump from 'nigger', 'Chink', 'Spic', and a host of other ugly and unpleasant phrases that never need to be turned. Learn to speak of people and cultures in a respectful manner. It matters.

[cynematic]

Mike of Sherwick Forest, I hear your objection to the use of the epithet 'gook', which is most certainly racist. But did you click on the link? Because it was McCain himself who used that epithet.

And he gets little love from the Asian Pacific American community as a result, to make an understatement.