Airing of Grievances: I Am A Self Centered Fatso

Usually these posts are reserved for complaints about lunch spots, but just to show I am a good sport who is not immune to criticism- here’s a complaint I received yesterday in regards to my I’m-a-fat-guy-who-hates-health-food post about Recharge, the health food lunch spot opening where Good Portions used to be:

“People (like me and a lot of others) who have moderately high blood sugar levels must watch their carbs and sugar intake, lest they become diabetic. And diabetics are even worse off. Not to mention that a diet rich in carbohydrates and unrefined sugars is just simply bad for you, I’m talking about specific, necessary restrictions that are very common.

It’s not a goddamn fad, if you can get that through your wide-bodied veil of self-centrism. Some people who eat healthy food aren’t born to hippie parents and hate the taste of hamburgers, some people have no choice. And it’s fucking hard enough to find something to eat that is reasonably inexpensive, relatively tasty, and not packed with carbs/sugar, without rotund blowhards bloviating on the internet about how inconvenienced they are by one out of thousands of restaurants in NYC to offer a few menu choices that allow people with dietary restrictions to eat something that isn’t miserable or unaffordable. I’ve never heard of this place, but I assure you, you have plenty of food options available to your gaping maw.”

And then it gets personal

“By the way, I got my blood sugar levels high by eating like you do (poorly and a lot) for about 30 years. So when your doctor lets you know you are giving yourself diabetes, maybe you will be a little bit less smug about how goddamn inconvenient it is that other people might have the opportunity to eat something that won’t actively and directly impact their health in the short term.

You sound like a rich guy complaining about how poor people don’t pay enough taxes. In other words, you sound like a clueless asshole. Thought you might want to know that. – Matt”

I eat a healthy and balanced meal for breakfast and dinner.  Does that make up for it?  I don’t even know where to begin with this…  maybe I’ll just leave it to you guys.

Got a grievance you’d like to air?  Feel free to send it to zach@midtownlunch.com

69 Comments

  • That’s sad Matt has to get so angry about this.

    While I try to stay on the healthy side of eating during the work week, what keeps me going is reading about all the places midtown lunch and thinking that it’s only a few more days until my cheat day (Sat. and Sunday but who’s counting?) when I can sample some of the places reviewed on the website.

    Zach, not that you need me to defend you but keep up the good work with Midtown Lunch!

    From a semi-healthy eater, Dubya El

  • Dear “Matt”:

    First off, it is clear you are a homer. Do you own Recharge, or are you just the marketing idiot? Regardless, you just made a REALLY STUPID BUSINESS DECISION by alienating a ton of potential eaters with your rant! We may make fun of health food here (and dammnit, I believe you are trying to capitalize on a fad–which I called out in the comments yesterday), but you still “might” have gotten some business had you kept your fingers on your jimmy rather than the keyboard! Now, all I want to do is through bottles of pee at your storefront and poop on your stoop. I will show no mercy—I will hate on your precious “recharge” until the end of days!!!! Moreover, as it is clear you are an obnoxious ass who treats his employees like s&&t, I hope they slip in some fun dip in your drinks and food!!! DWell on that for a while! Hope to see you in the hospital when I get my third triple bi-pass after setting a new whopper eating record of 39 burgers in an hour!!!!

    Your pal—

    Goats

    pal, but I piss on your health issues! Would you like some whine with that fake tofu cheese your LAME restaurant offers??? For goddsakes man—take a chill pill!

  • mmmmmm… wide bodied veal of self-centrism. (sic)

  • zach is not obese, i can attest to that. I also don’t think he’s giving himself diabetes. Me? probably. Zach? definitely not.

  • Dear Zach, Brian and Matt have a good point. For all the money that I am paying you for this site, you should really cater this blog to more of my interests. I’m not interested in your waistline or your opinion on health foods. I expect a certain level of service for the money i put into this venture. Stop focusing so much on your interests and focus more on me… or else!! … I…. will… write an angry e-mail?

  • Someone should give Matt a cookie so he can run to the corner and nibble on it like a rat and calm down.

    What would possess someone to write that? I guess he spent too much of his life eating Big Macs and didn’t find quality fat people eats like you did until he had given himself Diabetes.

    Come to think of it.. is Matt… Wilford Brimley?

  • Not only will this website lead to diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. But it is now NEW and IMPROVED! You get all this PLUS liver failure and alcohol dependency! You don’t need to thank us. Zach does it out of the kindness in his heart.

  • Awwwww Sarah, thanks for the sacrifice you make for us. You deserve a vodka soda next time you’re at Joshua Tree / Dorrian’s.

    Also why would you pay for calories at lunch, when you can get a guy to pay for really expensive calories (foie gras / filet mignon) for dinner.

  • Zach, we love you man! You provide a highly valuable service. Don’t change a thing! Your personal opinions and comments are what makes ML such a standout. Your review of Recharge wasn’t even all that negative.

    What a tool.

  • My liver’s becoming foie gras, I plan to leave it to Zach after I die.

  • Zach, if you share I’ll bring over the fava beans & a nice chianti

  • Matt does a point, though he didn’t need to descend into personal attacks.

    A lot of “health food” restaurants suffer from the attacks of the angry throngs of haters who pontificate that “all you have to do is eat less and exercise” (right, and everyone is the same blood type and has the same genetic makeup and food affects everyone the same way. btw food allergies are a myth).

    I made the same point Matt did (albeit a lot less angry). Zach “went there” by saying “didn’t atkins die with the man” (following it up with “I’m kidding”, which was supposed to make things right)? This is a sensitive issue not just to dieters but to diabetics. The “low carb” craze died because of all the idiots who thought “low carb dieting” thought they could eat 2lbs of steak smothered in butter and cheese without bothering to learn any of the real dietary lessons and health benefits of “low carb” eating and how effective it is at controlling weight, as well as controlling a diabetic’s blood sugar.

    The problem is now that diabetics and dieters alike suffer because manufacturers ditched the “low carb bandwagon” and stopped making products that people in this lifestyle could eat and enjoy, all because people who wouldn’t be eating the food anyway condemned it as a fad and turned people off of the “low carb” lifestyle.

    I can sympathize with Matt, though he didn’t need to make it personal.

  • ….anyone else having images of Mamacita with a large…..something….. in her throat? being forced fed grain…to make her…er liver…expand?

  • I think you’re on your own with that one Rudy.

  • arp is currently cruising the craigslist personals, searching for keyword “pre-op”

  • I really hate getting all serious on the site… but I feel like I should briefly respond to some of the comments:

    Eating healthy is completely defensible. The Atkins diet, is not. People on that diet eat steak and butter and cheese because they are told it is ok, and they would still lose weight. And you do. Of course you end up looking like death, but you’re thinner (until you start eating bread again.) Congrats!

    Atkins is a joke- and I’m not just saying that because I watched a co-worker scrape cheese off of a slice of pizza (in a meeting!) and eat it with his bear hands while on the the Atkins diet.

    I also feel this way because any diet that tells you fruit is bad for you, isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

    I have nothing against eating healthy. I’m a huge supporter of Zen Burger, and I can get down with brown rice. Who knows, maybe Recharge will be amazing. I admitted I haven’t been to the other location… but me making jokes about a new health food place doesn’t mean I hate diabetics, or don’t take health issues seriously. Clearly Midtown Lunch is not the website for that kind of discourse.

    And in the end my ranting admittedly means nothing. If the place appeals to you, you’re going to go there whether I shoot my mouth off or not…

  • i admit, i try to be balanced about what i eat and being a food-lover, i love everything from the greasiest street food to the freshest vegetables and farm-raised meat. i dig this blog’s emphasis on cheap and flavor – but ill go to umamimart or other similar blogs for the real dish on the dankest food out there…would be nice if u opened your standards toward flavor and quality and didnt always focus on portion size and fat content. you’re missin out on a lot of real good food out there mister.

  • This is a tough one…i can relate both to Matt and Zach. I think too many people are taking this personally…when really only Zach has said right to.

    The site itself is fine…if anything from this incident…it will probably lead to more postings on healthy options which is all good.

  • Bollocks, this is not or ever has been a healthy site.

    IF some twat like matt wants to conform to the induced FDA ” im not very well, you know” bollocks, well more fool him…

    Eat butter.Make Love.

    To each other.

  • yo that rant is fucking hilarious. I can vouch that Zach is not some crazy lunatic making people eat fatty and salty foods so they end up with type 2 diabetes.

    It is apparent that “matt” doesn’t frequent Midtown Lunch and doesn’t know about our never ending quest to eat as well as we can in this neighborhood. It’s nothing personal. It’s food and we’re talking about what we like!

    I think it’s one thing if Zach blogs about making it harder for diabetics to find nutritional food. But uh… once again, it’s clear that “matt” does not read ML that often because this blog is about tasty food. And Zach is good people so really… wtf yo?

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