Food columnist spins out of control

Readers who follow the dessert regimen of Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung may end up on the operating table for surgery to bypass their dangerously clogged arteries.

When Elisa Ung was hired by The Record in 2007, she was a walking contradiction -- an overweight Asian woman -- who had succumbed to the occupational hazards of food writing and restaurant reviewing.

I recall her walking past the news copy desk in Hackensack in late afternoon, talking obsessively about food to younger staffers.

I can't imagine what she looks like now after consuming hundreds of the sugary, artery clogging desserts she is addicted to, as her column on the Better Living front today so amply demonstrates (BL-1).

Just deserts

An entire column on tiramisu as "dessert perfection"? 

The continuation page even has a cookbook-promoting recipe for any fool who wants to try making this dessert at home.

Of course, a balanced approach would have included a sidebar on coronary artery bypass surgery or discuss the unhealthy minority who order dessert at every meal.

Ung's column, The Corner Table, is supposed to address such restaurant issues as the dysfunctional tipping system, restaurants' outrageous markup on wine or how few restaurants serve naturally raised food.

Last week, she did a column on ceviche. Just think: A discussion of one dish ad nauseam every Sunday.

Disappointing edition

Forgive my rant on Ung, but there is so little in the Woodland Park daily's disappointing Sunday edition from Editor Marty Gottlieb.

The front of  head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is dominated by a "fireball" touched off when a tractor-trailer ran off Route 17 and into an office building's support columns (L-1).

This is an impressive job of reporting, but for some reason, the story never raises the possibility the driver had a heart attack or some other medical emergency.

Round and round

The entire Road Warrior column today is devoted to a "traffic risk management expert" from the Federal Highway Administration and roundabouts (L-1).

John Cichowski, who has written the column since the end of 2003, is single handedly responsible for North Jersey's traffic congestion by forever defending the right of drivers to clog the roads in their gas-guzzling cars and SUVs.

Local is missing any significant municipal news from Hackensack or anywhere else.

More fattening stuff

On the Business front, the paper promotes fattening, teeth-rotting soft drinks from Coke and Pepsi (B-1).

I haven't seen a word in The Record on Consumer Reports' campaign against harmful antibiotics in meat and poultry. 

Bell tolls for readers

 

In Opinion, the Editorial Page urges the Legislature to override Governor Christie's veto of a Port Authority reform bill (O-2). 

The GOP bully is telling North Jersey commuters they have nothing to look forward to but ever-higher tolls and overburdened mass-transit alternatives.