'Koodie': Another Term to Describe the Children of Smug, Self-Satisfied, Food-Obsessed Parents
You've come a long way, baby koodie. ["Ravenous Girl," print available at Plan59, starting at $16]
Koodie is a new term making the rounds in the online food space. Coined by Phil Lempert, "Supermarket Guru":
koodie: -noun Slang. A kid keenly interested in food, especially eating, cooking, or watching reruns of Julia Child. A kid who has an ardent or refined interest in food; a mini-gourmet; usually trained by one or both parents to have an unusual, and sometimes fanatic, desire to eat unusual foods. Evolution from the now-defunct word foodie.
Can my eyes roll any harder?
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24 Comments:
Gag me with the proverbial spoon.
chanterelle at 9:48PM on 11/17/09
Is that the same thing as a cootie?
cycorider at 10:28PM on 11/17/09
That image is really, really creepy.
jessie at 11:00PM on 11/17/09
It is. *Shudder* And you have GOT to be kidding me.
alosha7777 at 1:47AM on 11/18/09
A word can't be defunct if we all know what it means.
lemonfair at 6:45AM on 11/18/09
The evil devil child will eat your "koodies" and make bread from their bones.
finsbigfan at 7:55AM on 11/18/09
Sounds like a really bad B-list horror film...
avaryne at 8:35AM on 11/18/09
It's a stupid term, but calling them the kids of "smug, self-satisfied" parents? It's sad that people (and their kids) who like REAL food are often treated with such disdain. It's not like this is a new development, people have been eating real, natural foods for how many millennia? It's the processed, frozen, chemical-laden, store-bought nonsense that's an unnatural recent development...how did that ever become the norm?
jessetay at 9:16AM on 11/18/09
How is that pronounced, like foodie? It doesn't even make sense. The K doesn't make it "kid who likes food." How about foodettes.
lambowner at 9:36AM on 11/18/09
I am against cutesy slang words and really hope this doesn't catch on, but I had to chime in and wonder if Dexter, from Pete Wells' NYT column Cooking with Dexter, is not THE "koodie" poster child.
From last week's column: "He (Dexter) writes his own menus too. It’s not always an advantage to cook with a kindergarten student who feels empowered to think like a chef. In fact, he rarely cooks with me at all these days. He cooks beside me, freestyling his own recipes using whatever ingredients I’ve put on the countertop."
Excuse me, did someone say "smug, self-satisfied"... ? Am I the only one who wonders why NYT needs a weekly column wherein Pete Wells can boast about his kid's precious "foodie" tendencies?
ricewins at 10:04AM on 11/18/09
My eyes ran smoothly to "How to Spatchcock a Turkey" neatly placed to the right hand side.
Foodlexi at 10:33AM on 11/18/09
Did I just read that the grating term foodie is now defunct? I have been amazed that it has stayed in vogue as long as it has. I first heard it in 1992 and I'm not exactly sitting on the cutting edge of trends here in the mountains.
Rocquie at 11:44AM on 11/18/09
@finsbigfan "The evil devil child will eat your "koodies" and make bread from their bones."
I nearly bust a gut. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it. Really, really funny...still laughing.
funkopolis at 12:06PM on 11/18/09
Hmm. Being old and decrepit, I must defer to the Urban Dictionary, which defines "koodie" as a term to use "when someone is being very slow."
I've never been a fan of "foodie," either.
piglet at 12:20PM on 11/18/09
@ricewins, I'm with you. I thought that "Dexter" column in the NYT was a spoof, but after seeing it again and again it does actually seem to be some besotted Dad rambling on about his little kid's 'recipes'. We all love our kids, but - Ick! Koodie indeed.
pourgirl at 12:24PM on 11/18/09
I guess parents can't win. If the child is a picky eater and only eats "white food" her parents are bad. If the child is a picky eater and will only eat gourmet meals, her parents are bad too.
But I'd take the latter any time. Call me smug and self-satisfied.
This "koodie" think really sounds like the brainchild of a parent whose child is the former.
Carioca at 1:03PM on 11/18/09
@jessetay and @Carioca: I should have elaborated in the post the way I originally intended to after writing that headline. It's great that parents are feeding their kids real, natural food. And if you read the whole post in which Phil Lempert coins "koodie," his message is a good one—that these kids will, we hope, end up eating better, be healthier, and avoid the obesity issues that their peers and kids before them have encountered.
My eye-rolling is targeted at the sort of parents who seem to use their kids as a sort of creative accessory, flaunting their tots' sophisticated food choices as a way of saying, "Hey, look what an awesome parent I am. My 2-year-old is eating foie gras, can tell the difference between ten types of imported olives, and prefers sushi to fish sticks."
For background, these people are straight out of Stuff White People Like or, for lack of a better word, are the type of parents New York magazine identified as "grups" in this 2006 article on hipster parents. See also the first paragraph of this blog post: http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/read/goodbye-to-all-that
It's just sort of like, why can't these folks just feed their kids good, real, or "challenging" food and not make a big deal about it and turn it into some sort of "look at my gastronome kid"?
Adam Kuban at 1:12PM on 11/18/09
Also: Slap me if, the day I have a kid myself, I start blogging here about Baby's First Foie.
Adam Kuban at 1:14PM on 11/18/09
I love the retro picture, but hate Dexter. Can't wait until he grows up and starts eating peanut butter by the spoonful and drinking milk out of the carton when he turns 16.
However, watching Julia Child as a kid was FUN. That is not 'new'--JC and the Swedish chef=universal childhood delight without pretence.
HeartofGlass at 3:30PM on 11/18/09
Ugh, forced coinage. Also ugh, becoming a snob about anything, whether that thing is food, parenting, or one's oh-so-superior management of one or both.
That said, if we need a term to describe little gourmets-in-training, I vote "taster tots."
jm chen at 3:41PM on 11/18/09
the kid looks lie Cindy Brady. also scary.
bisbee at 4:50PM on 11/18/09
@ Adam Kuban....the article on Grups was fantastic...I am, now, officially a Grup. Laughed outloud, but also wondered what the hell I am doing sitting at this desk all day, while life and the things I am truly passionate about pass me by. I may quit this 9-5 tomorrow, it really does suck. I think I'll rock the Hives on the way home today, stop for a 40oz, and sing at the top of my lungs. Thanks.
funkopolis at 4:56PM on 11/18/09
I'm having a kid in a few months and there is no way in hell I'm ever going to let him become anything close to a word that sounds like "cooter."
Susquehanna at 9:29PM on 11/18/09
If I ever hear anyone actually say this, I'd probably slap them in the face.
wunami at 11:41PM on 11/18/09