The New York Times Cooking section provides a vast resource of recipes for chefs at virtually any skill level; now, it has become an unlikely meme.
The site has an entry for Parsleyed Noodles—a fairly straightforward recipe involving a pound of egg noodles, a quarter cup of melted butter, a quarter cup finely chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.
The ingredients are then combined into a large serving dish and gently tossed before serving. One could argue that you don’t exactly need a recipe to figure out how to put together pasta, butter, and herbs; perhaps to that point, the recipe’s description seems to really, really try to sell it.
“These generously buttered noodles, sprinkled with just a quarter cup of parsley for color and freshness, are the perfect blank canvas for practically any stew or braise,” it states.
Cool, cool. Nothing to see here. Except, as noted by television writer Ariel Dumas, things got weird in the comments. “Ok wtf is going on with these nytimes recipe comments lol,” she tweeted along with screenshots.
ok wtf is going on with these nytimes recipe comments lol pic.twitter.com/EGFox8pivT
— Ariel Dumas (@ArielDumas) January 18, 2019
Inexplicably, 11 months ago someone named Anne left a comment of the recipe that was literally just repeating the recipe’s description.
“I would have to agree,” added another commenter, Morgan, soon after. “I found these generously buttered noodles, sprinkled with just a quarter cup of parsley for color and freshness, were the perfect blank canvas for this, or practically any stew or braise.”
Then, just one month ago, “Angela” added: “Couldn’t agree more, but I would add that I sincerely love generously buttered noodles, sprinkled with just a quarter cup of parsley for color and freshness, because they are the perfect blank canvas for practically any stew or braise.”
The joke is hilariously absurd, especially when you consider the slow, 10-month burn between the second and third comment. It’s also perfectly ripe for a meme, as Dumas created a few of her own—using the Mocking Spongebob, the “Hey” from A Star is Born, and Distracted Boyfriend templates.
ThEsE gEnErOuSlY BuTtEreD NOodlEs, sPrInklEd wItH JuSt a QuArtEr cUp oF PaRsLeY fOr CoLoR aNd FreShNesS, ArE tHe PeRfEcT BlAnK cAnVaS fOr PrAcTiCaLlY AnY StEw oR BrAiSe. pic.twitter.com/34F4WfigME
— Ariel Dumas (@ArielDumas) January 18, 2019
— Ariel Dumas (@ArielDumas) January 18, 2019
It didn’t take long for others to join in on the fun:
https://twitter.com/ira/status/1086485246957182976
https://twitter.com/_kaburi_/status/1086344908707745792
The description lends itself perfectly for virtually any meme format:
https://twitter.com/WillStottTweets/status/1086311442738040842
— KG (@Libbykris11) January 19, 2019
— Tina Kover (@tinakover) January 18, 2019
Craig Claiborne: These generously buttered noodles sprinkled with just a quarter cup of parsley for color and freshness are the perfect blank canvas
— Marc (@MarcSnetiker) January 18, 2019
Me: FOR PRACTICALLY ANY STEW OR BRAISE pic.twitter.com/c6jY0kUX5L
— Tina Kover (@tinakover) January 18, 2019
Even HBO’s official Twitter account had some fun with it:
Tell Cersei. I want her to know generously buttered noodles sprinkled with just a quarter cup of parsley for color and freshness are the perfect blank canvas for practically any stew or braise. pic.twitter.com/V2XbWYcq9X
— HBO (@HBO) January 18, 2019
If there’s just one thing left to say here, it’s that generously buttered noodles, sprinkled with just a quarter cup of parsley for color and freshness, are the perfect blank canvas for practically any stew or braise.