While that was a mea culpa / CYA, I did appreciate this bit at the end (which is usually what triggers the strong feelings in people from whichever culture is in question in these types of discussions):
People have asked me if I’m sorry I wrote the Indian section of the column… I regret it mostly because of two letters I got from young Indian-American women… They explained to me, in almost identical terms, that it was hurtful to them because they grew up with friends telling them that their family’s food was “stinky.”
Naively, this surprised me, because I am the only person in my ambit of friends and colleagues who doesn’t love Indian food.
Had I known of the ubiquity of this cultural prejudice, and how early it attaches, I never would have written it.
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That said, my view when the article was linked here was that I thought blowing up a humor column was a PR stunt for Padma Lakshmi, because the writing was clearly self-deprecating and not directed at the cuisine.
