Should I be flattered that Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, took time to read Tim Carman’s piece on bagels and then left a thoughtful comment about it?

Why no, because Carman’s piece barely touches on high-fructose corn syrup. Closest he comes is quoting someone else saying bagel quality has declined since many bagelries went to “cheaper (and sweeter) agents like sugar or high-fructose corn syrup” instead of malt syrup.

He doesn’t talk about the way that nasty crap is turning children into blobs or how rogue outfits like the Mayo Clinic encourage you to avoid it. But just to be safe, Erickson, who assures us she’s not a robot by admitting HFCS “may have a complicated-sounding name,” tells us we can learn more about the “misunderstandings” about HFCS at sweetsurprise.com.

Or you could just eat food that doesn’t have HFCS in it, like Carman’s bagels, which may have been baked in lies but were really, really good. Best I’ve had since I left New York (if I find out La Bagel Delight uses HFCS, I will slit my wrists).

Holly Hughes, editor of the much-loved Best Food Writing anthologies, has discovered what we here at City Paper have known for some time: Tim Carman is doing great work when it comes to telling food stories.

We also have to agree with Hughes that Carman’s Young & Hungry column in defense of fat and the processed food he dares to love is among his best. “Fat’s What I’m Talking About,” which ran in the March 28 edition, will appear in Best Food Writing 2008.

Here’s a sample:

Ever since that Crisco cookie, I’ve reconnected with some of the foods, or some of the places, I used to like before I felt the need to squirrel away my pedestrian eating habits. You know what? I still really like the Burrito Supreme at Taco Bell, particularly when the pimply kid pumps the sour cream evenly across the beans, shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, ground beef, and diced tomatoes. I also can’t believe how much I drool over the crumbly biscuits at Popeyes; they’re even tastier after you slather them with strawberry jam squeezed from a packet. And I swear that some days the cracker-crust pizza at Stained Glass Pub in Silver Spring tastes better than any of those boutique pies—especially when you can play Buzztime trivia while eating.

The book, out in the fall, compiles the best writing from newspapers, magazines, and, in recent years, blogs. Past editions have included well-known food writers Ruth Reichl, Jeffrey Steingarten, R.W. Apple, Calvin Trillin, and Todd Kliman (former columnist at City Paper and current dining editor at Washingtonian), among others. We’re delighted that Carman, who has been writing the Y&H column since March 2006, is in their deserving company.