Mexican marinade made with chili pepper / MON 6-28-21 / Popular meal kit company or mother of the food critic featured in this puzzle / Energy giant synonymous with corporate scandal

Constructor: Pamela F. Davis

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging to Challenging (***for a Monday***) (about half a minute-ish slower than normal) (3:22)

THEME: HOME CHEF (39D: Popular meal kit company (or the mother of the food critic featured in this puzzle?) — so ... the themers are all food puns, clued (mostly) as things a kid (the "food critic") might say to a theoretical "Mom" who did the cooking:

Theme answers:

• BEET (not "beat") REPORT (17A: "So, this red thing, Mom? This is not good.")
• ROLL (not "role") REVERSAL (27A: "The French one is my favorite. Wait, no, the pretzel one."
• MUSSEL (not "muscle") MEMORY (48A: "Eww, mollusks ... I don't know didn't this make me sick last time?")
• MOUSSE (not "moose") (!?) CALL (63A: "Wow, Mom, this is like at a restaurant! Dibs on the chocolate pudding!")

Word of the Day: ADOBO (40A: Mexican marinade made with chili pepper) —

1: a Philippine dish of fish or meat usually marinated in a sauce containing vinegar and garlic, browned in fat, and simmered in the marinade

2: a spicy marinade used in Latin American cuisine and usually containing vinegar, garlic, and chili pepperschipotles in adobo

3: a seasoning mixture that typically includes ground dried garlic, ground dried onion, oregano, salt, and pepper (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Did a meal kit company write this? Feels semi-promotional. But the real problem is that it's thematically convoluted. Also, ultra-gendered (why isn't Dad doing the *&$^ing cooking?!). The whole time I was solving, I was wondering why some of these clues directly addressed someone named "Mom" ... but then some of them did not do that ... and then you find out, in the very oddly / awkwardly-positioned revealer, that the clues are all supposed to be things a kid is saying to a "Mom," and ... well, the whole premise just seems preposterous. The clues that don't have "Mom" in them don't really seem like they're in a kid voice, so the whole premise just drops out for half the themers. But even if you put "Mom" in all of the clues, the premise is still weird. It's almost as if making HOME CHEF a revealer was a late call. It just doesn't seem well-integrated into the grid (no symmetrical thematic counterpart except MEGAFLOP (!)). And, well, mainly, you've just got these very, very basic food puns. That's your puzzle. And yeah, it's not much to go on, so all the "Mom" seems like it was thrown in to try to 'zazz it all up, but with very mixed results. Also, two of the base phrases read weird to me. I am familiar with the job of "beat reporter," but does said reporter file a "beat report." I assume so, and yet that phrase is a lot, lot less in-the-language than "beat reporter." And then there's "moose call," which ... as Things go, that is not exactly one I'd put in the Everyday category? Are you hunting the moose? Why? They seem so gentle and big and awkward and lovely. Slightly confused me to have one themer turn a basic phrase ("muscle memory") *into* an animal ("mussel"), while the next themer made the animal disappear ("moose" into "mousse"). It's all just ... all over the place. And again, at its core, it's just elementary food puns. 

Fill is mostly short and ordinary. Not enough snazzy stuff to distract me from having to deal with REFILE *and* RETIE, or to offset the upset from deeply unappealing fill like SPOOR and SPUMES. Some people don't like the word "moist," but I'll take "moist" over SPOOR and SPUMES any day. We've been drinking a lot of tequila and mezcal cocktails lately, so I'm weirdly happy to see AGAVE, even if it isn't exactly new to griddom. Especially heartened to see ADOBO, which is delicious and welcome in my grid any time (even if I did briefly blank on it, and then considered ANCHO). I saw "Hamilton" but I don't know if I saw it with Phillipa SOO, but either way I forgot her name. I also didn't know HOME CHEF was the name of a meal kit company. Blue Apron ... is that something? I know that. And something something Fresh, maybe? Ah, yes: HelloFresh. Those are the ones I know. Between the I-don't-knows and the wacky punniness of the themers, this one played more like a Tuesday than a Monday, but that didn't really bug me at all. There's a potentially interesting core theme idea here, but it just didn't come together very well for me today.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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