In October last year, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank bravely wrote:

“… I’m so certain [Donald] Trump won’t win the nomination that I’ll eat my words if he does. Literally: The day Trump clinches the nomination I will eat the page on which this column is printed in Sunday’s Post. I have this confidence for the same reason [Mitt] Romney does: Americans are better than Trump.”

Perhaps they are, but eat his words Milbank now must. The call went out on social media for recipes and readers responded in droves. He updated earlier this week:

“Through the magic of crowdsourcing, I have discovered that eating newspaper can be downright mouth-watering. This is going to be huge! We are going to build a big, beautiful meal — and Mexico is going to pay for it.

“On Thursday, May 12, after readers have voted for their favorite newspaper cuisine, acclaimed chef Victor Albisu of Washington’s Del Campo restaurant will select and prepare a wide variety of newsprint-based dishes. Tom Sietsema, The Post’s James Beard Award-winning food critic, will be on hand to taste and judge the dishes, and I will eat them — streamed live on The Washington Post’s Facebook page.”

The favourite dish for the moment is “newspaper chilaquiles in tomatillo-jalapeño sauce, crispy newspaper dumplings, saffron rice and newspaper-smoked lamb, newspaper-lined tacos, ground newspaper falafel, newspaper Wagyu steak, candied-newspaper waffles and newspaper-stuffed churros”. Sounds almost good enough to eat.