Every year Holly Hughes reads hundreds, probably thousands of essays, articles, blog posts, and the like as part of her job as the editor of the annual Best Food Writing series published by Da Capo Press since 2000. I have the 2005 edition, and I know I didn't read it in its entirety and wonder, now, whether I've cracked its spine at all.
Best Food Writing 2010 offers a snapshot of the issues and trends affecting eaters, cooks, and anyone involved in or interested in food. Hughes selected a great crop of writes to include in this edition. Names that those who study the subject would recognize: Molly O'Neill, John T. Edge, and many more.
Organizationally Hughes started readers in the middle of a fight. "Food Fights" offers the best selection of writing on the issue that divides foodies quicker than a razor-edged cleaver: to eat meat or not, to eat locally or not, to review online or not. Admittedly, I got a bit heated up when I was immersed in writing that didn't exactly represent my point of view on food and eating. Certainly, it's only logical to read the opposition's arguments. They are good.
Jonathan Safran Foer writes about why he raises his children as vegetarians. I completely agree with his points. Vegetarianism is smart, it's better for the body, the environment, the animals. But it's a difficult choice unless you live in an urban environment whose diversity of products and eateries make it an easy lifestyle choice.
Rachel Hutton's piece on online reviews and how they affect eateries in Minnesota outlines the problems, universal problems, really, facing restaurants in the age of the online review. And Tim Carman's informative, and persuasively anti-Zagat piece, demonstrates Zagat's lack of relevance in light of services like Yelp, Urbanspoon and OpenTable. It's all about transparency, you see. Zagat keeps their ranking methodology secret whereas social networking website for foodies let anyone see the reviews and scores.
Personally, I rely on both. Zagat has never let me down, but the only two I've bought were for the same area, Miami & South Florida, 2007 and 2010 respectively. In fact, the 2010 tipped me off to an excellent Salvadoran restaurant El Tamarindo in Ft. Lauderdale. But services like Yelp are invaluable when I'm in the car in a foreign-to-me place and I want to locate an above-average meal within a mile or less, of my location.
"Dining Around" is the second section and it includes pieces written about specific dining experiences. I loved Patricia Sharpe's article "New Zion Barbecue." She lays out the history of a Baptist church in Hunstville, Texas that sells barbecue on the side. Sharpe's piece was probably my favorite of that bunch and reflects what I like to read about: Just folks serving just folks. Other pieces in the section focused on Tokyo, L.A., and sommeliers.
And while those articles were informative, descriptive, evocative, even, most failed to resonate with me and my experience. Frank Bruni wrote about egging on the sommelier at Le Bernardin's and threw around figures like $150 and $75 bottles of white Burgundy. Those bottles, those tastes in the mouth, are not something that the hoi polli would experience, me included. Just maybe it's fun to catch a glimpse of those fleeting moments of the grandiose lifestyle. For some people.
Todd Killman's "The Perfect Chef" was first in the third section, "Someone's in the Kitchen." I loved it. Killman chronicled his obsession with Peter Chang, a Chinese chef whose wanderlust, or something, kept him hopping from restaurants all over the mid-Atlantic and southeast. Killman's descriptions of Chang's food infected me, made me a believer, and I'd love to sample a few of those intoxicating, spicy dishes like the fried fish rubbed with cumin.
Reading Jeff Koehler's "Sardines!" reminded me of how I loved eating the tinned fish when I was a child. His quest for fresh sardines anywhere, everywhere he traveled convinced me that I, too, must eat fresh sardines. In the meantime, I'll browse my grocer's shelves and settle for canned sardines.
In that same section, "Stocking the Pantry" Molly O'Neill's profile of Frank Reese, Jr., who once modeled as the Marlboro Man, made me really consider the turkey. Reese breeds heirloom turkeys. His crusade to revive poultry breeds resounded with me and lit a spark of appreciation for his work on behalf of America's poultry viability.
I also loved reading Mike Sula's piece on "The Charcuterie Underground" which described Chicago's E & P Meats, a local company that makes bacon, sausage, and other meats in the owner's homes. It perfectly illustrates how USDA regulations work for big business, but don't address the special issues of the small, local, agricultural businesses. It reminded me of the excitement I felt when Ian brought home twenty pounds of locally-made sausage a few years ago. Sure, we get moonshine all the time, but sausage is something else. Also, my father is a meat cutter by day (preacher by night). And so I love reading about his industry.
Since we've reached the mid-way point in the book, and I'm still reading it, I'll end with that today and finish up my review with part two, tomorrow. I'm really loving this book. It makes me think. It makes me salivate. It inspires me, and I hope that once you read it, you experience the same effect.
Stay tuned.
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