Category Archives: Books

Lines are overrated, and totally empty restaurants are underrated

Some readers (or journalists) ask me if I have further principles for finding good food which are not outlined in my ethnic dining guide or in An Economist Gets Lunch. Of course I do, though many of them are not … Continue reading

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Michael Pollan’s “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation”

Here is the bottom line: The premise of this book is that cooking — defined broadly enough to take in the whole spectrum of techniques people have devised for transforming the raw stuff of nature into nutritious and appealing things … Continue reading

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My talk at Arlington Public Library, April 3, 2013

The talk is available on YouTube: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013 6:00 pm – Food Trucks Open for Business 7:00 pm – Lecture, Q&A with the Author Arlington Public Library, 1015 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22201 (Metro Trip Planner) RSVP … Continue reading

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Chasin’ Tails, Cajun Seafood and Bar

Chasin’ Tails, Cajun Seafood and Bar, web site, (it is in The WestLee building, Google Maps does not display this address properly, use 2198) 2200 N Westmoreland Street, Arlington, VA, 703-538-2565 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google … Continue reading

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Dinner with Fuchsia Dunlop

I am pleased to have shared a meal at A&J Manchurian restaurant, in Rockville with the charming Fuchsia Dunlop. You may recall that Fuchsia has written what I consider to be the very best Chinese cookbooks in English and indeed … Continue reading

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*Every Grain of Rice*

That is the new book by Fuchsia Dunlop and the subtitle is Simple Chinese Home Cooking. The first recipe I tried (tonight), the vegetarian tofu, was an absolute knockout. Two of Fuchsia’s previous books Revolutionary Chinese Cooking: Recipes from Hunan … Continue reading

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I answer food questions over at Freakonomics

I liked the whole interview, here is the concluding segment: Q. What restaurant or food type would Tyler Cowen, Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises enjoy for lunch? Why? -Bill N. A. Rothbard was quite a conservative eater, but he … Continue reading

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“The Locavore’s Dilemma”

The authors are Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu (husband and wife), and the subtitle is In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet: The publisher’s page summarizes it thus: Today’s food activists think that “sustainable farming” and “eating local” are the … Continue reading

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How to find good food in American bars

Jacob Grier has an excellent post on this topic (which I do not cover), here is just one part of a longer discussion: Reading An Economist Gets Lunch inspired me to think explicitly about how to find good food in … Continue reading

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Food Rules!

So how did American food fall to the depths of 1960? In Cowen’s view, it wasn’t the doing of greedy agribusiness in league with the Mad Men. Three great tsunamis wrecked the American palate: Prohibition, the Emergency Quota Act of … Continue reading

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