Book Review: Food & Booze

Edited by: Michelle Wildgen

Publisher: Tin House Books

There are food writers, and then, there are writers like Lydia Davis, Steve Almond and Elissa Schappell, who have been whipped into the entertaining feast that is Food & Booze. Selected from seven years of the “Readable Feast” and “Blithe Spirit” departments published in the lit journal Tin House, the anthology’s 24 contributors cover terrain typically the purview of epicureans and test kitchens—here rendered in essays and witty recipes. Only in deft hands like Almond’s could the clichéd “boy meets barbeque” story become a meditation on the laws of marinades (“they must come from within, not from TV chefs with accents”) and the nature of grills (“each possesses a kind of soul”). Even recipes, like Davis’ directions for Sardine Sandwich, forgo the calculated language of cookbooks in favor of writerly asides like: “Slice the Kalamata olives into thin rounds. (It’s hard to remember how long they’ve been in the fridge, and no one will ever tell you how long you can keep olives safely, but they look all right.)” And since a good, stiff drink is a writer’s most essential implement (after the laptop, paper and pen, of course) there are a half dozen paeans to spirits, like Schappell’s “Ode to a Martini.” It’s enough to whet anyone’s appetite. 

Reading Nov. 14. KGB, 85 E. 4th St. (betw. Bowery & 2nd Ave.); 7-9 p.m.