Favorites for Foodies
Food writer Betsy Block has some recommendations for folks who appreciate both good food and good writing. At the National Public Radio site, she lists three favorites: An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, by Elizabeth David; The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, by Alice B. Toklas; and Alice, Let's Eat, by Calvin Trillin.
Haven't read the first two, but I'll swear by Trillin's book. Though it's been years since I read it, I can recall a clever turn of phrase about eating Smithfield ham -- he said he was still thirsty from the last time he ate it. And when I drove my son from Baltimore to his new home in Denver, we scheduled our entire trip around a stop at a Trillin favorite: Arthur Bryant's barbecue restaurant in Kansas City.
Thinking about other food books, I came up with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Like Water for Chocolate and Chocolat. Hmmm, do I see a pattern?
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
Comments
Dave, Thanks for bringing us these favorites for foodies recommendations. My two top picks are Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. They live permanently on my night table, and I return to them every so often as I would to an old friend. Laurie's voice lilts and charms as she writes about good food (recipes included), family celebrations, dinner parties in her cozy Greenwich Village apartment that was "a little larger than the Columbia Encyclopedia", her young daughter, and her life philosophy. Also an accomplished novelist, Laurie Colwin died in her sleep in 1992 at the age of 48. As Jonathan Yardley wrote in 2003, "She was granted less than a quarter-century of writing, from her first published story in 1969 to her death 23 years later, but she made the most of it: 10 sublime books that are still in the stores, still bringing happiness, Colwin-style, into the world."
Posted by: Lisa Bankman | July 2, 2008 10:39 PM
M.F.K Fisher needs to be added to the list of essential foodie reading.
Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka books are almost anti-foodie reading, clever though they are.
Posted by: Dahlink | July 3, 2008 6:52 AM
I have loved all of the Ruth Reichl books I've read, but especially "Garlic and Sapphires." Her description of sushi made me want to try it -- if only for a fleeting moment.
Posted by: Mary | July 3, 2008 7:11 AM
I can't get enough of food books. I'll be getting a couple signed, in between drinks and food samples, at next week's chefs and wine event:
http://www.chefsandwine.org/
Posted by: thecheeseisblue | July 3, 2008 2:21 PM
Another great book for foodies/restaurant goers - "Kitchen Confidential," by Anthony Bourdain. It's an honest look at the life of a chef in NYC restaurant kitchens. You'll never feel the same about eating out.
Posted by: Suzy | July 3, 2008 6:43 PM
I love anything written by the late Richard Olney. He was a tremendous influence on the local, seasonal movement in CA in the seventies. My all time favorite food quote was his answer to a question about Julia Child. "Just because she is on TV doesn't mean she knows how to cook." He did most of his cooking in the fireplace in his shack in Provence.
(This comment was posted on Dining@Large, in reference to Favorites for Foodies -- Dave)
Posted by: Mark | July 3, 2008 6:48 PM
I must add Consuming Passions by Michelle Lee West - a look at a Southern woman and her crazy relatives with recipes at the end of each chapter.
Posted by: Dining Dish | July 4, 2008 3:28 PM