Sand Between the Pages
Three new reads for your beach tote
There's no better time to put a dent in your reading list than during the summer, but die-hard food lovers know that hauling a coffee table-size cookbook to the beach isn't exactly a leisurely endeavor.
Instead of cutting the food out of your literary diet on this year's vacation, stick to these tote-size tomes:
Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France by Michael Steinberger
Once at the forefront of the world's food scene, France's restaurants have taken a serious dip in quality, while other countries (namely, Spain and Great Britain) have eagerly taken up the torch. Fueled by his own nostalgia, Steinberger explores possible explanations for the fall--and shards of hope for France's gastronomic future. Buy it here.
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop (now in paperback)
In her detailed account of traveling for more than a decade in China, this British author shows that her love affair with Chinese cuisine is as complicated as the country itself. Dunlop covers an impressive amount of ground, from the sultry, spicy dishes of Chengdu to back-road inns that cater to appetites for illegal endangered species. Buy it here.
Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler
In this idyllic, neo-pastoral memoir, former city dweller Kessler offers meditations on his new life raising goats in Vermont. His discoveries make for equal parts agricultural how-to and spiritual journey--and, of course, lots of goat cheese. Buy it here.
