Book Review: The Man Who Ate the World

Disclaimer: The folks at Holt send me review copies. I don’t always love the books, but I love getting them.

I don’t know what millefeuille is. Or veloute. Or charcroute. This tells you how much I know about fancy cooking. I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat that weird food that’s made by chemistry – foams and dry ice and vacuum sealing and the like don’t interest me, not enough to pay for them, that’s for sure. But I love to cook and, as the scale will confirm, I also love to eat. So it was with a hefty portion of envy that I digested Jay Rayner’s new book The Man Who Ate the World: In Search of the Perfect Dinner

I think I’d like Jay Rayner. Like Anthony Bourdain, he’s acutely aware of the good fortune he has in his line of work. He eats dinner and gets paid to do so. But he’s got none of Bourdain’s macho edge. There’s a funny scene in the book where Rayner and Bourdain are both at  Tokyo’s infamous fish market, and Rayner makes Bourdain’s crew out for something closely resembling a motorcycle gang. But that’s not what the book is about.


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Friday at Alki Beach

We weren’t the only ones who decided that on this beautiful day, it was necessary – no, imperative, really – to take our lunch break down at Alki Beach. We opted for a sandwich and coffee from Pioneer, but these young ladies had a better idea: gather your people, pack a lunch and swing your …


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Fish Wednesday Has a Posse

I know you’ve been thinking, “Fish Wednesday needs a room of her own. Because all that rattling on about travel and culture and Seattle all the time, well, whatever with that.” You want to read about food. Good news, everyone! Fish Wednesday is in the house! I’ll still be posting about food here but if …


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Postcard Revival Redux

Getting these was like getting a perfect present every day. They came from Italy and Germany and Ohio and Seattle and Chicago and… Not shown? The stunning set of postcards from Lia, collage artist extraordinaire. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All of you. And yes, I’d still happily send you a postcard. Here’s the …


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Fish Wednesday, Sad Salmon Edition

Bad news in salmon land. That’s what this article in Gourmet says. Life is not good here. The fish are not running. And things are going from bad to worse. Due to the extremely low king return, fishing anything is entirely and wholly out of the question. Given my extreme fondness for fish not just …


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Beautiful Bikeable Portland, Oregon

It’s not just the fact that you can get a snappy 2bd 3ba condo for well under what we paid for our Seattle digs. It’s the vibe that reminds us of what we loved about Seattle when we first got here, a certain funky unpretentiousness. And the moderated landscape that makes biking everywhere doable for …


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