I’ve said it before and I will no doubt repeat myself in the future: I love Food Writing. Good authors writing about food is some of the best vicarious living through reading that you can experience. When that author also makes you laugh out loud quite frequently, that’s some good food writing.
American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater is the first book in Calvin Trillin’s “Tummy Trilogy” and is a collection of his articles and essays in various magazines in the 1970s. Trillin isn’t much of a cook himself, so he mostly writes about eating out, and this book takes you to restaurants all across America.
Despite being written in the 70s, and the fact that many of the establishments mentioned have doubtlessly changed or closed, the collection still feels timeless. There is one funny part that can be best summarized by the line “I admit to having been intrigued by the idea of storing restaurant information in a computer.”
I definitely recommend this collection, and can’t wait to begin the second book in the trilogy: Alice, Let’s Eat.
Here are some of the lines that made me laugh:
The other New York newsletter I have seen, The Craig Claiborne Journal, devotes more space to recipes than to restaurants, and is therefore of less use to me, since my cooking skill does not extend past a special way of preparing scrambled eggs so that they always stick to the pan. (page 78)
New York line behavior can be explained only by assuming that just about everyone in the line believes himself to be in possession of what the Wall Street people call inside information. (page 96)
He was not going to be able to meet me until a few hours after I arrived in Cincinnati, but he suggested on the phone that for my first taste of authentic Cincinnati chili, at lunch, I might want to try the unadorned product and therefore should start with what is known locally as “a bowl of plain.” He had no way of knowing, of course, that I have never eaten the unadorned version of anything in my life and that I once threatened to place a Denver counterman under citizen’s arrest for leaving the mayonnaise off my California burger. (page 129)
Fairs are good places to eat, particularly for stand-up eaters – which is one of the kinds of eaters I am, although when I eat standing up away from home I sometimes miss the familiar cool breeze coming from the open refrigerator. (page 185)
Buster’s fried chicken tastes as if it is made from chickens that have spent their entire pampered lives strolling around the barnyard pecking contentedly at huge cloves of garlic. (page 213-214)
Interesting review of an interesting book! I loved all your favourite quotes. Especially the first two ones. Is that true about lines in New York?
It’s true about some lines in New York. :) I think that New Yorkers deal really well when we expect a line – at the bus station for example. People just patiently wait and read or listen to music. I think it’s the lines that are more unexpected – all of a sudden something you go to often with no problem has a long (or much longer than normal) line. Then you see people antsy, looking around, craning their necks trying to see what’s happening. They do sort of seem like they have insider information. :)
Hmm – I haven’t really read many books ABOUT food – I just love books and food. Your review is really making me rethink that gap in my reading!
I adore food writing! If you’ve never read any, I recommend starting with A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. It’s a lovely memoir about cooking and baking, and includes a lot of great recipes as well.
I also adore “Home Cooking” and “More Home Cooking” by Laurie Colwin.
Ruth Reichl also has 4 great memoirs about different times in her life, all surrounding food. The first one is “Tender at the Bone,” which I loved. One of the later books of hers is my favorite though, “Garlic and Sapphires.” It’s about her time as the food critic at the NY Times, and it’s so much fun!