Best Food Writing 2012

More Praise for the Best Food Writing Series

This is a book worth devouring.Sacramento Bee

The cream of the crop of food writing compilations.Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

An exceptional collection worth revisiting, this will be a surefire hit with epicureans and cooks.Publishers Weekly, starred review

If youre looking to find new authors and voices about food, theres an abundance to chew on here.Tampa Tribune

Fascinating to read now, this book will also be interesting to pick up a year from now, or ten years from now.Popmatters.com

Some of these stories can make you burn with a need to taste what theyre writing about.Los Angeles Times

The book captures the gastronomic zeitgeist in a broad range of essays.San Jose Mercury News

The next best thing to eating there is.New York Metro

Stories for connoisseurs, celebrations of the specialized, the odd, or simply the excellent.Entertainment Weekly

Spans the globe and palate.Houston Chronicle

The perfect gift for the literate food lover.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With this typically delectable and eclectic collection of culinary prose, editor Holly Hughes proves her point made in the intro that the death of 68-year-old Gourmet magazine a year ago didnt lead to the demise of quality food journalism... Theres a mess of vital, provocative, funny and tender stuff... in these pages.USA Today

ALSO EDITED BY HOLLY HUGHES

Best Food Writing 2011

Best Food Writing 2010

Best Food Writing 2009

Best Food Writing 2008

Best Food Writing 2007

Best Food Writing 2006

Best Food Writing 2005

Best Food Writing 2004

Best Food Writing 2003

Best Food Writing 2002

Best Food Writing 2001

Best Food Writing 2000

ALSO BY HOLLY HUGHES

Frommers 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers

Frommers 500 Places to See Before They Disappear

Frommers 500 Places to Take the Kids
Before They Grow Up

Edited by

HOLLY HUGHES

A Member of the
Perseus Books Group

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Da Capo Press was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters.

Copyright 2012 by Holly Hughes

Pages 380384 constitute an extension of the copyright page.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02210.

Set in 11 point Bembo by the Perseus Books Group

Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

First Da Capo Press edition 2012

ISBN 978-0-7382-1619-5

Published by Da Capo Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

www.dacapopress.com

Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 255-1514, or e-mail .

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

By Holly Hughes

By Hank Shaw

By Rowan Jacobsen

By Erin Byers Murray

Kids Battle the Lure of Junk Food,
From Pacific Northwest Magazine

By Maureen OHagan

By Brent Cunningham

By Paul Graham

Snowville Creamery Has a Modest Goal: Save the World,
From Edible Columbus

By Eric LeMay

By Barry Estabrook

By Tom Mueller

By Laura R. Zandstra

By Tamar Adler

By Greg Atkinson

By Lorraine Eaton

By Deb Perelman

By Christine Muhlke

By Corby Kummer

By John Birdsall

By Rachel Levin

By Bethany Jean Clement

By Brett Anderson

By Gary Paul Nabhan

By John Mariani

By Francis Lam

By Jeff Gordinier

Learning to Barbecue Helped Make Me a Man,
From Food & Wine

By Joel Stein

By Wright Thompson

By John Gutekanst

By Daniel Duane

By John T. Edge

By Todd Kliman

The Legacy That Wasnt: Wonton Soup,
From A Spoonful of Promises

By T. Susan Chang

By Eagranie Yuh

By Henrietta Clancy

By Elissa Altman

By Ben Mims

By Brett Martin

By Rachel Hutton

By St. John Frizell

By Rachel Wharton

By Ed Leibowitz

By John Broening

By Richie Nakano

By Kevin Pang

By Chris Macias

By David Leite

By John Spong

A Proposal for Feeding the Fat and Anxious,
From Gastronomica

By Josh Ozersky

By Mei Chin

By Katharine Shilcutt

By Anna Stoessinger

Im easily mesmerized when it comes to food shoppinginhaling the yeasty scent of the bakery, gently plucking ripe items from the produce bins, shivering in the frosty air of the freezer section. But lately it seems that all I do in the grocery aisle is pore over package labels. Yes, Im following Michael Pollans sage advice in Food Rules (no food products with more than five ingredients, no ingredients you cant pronounce, nothing your great-grandmother wouldnt have recognizedyou know the drill). But I have two other compelling reasons to vet the foods I feed my family.

Our kitchen now must be totally nut-free, after my college-age son went into anaphylactic shock from a dinner of Thai shrimp and cashews. A game-changer? Absolutely. So now I scrutinize the fine print on every package of food that enters our home. Even when the ingredient list doesnt include nuts, theres the dreaded caveat: manufactured in a facility that also processes tree nuts. Maybe its a slim chance of cross-contamination, but I cant take that riskput the Le Petit Ecolier cookies back on the shelf and choose Choco Leibnitz instead.

Wed just gotten used to that New Normal when my younger daughter threw another wrench in the works: Shes decided to go vegan three days a week, filling our refrigerator with tubs of tempeh, seitan, and Tofurkey. Usually Im wary of any dietary regimen thats so exclusionary, but Im going along with this one, because A) this too shall pass, and B) until it passes, shes been inspired to try all sorts of healthy foods she wouldnt touch before. Its actually expanding her culinary horizons instead of narrowing them, and Im all in favor of that. But now I have to apply a second filter when I read food labels. And lo and behold, whats the main source of protein in many vegan products? You guessed it, nuts. So my kitchen has become a bit of a battleground.

Sound familiar? When it comes to food, our entire society seems to be a battleground these days. Americans were once known as a nation of slapdash, thoughtless eaters; now it almost seems we think about nothing else. On the one hand, we obsess over food as entertainment, fetishizing decadent desserts and all-you-can-eat buffets and trophy high-end dining. On the other, we relentlessly worry about nutrition, health, and the environmental impact of what we eat. People feel so invested in their dietary choices that the age-old concept of sharing a common mealbreaking bread together, even if its gluten-freegets short shrift. Its almost impossible to throw a dinner party these days without negotiating a minefield of various guests food demands.