From The Atlantic Monthly, a review of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. A review of Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats by Steve Ettlinger; In Bad Taste? The Adventure and Science Behind Food Delicacies by Dr. Massimo Francesco Marcone; and A Moveable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization by Kenneth F. Kiple. A review of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel. Putting Cambodian cuisine on the map: Little Miss Muffet might go for fried spiders, but most everybody else will go for whatever is more appealing on the menu.
From TNR, Gourmet's restaurant columnist defends gluttony. Our diets can kill, in more ways than one: A review of The Vitamin Murders by James Fergusson. A review of Julia Child: A Penguin Life by Laura Shapiro and Backstage With Julia: My Years With Julia Child by Nancy Verde Barr. To drink really hot coffee (or hot tea) is to swallow a paradox of pleasure and pain. The Jefferson Bottles: How could one collector find so much rare fine wine? Grape expectations: Global warming has blessed cool-weather wine regions with record vintages. But while savoring their gold-medal wines, viticulturists are looking to the future — and it isn't pretty.
From The New Yorker, New York Local: Adam Gopnik on fruits of the five boroughs. From New York, Verisimilitude Test: Is this really the city you know? Wake up, Manhattan: New York’s skyline is one of the most distinctive in the world. But the city should stop trading on past glories. New York state of mind: A review of Through the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik. Watching From a Distance: How James Kurisunkal blogged his way onto New York’s social scene from his dorm room in Urbana.
