Staff Picks: Books About Food (and snacks to eat while you read them)
by emjane
Cookbooks are wonderful, but sometimes you just want to READ about food, right? As someone whose two main hobbies are reading and cooking, I found these books to be DELICIOUS! Theme some snacks if you’re feeling ambitious, or just bite into a great culinary read!
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson | Request Now
Byron and his somewhat estranged sister Benny are thrust back together following the death of their mother, Eleanor. Eleanor’s untraditional inheritance includes a frozen piece of black cake, a traditional recipe from their Caribbean heritage, and a recording of Eleanor telling her story to her children. Interweaving Eleanor’s historical story rife with family secrets and Byron & Benny’s present-day challenges reckoning with their grief and each other, Black Cake is a full-flavored story of intrigue, history, and family.
Snacks: I haven’t put in the months-long effort to accurately make a black cake, but this Red Wine Chocolate Cherry Cake is a much easier way to get a rich, slightly boozy, tasty treat.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal | Request Now
Single dad Lars is determined to raise his daughter Eva to love and appreciate food as much as he does. Pediatricians’ advice be damned, he’s going to feed her puree of pork shoulder as an infant, and she’s going to love it! I was charmed in an instant by this beautifully written, Midwest-imbued tale. Indirectly telling the story of Eva’s coming of age through a variety of narrators, Kitchens made me laugh, made me cry, and made me want to cook and eat amazing food. What more can a person ask for? I’ll be recommending this and Stradal’s second, equally wonderful, novel The Lager Queens of Minnesota for years. Both were among the top-ten books I read in 2021!
Snacks: A high-stakes bar cookies contest is a hilarious (and RELATEABLE) chapter in the book, so those are the natural snack pairing. I have yet to try any of the shared recipes in the book, but you can’t go wrong with these classic lemon bars (though I like to swap out the shortbread crust for a graham cracker one).
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender | Request Now
We’ve all heard the cliched expression that something was “made with love.” But what if you really could taste the emotions of the chef? That’s the central premise of Bender’s magical-realism steeped novel: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Nine-year-old Rose wakes up one day and finds herself unable to eat food without tasting the deepest feelings of whoever created it. This unasked-for power opens Rose’s eyes and shapes her life. Buckle up for a strange read, but I’ve been thinking about this book for a decade and found it to be a meaningful way to push outside my usual genres.
Snacks: I’m a little iffy about the combination of lemon and chocolate, though that cake on the cover image looks spectacular! Instead, make this fabulous lemon-blueberry bundt cake.
Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner | Request Now
You’ve probably heard buzz about this memoir over the last few years and let me tell you, IT IS DESERVING OF IT! Michelle Zauner writes candidly about her relationships with her Korean mother and white father, centered especially around her mother’s illness and death. Though Zauner and her mother often had a fractious relationship, they connected over their love of fully experiencing food. Zauner’s descriptions of the Korean meals had me searching out the best Korean fried chicken I could find, and her detailed attempts at making traditional Korean comfort meals for her ailing mother were a visceral illustration of grief, love, and helplessness. Zauner deftly handles the heavy subject matter with honesty, humor, and heart, making H Mart an impactful, but not draining, read.
Snacks: Zauner uses the recipes of Youtube chef Maangchi and while I haven’t made any of the recipes featured in H-Mart, Maangchi’s Asparagus-muchim is a new go-to!
Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus | Request Now
Jamie Loftus—writer, comedian, and creator of limited series podcasts I can't stop thinking about—spent a summer road-tripping to the hotdog capitals of the U.S. with her boyfriend, dog, and cat in tow. Loftus adeptly weaves her travel woes (because, yes, they are mostly woes, albeit mainly told with hilarity) among the history of the dish, descriptions of its regional variations, and the general state of factory farming. How a book could, in equal parts, make me never want to eat meat again and want a hotdog SO MUCH is a testament to Loftus’ journalistic and storytelling skills.
Snacks: Well, we all know it has to involve hot-dogs right? It's a stretch to call it a recipe, but pigs in a blanket are all I wanted after reading this book. If you're feeling extra fancy, roll them in everything bagel seasoning before cooking them.
Blog Post
Subjects
Reviews