The Man Who Ate Everything

#692
Title: The Man Who Ate Everything
Author: Jeffrey Steingarten
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1987/1988
528 pages

Steingarten's essays on food, more or less, from Vogue.

Steingarten has a great ear for detail and makes many clever asides. He's funny when you agree with him, annoying when you don't. He has strong opinions about food, nutrition, and diets, often expressed in extremes, sometimes inaccurate (e.g., the man can assert all he wants that lactose intolerance doesn't include cheese, but he's never had to sprint with me to the bathroom after a nice Quiche Lorraine consumed sans Lactaid). The tone is usually genial, at least some of his over the top assertions are clearly tongue in cheek, and one admires his willingness to devote himself utterly to a recipe or process for weeks at a time.

I admit to skimming some of his recipes, since I know I'll never make them and I'm not that interested in, say, the perfect apple pie.

Sho's Apple Pie
Remove one frozen pie crust from the package. Fill with thinly sliced apples. sprinkle with cinnamon and a little lemon juice. Cover the edges with foil if you like, but I hate crust, so I just break it off before eating. Bake at around 350F until the apples are cooked through and the crust is brown.

There, that was much easier than Steingarten's 10 page (I kid you not) apple pie recipe, which may be delicious but perhaps not in proportion to the effort required.