Some books
Books are the anti-blog: the product of time and consideration and a lot of hard work. Alas, they also go out of date. So here are a few of our more recent titles. Right-click on the book jackets to open Amazon.com and order your copy.
Food Lovers’ Guide to Massachusetts
New, updated edition in bookstores March 2010. Everything you wanted to know to find growers, fish markets, candymakers, bakers, farmers’ markets, dairies, etc. in the Bay State. We think it’s a pretty good guide to the Massachusetts food scene–from the ubiquitous clam chowder and baked beans to less obvious delicacies such as pistachio biscotti, sweet potato jam, and ricotta-sage ravioli. It has some pretty nifty recipes, too.
Pauline Frommer’s Spain
Spend less, see more: That’s the philosophy behind Pauline Frommer’s guides. They show how to truly experience a culture, meet locals, and save money. Along with our admittedly opinionated take on the sights, you’ll also find industry secrets on how to find the best hotel rooms, and extensive details on alternative accommodations, great neighborhood restaurants, and offbeat finds. You want to know where to find real flamenco? Look here. And we’ll also tell you where to eat before the midnight show. We wrote Madrid and Andalucía.
Cape Cod Compass American Guide
With gorgeous photos by Kindra Clineff. We always tell first-timers on Cape Cod to seek the higher ground. The nubby tops of glacial drumlins, the precipitous and crumbling edges of seaside cliffs, and even the crests of high dunes serve as crow’s-nest overlooks. From these perches, water stretches to the left, to the right, before you, and behind you. The essential fact of Cape Cod is that the land, with its mutable shore, is no more than a temporary interruption of the sea.
Montréal Compass American Guide
With stunning, often edgy photos by Benoit Aquin. We love how the city smells in the morning–the buttery, grainy aroma of the croissant bakeries, the insouciance of dark-roasted coffee, the metallic tang of maple syrup. Montréal is the largest French-speaking city in North America but it’s no provincial Paris. Montrealers have bigger dogs, smoke less, and spend more time outdoors than Parisians. And, if you ask them, they speak better French.
The Meaning of Food
Companion volume to the moving and informative PBS series of the same name, in conjunction with producer Sue McLaughlin. The book retells the 13 episodes of the series, including recipes for ethnic specialties, but it also provides the broader cultural, physiological, and psychological background on why we eat what we eat. As Plutarch observed, “We do not sit at the table only to eat, but to eat together.”
