Product Description

Calvin Trillin has never been a champion of the “continental cuisine” palaces he used to refer to as La Maison de la Casa House. What he treasures is the superb local specialty. And he will go anywhere to find one. As it happens, some of his favorite dishes can be found only in their place of origin. Join Trillin on his charming, funny culinary adventures as he samples fried marlin in Barbados and the barbecue of his boyhood in Kansas City. Travel alongside as he hunts for the authentic fish taco, and participates in a “boudin blitzkrieg” in the part of Louisiana where people are accustomed to buying these spicy sausages and polishing them off in the parking lot. (“Cajun boudin not only doesn’t get outside the state, it usually doesn’t even get home.”) In New York, Trillin even tries to use a glorious local specialty, the bagel, to lure his daughters back from California. Feeding a Yen is a delightful reminder of why New York magazine called Calvin Trillin “our funniest food writer.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1259717 in Books
• Released on: 2004-05-11
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.97" h x .46" w x 5.24" l, .56 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

From Publishers Weekly
These 14 essays-which first appeared in the New Yorker and other magazines but have been reworked to form a cohesive whole-nearly all grow out of Trillin's concept of a "register of frustration and deprivation." Recorded are the delicacies that have not taken root in his otherwise fertile home turf of Greenwich Village. For those better acquainted with Trillin's droll humor than his culinary predilections, it should be noted that Trillin is no snooty foodie. His abiding enthusiasm for various dishes is matched by a disdain for "review trotters," and the objects of his affection are more homey than rarefied: Louisiana boudin, Santa Fe posole, pimientos de Padron and Kansas City barbecue, for instance. About these products, he crafts writing that meanders but always finds its center. The deadpan wit, deprecating himself as much as others, remains at a slow simmer throughout. Just as the theme of longing is in danger of becoming repetitive, Trillin throws in a couple of pieces that break the mold but not the rhythm of the book. For Trillin's many fans, it has been too long since a new collection of his food writing has made its way to market-1984's Third Helpings was the last volume strictly devoted to his gastronomic exploits. However briefly, this should sate their longings.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Trillin's latest title anthologizes his essays on food that appeared chiefly in the New Yorker. A dedicated Manhattanite, Trillin good-humoredly measures all life experiences by the standards of his own tiny neighborhood. Bagels not meeting ideals inaugurated by Gotham delis become objects of derision. Nevertheless, Trillin appreciates certain other inventions from the world's culinary traditions. He waxes poetic over Galician peppers, then searches Ecuador tirelessly for the perfect ceviche, only to discover a fondness for a rare high Lenten fish and vegetable soup. He combs New York's Chinatown, seeking his favorite dim sum and other gustatory delights. This leads Trillin to a reverie on a Prague Chinese restaurant serving up "Roast Pork Knee," available in two sizes. New York's outer boroughs disport themselves as sources of even more exotic ethnic foods. A Kansas City upbringing tempers Trillin's New York focus, compelling him to acknowledge that at least some American locale beyond New York, Louisiana, and California counts, even dimly, as "civilization." When he's back home, Trillin's prose turns rhapsodic as he describes the hundreds of dishes served in a hole-in-the-wall eatery whose owner is phobic about publicity. Fans of Trillin and his peripatetic appetite will gobble up their master's offerings. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Calvin Trillin is to food writing what Chaplin was to film acting.”
—Business Week

“Tasty morsels . . . will have the reader gnawing the book’s cover for lack of the perfect bagel . . . or the succulent boudin.”
—The Dallas Morning News

“One of the most brilliant humorists of our times . . . Trillin is guaranteed good reading.”
—Charleston Post and Courier

“Trillin never loses track of the ultimate meaning of food—that it connects us to those we care about the most deeply.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Trillin is the guide on a magical mystery tour punctuated by eccentric characters made memorable by his deft touch.”
—The Denver Post