Need a crash course in food? Lorraine Bodger has corralled all sorts of facts and essays of varying lengths and topics in “Eater’s Digest: 400 Delectable Readings About Food and Drink” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $19.95).
This easy-to-read manual is ideal for newbie foodies who want to get up to speed on miscellany that more seasoned folks know–or think they know. (A quiz on page 176 may be a humbling experience, folks.)
“Eater’s Digest” encompasses all sorts of categories, including history (the origins of the Toll House cookie, a succinct bio on chef Paul Bocuse); cooking (food safety, how to buy fish); and culture (what folks around the world eat for breakfast, what to do if you spill food in a restaurant).
There’s no particular order to this breezily written handbook, and that’s part of the fun.
Admittedly, Bodger occasionally offers opinions that puzzle us. Her list of “15 Foods That Are Usually Disappointing as Leftovers” includes pizza. We thought everybody loved cold pizza straight from the fridge at 10:30 a.m. the next day. However, we flunked that quiz so we won’t get too cocky.
