Secret Ingredients: Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink

This book is a bit like the New Yorker itself – some of the articles are really good, some are pretty feeble and others far too long while some of the cartoons are gems and others are incomprehensible*.The theme is eating and drinking and there are dozens of pieces from as far back as the 1930s to the first decade of the 21st century. There are familiar writers linked to the magazine, such as Dorothy Parker, S.J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, to more modern contributors like Anthony Bourdain, Woody Allen and Don DeLillo. There is also a collection of short stories including Roald Dahl's classic “Taste” with its stunning ending. I thought the best articles had nothing to do with fine restaurants or fancy cocktails but were in a section called “Foraging” which deals with catching food. “A Mess of Clams”, about clam fishermen in Long Island Bay by Joseph Mitchell from 1939, and “A Forager” about a week-long trip writer John McPhee made with Eull Gibbons, an expert on wild food gathering, in which they ate almost nothing but food collected from the countryside they crossed, were memorable. A pretty good present for foodies.*Remember the Seinfeld sketch in which no-one understands a cartoon and Elaine eventually takes it to the New Yorker editor who ends up admitting that he can't understand it either?

Great as usual

Some writers seem to be obsessed with themselves and loose the theme of food. It is not a Cook Book, but I did not expect boring self praise, no matter how important they believe they are.

The book was poorly packed in polythene. No cardboard or bubble wrap. The cover was slightly dented. Paper quality seems poor. Not sure this is an original...

lovely compilation, great gift for foodies