Tag: Ruth Reichl

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Book Review – Best Food Writing of 2018

I try to read at least a couple Best Of books each year and I finally got around to the 2018 Food Writing edition.

And this year’s edition was another fascinating read. The short articles that reached me (in no order) was the Female Chefs piece which was quite the indictment of food media coverage and a roadmap for how to talk about minorities. (Oscars take heed). The science and business behind Driscoll’s strawberries was a peek behind the agricultural curtain to some shady business. White Lies of Craft Culture by Lauren Michelle Jackson was really powerful and though it has beer reference in the first paragraph that is then dropped it also deftly touches on appropriation. How to move forward wasn’t addressed to my liking but it was a thinking piece. And considering my arms length treatment of social medai, the article about a young Alaskan whaler really shows the power of loud voices. Especially in American, wrong loud voices that do not care that they are both.

Search this book out and you will be treated to a collection of well-done stories.

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A Beer & A Quote – August 2018

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”
Ruth Reichl

I chose this Quote to expand into our little craft beer world because I want to talk positively about the taster tray. I have seen some Twitter chatter that has been down on the practice but I want to put my vote officially into the “Yes” column.

Near 100% of the time when I visit a brewery for the first time, I order up a taster tray. It is the best way to gauge what a brewery is doing and I have found it is a great way to start a conversation with other patrons as well as the beertenders. You almost always get the “Which did you like best?” questions and that can lead to learning all sorts of new facts about beer, brewing and the brewery you are in.

And if you order a spectrum of beers, you are bound to stumble upon one that is delicious. Like life, you may have to drink four bad examples of styles before finding it but if everything was great, we would soon have to rank something that is great as the worst of the great.

So, taste away. It is the best way to find what you like.