★ 10/16/2023
Journalist Bittman (Animal, Vegetable, Junk) serves up an excellent anthology of essays, memoir, and reportage that frames food as “a lens through which we can view just about everything humans do.” In “The Double Life of New York’s Black Oyster King,” Briona Lamback profiles Thomas Downing, the 19th-century restaurateur who elevated shellfish from casual street food to fine-dining fare with his swanky “oyster houses” that served New York’s elite—and hid in their basements enslaved people fleeing the South via the Underground Railroad. Curtis Chin’s “Detroit’s Chinatown and Gayborhood Felt Like Two Separate Worlds, Then They Collided” captures a moment in which the two marginalized communities forge a tenuous bond over off-menu Chinese dishes. The collection’s best pieces are some of its most challenging. In “Effortless Anonymity,” Lyndsay C. Green, the Detroit Free Press’s first Black restaurant critic, relates the uncanny experience of “being invisible when crossing the threshold of a dining space,” as she encountered chefs she’d met multiple times who failed to recognize her in their restaurants. Kate Siber’s harrowing, razor-sharp “You Don’t Look Anorexic” examines how those with an “atypical” version of the eating disorder (i.e., in larger bodies) navigate a recovery system that often discriminates against them. Taken as a whole, the volume moves beyond food’s sensory pleasures to investigate it as a cultural vessel, a symbol of inequality, and more. It’s a standout addition to the series. (Oct.)
