3.19.2009

Book A Day: Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant


You may remember that I wrote about Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone a while ago. In it, Jenni-Ferrari Adler collects essays from writers including M.F.K. Fisher and Laurie Colwin about eating alone or cooking meals for one. I have actually only gotten halfway through it because I just pick it up now and then to read an essay.

I like that you get different perspectives, different settings, and different writing styles about the same subject matter, sometimes with different interpretations. Eating is usually something shared, but sometimes it's not, and that's what this book focuses on -- or at least the essays I've read so far! It's all about what people do when they eat alone as opposed to when they share meals with others. Do they still cook extravagant things? Does dinner become a bowl of cereal?

And this book also offers up some recipes! Always a plus.

If you have read this book, what did you think?

Remember, I'm away until March 20, so you won't get responses from me until then.