Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are by Ed Levine

Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are Reviews

• 
  Beka

  I didn't realize there'd be so much talking about where to eat, so I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped.
• 
  Adrienne

  I think this book should be called "Not So Serious Eats" or possibly "Frivolous Eats." It is mostly about dive, dine & street food, which is not really my thing.
• 
  Diane

  Seriouseats.com is a popular website that labels itself "A Food Blog and Community." You can find out where to get the best burger, the best sandwich, the best anything in most major cities.
  
  Now they have published a book, Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are, and it is a fascinating book, especially if you are the kind of person who likes lists. (Me! Me!)
  
  Some of the chapters include:
  
  Fried Chicken: 12 of Our Favorite Spots
  5 Gelato Spots We Love
  11 Pies We Love From Coast to Coast
  10 Favorite Farmers Markets
  I love that they include street food, which is so hot right now. They have
  5 Taco Trucks We Love
  20 Favorite Street-Food Stops
  Within each chapter, they share the best places across the country to get the specified food, but they also include recipes from each category for those who prefer to cook and don't travel much.
  
  But if you do travel, this book is invaluable. I have been to many of the cities they visited, and have tried some of the food they recommend, but I wish I had it before I traveled. From now on, this book will be the first place I turn to when I visit other cities.
  
  The end of the book has some unique stuff in it, including a chapter titled "College Town Eats". They share their daily agenda, which is so interesting. For example, they took a day trip to New Orleans, where they left New York at 4:45am, and returned at 9:30pm, making 12 stops at restaurants in between; that is just crazy! In Chicago they made 12 food stops between 10am and 6pm.
  
  The section on New York City, where I live, gave me an entire list of places to try, including City Bakery for a pretzel croissant and a breakfast pastry at Locenda Verde. I sometimes get red velvet cupcakes at Two Little Red Hens, but now I must try their cheesecake.
  
  The directory at the end of the end of the book lists the states and each place mentioned in the book, along with their web addresses.
  
  This book is so much fun, it's the perfect gift for your favorite foodie, and if you live in one of the many cities they have covered, it is essential.
• 
  Kathleen

  I love their website, but I really didn't get this book. It's part cookbook, part travel guide, part top ten list. It's just really scattered and I didn't know how to use it. Additionally, it's very meat-centric. The website has great vegetarian dishes along with the meat stuff, but this is almost exclusively meat dishes, which is kind of a bummer.
• 
  Gwen

  This book is a cross between a food guidebook and a cookbook. Both sections are solid, but the recipes are the standout--as is to be expected from Serious Eats. I have made dozens of recipes from their site over the years, and only two (two!) have been duds.
  
  What I learned:
  - Shake Shack was inspired by Ted Drewes.
  - Calvin Trillin (a writer I've only just heard of from the NYT scathing review of Guy Fieri's new Times Square restaurant) writes of a rabbi in Joplin who ruled that "observant Jews who are bona fide residents of the South and Lower Midwest are permitted to eat meat that has been subjected to slow direct heat for more than six hours and comes from any farm animal that does not have scales" (from 10.7.2011 BBQ Jew post "Yum Yum on Yom Kippur"). Whether or not this is actually true, it's a glorious bit of Americana.
  
  Places to eat:
  - Ted's Restaurant in Meriden (or anyplace in south-central CT) for steamed cheeseburgers. I know where I'm stopping when I drive up to CT for Thanksgiving...
  - Mia's Pizzas in Bethesda.
  - Cutty's in Boston for roast beef.
  
  Recipe to make:
  - Corned beef. Bring to a boil, then shut off: 1 C. kosher salt, 2 TBSP whole peppercorns, 1 TBSP fennel (Must we? I hate fennel.), 1 TSBP coriander seeds, 8 allspice berries, 8 juniper berries, 4 bay leaves, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped carrot, 2 chopped celery stalks, and 2 quarts water. Place a 3-4 lb. brisket in a large ziplock bag. Pour the brine over the meet and squeeze out as much air as possible. Let brine in the fridge for 3-7 days, flipping once a day. Place a steamer basket in a large pot and add 1.5" of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Put the beef in the basket with the fat facing up. Cover and steam for 3.5-4 hours, adding more water as needed. Let cool completely before slicing.
• 
  Lynne Perednia

  SERIOUS EATS: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO MAKING AND EATING DELICIOUS FOOD
  Ed Levine
  Coookbook/Food Guide
  November 2011
  Clarkson Potter
  ISBN: 978-0307720870
  
  Part cookbook, part traveling guide, Serious Eats is all food love. Created by the people behind the popular website, this self-style comprehensive guide does a quick decent job of rounding up where to go to find the best good grub and how to go about making it yourself.
  
  The introduction by Ed Levine is a quirky celebration of all things food, but not "foodie", in appreciating great meals, good ingredients and no stuffiness.
  
  Featuring real-world descriptions and gorgeous photography by Robyn Lee, the guide has a defense of oatmeal in the breakfast chapter, pages upon pages of pizza oven investigations, and a burger section that includes discussion of regional variation and bun choice -- as well as acknowledging that American cheese is important to a good burger.
  
  Although more an addition to a well-stocked home culinary library than one of the essential cookbooks, Serious Eats does provide opportunities for fun browsing sessions.
  
• 
  Jennifer

  Serious Eats is a fantastic combination: part cookbook, part travel guide. Though I've only sporadically visited the website this book started from, I'll gladly visit in the future. It was hard to read this (and you have to read it--it's not just a collection of random food musings) without getting hungry!
  
  The recipes included are specially made for the book, and I want to try nearly all of them. Some of the descriptions of the food gave me ideas to try on my own, which is the best part. I'm a little disappointed in the emphasis of foods/restaurants in bigger cites than my own (so it's not *quite* wherever you are), but at least St. Louis had a couple of mentions. I could add a few, of course: what about Pi Pizzeria, with its unique cornmeal crust, or Amighetti's often imitated, never duplicated Special sandwich?
  
  This is definitely a book to take with you when you travel. You can use it as your guide to plan your stops, or just look up your favorite food and try making something yourself.
• 
  CountZeroOr

  The recipes in this book are certainly interesting, and it definitely provided some useful dishes to add to my culinary arsenal. However, that isn't the focus of this book. The focus of this book is to discuss various eateries and restaurants throughout the US and particular dishes of note. This is great if you can afford to travel. I can't.
  
  Though, fortunately, Portland (OR) did come up on the list a few times, so I'll make a note of the places they suggested in the book for future reference if I'm hungry in Portland with some cash to spare.
• 
  Jessica Haider

  I used to read the serious eats blog every day. Then I had my son and got insanely busy. This book combines many different features you'll find on seriouseats.com: recipes, lists of different types of food and what defines them (ex. New York style pizza vs Sicilian pizza vs deep dish pizza), and my favorite part... (since I love love love lists and checking things off from them!) lists such as top 25 breakfast joints in the states. Good, fun, and informative read for food-lovers!
• 
  Keeley

  Such a fun book to explore. A great source of inspiration and a unique approach to the cookbook. The authors are the Jack Kerouacs of eating; their passionate dish descriptions are poised to start a food tour movement. Bored in the kitchen? Want to stuff your face with refined comfort foods in your own home? Pick up this book. I love it!
• 
  Sara

  I follow the Serious Eats website, and this book is pretty much an extension of what you see online. There are recipes, food trends, lists of best places to eat, and so on; I imagine that the restaurants sections of the book will become outdated quickly with the constant change in the industry. However, it is certainly worth a browse.
• 
  Brian

  If you like food then this book is for you. It is divided into sections by type of food; such as fried food, burgers etc. the book contains both recipes and recommended places. I would definitely look at this book if I was traveling to one of the locations. This wasn't great to read cover to cover though.
• 
  Somer

  I wasn't expecting to devour this book like I did, but once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. Mostly commentary on restaurants across the US, with fabulous lists like "Fried Chicken: 12 of Our Favorite Spots," there are some choice recipes interspersed. "The Best Grilled Cheese" truly *is* the best grilled cheese I've ever made! Highly recommended!
• 
  Deidre

  great fun to read, definitely more of a pleasure book than a cookbook. It reminded me a lot of the Food Network show "The Greatest Thing I Ever Ate."
• 
  Liz De Coster

  Good information but the book was challenging to use/navigate.
• 
  Judy Heintz

  I found this to be a good guide if you're taking a road trip.
• 
  ERM

  Serious cooking for advanced foodies. Great recipes and cooking tips.