MEALS, MUSIC, AND MUSES by Alexander Smalls - The New York Times Book Review "Summer Reading"

The New York Times | May 21, 2020

“One hundred and six recipes. Frankly, I was a bit embarrassed when I counted the lentil soups, Russian salts, creamy diner puddings, bacon cheeseburger tacos, antique Irish whiskey drinks and sheet pans of roasted broccoli that I made between February and the first week of April while evaluating the best cookbooks of the season. Weren’t there better ways I could have spent that time, like, say, sewing masks? Yes, but when you’re quarantined at home with a lot of nervous energy, a thigh-high stack of cookbooks and an assignment, it’s easy to get carried away.

It was hard to choose the best of these books. There are so many wonderful titles this year, books that will introduce you to novel pasta shapes from underexplored corners of Italy and others that will help you eat more vegetables. In the end, though, there were seven books in the stack I kept reaching for to try new recipes, reread engrossing essays tucked between those recipes or study photographs that transported me beyond the four walls of my home.

The books have little in common. Two dive deep into regional cuisines. There’s a celebration of diner standbys, an eccentric restaurant bible and a couple of books aimed squarely at the home cook. But each of these books is a delight to read while sitting on the sofa, and each got me off that sofa and into the kitchen. Each promises that it’s possible to eat a little better, which is to say, to live a little better. Each, in its own way, fulfills that promise.”

Meals, Music, and Muses by Alexander Smalls was included in this beautiful article! Click the link to read more.

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