August 1, 2018
Essayist and former cookbook editor Drzal's food-based memoir features short pieces organized by letters of the alphabet (e.g., A is for Al Dente, B is for Bernaise, etc.) of remembrances, both good and bad, emotionally intertwined with meals. Many different types of cuisine or snacks are described, from an Indian breakfast to kielbasa to Jordan Almonds (at the movies). A few wide-ranging recipes include gruel, stromboli stuffing, urab sayur, with one of the most vivid recollections being her grandmother's scrambled eggs, which she could never replicate. After a dinner party she recalls, "the moment time stood still and I was suddenly suffused with the unassailable certainty that all was right in the world." The elusive feelings come and go and leave readers hungry by association, as Drzal strongly connects intimacy with eating, offering portraits of who she chooses to share meals with, recalling the influence of M.F.K. Fisher. VERDICT For fans of memoir and food lit.--Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO
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