The Best American Food Writing 2019 (The Best American Series ®) by Samin Nosrat

The Best American Food Writing 2019 (The Best American Series ®) Reviews

• 
  Charlott

  "[O]ur mouths are liminal places where food and words mingle, where hot dogs, tagliatelle, and Nigerian puff puff meet my name is, memory, and I", writes Ruby Tandoh in her piece "Sugartime" which is included in this year's The Best American Food Writing edited by the formidable Samrin Nosrat. And as Tandoh asserts there is something about food and words: the best food writing, thus, is not just a description of a meal, it is much more as the anthology proves that.
  
  There is only one restaurant review included and Nosrat admits in her introduction that she doesn't care much for the form. Instead, we get Yemisi Aribisala's essay about eggs which turns into a text about purity myths, gender, and sex. We follow Mark Binelli to Finland where he tastes all kinds of salty liquorice and Teja Rao to Japan investigating all the different KitKat flavours and their history. Melissa Chadburn remembers the food of her youth (as indicated in the title of her essay), food stamps, and poverty. Soleil Ho offers a complex answer to the often derogative and/or exoticizing question "Do You Eat Dog?". Pryia Krishna gives us a glimpse of the life of a restaurant inspector as Mayukh Sen provides a slice of (queer) food history in "The Gay Man Who Brought Tapas to America". These are not even all of the essays I really loved within this anthology. And while there were paragraphs I wish were different (no book on food where not at least one person offers some bad 'obesity' take somewhere) and some spoke more to me than others, each text brought something spicey, or sweet, or salty to the table.
  
  Let me briefly come back to Tandoh. "Sugartime" is as much food writing as it is art criticism; it is a history lesson, but also full of pop-cultural allusions and quotes from theorists like Barthes, Hall, and hooks without ever becoming unapproachable. In only a few pages, she delves into the violent history (and present) of sugar plantages, discourses around sweetness, gender and race, regionally different approaches to food, hedonism, and the lust for sweetness as a survival strategy.
  
  Reading this anthology left me feel well-nourished and hungry for even more.
• 
  Marie-Therese

  4.5 stars
  
  An exceptionally varied, thoughtful collection of food writing that runs the gamut from investigative reporting to prose poetry.
  
  I liked the longer pieces best, particularly Mark Arax' gripping 'A Kingdom from Dust' (I'll never look at a clementine or pomegranate in the same way again), Stephanie M. Lee's thoroughly researched 'Sliced and Diced' on the outrageously shoddy science behind Cornell's Food and Brand lab, Shane Mitchell's 'Hot Wet Goobers' (poetry from peanuts), and Tejal Rao's 'Big in Japan (oh, to have a mochi-flavoured Kit Kat in my possession!) but even the straight-out brief restaurant reviews had something of greater social and cultural interest to bring to the table. A joy to read overall. I can't wait to see what
  J. Kenji López-Alt has in store for readers in the 2020 edition!
• 
  Melissa

  I received this book for Christmas from my husband last month. And although I don't normally pick up collections, and certainly not 'best of' lists, this seemed so fitting to read at the end of 2020. So much of the pandemic was spent listening to Nosrat's podcast Homecooking as well as watching Taste the Nation and Somebody Feed Phil (and a rewatch of Salt, Fat, Heat, Acid). This gift was even paired with a Homecooking magnet. Swoon.
  
  Although not every essay hit with me, the majority of them did. And as Nosrat writes in her introduction regarding her objectives with the collection, so many of them brought "joy and challeng[ed] [my] preconceived notions." They made me "think, feel, and, inevitably, want to eat." The ones that have stuck with me the most because they made me "consider divergent viewpoints" were: "A Kingdom from Dust," "Why Do Poor Americans Eat So Unhealthy," "Bison Bars Were Supposed to Restore Native Communities and Grass-based Ranches. Then Came Epic Provisions, "Food Fight," "The Gay Man Who Brought Tapas to America" and "The Vegan Race Wars." These articles are about food, of course, but they stayed with me because I learned so much about how our food comes to us and how bigger systems are at play. Thus these pieces on food are intertwined with politics and identity because food is always political. The articles on the passing of Anthony Bourdain, someone who I have read and viewed before, and Jonathan Gold, someone who I am not as familiar with, were both beautiful pieces as well. I also really enjoyed "Big in Japan" and "Salty Tooth" to learn more about other places and cultures outside of America.
  
  Overall, this book was a joy to dip in and out of these last two week. I expect to visit certain essays again, perhaps even include some in my writing courses. This collection will make you consider what's on your plate in new ways.
• 
  Melissa

  I've been enjoying these collections of the 'Best American' food writing. Filled with a wide array of topics that relate to food but can cover politics, environment, and sociology, they offer brief insights to some of the most pertinent topics going on at the time. This one of course is a few years back, but still offered valuable insight on farming practices and other themes that are probably still prevalent.
  
  Edited by Nosrat, these articles were carefully curated. While they weren't all particularly engaging for me, there were several that were standouts; particularly the entry from Twitty, whose book on genetics and food I read earlier this year. I also found the article on Epic, Tanka, and Bison Bars interesting as I remember the advertising (for at least one of those products) and was surprisingly unsurprised as to which company found more consumer success through no fault of their own.
  
  This was a solid edition to the Best series.
  
  Review by M. Reynard 2023
• 
  Grace Lyden

  A beautiful collection. Every piece is worth reading.
• 
  Kate

  Delightful
• 
  Betsy Gant

  Excellent collection of writing that promotes delicious descriptions of food and diversity in the culinary world.
• 
  Yan Xin

  A diverse mix of essays on food and culture.
• 
  Trey

  Essay or story collections are usually hit and miss, but this was such an excellent selection of writing from start to end. In the intro Samin Nosrat says she would only edit this if she had lots of flexibility in what constitutes "best", "American", and "food writing". Food is such an integral part of culture, so this collection of "food writing" from an amazingly diverse set of writers is really an anthology of human stories.
• 
  Hilary Hanselman

  This was a really solid collection, I liked it a lot more than the 2018 collection. By far, my favorite two essays were "The Maraschino Mogul" by Ian Frazier, which actually brought me to tears, and "Big in Japan" by Tejal Rao, a surprisingly moving essay about Kit Kat bars. But flipping through again, I'm really impressed by how many of the essays have stuck with me and taught me something. I read this one super slow, as I was getting it from the library and kept letting it expire before putting much of a dent in it. I'll be also keeping my eyes open for more work by Melissa Chadburn, Priya Krishna, Marilyn Noble, Kathryn Schulz, and Ruby Tandoh after reading their essays here.
• 
  Amit

  2020 was for me the year of food -- with the lockdowns forcing me indoors for most of the year, cooking/baking was a lifesaver. I also ended up finishing Samin's bible of cooking - Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. And that led me to this. Samin's editorial vision -- the selection of writers -- is so diverse that this volume of writings feels like a multi-cuisine buffet, but like nothing you'd ever have assembled in your wildest dreams. Must read for food lovers (or should I rather say those who love to read about food as much as they love food). Can't really find a fault.
• 
  ShaunMS

  4.5 Samin Nosrat (Salt Fat Acid Heat) really picked up this collection and ran with it. There's a fantastic variety of voices, topics, perspectives, and styles collected, all of which illustrate why contemporary food writing is doing some tremendously important work. Food is such a hidden but profound expression of pretty much every element of life — work, culture, sex, politics, land, family, pleasure, suffering — and Nosrat's collection consider gives these equal weight and thoughtfulness, while being a joy to read.
• 
  Kayleigh

  I enjoyed this eclectic collection. All Californians should be required to read "A Kingdom from Dust" by Mark Arax. My other favorites were stories about kit kits in Japan, the legacies of Jonathan Gold and Anthony Bourdain, a maraschino mogul hiding a big secret in his factory in NY, and the gay man who brought tapas to America (Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, who I had never heard of).
• 
  Sarah

  This collection made me think: about food I love, about how culture is driven by food, and about the supply chain and industry of food. The articles are not filled with recipes ready to cook, but fill me with wonder and questions about how and why we eat the food we do.
• 
  Adrien

  A Kingdom From Dust was fascinating and sublime. I love Michael Twitty and will absorb anything he writes with relish, and Kathryn Schulz taught me more about Utah in twenty pages than I had ever previously known. As with any anthology, YMMV.
• 
  Joy Messinger

  [4.5 stars] A compilation of short- and longform essays on food and culture edited with care by Samin Nosrat. I enjoyed this collection, even if I didn’t love every essay, and appreciated her curatorial attention to race, gender, sexuality, region, and subject. I would’ve liked to see a more creative order (instead of alphabetical), as essay collections have the same promise as a well-ordered mixtape. Unsurprisingly, pieces by two of my perennial favorites Michael Twitty and Soleil Ho, stood out in this volume. I was also hooked by Ruby Tandoh’s race, gender, and historical critique of the uses of sugar and sweetness in modern art and Mark Arax’s investigative deep dive into agribusiness, exploitation, labor, water, politics, and the Wonderful company in central and southern California. Essays on boiled peanuts in the American South, Kit-Kats in Japan, and vegans of color were also delightful, insightful, and informative. Recommended for those who are curious about food, where it comes from, who produces and picks it, and who may or may not get credit or profit.
  
  Goodreads Challenge: 1/52
  Reading Women Challenge: A book about food
  Popsugar Reading Challenge: An anthology
  Femibooks Nonfiction Challenge: A book about food
• 
  Adam

  Important essays and reporting I’ll return to over and over again
• 
  Pat Herndon

  What a great book! The articles were very engaging and informative. I appreciated the variety of topics that all relate to food. Perfect collection.
• 
  Rachel C.

  A very thoughtfully curated collection, cutting across cultural and socioeconomic boundaries. Bravo Samin.
• 
  Bach

  3.5. Mixed bag of choices for my personal taste. Some really great, some long and some that I had a hard time clicking in on. Collections are always hard to balance.
• 
  Tosca

  3.5 stars - Some of the pieces were masterfully written, making you think about food in new ways. I learned about a day in the life of a NYC restaurant inspector, about the different types of peanuts, about the heirloom beans of Mexico. Many were thought-provoking, such as the article that explained a movement in a town in Alaska to have nursing homes provide traditional foods to their elderly Inuit patients. But the collection is uneven, and some pieces were the types of articles that if I came across them on the internet, I would skim the first few paragraphs and then click to another tab. Overall though, worth the read. My favorite selections include “A Kingdom from Dust” and “On Reading Jonathan Gold.”
• 
  Brooke Everett

  Reading food writing is like coming home to a warm cocoon of stimulating ideas, something I know I'll always enjoy. Food is a realm inextricably intertwined with history, politics, the environment, socioeconomics, culture, art, collective identity, and individuality. Great food writing reaches beyond simply describing food and flavors (which would be endlessly boring), and explores roots, memories, creators, and evolutions that keep the world turning.
  
  From Bean Freaks, about Rancho Gordo founder Steve Sando: "His default mode is a kind of prickly joviality, a gregarious misanthropy. He likes people just enough to spend a lot of time with them, at which point he realizes that on second thought, he'd rather be alone." p. 58
  
  From Salty Tooth, about Finland's treasured salty licorice:
  "Maybe it's not so crazy to think about reported national happiness in relationship to something like a favorite national candy, because what is candy, after all, if not an elemental signifier of happiness and also something extraordinarily culturally specific and wrapped up in nostalgia and childhood memories and, by proxy, national identity?" p. 75
  "Could one of the secrets to Finnish happiness simply come down to not always expecting hearts to be sweet?" p. 83
  
  From Why Do Poor Americans Eat So Unhealthfully? Because Junk Food Is the Only Indulgence They Can Afford.
  "My research suggests that families' socioeconomic status affected not just their access to healthful food but something even more fundamental: the meaning of food." p. 100
  "Next to all the things poor parents truly couldn't afford, junk food was something they could often say yes to. Poor parents told me they could almost always scrounge up a dollar to buy their kids a can of soda or a bag of chips. So when poor parents could afford to oblige such requests, they did. Honoring requests for junk food allowed poor parents to show their children that they loved them, heard them, and could meet their needs." p. 101
  
  From Anthony Bourdain and the Power of Telling the Truth: "But [Bourdain's TV shows] allowed him to acknowledge that the point of his journeys - and of sharing them with his massive, ever-growing audience - was not a gastronomic fluency but a broader cultural one." p. 185