Book Log 2008 #5: Eat This! by Ian Jackman

This guide to the best of American food is voluminous and has suggestions for every palate. That being said, I do have a few quibbles with the book:

1. There's a definite NYC bias to a lot of it. I will acknowledge that it's a food mecca, but for a book about food in the US, there are times when the book is wedded to the five boroughs pretty strongly (most notably the pizza chapter).

2. Based on what he wrote about here, I'm curious as to how deeply he delved into regional fare. For Massachusetts, he mentioned two local places to me - the Clam Box in Ipswich and Woodman's in Essex - but mentioned the first when talking to a guy in a New York restaurant about his favorite lobster roll, the other when a woman was talking about how her favorite restaurant in Marin County flies in clams from Woodman's.

He also bring up some local food lingo, such as "grinder" for a hot sub and "tonic" for soda. I don't think I've heard either term used regularly in years. Grinder appears on some older signs in sub shops, while I don't recall anyone younger than my mom using tonic on a regular basis.

3. The chapter on why there's not a chapter about kid's food is pretentious. That may not be the word I want, actually, but it's an odd five page interlude where the author talks about how kids can and should eat regular food rather than the usual array of fried, processed nuggeted crap. Not that I disagree with that, but it doesn't really fit the book. Besides, many chapters mention his kids, who are eating at the same places, and usually from the same menu, as their dad.

4. Jackman mentions at some point that his favorite beer is Rolling Rock. That makes me highly suspect of his palate.