Reading: The Table Comes First

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       The Table Comes First by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik is a dense, high-fiber, high-protein book - beautifully written, full of esoteric references (unless you are a literary critic, art historian, Francophile), a history lesson, a paean to family meals.
      Unintentionally (I didn't think I was getting into something so weighty), this book served a capstone for all the food-related reading I've been doing over the past year (Ruth Reichl, Mark Bittman, Michael Ruhlman, Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain, Cook's Illustrated...)  All are mentioned or praised or dissected.
      Read...digest...enjoy.  Feel blessed to have such a first world problem you have the luxury to ponder the meaning of food or choose food based on your carbon footprint or muse that at one time, the height of wealth was to eat foods from faraway lands (cinnamon, sugar, spices, fruit) and now to eat locally-grown (or self-grown) food is the mark of sophistication and (fascinatingly), a moral stance.

Reviews: The Washington Times, The Guardian, The Economist