The Hungry Detective

Well.... just well...I.... dont't think I should have to explain myself further on the following topic.

Perhaps you recall my man crush?

One of the things that has kept me interested in the printed word during my winter with crime fiction was cookbooks. At this point I do not have the proper words to describe the attraction as I cook very little from cookbooks or related food magazines. Pretty pictures and wish fulfillment are about all I have at the moment to explain my curiosity. I know some people find Top Ten lists odious and beside the point, but I like to call those people crazy. Top Ten lists are harmless fun. Here are seven recent ones for the best cookbooks of 2011. The New York Times list is insistent that their readership expand their global view of cooking. I love those weighty tomes about Middle Eastern cooking and the like. Perhaps it is a bit naive  to only praise these books for their pictorial beauty, but living where I do invariably means using Google to search for 'substitute for X exotic spice.' My picks from this list are Tender by Nigel Slater and Hugh Acheson's A New Turn i...

Perhaps you have become weary of the glossy advertisements for copper bottomed pans that flaunt themselves with disregard in Food and Wine or Bon Appetite , but conversely find articles on silver service-ware of early 19th century Britain impenetrable in Gastronomica . Then Lucky Peach might be for you. You should also like swearing and have a flexible understanding of the word quarterly.

Chris Cosentino is a chef whose claim to fame has been his work with offal . His restaurant in San Francisco is called Incanto . I've eaten there, its really good. I became interested in Mr. Cosentino through a friend who turned me on to his now defunct Food Network show Chef vs. City. Watch this video because if nothing else the guy will charm you with his passion. Unfortunately, Chef Unleashed was not picked up, so it stands as a singular document to respecting the food the rest of us thoughtlessly put in our mouth. He'll have a cookbook released in March 2012 . Chef Unleashed from Chris Cosentino on Vimeo .

At the very beginning of The Hungry Detective I had two goals. Crime Fiction and food. The food part fell away very quickly. About a half dozen posts that never got published, much less finished. Evidently I had a lot less to say about food than I did Crime Fiction. But I love food. I love to cook the very simple things I occasionally attempt. And on rare occasions I sit down in some very nice restaurants . Long story short I am going to reintroduce the food component to THD. To that end, I'm adding Food related posts... mostly cookbook reviews... into the mix. First up Mission Street Food .