Fat City book club

A couple of interesting food-related books are coming out soon.

The first is Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky, who has written books about oysters, cod and salt. While poking around the Library of Congress, Kurlansky discovered a forgotten work that was part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930s. To keep writers busy, the government sent them across America as amateur food anthropologists, making notes of what people in different regions ate, the cooking methods they used, recipes they followed etc. But then World War II started and the project was never finished. Kurlansky has edited these notes into a 1930s food guide with recipes.

This was long before the interstate highway system or the first McDonald’s, so different regions really did have different habits. One chapter of the book is titled “A Los Angeles Sandwich Called a Taco.” Another has a recipe for Depression Cake. That’s one recipe I hope doesn’t make a comeback.

The other book is business writer Stacy Perman’s In-N-Out Burger. As people who have been to the California-based chain can attest, it changes the way you view fast food. But the family behind the chain — holy bananas they’re nuts!