Bite-sized book reviews
Bite-sized book reviews
Written by a former New York Times restaurant critic and the current national editor for the same newspaper, Sam Sifton makes a case for hosting a Thanksgiving, and doing it well. It didn’t take much convincing on my part, as Thanksgiving so happens to be my favorite holiday. Could be partially due to being born on Thanksgiving, but probably more that it is a holiday entirely centered around food and gratitude. I love the tradition of it, that you could theoretically go anywhere in the US to someone’s Thanksgiving table and the spread is going to look quite similar (with some regional substitutions). Sifton believes that if you are cooking this meal you should do it “right” which means no store bought, canned, or pre-packaged food/ingredients here. Heavy on the butter. Omit the salad completely. He uses his years of experience and trial and error to present a sort of Thanksgiving bible for anyone attempting to undertake the culinary feat of roasting a bird the size of a toddler and praying it goes well. I thought I’d skim a few chapters that I’d find of interest, but I actually ended up reading the whole thing cover to cover and found it not only instructional and informative, but delightfully written with a slightly snobbish tone. I’m here for it. Long live Thanksgiving! Heres the TLDR version: roast a turkey, don’t use any garlic, and by all means, on this day, skip the green salad.