cover image The Streamliner Diner Cookbook

The Streamliner Diner Cookbook

Alexandra Rust, Elizabeth Matteson, Judith Weinstock. Ten Speed Press, $19.95 (242pp) ISBN 978-0-89815-378-1

On Bainbridge Island, 35 minutes from Seattle, sits the Streamliner Diner, ``a patchwork quilt of savory experiences and warm relationships.'' It is also the source of the inventive and enticing recipes that fill this book. With the exception of staples like pie and meatloaf the restaurant eschews traditional diner food, concentrating instead on ``streamlined'' classic dishes like hunter's stew and honey pumpkin pie, and on original creations: chilled blueberry soup and wild greens bouquet, a salad with edible flowers. Immigrant-inspired foods (Czechoslovakian kolaches) and American favorites round out the range of selections; recipes move from soups to specials and are carefully, unthreateningly presented. Neither a touted, tired collection of the usual restaurant stuff nor a groundbreaking intro to a new taste, the book instead succeeds admirably at a most important goal: to tempt the palate enough to get a cook going. Illustrated. (Feb.)