cover image Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast

Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast

. Tin House Books, $16.95 (317pp) ISBN 978-0-9773127-7-1

Tin House magazine contributor Wildgen collects essays on apples and odes to martinis. In the provocatively titled ""Up Your Goose with a Boneless Duck,"" Chris Offutt describes an unusual dish he wanted to prepare for ""a grand autumn feast"" in Missoula, Mont. In ""The End of Laughter,"" Lan Samantha Chang recalls meals with an unnamed friend: ""We ate for love, for sympathy and fun. We ate out of confusion and emptiness and lust. We ate our meals in public and kept our true hungers a secret."" Essays are supplemented with recipes for, among others, Steve's Ultimate Maple Crunch Chicken Salad, Eggs with Mushrooms and Truffles, Khoresht Bademjan and Oxtail Soup with Porcini Mushrooms. Not all selections work as well. ""Dinner with the Borgias: Power, Politics, Passion, Provender, and Poison in the Italian Renaissance,"" by Lisa Grossman, proves less than satisfying, and Mark Statman's ""Mezcal"" fails to gel. However, the bulk of the collection is a gourmand-worthy spread.