THE ROUTE 66 COOKBOOK: The Best Recipes from Every Stop Along the Way, pretty. delicious.

THE ROUTE 66 COOKBOOK: The Best Recipes from Every Stop Along the Way
LINDA LY (photos by Will Taylor)
Harvard Common Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$25.00 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Embark on a colorful culinary journey traversing America’s Mother Road with stops to recreate the best eats along the way.

In The Route 66 Cookbook, acclaimed author and lifestyle blogger Linda Ly combines armchair travel with a traditional cookbook to celebrate 100 years of the United States’ most recognizable roadway. This unique compilation of recipes honors American transportation history with a location-specific focus, encouraging you to explore new flavors, places, and perhaps even future vacation destinations.

Discover fascinating historical facts and figures from the route’s early days to modern attractions as you try recipes organized by state, starting from the eastern start of the route in Chicago, Illinois, and continuing all the way through to its western endpoint in Los Angeles, California, making pit stops in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. From cheap, quick eats to steakhouses and fine dining, this cookbook caters to varied budgets and palates. Recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all make an appearance, and drinks and desserts get their time to shine too.

Throughout its recipes and destinations, The Route 66 Cookbook pays homage to America’s diverse cultural history. Of course, there are recipes for a variety of standard American fare, such as diner food, burgers, and multiple styles of barbecue, but German, Mexican, Asian, Indigenous, and fusion foods are also included:

Apple Strudel – The Berghoff, Chicago, IL

Blackberry Wine Cake – St. James Winery, St. James, MO

Egg Cream – Monarch Pharmacy and Soda Fountain, Baxter Springs, KS

Späetzle – Rock Cafe, Stroud, OK

The Elvis Ugly Crust Pie – Midpoint Cafe, Adrian, TX

New Mexican Posole – Silver Moon Cafe, Santa Rosa, NM

Halibut Ceviche – The Turquoise Room at La Posada Hotel, Winslow, AZ

Strawberry Margarita Pie – Chiquita Rosita's, Barstow, CA

Spicy Seafood Soup – The Albright, Santa Monica, CA

With 66 recipes from the Midwest to the West Coast, The Route 66 Cookbook has it all, honoring an American road trip tradition and ensuring you can enjoy it even if you’re not on the road.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The decommissioned "Route 66" highway from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA, has a legacy of visual and social clarity brand managers have dreams about. Like the "Wild West" icon fixed in the world's consciousness, it only covers about twenty years of real time...from the end of WWII until the youth rebellions of the middle 1960s, ramping up to fever pitch during the "Beat Generation's" louche and unfettered prestige ascendancy. Their experiences drove tourism as much as afforded cultural cachet.

the midpoint sign and some trivia

Even to this day, people around the world know what "Route 66" means. In a world-wide sense it's still pretty powerful signifier of coolness. This collection of recipes is designed to bring out your wallet by appealing to that enduring image. The journey aspect, following the road and eating/cooking at stops is nicely calculated to make home cooks curious:

planning your journey

No place on Route 66 is more famous or iconic than California. To get there on the route, one has to go through Arizona's huge swath of the Sonora Desert:

Arizona

California

None of these recipes are terribly challenging. They're finely calculated to be a small stretch beyond the habit zone of home cooks, so they're fun to make and, not surprisingly, fun to eat.

some samples

As pretty to look at as it is practical to use, this is a gift item you'll get major points for thinking of and getting for the giftee.

PANCAKES IN PARIS, being who you were always meant to be means being alive to possibilities

PANCAKES IN PARIS: Living the American Dream in France
CRAIG CARLSON
Sourcebooks (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$1.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Paris was practically perfect...

Craig Carlson was the last person anyone would expect to open an American diner in Paris. He came from humble beginnings in a working-class town in Connecticut, had never worked in a restaurant, and didn't know anything about starting a brand-new business. But from his first visit to Paris, Craig knew he had found the city of his dreams, although one thing was still missing—the good ol' American breakfast he loved so much.

Pancakes in Paris is the story of Craig tackling the impossible—from raising the money to fund his dream to tracking down international suppliers for "exotic" American ingredients... and even finding love along the way. His diner, Breakfast In America, is now a renowned tourist destination, and the story of how it came to be is just as delicious and satisfying as the classic breakfast that tops its menu.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Do not even think of eating...that is, reading...this book on an empty stomach.

This is a memoir. It's not a happy-families, aren't-people-grand memoir. It's a people will help you...if you make it so it's either help you or admit they're letting you fail because reasons story. The working-class background Author Carlson comes from doesn't lead him to pursue academic excellence or anything other than box-ticking adequacy. His emotional life is, it's plain, neglected completely. He doesn't exactly tell us this but the stories he tells are tendentious. Lucky for him, he inspired others to help by being too good to just abandon.

What matters to most of us, in reading memoirs, is seeing either ourselves in the other make good, or ourselves as we wish we could be. In Author Carlson's case, I saw an American man making his way in a world that doesn't love Americans very much...Paris. And making that way against many kinds of social, political, and cultural odds. After all, how many working-class cooks (NOT a chef!) still less plain ol' restaurateurs do you know about? He's the guy with the idea that no one thinks is great but him. He sells the idea to enough money people that he gets to open his dream: American breakfast food in, of all places, the capital of world-wide food snobbery, Paris, France.

It works. It really, really works. Go look at the website linked in the description! So perfectly American...so popular in Paris. Despite EuroDisney.

Author Carlson does a lot of describing in this book. And he lards in a lot of French. (Well, it stands to reason, but be aware!) It's clear as day to me why he tried to make it as a screenwriter: he has a visual imagination. There's a minuscule recipe section containing recipes I can vouch for from having made them several times apiece, in my own weird variations and under Rob's very attentive eyes, over the years. (This book is six years old now and this is my first review of it! How gauche of me.) But most of all, Author Carlson's love of his creation, Breakfast in America, and his love of France, French food, a French guy who becomes his husband, and the world of making people happy (I contend that's the only reason people go into the food business) made me happy.

Should you read it? You bet your sweet bippy. And on Kindle, all the photos and the miscellaneous stuff shows up very well, which makes the regular price a bargain. (The sale price is incitement to riot.) Go get one now. It's a summer beach trip spent in good, fun company learning about how someone with real, honest-to-gawd stick-to-it-iveness makes it in this world.

By doing everything that scares him witless.