Description:
So, okay, Cindy Pawlcyn adds butter to her mashed potatoes before she adds the milk, which is all backwards according to those who have initiated intense experiments to resolve such issues. But so what? Her food (it's her name on the cover of the cookbook, even though any food coming out of a restaurant as popular and free-spirited as the original Fog City Diner in San Francisco is likely to be something of a group effort--kind of like the Manhattan Project) brightened palates back in 1985 when the diner opened, and it serves adventurous palates just as well today. Remember when attaching "California" to food actually meant a thing or two? Fog City Diner Cookbook is something of a time capsule in that regard. You have seen similar-looking food on menus in your town. But that's now, and this book (and the food before it) came out back when it was news. What's interesting to note, however, is that Pawlcyn bases her dishes on sound culinary principles. She isn't throwing oddball ingredients together to grab attention or to appear to be clever, she's combining flavors and textures and cultural heritage to achieve specific effects, with new and powerful results. In other words, she shows restraint on the one hand, and knows what she's doing on the other. For that first blush of that brash California "thang" with food, don't hesitate to hang your hat inside the Fog City Diner. The cookbook, that is. --Schuyler Ingle
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