Customer Reviews

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read about Erway's book in a magazine article that included a recipe for corn and cranberry pancakes (delish!) and I figured I should get her memoir with recipes included. The book encompasses Erway's decision to eat in followed by various things she learns in the process.
I appreciate that the book is not full of whining entries regarding how hard it was but rather examined how much life changes when you choose to eat in. I have not read the blog so I cannot comment on the differences in writing style but the book flows well and has an easy to manage format.

I'd compare this book to eating at an inexpensive Middle Eastern restaurant. The food is satisfying and good, but not amazing. It isn't bad for you, but it's not really that great for you either.

This book can be an interesting read at times, but it didn't inspire any original thought. I also wish it would have shared more of the trails that come along with cooking at home. Each time the author begins a description of a new cooking adventure it seems to foreshadow disaster, but instead she just pops her baked good perfectly out of the oven, or removes the lid to find a shockingly delicious dish. This frustrated me throughout the book, and it almost felt condescending towards the end.

There's also a lot of name dropping, which may be interesting if you're immersed in the Brooklyn food blog world. Not really something I'm concerned with.

"The Art of Eating In" chronicles the two-year hiatus that self-titled "foodie" Cathy Erway took from New York's restaurants and eateries. She started a blog to keep friends and a growing fanbase apprised of her culinary journey, and condensed its highlights into a book.

Eating out is so customary in the Big Apple that some apartments don't even have kitchens installed. But for Erway, struggling to support herself as an underpaid executive assistant, this tradition was draining her wallet at a dangerous speed. She decided to stick to home-cooked meals, taking the first step on an odyssey that introduced her to cook-offs, supper clubs, freeganism, and the edible plant life in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

Although Erway originally stopped eating out for financial reasons, this is not a self-help book for cost-conscious diners. She focuses on the way her life changed after swearing off restaurant food, making "The Art of Eating In" a memoir with a little social studies thrown in for added flavor. Each chapter includes delicious recipes, but the focus is really on the people she met and the anti-restaurant activities she took part in along the way.

Not every blogger successfully migrates their online content into print. Erway is one of the exceptions. "The Art of Eating In" is an enjoyable read, with lots of food for thought as well as the grocery list.

This young woman in New York City decided to not eat out every night for two years. The book lists the adventures she has in home cooking. I really enjoyed the common-sense yet well-written perspective on HEALTHY, good eating. The book offers great food advice without being boring like most cook books (sorry to any other food authors out there!).

This book chronicles a growing relationship between the author and food. Cathy Erway, a writer and confirmed urbanist, realized one day that there was nothing special about the food she was eating every day as she dined out in New York. She decided to try to buck the trend amongst her neighbors and friends, and try eating food she had cooked herself, not just once in a while, but every day. She set a goal of not eating out--no bakery breakfasts, lunch truck lunches, or restaurant dinners at any time while she was home in New York (she made exceptions to her dining at home rule when visiting other locales). As she adjusted to her new habits and schedule and learned how to cook, she kept a blog, detailing her experiences along with some favorite recipes. In this book, she presents the full story of her 2 year experiment in not eating out, describing her challenges and the effects her new relationship with food was having on her (and her relationships). This is very much a story of personal growth, from a new cook who has no idea where to find yeast in the supermarket, to an in-demand amateur chef, capable of whipping up a barbecue for 400 paying guests. Although this book is not a recipe book, Erway does include a couple recipes at the end of each chapter.

I found this book hard to put down once I started reading it. I always found myself wanting to know more about where Erway's next meal was going to come from. Sometimes she strays a little far from her area of expertise, especially in the chapter on urban foraging, where she groups arugula with the bitter greens (yes, arugula is spicy, but bitter?) and burdock root as similar in texture to a potato (it's crunchy and chewy, hardly potato-ish), and plantain as similar in appearance to nightshade (well, they're both green, but nightshade is a vine, while plantain is a whorl of basal leaves). The last few chapters are a little dense on details, but overall, the book is an interesting, thought-provoking read.

All in all this was fun to read. I really admire her determination to eat in for two years. I couldn't even eat in for two days, but after reading this I realized that I do not have to be a super celebrity chef or have a Viking oven to cook delicious and interesting meals in my own kitchen. In fact it can be as simple or complex as I want the experience to be. I have made a few of her recipes and have been quite pleased, esp with the San Bei Gi with Green Beans.

This book is a great resource for the person who loves to cook and cares about issues like sustainability and the gastronomic health of this country. The prose is clear and engaging, the anecdotes delightfully funny and poignant, the message important and the recipes practical and delicious. I've read her blog for years, so it was no surprise that it was such an entertaining read. Interesting segments on dumpster diving, foraging, supper clubs and more. Loved everything about it.

Twenty-something Brooklynite Cathy Erway realizes one day that she's spending an obscene amount of money eating out for three meals a day, almost every day. There's good reason for this, of course - New York has some of the best restaurants and fast-food type places in the entire world, so she's happy to take advantage of all the options available to her in this fabulously foodie city. But she suddenly realizes that it's just becoming too expensive and unhealthy to live this way, so she decides to cook every single thing she eats in her own kitchen for one year, and then ends up sticking with it for two. Along the way she discovers food co-ops, farmers markets, supper clubs, and more, and she shares her experiences and recipes with readers in The Art of Eating In.

I've been reading Cathy's blog, Not Eating Out In New York, for a while now, so when I saw that she had written a book along these same lines, I happily devoured it as quickly as I could get my hands on it. Now, if you know me well, you will know that I do love eating out. I stay far away from fast food, but I love trying new restaurants and indulging in my cravings for my favorite places (Chipotle comes to mind) on a semi-frequent basis. However, I also love to cook. I'm not fantastic in the kitchen, but I can figure out most recipes and typically whip something up at least three nights a week. What I loved about this book is that it inspired me to do more.

Reading this book made me want to cook more, to shop at farmers markets more, to find interesting and unique recipes and attempt them in my kitchen, and to look at some of my favorite restaurant food and attempt to recreate those dishes at home. For the duration of Erway's project, if she was craving some type of food, she'd just research how to make it, and make it for herself. Simple as that. Indian food? Check. Mexican food? Check. Chinese? Check. Et cetera. It was inspiring to me because so often I assume that because I've never made a certain type of food before, or because a dish contains exotic or interesting ingredients that I haven't heard of, I won't be able to make it myself. I was inspired to go outside of my comfort zone and attempt to cook new things. I loved that.

The other great thing about this book is that Cathy Erway is extremely likable. She has a casual, honest way of writing that made me feel like I was getting to know her on a personal level. It felt like she was chatting to a friend, not dictating a book. The writing style is realistic and really helps the reader get into the book. Perfect for a memoir such as this one. Last, there are recipes! I didn't make any of them (yet) so I won't share any here, but I will say that some of her most interesting meals are the ones she provides recipes for, which is very cool. It gives the reader the opportunity to try some of her experiments in his/her own kitchen.

I would definitely recommend The Art of Eating In. Cathy Erway has written an engaging, interesting memoir that will give readers a lot of food for thought (ha!). And if you haven't already checked out Erway's blog, definitely do so! She has more recipes and stuff there too.

Pleasure to read, great voice and wonderful coming of age / foodie story by young woman. I lived in New York in the 1990s and now I'd like to return and take a walking tour of Brooklyn and I've been inspired to do more cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.

Cathy manages to show both the joys and pitfalls of not eating out. The book aptly drops the New York moniker from the blog as it really applies to the struggles people would experience anywhere. There are great lessons to be learned inside, and interspersed through out the book are great recipes that will inspire the novice and expert alike.