Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin (Hardcover)

by Kenny Shopsin (Author), Carolynn Carreño (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: The eccentric and engaging food-lit manifesto, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin, collects the wisdom, rants, and recipes of New York's most legendarily cranky, publicity-hating short-order cook. The foul-mouthed genius of Kenny Shopsin has been captured before, most notably in Calvin Trillin's wonderful New Yorker profile and the documentary I Like Killing Flies, but Eat Me gives a from-the-cook's-mouth take on life behind the counter, with the layout of a quirky, illustrated textbook. Chapter titles like "Selling Water, or the Secret of the Restaurant Business" and "The Story of Shopsin's Turkey, or Why I Hate the Health Department" should give you a taste of what's in store. Formerly located in Greenwich Village, Shopin's now sets up camp at Stall No. 16 at the Essex Street Market, where you'll find dozens of soups, sandwiches, burgers, milk shakes, breakfast plates, and pancakes (from Plain to White Mint Chocolate Chip), along with original comfort-food classics like Blisters on My Sisters (tortillas, cheese, fried eggs, beans, and rice), gracing the crammed 900-item menu. Getting tossed out of Shopsin's (for whatever offense) has taken on badge-of-honor status among diners--the culinary equivalent of being on the business end of a Don Rickles zinger. Reading Eat Me feels like the next best thing. --Brad Thomas Parsons

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Kenny Shopsin hates publicity the way a magnet must hate metal filings. With a documentary, a New Yorker profile and several New York Times articles clinging to him, this supposedly reluctant restaurateur now adds to his own troubles by releasing a totally hilarious and surprisingly touching treatise on cooking, customer loyalty and family bonds. As his brood grew to include five kids, his Manhattan eatery shrunk in size, yet maintained its idiosyncratic 900-item menu (reproduced here in a 12-page spread). Recipes for more than 100 of the offerings are presented, including Mac n Cheese Pancakes and Blisters on My Sisters (sunny-side-up eggs placed atop tortillas and a rice and bean concoction). But the real treat is Shopsin's salty philosophizing. Sure, pancakes are tasty, but he reminds us that, They are flour and milk drowned in butter and some form of sugar. They're crap. And the customer is always wrong until they show me they are worth cultivating as customers. Two such well-cultivated customers were the writer Calvin Trillin and his wife, Alice. They pop up throughout the book, providing not only happy reminiscences, but a roux of poignancy as both Shopsin and Trillin become widowers, bonded together over the love of a decent meal, quickly rendered. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (September 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307264939
• ISBN-13: 978-0307264930
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #17 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > Essays
  #70 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not your mom's cookbook., September 28, 2008

By	Ben Nacorda (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first cook book I've ever read where I sat down and read it cover to cover first. The musings in this book is worth every page and makes for an engaging read. The book arrived at my house on Thursday and I basically spent all weekend trying out a bunch of the recipes. So far: Patsy's Cashew Chicken (a new household favorite but mixed hoisin sauce, water and soy sauce instead though), Slutty Pancakes, Glazed Pancakes, Tahini Dressing, Coconut rice (never thought leftover rice can taste so good), Crepes (amazing approach and he's right, no once can tell the difference). The recipes are elegantly simple and does not require a culinary degree nor a translator when you go shopping for the ingredients. In fact, most of the stuff is probably already in your pantry. Kenny Shopsin has a distinctive point of view and will leave you wanting to visit NYC just so you can eat at his restaurant and hear his philosophy in person. Be careful you don't get thrown out though...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different, February 7, 2009

By	flotsam (usa) - See all my reviews

It is an outstanding book about one's life, real, honest, funny and sometimes sad. What makes it outstanding? A reader does not just get a recipe, but every recipe has its own story, how and why it was born. Tales about family, friends and other people are woven in those recipes. Intelligence and creativity of the author are so appealing; food is so unordinary, that it is impossible to put the book down until you read the last page.
Besides remarkable content, couple of words should be told about design. The jacket is amazing for eyes and for hands; I immediately wanted to open and start to read it. Pages are full with images that make stories almost animated. I think the book is a very good present either to cooking addicts or to those who are scared to cook.
P.S. I hope that if one day I will be lucky to have a lunch at Shopsin's place, they will be kind enough to serve me Reuben burger WITHOUT BUTTER, please:))

24 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cookbook and Life Story Joyfully Shared, September 23, 2008

By	Steven Bookman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Effective translation from one art form to another is a high wire act of the greatest difficulty - readers may agree for example that the film director faces an uphill battle to craft an effective cinematic experience from even the most masterfully written novel.

Those who have had direct experience of the unique restaurant and social environment described in this book will, I am sure, be able to confirm to a wider public that the author, his collaborator and illustrator have created a grand success in making Shopsin's live and breathe realistically and delightfully within the covers of this work. This is a success fully as memorable and arresting as film director Henri-Georges Clousot's "The Mystery of Picasso" which did the same in sharing and preserving the leading Twentieth Century artist's mercurial character and irrepressible creativity.

Enfolded copiously among the many recipes are anecdotes, philosophical ruminations, and historical comments on the legendary Greenwich Village of a previous generation -- many of which are presented in a deceptively casual, even profane manner. These amount to a second book nestled within a diverse collection of recipes.

The illustration and design work on this book are labors of love by Kenny Shopin's daughter, Tamara Shopsin -- an artist of increasingly wide reputation in her own right.

A cookbook reviewer should be pleased to report that such a publication does a good job at showing the reader how to prepare good food. This presentation far exceeds that worthy result: it provides a window on how to be a genuine human being on one's own terms.